Hometown:

Position: Pilot

With AIM AIR since: 2010

Bio:  Jonathan is a missionary kid born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, with a lifelong desire to serve in missions as a pilot. After graduating from Bethel College in St. Paul, MN, Jonathan met Rachel while she was attending North Central University in Minneapolis, MN, and married in 2002. Rachel, a South Dakota/ Minnesota gal, is a licensed teacher and has a passion for missions.  Together with their daughter, Miriam (born in 2008), they moved to Nairobi in July 2011 and are getting oriented to life and work in Africa.

Favorite past time:
Both Jonathan and Rachel really enjoy camping and spending time outdoors!

Koski’s websites: www.koskijourney.com, www.rajokoski.blogspot.com

Cath Fitzgerald was your average South African girl.  With a degree in Human Resource Management she worked comfortably for a large corporation.  Then God got ahold of her, and in 2006, she ended up in South Sudan serving with Africa Inland Mission (AIM) on a TIMO(Training in Ministry Outreach) team.  As part of this hands-on missions training program she lived with two other girls in the middle of a Lopit village, learned their language, shared their struggles, and fell in love with them.  She also fell in love with Martin Bezold, a German man on the same team. Martin walked 6 hours round trip each Sunday to preach and build friendships in a nearby Lopit village called Ohilang.  After the conclusion of the two year TIMO course, Cath and Martin decided to get married.  She planned to learn German, obtain German citizenship, join Martin’s German mission society, and come back  to South Sudan with Martin to live in Ohilang.

While in Germany, preparing for the wedding, Martin was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and given mere weeks to live.  They decided to continue with the wedding immediately and, two weeks after being married, Cath was a widow.  However, she sensed that the plans she and Martin had made together were from the Lord and felt no leading to change them.  She learned German, joined the Diguna (from a German acronym “The Good News”) mission society, started on her German citizenship, and moved back to South Sudan.

There was much to do before she could settle in Ohilang, so she started right away.  The community gave her a large piece of land encompassing a picturesque knoll.  She told them they would need an airstrip to bring in supplies and to fly people out in case of emergencies. The people began working on that.

Six months ago her friends in Diguna began working on a “Container Cottage,” a studio apartment build inside an 8×20 foot shipping container.

Four months ago I drove with Cath to Ohilang and surveyed the land and the airstrip location.  In early December the container house was driven 700 miles across horrendous roads and was set on its foundations on top of the hill.  In mid-December I flew in a missions team that would work with Cath over the Christmas holidays, and did the first landings at the Ohilang airstrip in the Cessna 206.  And on Tuesday, January 4th, I carried one ton of supplies into Ohilang in the larger Cessna Caravan.

I then carried the chief, the airstrip land owner, the pastor, and other members of the community on short flights over the village, the main purpose being to do trial takeoffs at various weights to test out the new airstrip.  The results: It was “All Good!”  The chief was amazed to fly for the first time.  The community was overjoyed and celebrated with song and dance.  Cath was grateful to no longer have to face the slippery drive to the next closest airstrip.

And the new airstrip provides a safe and useful means to bring the gospel and love of God to Ohilang.  Cath told me that there would be celebrations all day and into the night and that they would slaughter two bulls for the occasion (they only slaughtered one for Christmas, so that tells you something)!  Unfortunately I could not stay for festivities, since I needed to meet a team of 6 visitors and fly them to Juba to catch their commercial flight back to Nairobi and home.

Cath and I with some of the “monumiji” (elders), and the land owner on the left side. See more photos on our Flickr site.

What a privilege I have to play a part in what Cath is doing: putting down roots to become a permanent part of the Ohilang community.  Showing that they are not forgotten and living the love of Christ among them daily.  Cath has been asked to lead another TIMO team here in Ohilang, to bring more Christian witnesses to live among them, and to multiply her servant heart to the next generation of missionaries.

