About Mission Support Network

Mission Support Network is a newly emerging mission project that is arising out of a passion for the underserved remote peoples of Papua New Guinea.  

Over the years Adventist Aviation has served valiantly in PNG and fought against budget shortfalls and rising costs as well as aging aircraft. Their mission has been greatly blessed by God and many self sacrificing heroes in God's eyes have brought the ministry of healing and the good news of the Adventist message to these dear people. 

A New aircraft was recently provided for the denominational Air Service with record support from church members who gave very liberally to camp meeting offerings and other fund raising activities when they understood how much the Mission of the Church in Papua New Guinea is dependent on Missionary Aviation. 

With God’s blessing the church continues to grow and new opportunities for carrying the everlasting gospel to remote communities keep opening up.  At the same time essential Air Services in the country that provide access to remote communities have been cut back significantly.  Several Air operators have recently either closed their doors or had to rationalize their services. All have had to raise prices to levels that are very restrictive to the needs of mission work. It is unfortunately the most needy remote communities often that suffer most when services are cut like this. The congregations, schools, clinics and other outreach entities in these remote villages suffer along with the rest of the community.  The South Pacific Division Statistical Report indicates that in 2007 there were more than 340,000 Sabbath School members worshiping in more than 3,300 congregations in PNG. Many of these congregations and the unreached areas around them are in remote areas accessible only by aircraft. 

Their burgeoning needs have far outgrown travel budgets and the capacity of Air Operators in the country to supply services that support the daily needs of these congregations, isolated communities and the missionary entities and personnel that serve them. 

Mission Support Network is setting up a decentralized locally based Aviation and Communications support system to facilitate the travel and communications needed to re-invigorate and help sustain grass roots missionary work in remote areas. A constant presence will enable us to build relationships with congregations, communities, various mission entities and their leaders giving us the opportunity of helping you connect with their world and support projects benefiting them in many different ways. 

In an email that Trevor Robinson wrote to Jack Sample on September 30, 2004, the basis for a lay supported aviation program with a commercial orientation is best understood. Please take the time to read this email by visiting this link.   

We have attempted to summarize the goals and objectives of Mission Support Network in a mission statement that you can access by clicking on the "Mission" link to the left. 

Please contact us if you are interested in helping in any way.  Also, if you would like to stay in touch, we have a subscription based email newsletter you can subscribe to in the "News" section.

Some people ask us why we want to do this when the church already has a new plane in PNG.  The answers are these:

   1. There is so much to be done and Adventist Aviation Services is asked by the church to serve the whole of the Papua New Guinea Union Mission.  It is really hard for them to be everywhere at once and providing the intensive support that we have in mind.  I have worked in their program and know very well how hard it is to meet all the needs that arise.  There is just not enough man power or aircraft to do that.  It is like having lay preachers.  We need them because there are not enough pastors to do all the work.  We need lay run aircraft because there are not enough church employees and church owned aircraft to supply all the need.  So many places could be opened up to the church if we only had the infrastructure to support these mission advances.  The support needs to be ongoing and constantly available to be most effective.
   2. I believe that it is God’s plan that ordinary church members get involved with activities supporting the church rather than just sit down and watch church employees tire themselves out trying to do the work. Mission Support Network is a way that lay people can participate in providing the church with vital services to support the able missionaries the church has while they are out in difficult remote areas witnessing for God.
   3. The church as a large multinational organization has some very expensive insurance requirements for its own air services. We can provide the services at less cost to poorer local missions like Sepik Mission.  Our staff wages will not be a burden on the church treasury.  Often we will be able to transport pastors free.  We just want to see them be able to Go any where God is calling them without having to worry about the budget and the cost of travelling to where God’s people really need them to minister to them.
   4. Our services will work to complement AAS in that they will work on a different model of operation.  Instead of being a centralized service where planes are based in one location and then travel infrequently to distant parts of the country to work for short periods, Our aircraft will be operated on a decentralized model.  That means we want to base planes in local areas where they will work intensively to provide consistent and ongoing support to the mission activity in that particular area.  They will not be pulled away and sent all over the country which could disrupt the intensive missionary thrust in the area we are focusing on.
   5. We are investigating new types of aircraft that are able to be operated into areas where there is not properly prepared air strip.  We want to be able to take missionaries into places where there is not air strip.  Currently a few mission organizations have helicopters to do that.  Our church does not.  There are other much cheaper options for getting into places that do not have airstrips than using helicopters.
   6. There are hundreds of islands off the coast of PNG.  Outboard motor fuel is very expensive now and people are finding it hard to travel to some of these islands.  We hope in time to be able to buy a seaplane that can land in the water and take missionaries in and out of these islands so that God’s work is not held back because missionaries cannot travel.  But we also want to be  part of the peoples lives where we have our planes.  We want to provide a basic service for the community and encourage lay people to go out in the planes and witness for the Lord with what ever skills He has blessed them with.