Sanchez Family Missions

Brazil Learning Technologies

2010-12-13T12:26:00.002-06:00

More than 50 years ago God called some MAF pioneers to serve within the country of Brazil.

Brazil is a 200 million people country where main language is Portuguese, which is the 5th worldwide more spoken one.
Around two years ago some conversations with key Brazilian leaders started in order to dream, think and pray about the possibility of starting Learning Technologies ministry in Brazil.

Now, we have seen the Lord working in miraculous ways allowing us to serve and visit that beautiful country to develop technology and education projects.
One year ago we started some consulting meetings with the leadership of SETIEL seminary which is located in Curitiba and Sao Paulo.
SETIEL has been training pastors and leaders all over Brazil, sending well trained professors to every corner in the geography of the country.
They face the limitations in relation to time, distance, available professors, resources and more.

The consulting phase turned some months ago into training as part of a new project for us to assist them in the design, planning and developing of an advance level training for pastors and leaders using a distance education model. The work has been growing so fast to the point of starting some other projects, like the Oral Strategies workshop last October in Samtarem Do Para.

Besides that we are in close communication with our associate ministry there called Asas de Socorro (Annapolis) to start and develop a on site Learning Technologies ministry in Brazil.

We already have a tremendous network of organizations and we have been providing consulting and assistance to them.
Please pray for Brazil. We already have a family in our team who most likely will be the first LT family moving to Brazil soon. Pray please for all the resources we need there.

Haiti Earthquake MAF Response

2010-01-30T22:07:00.005-06:00

Personal Reports from MAF Staff in Haiti (updated Jan. 29)

2010-01-30T10:50:00.004-06:00

MAF remains at the center of international rescue, relief and recovery efforts following the Jan. 12 earthquake that struck Port-au-Prince. The following are first-hand accounts from the front lines:

John Woodberry, MAF Disaster Response/Security Manager:

Jan. 15: We received a call to go to the airport to receive aid workers, but ran into a traffic jam on a primary thoroughfare. We detoured on an unfamiliar side street, which forked. I was about to go left when a motorcycle passed me. Its rider wore a white medical mask against the stench of death over Port-au-Prince. He waved me to go right instead. I followed him through a complex maze of back hill roads. He kept looking back to make sure we could see him. Finally we came to a familiar road clear all the rest of the way to the airport. He stopped, and I waved my thanks. He simply waved back…an angel?
Jan. 18: The Lord allowed 26 Haitian children from the Three Angels Orphanage to come home to their American and Canadian families. Abbey McArthur, director of Homeschooling at Three Angels, rescued the children and accompanied them on a Hendrick Motorsports NASCAR team aircraft donated in partnership with Missionary Flights International (MFI). MAF coordinated logistics for the MFI flight which carried the orphans to their new families. The adoptive parents had waited and prayed for six hours after the quake to hear whether their children had survived. Some had waited three years for Haitian government paperwork to release them to their new families. Monday morning the parents learned that the Haitian government had approved the adoptions. Through a series of miracles, including free chartered jet flights, most of the parents arrived outside of U.S. Customs in Fort Pierce in time to receive their children. By just after midnight the last set of available parents received their little one.
Jan. 20: We started early with MAF facilitating its first C130 flight at the general aviation ramp of the Port-au-Prince airport. The MAF crew unloaded 46,000 pounds of urgent cargo in one hour. The forklift itself was flown in for our use on the aircraft and will be used tomorrow on the 6 a.m. DC4 arrival. The cargo of food, medicines, wheelchairs, and other vitally needed equipment is right outside the MAF hangar. MAF has been asked to make sure the cargo goes where is it is needed. A doctor/surgeon team we had transported on an MAF plane a few days ago came by as their hospital had run out of supplies. We helped them load relief we had just received into two trucks for the hospital. We also distributed food and tents to an orphanage with 140 children living outside.
Jan. 21: The grassy field in front of MAF’s hangar has been a hive of activity as our facility is the center of operations for receiving and coordinating delivery to many missions and aid organizations. Relief continues at a rapid pace. At 7 a.m. we unloaded our first DC-4 with some 30,000 pounds of medicines, food, and other relief cargo. At the end of the day, our grass is almost empty, signifying that life-saving food and medicine is being supplied to hundreds of thousands of desperate Haitians. Cargo from a C130, a DC4, and a Cessna Caravan has been delivered to orphanages, hospitals, and a mission station, all of which had run out of supplies.

As I write this at 11p.m., our forklift remains in constant use. It has not stopped hauling medical cargo for Operation Blessing, covering the grassy field in pallets loaded with provision for starving Haitians. MAF coordinated 16 flights and around 130 passengers today.
Jan. 25: We carried around 200 total passengers today and handled 35,000 lbs of cargo. Meanwhile the military took 150,000 pounds on more than 100 pallets with MAF painted on all sides to Miami, where it will be loaded on a freighter. Much of it is undesignated so MAF will have cargo to help distribute. Hopefully it will arrive in the next few days.
Jan. 26: MAF was mentioned in an article posted on ESPN.com. Hendrick Motorsports, which owns the top three teams in NASCAR, donated use of three private aircraft that rotate in teams of two, flying relief personnel and supplies between Haiti and Fort Pierce, Florida. The Hendrick aircraft have run this shuttle since shortly after the Jan. 12 earthquake. The article notes that MAF has provided ground and logistical assistance in the earthquake rescue, relief and recovery.

Will White, MAF pilot:

Jan. 20: Eight missionary doctors were stranded in Les Cayes, Haiti. On Jan., 19, Mark Williams and I flew in two MAF planes to pick them up. A Hawker 900 was coming to Haiti to evacuate them. Via satellite phone I informed the Hawker their passengers were safely in Port-au-Prince. They were overjoyed with the service MAF provided them.
Jan. 21: MAF released to missionaries Bill and Marylin Fair emergency food and supplies brought into Haiti via Missionary Flights International. Here’s what they wrote us:

"We were able to get supplies from MAF/MFI and gave them to the hungry Haitians. Among provisions we delivered were six boxes of food to a woman we know, to deliver to her friends. She started crying: 'You are a blessing! Beni swa etenel!' Praise the Lord!"