This is why my wife and I love being here in Africa. 2012.  The whole year is ahead of us.  I can’t wait to see what God is going to do this year in you and in us. I can’t wait to see what God is going to do through you and through us!  “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord…”

2012.  The whole year is ahead of us.  I can’t wait to see what God is going to do this year in you and in us.  I can’t wait to see what God is going to do through you and through us!  “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord…”

-Jon Hildebrandt

AIM AIR Pilot

afterlife from n killoren on Vimeo.

Hometown:

Position: Avionics Manager (Steve), Personnel Coordinator (Melinda)

With AIM AIR since: 1994

Bio:
Steve was raised in Franklin, PA and graduated from Grove City College with a degree in Electrical Engineering. Melinda’s father was a pastor and she grew up in Indiana, Michigan, and PA. She graduated from Taylor University and Penn State University as a Physician’s assistant.

Both of us worked in Franklin, PA after college and met at a single’s Bible Study. We were married in June of 1987. After working 8 years as an electrical engineer and several years as a PA we left our careers to begin our missionary journey.

We spent one semester at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and three years at Moody Aviation in Tennessee. In May of 1994 we arrived in Nairobi with 5 year old Olivia and 2 year old Natalie. Their younger sister, Christine, was born in July of 1995 in Nairobi.

Besides working as the AIM ABS Personnel Coordinator Melinda enjoys helping people with their medical needs. She is also involved in Sunday School and occasionally plays the piano for our church. Steve enjoys the outdoors when he is able to escape from Nairobi. Olivia recently graduated from Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Natalie is a sophomore at Houghton College in New York, and Christine is a Junior at West Nairobi School.

Favorite African Experience:

Steve – exploring Mt. Kenya
Melinda – visiting the Sese Islands in Lake Victoria

Did you Know?

• Melinda was a high school track star.
• Steve spent a lot of time in coal mines throughout the US

The Moffitt’s website: www.smmoffitt.aimsites.org

Samaritan’s Purse and AIM AIR have partnered for over a decade in this locale through a variety of ministries from community development projects like farming, to building churches. In early August, Samaritan’s Purse personnel discovered scores of Sudanese whose villages and farms had been bombed, fleeing across the border into the South. The displaced “families” were joined by more and more people, often arriving with distant relatives because they had lost parents, or were separated. This created a refugee situation that was largely unknown to the global community, and unreached by any international relief agencies.

The people fled to a wooded no-man’s land in a place called Yida, far from any airstrip AIM AIR flew to, and inaccessible by vehicle. After locating the refugees by air, the Samaritan’s Purse staff were dropped off  by AIM AIR with a pair of four wheelers at an airstrip about 20 miles away. For the Samaritan’s Purse staff who entered the area on the four wheelers, a lot of familiar faces were showing up. Many of the people arriving at the camp were from their former ministry locations. The people came with nothing, and a food crisis soon emerged. Many were drinking brackish water and boiling grass for nutrition.

While the refugee branch of the United Nations waited for permissions to get involved, Samaritan’s Purse quickly decided they needed to act. They called on AIM AIR to help deliver food. But with no airstrip nearby, AIM AIR decided to resurrect a way to drop supplies instead of delivering them. The DC-3, the largest airplane in AIM AIR’s fleet, had been modified once before about eight years earlier, to perform air drops. This involved removing the cargo doors, crafting a pivoting ramp in the doorway, developing a safe and effective procedure, and training the crew. After installing the ramp and reviewing procedures, a crew on board, as well as on the ground, practiced simulated drops at a spacious dirt airstrip just outside of Nairobi. Once the crew and craft were ready, they positioned the airplane within Sudan and began the momentous operation.

