Just two months ago, you started praying for the R44 helicopter as it began its sea voyage to the Philippines – in pieces, stuffed into a shipping container. You might have had serious doubts that a shrink-wrapped helicopter could ever be put back together and fly again.
Well, you can put your doubts to rest. Disassembly, containerizing, shipping and reassembly is familiar ground to our professional and highly trained NTM Aviation team. Just a week after the container docked in the Philippines, the R44 was through customs. And after two days of work by pilot/mechanics Brain Pruett and Josh Dalton, the helicopter was completely reassembled and ready for a run-up.
Now comes the hard part – the process of certification by the Philippine aviation authority. Pray that the paperwork will go smoothly and quickly, just as the shipping, customs, and assembly process did.
Once the R44 is certified, it will be ready to do what it was rebuilt to do — serve missionaries taking the gospel to isolated pockets of people who still haven’t heard.
Thanks for trusting God with us to get this tool into its place of service. As Candy Dalton wrote, “This is the culmination of years of dreaming, planning, and financial provision. Thank you to all who have prayed & given.”
The R44 is breaking ground as NTM Aviation’s first helicopter to serve the island of Mindanao. Later, it will need to move north to the island of Luzon. To fill its place, we are asking God to provide an R66 helicopter to reach deeper into Mindanao’s rugged mountains and further out to the Philippines’ southern islands.
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