"Thanks to MAF and MFI for working such long hours together. Because of their dedicated work, we are able to get food, supplies and tents to people who have lost their homes or cannot find food. We appreciate the hard work in getting us back home to Haiti so we can help the Haitian people. Once again we thank you very much, MAF, for all you are doing."

Jan. 21: I was able today to fly more than 2,000 pounds of food to the island of La Gonave. Because La Gonave receives its food supply at the beginning of the week from Port au Prince, these 100,000 islanders have been cut off from food for the past week.
Jan. 21: A mission group that evacuated most of its workers following the quake contacted me from the United States about getting food to their people. I flew two plane loads of MFI relief to them. While it was enough for his staff, it was not enough for the more than 400 people in his churches. The food was accepted at the landing strip by the ministry group WISH, which will distribute it.
Jan. 22: This morning MAF was to take a team of doctors to Pignon, but last night someone called to cancel the flight. I told the doctors who showed up today at about 9 a.m. that they would have to wait until after a previously scheduled flight to Lagonave, an island northwest of Port-au-Prince, with a film crew and food supplies. We flew back with a team that was inspecting the Wesleyan hospital for earthquake damage.

When we arrived at Port-au-Prince, mission director Dan Irvine said he had with him a 9-year-old girl whose feet had been crushed in the earthquake. Her feet looked like "ground beef," and if infection set in, it would be quickly fatal. The island hospital had done all they could. They needed to find an orthopedic doctor in Port-au-Prince for surgery. I agreed to wait for her at the plane.

But knowing the huge strain on the field hospitals in Port-au-Prince, however, I was not hopeful of finding an ortho unit to operate on the girl. While flying back with her and Dan, I thought about the doctors waiting for me in Port-au-Prince. Hadn't they said they were orthopedic surgeons?

I taxied the plane to my parking place where ALL of the doctors were standing with their supplies. I introduced Dan to the physicians.

In no time the medical team was examining the girl and making plans to take her directly to the Pignon hospital. We removed her from the plane to fuel. The doctors were able to start an IV and examine her more before I flew three doctors, the girl and her mother to Pignon. I asked the medical team to let me know how the surgery went and to follow up about her.

It was so exciting to see how God worked the events of the day to bring these two groups together. I was humbled to be a part of it.
Jan. 22: Today Mark Williams walked by a police woman we knew. Yesterday I had given her a tent. Mark said to her, "Take me to jail so I can get some rest." She replied, "NO, pa bon pou peyi sa." (“That would not be good for this country.”)
Jan. 23: Today we flew the C-206 and C-207 to Jacmel to pick up doctors and medical workers whom we transported to Port au Prince. We shuttled medical workers fresh in country from Port au Prince to the hospital in Pignon.

The exciting news is that the KODIAK has arrived in Haiti. We unloaded the plane’s cargo that included the two boxes of supplies collected by a child in Nampa who had been adopted from a Haitian orphanage four years ago.

The KODIAK was quickly put to work as an air ambulance. Behind our hangar is a large field hospital run by the University of Miami. A doctor there asked me if we could transport passengers. The doctors I had just flown to the Pignon hospital had told me they could do surgery on closed fractures. Meanwhile, the doctors at the field hospital specifically said they needed a place to send people that could do closed-fracture surgery.

Immediately we loaded earthquake victims who needed surgery into the KODIAK and flew them to the Pignon hospital. We may be transporting more people to Pignon soon.
Jan. 23: Today the KODIAK made a triangle flight to Jacmel to drop off two people for MedAir and a mission group with cargo to Lagonave. Earlier today I was contacted by Danita Estrella, who runs Danita's Children in Ouanaminthe (www.danitaschildren.org). She was in Port-au-Prince visiting collapsed orphanages collecting children she could transport to her place in Northeastern Haiti. She said three children could not go with the rest by road. One young boy had just had a metal plate put in his leg (both of his parents were killed in the earthquake), a young girl had an amputated right arm, and a boy had an amputated left leg. We loaded the kids and two workers and took off for Ouanaminthe. Upon arriving in OAN, there was a large crowd and several staff from Danita's Children to receive the children. They are now in good hands in a Christian environment. Without MAF the children would have had a very difficult and painful overland trip, bumping across the unimproved roads of Haiti for several hours.

Mark Williams, Program Manager - MAF Haiti:

Jan. 20: Our missing Haitian MAF worker is presumed dead. The others have been accounted for. I gave them money and food. Two left to join family who live in the countryside. Four Haitian MAF workers are coming to the airport to help out.

From the MAF communications team:

Jan. 19: We received an urgent appeal from the UN Disaster Assistance and Coordination (UNDAC) for use of MAF’s inflatable GATR VSAT communications system to aid Search and Rescue (SAR) groups. In response, the GATR system was relocated.

Among groups the GATR is assisting is Instead, which receives SMS messages from Haitians and aid workers in the streets. These messages are encoded onto electronic maps for UNDAC, which sends relief or SAR teams. Also using the GATR is MapAction, a team that creates maps during emergencies to help coordinate relief efforts. MapAction’s high-resolution imagery is too large for the group’s own VSAT to handle efficiently, so they requested extra bandwidth through the MAF GATR. Maps show where SAR teams have already cleared buildings, as well as field medical hospital locations, collapsed bridges and obstructed roads. MapAction daily distributes maps pinpointing vital areas of need, to relief groups.
Jan. 20: The GATR is up and running at the UNDAC area where satellite images are guiding plans for the transition from rescue to relief. We plan on being stationed in the UN compound for several days until the UN’s own systems can be flown in. We hope we can then move back to the World Concern office to assist with the "internet cafe" for other NGOs. An additional GATR is set to arrive.
Jan. 20: While setting up the GATR communications system, our MapAction contact came by, distraught. One of his staff members who had previously worked at an orphanage just learned the orphanage building had collapsed, killing everyone inside.