At sunup each day, the DC-3 flew to an airstrip only twenty minutes from the “drop zone” – this same distance would take over 6 hours on the ATV four wheelers, which were the only vehicle capable of traversing the rain-saturated terrain. The crew quickly reconfigured and loaded the plane to drop 3.3 metric tonnes of Sorghum grain, lentils, and other items necessary for cooking food and sheltering. Twenty minutes later, they would arrive over a designated drop zone and begin making carefully orchestrated passes. Configured as it was, the DC-3 could drop only 14 bags at a time, and so each full load required multiple passes to empty the airplane. After the last drop the crew would fly back for another load. This was repeated between 6 to 7 times a day – in all, dropping about 20 tonnes out the door each day.

DC-3 Drops Food for Refugees

From the start of the operation, the idea of building an airstrip near the camp was raised. Not all items needed on the ground could be effectively air dropped, and not all the sacks of food survived the impact. Also, the air drop operation required an elevated amount of calculated risk as well as a bigger crew than normal.

AIM AIR provided basic guidelines in laying out an airstrip. Opportunities to send a pilot by four wheeler to locate an airstrip site were thwarted because of increased reports of bombing on the border, about fifteen miles to the north. Nevertheless, the Samaritan’s Purse staff on the ground surveyed the area and the clan leaders were consulted. The community was very organized, and even though they were displaced and hungry, they were able to clear 700 meters of trees and brush in only 3 days. An AIM AIR Cessna Caravan was the first to land on the strip, opening the door to a more effective delivery of food and supplies.

The camp continued to grow, swelling to over ten thousand people. Supplying the daily needs of  food for this group became a daunting task. At times, two or even three airplanes were involved in a day’s operations – the Caravans able to deliver one tonne at a time, reloading the airplane in under 10 minutes between runs. Samaritan’s Purse also brought in more staff to better provide shelter, medical care, and clean water. By this time, AIM AIR had dropped or delivered over 400 tonnes of food.

In early November, three months after the crisis began, the camp had grown beyond twenty thousand people, and began to attract more attention from other aid agencies. Quite possibly, the camp drew too much attention. On November 10, an unidentified Antinov airplane appeared overhead and bombed the camp, reportedly causing some injuries. One unexploded bomb landed in a schoolyard.

Because of this hazard, AIM AIR elected to suspend flight operations into Yida for a time. Hope remains that more aid agencies will get involved, possibly utilizing the vast resources of the UN to bring food in. For the people in the camp, their daily survival will depend on it. But regardless of the response of other agencies, Samaritan’s Purse will likely continue to do all it can to minister to these displaced and desperate people – well beyond the immediate crisis and into the future. And AIM AIR will continue to be their air support – carrying staff and supplies and the love of Christ to Yida, and places like it where only an airplane can go.

Hometown:

Position: Pilot / Mechanic (in Lokichoggio, KE)

With AIM AIR since: 2009

Bio:
Jerry was born and raised in Papua New Guinea. His family relied heavily on mission aviation to get to Bougainville Island, where they worked. A couple pilots let him fly once or twice, and he spent a summer working in their hangar. After that he knew that was the direction God was leading him. Before college, he received his private pilot license from a World War II vet who loved helping out future mission aviators. Breanna grew up in Washington state and Costa Rica knowing she would be a teacher. We met at LeTourneau University (Jerry majored in Electrical Engineering Technology with Aviation, and Breanna majored in elementary education). Jerry worked at Cessna Aircraft Company as an engineer in the Avionics Electrical Systems group. We spent a year in Minnesota with Proclaim Aviation where Jerry received more hands on aircraft maintenance experience. Breanna home schools our three incredible kids: Olivia, Grace,and Isaiah. She helps a group of Turkana ladies earn a little income for their families and run a small cafe, and also leads a weekly Bible study with them. When not involved in flying, Jerry has had the opportunity to teach about electricity at a missionary run vocational training school.

Favorite past time: Sailing (Jerry), Scrapbooking (Breanna)

Did you Know?

• Jerry’s dad always wanted to be a missionary pilot, and his mom wanted to be a missionary in Africa.
• Breanna secretly hopes to be a children’s book author

Jerry & Breanna’s website: DustHeatandDreams.blogspot.com