Tim Goes to Florida
For about the last week and a half I have been working with Missionary Flights International in Fort Pierce, Florida. MFI is a close partner with Mission Aviation Fellowship. We use MFI to receive our mail and other cargo in Haiti as well the occasional passenger flight to or from Haiti. When the earthquake struck, MFI was bombarded with cargo for the missions that it serves as well as other missions who had no other means of transport. In order to help our partner ministry during this stressful time, MAF sent one employee to assist with logistics and coordinate cargo for extra flights to Haiti.
Before I got to Florida two other MAF employees had come before me to create a logistics system that processed cargo through the MFI hanger and allocated it to specific flights. MFI has chartered a Cessna Caravan that can carry about 2500 lbs of cargo and passengers. They added this flight to the DC-3′s that MFI usually flies to Haiti. We have also had enough cargo to call for MFI to charter a C130 cargo plane which can take about 50,000 pounds of cargo in one trip.
My time here has been very educational and encouraging. When our family settles in Haiti I will be working closely with MFI as a close partner in the missions work of MAF. This chance that I have had to learn how MFI operates and get to know the people here will be a great help as I learn how things are run in Haiti.
While I’ve been here I have handled cargo for dozens of missions and seen many people give of themselves to help the suffering people in Haiti. Yesterday a group dropped of 5000 pounds of cargo at the MFI hanger that will be used to construct safe places for children to play and receive counseling while living in enormous tent cities. We have seen many hundred tents come through, as well as medical supplies, food, clothing, generators and many other items.
After leaving here on the 12th of March I will be meeting Liz and Jacob in Albany, NY to start a road trip around the eastern U.S. where we will continue building our ministry support team. If you live in the Eastern U.S. and haven’t heard from us send us an e-mail and we will see if we are going to be in your area.
Thanks for reading
God Bless
Tim Schandorff