David Darg, Director of International Disaster Relief, Operation Blessing:

Jan. 18: Our base is at the Mission Aviation Fellowship hangar at the Port-au-Prince airport. MAF’s Disaster Relief Director John Woodberry has kindly allowed Operation Blessing to set up tents and use their infrastructure, including water and electricity. Without their partnership, we wouldn’t be so well positioned to respond and save lives. John has coordinated relief flights of essential medicines used by our doctors to treat victims.
Jan. 18: This morning our team left the airport for an OB clinic set up at the soccer stadium. Each time we exit the airport we find more people desperate for help gathered at the gates. Port-au-Prince’s narrow streets are strewn with crushed cars and collapsed buildings. On our way we encountered a tree branch roadblock manned by Haitians desperate for food. Our interpreter explained we only had medical supplies. The Haitians pulled back the branches and allowed us to proceed.

Karen H. Carr, Director of Community Coalition for Haiti:

Jan. 21: With the help of MAF, CCH's trauma team and medical supplies are in Jacmel helping heal the injured, hurt and hopeless. MAF has been a constant source of hope for all of the relief organizations trying to get supplies and medical personnel into Haiti. For the Haitians who are suffering and those bringing help, hearing the MAF flights overhead gives us more reason to believe that things will recover here and that more help is on the way. Without MAF, our ministry here to those in need in Jesus' name would not be possible. For the lives that have been saved, we owe MAF an eternal debt of gratitude. For those who will hear and see Jesus touching them through our medical volunteers and MAF's efforts, our appreciation on their behalf is infinite.

MAF Sends New KODIAK Aircraft, Crew to Haiti Relief Effort

2010-01-26T12:42:00.000-06:00

NAMPA, Idaho – MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) has deployed a new KODIAK airplane and four crew members to join its fleet of three aircraft already serving the relief effort following the massive earthquake in Haiti Jan. 12.

The deployment marks the first-ever use of this specially designed airplane in disaster relief work.

Following a brief dedication ceremony yesterday afternoon, the KODIAK took off on its 3,000-mile, 18-hour flight to Haiti.

The KODIAK, which can carry more cargo and passengers than the Cessna planes currently in use in Haiti, will support the MAF relief efforts. The KODIAK runs on jet fuel, which is more readily available than costly aviation gasoline, or "avgas," which fuels Cessnas and is in short supply in Haiti.

"The KODIAK is the next-generation bush plane and is made for such a time as this," said John Boyd, president of MAF. "It can land on short, unpaved airstrips to get essential humanitarian help to its destination quickly and safely in the absence of viable roads. The KODIAK will greatly expand our ability to quickly take aid where it is most needed."

This deployment of its finest aircraft is the latest MAF response to the tragedy that has claimed some 200,000 lives and damaged most of the buildings in the capital city of Port-au-Prince.

Disaster response has been an MAF area of expertise for more than 60 years. In past disasters, including the Indonesian Tsunami of 2004, Hurricane Felix and Cyclone Sidr in 2007, and the Haitian hurricanes of 2008, MAF provided communications systems, delivered relief supplies, transported medical teams and assisted humanitarian organizations in reaching people and areas that had been otherwise cut off from assistance.

MAF flights bring desperately needed relief supplies to outlying towns and return to Port-au-Prince with expatriates who had been working in Haiti before the earthquake and are evacuating the country.

MAF, which has been serving in Haiti for 23 years, has set up a Port-au-Prince communications center connected to a GATR VSAT satellite system, supplying direly needed high-bandwidth communications to workers from at least 16 international aid groups. The ministry is also helping coordinate the arrival and distribution of relief through its hangar at the airport. This service is valuable to relief organization as MAF staff know the country, the culture and the language.

"With the help of MAF, CCH's trauma team and medical supplies are in Jacmel helping heal the injured, hurt and hopeless," said Karen H. Carr, director of Community Coalition for Haiti. “MAF has been a constant source of hope for all of the relief organizations trying to get supplies and medical personnel into Haiti. For the Haitians who are suffering and those bringing help, hearing the MAF flights overhead gives us more reason to believe that things will recover here and that more help is on the way.

"Without MAF, our ministry here to those in need in Jesus' name would not be possible," Carr said. "For the lives that have been saved, we owe MAF an eternal debt of gratitude. For those who will hear and see Jesus touching them through our medical volunteers and MAF's efforts, our appreciation on their behalf is infinite."

The cargo aboard the KODIAK included two boxes of aid collected by 9-year-old Moise Salois of Nampa, Idaho. Young Moise, adopted from an orphanage in Haiti four years ago, still has two brothers and a grandmother living in Haiti. Among items Moise sent to Haiti on the MAF flight were medical supplies, infant formula, food and clothing.

Additionally, MAF is partnering with Hands of Hope and World Concern to provide relief supplies to Haiti. Among items collected for distribution in Haiti are food such as Power Bars, peanut butter and cooking oil; medical supplies including surgical gloves and orthopedic braces and splints; and other supplies such as blankets, solar-powered flashlights, large tarps, nylon rope and bungee cords.

This aircraft is the fourth MAF KODIAK. Three others are already serving overseas in remote areas.

The KODIAK is manufactured by Quest Aircraft Co. of Sandpoint, Idaho, which was founded to provide rugged, backcountry aircraft for remote operations for mission aviation organizations around the world.

Over the next few years, MAF will place 18 KODIAKS into service, replacing many of its Cessna 206s. Because this revolutionary aircraft can carry nearly twice the cargo of the Cessna 206, which makes up most of MAF’s fleet, the amount of medicine, food and disaster relief supplies MAF delivers at half the cost per cargo pound.

Haiti Updates: MAF Aiding Relief Effort

2010-01-19T13:47:00.005-06:00

11:20 (MST), Monday, 18 Jan 2010

MAF completed an operational flight on Saturday and has started operations again. We are flying people out of the countryside who have been stuck without connections to the city. Most of the work will be evacuating the city of Jacmel which has been hit hard by the earthquake as well.
David Hoffman, formerly in MAF’s IT Department, arrived yesterday in PAP Port Au Prince and set up the GATR ball (portable, inflatable satellite antenna) Internet connection this morning – it is working well (I can p ersonally attest that it is due to the in creased email from Haiti!!)

Rick Dickson, MAF’s Latin America n Regional Director, left Ft. Pierce, FL this morning for PAP and will continue to help John Woodberry and the four remaining Haiti staff members wi t h the logistical work at our hangar.
The Haiti staff that has withdrawn are leaving South Florida today and heading to their respective home ar eas.
One of our workers left today to help maintain the GATR ball – David Hoffman must leave Haiti on Thursday.
Please continue to pray for the folks planning the continued effort and for how we need to plan the rotation of the crew.

12:32 (MST), Sunday, 17 Jan 2010

Update from Phyllis Schmid of MAF-LT partner ministry STEP
We just finished a worship service in our yard. Jacques Louis spoke and a number came forward for salvation. A time of singing, praying and rejoicing in God’s provision of protection.

Helicopters are flying directly over us (over a dozen in the last 5 minutes – now I’ve lost count) and we wonder if it is to verify where we and all these people are for delivery of aid.

Cell phones are beginning to work again. Digicel even put 200 gourdes (divide by 40) worth of minutes on all Digicel phones. This will help with people under buildings to be able to use their phones if they are still alive.

The night of the quake we actually rescued one student after hours of work and he was alive and not too severely injured. I don’t think I ever explained that before. It was truly a miracle. Cindy and I had the job of using flashlights to watch for the building to begin to move to let David and Bruce and the other workers know when something else might fall. That same night when I was hurrying up to our home to get something David needed I fell on a cement wall and fell off to a grass landing. I am scraped and bruised but NOTHING broken – a miracle. I’m trying to learn to walk slowly but it is hard when someone needs something. One of our missionary moms, Susie Day, had the home she was in fall in around her. She managed to pull herself out of the wreckage. Her survival is another miracle.

I have a group of about 12 men, David, Bruce, Wawa, Jacques and young men from the area who are meeting together to form plan of action. God is so good and people are trying as best they can to pull themselves together.

Some have asked about Pastor Dirogene. He and his family are safe, they home is safe but their church has damage.

Not everyone received my news last night that David, Bruce and Cindy (DBC) got back after many hours out on the roads. They made some good contacts, got some medical supplies, found Jehu and boys all alive and delivered some food to them. They saw many horrors and it was hard for them. Jehu and one of the older boys were inside the house but were able to get it. It is destroyed. This is the house they have been renting. Someone went out to check on the new building outside of town and it seems to be fine except for some of the walls on the top level that didn’t have the roof done on them yet.

We never did find another student under the rubble so now we feel everyone is accounted for. The night of the quake classes had just let out and people were leaving the building to go to the newer STEP building for chapel and the missions conference. The presidents of the classes took a census and knew there were three missing from that classroom (original chapel in old building). We assume the student unaccounted for perhaps was just not here that night. We have not heard that but he is not under the rubble.

Each day we learn of friends who have lost husbands, wives, children, other family members. For those that knew the Lord we can see that even through the grieving a peace eventually replaces the terror as they know where their loved ones are.

This is experience has changed me in ways I can’t even put into words. It is amazing to sense God’s presence, grace and strength in spite of our own personal weaknesses.

We will be digging another latrine only closer to our homes to use. Kinda like our first days in Haiti 34 years ago. Actually I’ll grateful to have it available.

Cindy is going to help me wash my hair this afternoon sometime just using the smallest amount of water possible. It is amazing what you can get used to.

We are changing our generator hours to cover the nights instead of days to help with security.

We felt another aftershock as we sat on our cement wall during the worship service.

I can’t think of anything else right now so will close with grateful hearts to God and to each and everyone who is praying for us and all those around us. The things to be learned from this experience can’t be measured.

Cindy and I are so grateful our internet continued to work so we could contact our families that first night. It would have been so hard for them and you all to be in the “dark” about what was happening here. The internet dish was a good investment and because we had to replace our breezeway and depot roof we had a stable place to put it.

09:58 (MST), Friday, 15 Jan 2010

For a heartfelt and well-written account of conditions on the ground in Haiti, see Wilhelmina Krul’s blog: http://mafkrul.blogspot.com . She has chronicled her family’s experience serving in Haiti, but she has focused her latest entries on the earthquake on Tuesday, January 12 and the aftermath that she, Jason, and other MAF families have experienced.

One Indigenous MAF Worker Feared Dead Following Earthquake

2010-01-16T12:29:00.002-06:00

All Missionary Staff Safe; Non-Essential Personnel Withdrawing

MAF Sets Up 'Haiti Disaster and Recover Fund'

NAMPA, Idaho (Jan. 14, 2010) - One indigenous MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) worker is feared dead and two are missing following the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, but none of the ministry's missionary staff in Haiti were injured, according to Ron Wismer, crisis team manager at MAF headquarters here.

MAF is withdrawing its non-essential staff and dependents from Haiti, Wismer said. A team of key staff members will remain to coordinate relief efforts. MAF has sent ministry directors to Haiti to assess the needs and set up the ministry's response.

"We are grateful to God for his protection of our missionary staff," said John Boyd, MAF president. "We do not yet know the exact status of all of our Haitian staff members, and ask for your prayers for them and for all the people of Haiti during this time of great sorrow."

To respond to the disaster, MAF has set up the "Haiti Disaster and Recovery Fund." MAF expects to work with other relief agencies as they begin providing disaster assistance.

Disaster response is an MAF area of expertise. After an initial needs assessment is completed, Wismer said the ministry will coordinate logistics and provide air transportation for aid agencies working within Haiti. In times of disaster, MAF often takes government and relief officials on flights to survey and assess damage and develop a response plan.

Casualties of the quake, Haiti's worst in more than two centuries, may run into the tens of thousands, relief sources estimate.

Wismer said that the MAF hangar and airplanes were undamaged in the 7.0 quake, which flattened entire neighborhoods of wealthy and poor alike. But because the earthquake's epicenter and heart of the devastation was in the capital, Port-au-Prince, none of the planes in MAF's fleet of three aircraft have been used.

Missionary staff homes sustained only moderate damage. One home's security wall collapsed on two sides, Wismer said. Missionaries, however, have slept on porches and outside their homes in the past two nights because of ongoing danger of aftershocks.

Haiti's communications infrastructure sustained severe damage. Cellular phone service is sporadic. Some staff members' homes are equipped with VSAT internet connections. "Skype works if you can find somebody with an Internet connection," Wismer said.

MAF has served the missionary community and the people of Haiti since 1986. Currently, seven MAF missionary families, seven national staff members, and three aircraft serve 16 airstrips from a base of operations in Port-au-Prince. MAF also has one email hub in Port-au-Prince, supporting six clients.

To enable the work and maximize the effectiveness of Christian workers and agencies, MAF provides missionaries, medical staff and community development workers the means of ministering to the people of Haiti through light air transportation services, communications networks and distance education.

Founded in the U.S. in 1945, MAF (www.maf.org) missionary teams of aviation, communications, technology and education specialists overcome barriers in remote areas, transform lives and build God's Kingdom by enabling the work of more than 1,000 organizations in isolated areas of the world. With its fleet of 55 bush aircraft - including the new KODIAK - MAF serves in 31 countries, with an average of 101 flights daily across Africa, Asia, Eurasia and Latin America. MAF pilots transport missionaries, medical personnel, medicines and relief supplies, as well as conduct thousands of emergency medical evacuations in remote areas. MAF also provides telecommunications services, such as satellite Internet access, high-frequency radios, electronic mail and other wireless systems.

Massive Earthquake Hits Haiti

2010-01-15T12:39:00.003-06:00

All MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) missionary staff in Haiti are uninjured following a devastating earthquake that measured 7.0 on the Richter scale.

“We are grateful to God for his protection of our missionary staff,” said John Boyd, MAF president and CEO. “We do not yet know the status of our Haitian staff members, and ask for your prayers for all the people of Haiti during this time of great sorrow.”

Thousands of people are believed to be dead, and tens of thousands may have lost their homes. Much of the infrastructure in Haiti has been damaged, making travel and communication difficult. Food is in short supply.

MAF has served the missionary community and the people of Haiti since 1986. Seven MAF missionary families and seven Haitian staff members with three aircraft fly to 16 remote airstrips from a base of operations in Port-au-Prince. Government aid agencies, non-profit disaster relief organizations and others traditionally look to MAF for substantial assistance.

According to initial reports, some MAF homes may have sustained damage. MAF personnel have not been able to assess any damage that may have occurred to the ministry facilities at the airport.

To respond, MAF has set up the Haiti Disaster and Recovery Fund. To make your gift, click here. MAF expects to work with other relief agencies as they begin providing disaster assistance.

More information will be posted as it becomes available.

2009 Happenings in Short Words...

2009-12-24T11:27:00.004-06:00

Each year we spend time praying, dreaming, planning and executing what we believe our Lord leads us to do.

This year 2009 has not been an exemption. We had the privilege of using the resources (human, knowledge, infrastructure, money, etc) provided by God to bring glory to Him by serving individuals, communities and organizations in Latina America and the Caribbean.

The very poor and needed country of Haiti has been the focus of one of our projects where we are partnering with a well known Bible seminary in the city of Port of Prince, producing 12 Bible courses in both languages Kreol and French. When the production of these courses be finished, in middle 2010 more pastors and leaders in isolated areas of Haiti will be able to receive this high quality training to continue nurturing the body of Christ there.

Coming back to Costa Rica, we have been partnering with the Family Life ministry, networking pastors, leaders and churches in this country of 4 million people, to bring the hope that only God is able to bring to the families in the middle of several attacks that couples, youths and society are facing. We are leading five couples who are touching hundreds of parents and youths through seminars, workshops and teachings. We had 8 big events this year touching directly at least 150 couples and 100 singles.

Another unique opportunity is with ProMETA seminary. They are teaching a Masters degree program in Theology, 100% online and 100% in Spanish, and which we have been providing technology and support for the last five years, has students now in 19 countries, making a difference and producing transformation all around the region.
A lot of universities and organizations working in education recognize the relevance and power of the usage of technology all around the world. Those organizations both in the formal and non formal side of education are facing several barriers while transitioning from traditional ways of education towards distance education. Some of those institutions are either way resigning to that possibility or struggling in the try. We have the privilege of serving institutions in our region producing high quality courses and resources in the areas of education and technology to help them to overcome the barriers they are facing.

The Story of the Plan of God English and Spanish video has been one of our more ambitious projects. We are creating a set of videos of 10 hours of duration total teaching the whole Story from Genesis to Revelation. The final product will be available to be used online and offline by thousands of pastors in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese.

The digital gap in some countries is so big that the resources God has given to us can really transform lives and communities. We received the invitation of a university in the city of Leon, Nicaragua. This is a very poor and needy country. We provided training to 10 professors in topics related to education and technology. This particular university is teaching to future engineers, educators, etc.
Besides other projects known for those of you who usually receive our prayer letters, I (Mauricio) has been invited this year to be one of the elders in our church, the president of the board of directors of a regional seminary and a member of the board of directors of a Christian organization who works in Costa Rica ministering to the Anglo youth community (MKs and English speakers). What a privilege continuing serving our Lord.

What about 2010?

We are very grateful with our Lord because our family is healthy in a holistic way. Our marriage of 16 years has been blessed by Him in many ways. Our children love the Lord and love us. They have been working hard this year being an example at church, school and home. What a joy to finish this year praising the Lord for who He is and for what He has done in and with us.

For 2010 we already have a long list of projects which some of them are already in different stages of the process.

We will be focused in the six categories of our ministry plan for this year which are: Team Development, Working with Formal Institutions, Learning Centers Church Based Training, Alliances Built, Infrastructure and Capacity Building, and Increasing Sustainability.

We want to encourage you to strongly consider in prayer continuing or starting supporting us both in prayer and financially.

Thank God because you have provided.

Merry Christmas!

La Carpio Slum

2009-11-17T16:43:00.006-06:00

La Carpio has no known internet connectivity, partly because of major lack of resources but also because of geographical isolation. It is actually within the capital city of Costa Rica, but because it's a slum built around a garbage dump, it is nicely isolated from surrounding areas by a river on each side, a garbage dump on the third, and the only way in and out is a thin road on a sort of peninsula.
Our partnering with the missionary Steve Edwards who has been serving that isolated community for the last five years, has shaped the Christian impact in that poor area.

A computer lab is already in place and running, installed in August 2008. Steve, the missionary there, has been using the lab almost exclusively to allow kids to use. However, with little supervision, the lab has been largely just an arcade. This has also served to open up the lab to become a nice dish of viruses.
The proposed solution has been taking place in the last few months with the active role of our team through the hard work of our coworker Brendan Blowers.
The first step was some considerable maintenance work, including cleaning off the viruses and loading office tools and training tools on each computer.
The second step was networking the computer lab (12 computers).
In the past months the kids spent inordinate amounts of time playing senseless flash games.

After introducing a few “new games”, there has been the children have increased their interest, and a few specific kids are exhibiting potential for more training and higher-level learning.

One of these “new games” is a new programming language software that makes it easy to create interactive stories, animations, games, music and art.

Then while the kids are “playing” they are acquiring high level skills and at the same time are exposed to the Word of God.

Opportunities vs. Challenges

We had the opportunity to spend some months in our former missionary field in Pto Ayacucho, Venezuela.

We were able to visit some relatives and friends there. Rosalia and I were teaching and preaching in some churches there. There is a lot of need of good teachings about different Christian topics related to families..

While we were there, we faced sometimes the frustration that Christians who are lacking of education have, when they try to access knowledge and training using technology.

We sometimes had to deal with electricity cutoffs, very limited access to internet, and slow internet speeds (200 Kbps) when available.
People there spend 3 to 5 minutes just to have access to websites like Google.
For our ministry these and other barriers become tremendous opportunities all along Latin America and the Caribbean, to serve communities and individuals with education, technology and digital resources.
There are two main needs for us right now: Funds and Human Resources.
We want to encourage you to partner with us in the big challenge of using education and technology to help growing the church.

Newsletter April 2009

2009-07-13T17:01:00.002-06:00

Please forgive us for lagging on our posts. This is our newsletter from April of this year.

Sanchez News

Coffee Ministry?
We have been attending International Friendship Church for the last two years here in Costa Rica (Spanish speaking).
There is a huge need of a ministry serving the marriages everywhere.
In our small church several couples have been approaching us for counseling. They have encouraged us to start a ministry to serve them and to teach them about Christian principles for marriages, parents, etc.
We built a team and have been meeting once a week to seek the Lord in order to know what would be the best way to take for feeding the marriages from our church and outside.
Well, we just started a ministry called “CAFÉ” which is the word in Spanish for coffee. The acronym means “committed to reach families for their growth”.
Please pray that this effort in our local church brings glory to God through helping families inside and outside our church for them to be better Christ-centered.

Wedding in Costa Rica
Rosalia and I have been teaching a prenuptial course to a sweet couple of Costaricans for the last three months.
Angelo is a pastor’s grandson and Daniela is a pastor’s daughter.
What a privilege that both families asked us to spend time with this young couple to share Bible principles and life experiences.
What a blessing as we attended to their civil wedding at the beautiful Pacific coast here in Costa Rica. I (Mauricio) brought a short Bible message during this special activity.

Guatemala STS Workshops
We are partnering with The God´s Story Project and CAM International to conduct five STS (Simply The Story) workshops in Guatemala.
The idea is meeting the needs of effective communication of the Gospel to the Mayan people groups both literate and nonliterate (6 languages).
Our missionary Regina Manley already conducted the first workshop last January. This is impacting missionaries and Bible students.
She is actually following up the results and multiplication processes.

Deputation Trip to Florida: April
During our 15+ years of ministry most of our trips involve Bible teaching, preaching, Christian service and Gospel sharing.
Times come where our trips involve some of the previous activities but are more focused in sharing our vision, passion and ministry with others.
What we try to pursue is challenging others to make our vision, passion and ministry theirs.
Many Christians dream along their lives of going sometime in the future to serve the Lord… that is a great desire and thought, but there are other ways to serve staying in our home country:
praying for missionaries.
Sharing about missionary work using email, mail, coffee meetings, church presentations.
Many Christians dream along their lives of going sometime in the future to serve the Lord… that is a great desire and thought, but there are other ways to serve staying in our home country:
1. Praying for missionaries.
2. Sharing about missionary work using email, mail, coffee meetings, church presentations.
3. Giving to missions and challenging others to do so.
We visited the state of Florida on April 2009, with the goal of sharing our ministry with churches, groups and individuals.
We have been underfunding for a long period, and this situation takes us out of actual ministry having to spend many hours trying to contact potential donors.

Send donations to: Mission Aviation Fellowship
PO Box 47. Nampa, ID 83653

Please indicate: For the ministry of Mauricio and Rosalia Sanchez

Visit our websites: www.maf.org/sanchez (English)
http://misioneros-sanchez.blogspot.com (Español)

May God bless you in everything you do.
~The Sanchez Family

February 2009 Update

2009-03-04T10:28:00.010-06:00

First Latino Missions Conference

Rosalia and I attended the First Latino Missions Conference in Tampa, Florida. We were invited to lead a couple of workshops about education and technology.

It is very encouraging see how the Lord has been equipping key men and women at the Latino community in the United States, with the vision and passion to play a more relevant role until the end of the earth.

Engineers, medical doctors, educators, missionaries, pastors and leaders attended to this significant event which will become a tremendous motivation for the whole Latino community.

Around 10,000 Latino missionaries are serving the Lord all over the world, but the need and opportunities are way long higher. Events like this open the eyes of men and women to see how the Lord could use their experience, gifts, education and resources to bring glory to Him, and to make Him more known all over the nations.

Pablo is a gifted Software Engineer who attended the conference. He said wow, it is great to see how I could use my skills to serve the Lord.

Encouraging others to serve Him is a real honor that our Lord let us.

Course for content authors

As most of you know, Rosalia has been studying a Masters degree in Educational Technology. She just finished the subjects and is working in the thesis.

While serving different universities, seminaries and Bible institutes we sense the great need that courses and content authors have to receive more training to transition from face to face classes, to distance ones. These authors are producing materials to be used on distance (delivered online, through CDs, etc). Most of them have a lot of experience preparing classes to be taught face to face, but little or no experience in teaching on distance environments.

Rosalia just finished to produce a five weeks course to be taught online about the science called Instructional Design.

We are expecting to use this course with hundreds of professors and authors all over the Region.

Haiti STEP Digital Program

We have been partnering with CrossWorld in Haiti STEP Digital Program.

The present situation of the extension program is very time intensive for administration and the professors. The desire to take the education to the rural areas means that the professors go to the rural areas. The physical and political infrastructure are increasingly hindering this process.

MAF Learning Technologies project with STEP seminary is to move the paper-based correspondence courses into digital format allowing the student to take the courses using a computer, then corresponding to a mentor and sending in exams by email.

Courses are in Kreol and French languages allowing students to study and learn in their mother tongue.

After last year floods, all this Project was on hold until some weeks ago when again the Project advanced.

There are 12 courses being part of this digital program. Six courses are already done.

We are expecting to have the complete digital curriculum in the next two years.

That will impact Haiti.

Ministry vs. Support

One of the things we love to talk about is ministry.

There are thousands of opportunities to share the Gospel to individuals, communities, tribes, languages and nations.

Support in holistic terms is very key while we move forward developing projects to reach the lost, feed them and empower them to reach, feed and empower others.

As family and as ministry we need people committed in praying for these projects, and people committed to support these project with financial support.

It is true that our Lord has provided the funds to function for years, and it is true as well that relevant projects have been put on hold because our limited resources.

We want to encourage you to partner with us in the big challenge of using education and technology to help growing the church.

If you are already part of this vision, I encourage you to share this vision with others to make it theirs.

Christmas 2008 / New Year 2009 Newsletter

2008-12-18T12:10:00.009-06:00

There is no crisis surprising God... He is still at the controls... 100%

Panama: 200+ copies of Digistudy

If you share a CD containing some Bibles in English in New York, London or Sidney will be good. Most of those CDs maybe won’t be installed in any computer.
But if you share CDs containing six Bibles in Spanish, a couple in English, a Greek and Hebrew version among Pastors and Leaders in Latin America, that will make a huge difference because many of this pastors have little or not connectivity to internet because it is very expensive for most of them.
Some of this pastors and leaders have a monthly salary of $100 to $500. They really need to make ends meet.
We had the opportunity to attend to the biggest evangelical congress for the Latin community in Panama last October.
While buying a single digital Bible versión for them cost between $50 to $200, we gave for free 200 copies to the same number pastors and leaders who atended the congress.
They were very grateful and most of them did not believe that they were receiving that great searchable Bible content for free.
Thanks to those who are being part of our ministry making this possible to happen.

COMIBAM

One hundred and five leaders of Latino missions organizations who are involved in preparing, sending and/or supporting Latin Americans going to the worldwide field, attended a meeting during three days in Costa Rica. Latin America has been a missionary field for years. Although Latin America is still a missionary field, there is a movement of Latino missionaries who are being sent to all over the world. There are ten thousand Latinos serving fields now. We have the privilege of being part of what God is doing through a multi cultural missions force. We had forums dealing with key missions topics. Please pray for this.

Making a difference in Latin America and beyond

Thirteen years ago I was driving for more than 15 hours trying to reach a town in the Amazon area while my best friend was sleeping on the rear back seat.
We were carrying the Jesus film in Yanomamo language.
As I asked my friend about what would be the best organization to manage that film, he almost immediately said: “let’s give it to Alas de Socorro (Mission Aviation Fellowship) for them to manage the film because that organization has the best relationship with every single church and organization in the Amazon area.”
Five years later my family and I moved to that area to serve with MAF.
That characteristic that my friend knew about MAF is still true.
MAF is partnering with other organizations all around the world to fulfill together the great commandment of Mathew 28:18.
One of our partners in Latin America is ProMETA. They are known as Latin America Training Network; a ministry part of the Evangelical Free Church.
ProMETA is a premier international education ministry that provides theological training for Christian leaders in the Spanish speaking world. ProMETA decentralized approach enables proven leaders to continue their education without having to leave their families, ministries, or countries in order to do so. Making quality theological education accessible to those who need it the most is one of the greatest needs in today’s Latin American church.
MAF-LT is providing technology to ProMETA through specialized software to enable course authors to write and design their courses, and software to allow students to receive those courses in CDs to study on distance.
Most of the students are key pastors and leaders who are serving in Spanish speaking communities in 13 countries.
Every time you pray and give for us, you are supporting what ProMETA and other organizations are doing to equip pastors and leaders in the Spanish speaking world, and others who its mother tongue is Spanish but who are serving all over the world.

EduTecnologia in Latin America ... ?

2008-08-07T14:03:00.003-06:00

From now on, you are going to see the word "EduTecnologia" in our ministry news updates, and in the activities we will be having in Latin America.

After living and serving for more than one year and a half in Costa Rica, it is time for evaluation, and time for decisions and planning towards the future in regards of our ministry.

After experiencing and being trained for the last years, we can see some common characteristics in most of the individuals, churches and organizations who are involved in the labor of training Christian men and women for the ministry in Latin America.

When the Bible talks about "equipping the saints for the ministry", the word saints does not mean "pastors and missionaries", but the word means all of those who have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus. That means, all of us Christians who have believed in Christ for Salvation. Saints in the Bible means those who have been separated by God and for Him.

The main needs among those who are involved in training and equipping the saints in the Christian environment, could be framed in any of all of these areas:

* Education
* Technology
* Digital Resources

The answer to the question "what is the biggest need in your church group?", is almost always the same, no matter if you ask this question to a pastor or leader in a church located in a big city, a rural town or a remote area: "our church´s main need is training".

It is interesting that some church groups have receiving some training and others just little. But, in most of those churches (still those who have received some training) there is a deep sense and evidences of lack of training. The spiritual transformation is not broadly seen these days. I am not saying that there is not spiritual transformation at all, but I am saying that it is poor in many cases.

We have identified, that if we work not only thinking what we are going to teach, but how we are going to teach too, we can see positive changes in the Christian communities.

In this 21st century, we have to work hard studying our audience, the tools and vehicles that we use for teaching, the content, the formats and a series of factors that we have possible forgotten, or that we have been applying in a not very coordinated way. At the same time, we have to find out if some of the technological tools could help us in the broad challenge we face to equip and train the Christianity in Latin America.

Our ministry (MAF-Learning Technologies www.maflt.org), has been planning and developing strategies framed in the areas already mentioned: Education, Technology and Digital Resources. This has brought us, to establish some strategic alliances to conquer barriers to meet specif needs in the Region. We are mainly participating in meeting those equipping-training needs through:

* Consulting
* Training
* Projects

One of the strategic alliances we have developed in the last years has been with ProMETA. ProMETA (www.pro-meta.org), has been designing and developing a Masters in Theology 100% on distance in Spanish, using some of the technological support and tools that our mission has produced.

Nicaragua hurracane Felix relief

2007-09-17T15:38:00.000-06:00

During my (Mauricio) birthday (I just turned 40) on Friday September the 7th, I received a phone call asking me if I wanted to go for a while to help with the relief operations in Nicaragua, as a response to the hurracane Felix passing over the Nicaraguan Caribbean coast with winds of up to 270 kilometers per hour.

Although I hold two citizenships (Colombian and Venezuelan), I only have a Colombian passport. That means that I need a Visa to go into almost any country. I received a visa for going to Nicaragua on Monday the 10th, and flew in a commercial plane in the afternoon from San Jose, Costa Rica to Managua, Nicaragua.

As soon as I arrived Nicaragua, I was informed by the inmigration police that I could not going into the country because my passport was going to expire in three weeks. The authorities send me to a hotel with the companion of two officers. One of them was a Chirtian.

After they knew about our job and purpose they delayed the flight back until Tuesday noon, in order to give time to our Nicaraguan contacts to talk on my behalf before the authorities. By 9:00 in the morning they allowed me to enter oficially to the country.

I had the opportunity both Monday night and Tuesday morning, to talk about God with some of the officers.

We had the opportunity to bring water, plastics, food and other supplies to the small town of Puerto Cabezas, located in the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. We flew the supplies from Managua, Nicaragua and from San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

The Nicaraguan authorities are talking about 110 killed people because the hurracane and at least 60 people not found yet. But some small Islands with their population dissapeared as the hurracane Felix passed over. Some Nicaraguan bodies were found floating on the ocean in Honduras (miles away of their town).

The Christian organization who participated in this relief effort were: Missionary Flights International, Operation Blessings, The Samaritan Purse and Mission Aviation Fellowship. The Nicaraguan evangelical churches were involved in this effort through the Nicaraguan Evangelical Alliance.

This is part of the information about our work there:

1. We had two airplanes doing the job, one DC-3 and one Cessna 206
2. 18 total flights
3. more than 65,000 pounds of cargo flown and around 35 passengers

We were well impressed by the Nicaraguan military hard work. They were taking care of the emergency in a very kind and coordinated way.

I enjoyed translating and helping with the logistics, as well as spending time in the DC-3 cockpit.

I came back home on Saturday the 15th. It is great to be back with my family, and being back doing our work with Learning Technologies.

Please pray for all of the work that Christian organizations, NGO's and governments will have in the next months to rebuild the affected area.

Blessings to you all.

2007-07-09T23:10:00.001-06:00

Prayer Letter June 2007

2007-06-14T13:07:00.000-06:00

Is Learning Technologies an Answer in Latin America?

While the number of believers and churches are growing in an exponential way, training the number of pastors and leaders required to meet this need is a very real challenge around the world.

MAF-LT, or Learning Technologies, uses modern technology to provide formal and non-formal education to pastors and Christian leaders via the internet, CDs, etc. It enables them to continue serving their churches while improving their Biblical knowledge and ministry skills.

MAF-LT created the DeViewer. The DeViewer is a great platform that allows Christian institutions to create their own courses in different languages, delivering them through the internet, CD’s or just installing it in your computer (without internet connection).

It allows us to provide many tools, including various courses, Bibles Translations, books and articles on one CD, or on the internet, all in an easy to surf environment.

Already there are organizations in Latin America being equipped and helped with our software tools, workshops, digitalizing processes and support.

Three key areas of LT service in Latin America are: Consulting, training, and projects.

Support Meter

We have been asked to raise $2450 monthly to sustain our ministry and cover our family expenses.

We invite you to become a part of what the Lord is doing in and through us. Please prayerfully consider partnering with us! Thank you!

Challenge

There are 460 million people who speak Spanish around the world. This is the main language in 18 countries. There are more than 40 million Hispanic people living in the United States.

Most of the leaders who move to another city or country to receive theological education never go back to their own countries or churches.

We have a great opportunity to provide quality training to those who are already ministering in the Spanish speaking world. They are able to continue serving their churches and communities, and at the same time receive theological education to improve their knowledge, skills and possibilities of success in reaching the world for Christ.

We will be building alliances to create, deliver and administrate courses in different platforms online and offline.

We want to invite you to become a part of what the Lord is doing in this part of the world. About 90% of the Hispanic pastors and leaders (including those in Latin America and those in the United States) have not received any formal theological training. As a result, there are many misconceptions related to God, His Kingdom and His church.

"And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also". 2 Tim 2:2

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