Missionary Aviators Face Crisis

We're all too familiar with through the roof gas prices. Many of us face tough choices everyday due to the price of gas compared to our disposable income. We ask ourselves, "gas or lunch?" You think I'm kidding?

In everyday's cable news cycle is mention of fuel prices crippling the airlines industry. Do you ever wonder how missions is affected? Here's an enlightening article about Mission Aviation Fellowship:

MAF vice president of resources Dave Fyock says, "$650,000 is the overruns on budget just on fuel alone. In addition to that, the cost of inventories has doubled. So just in fuel increases alone, we're talking a cash outlay of $1.1 million."

In the past few weeks, God's people have responded generously to this crisis. Fyock says, "Our appeal for funding to help with the fuel has brought in to date $286,000, and we are so thankful to God's people for providing that. The truth is, we still need a significant amount more if we are going to make ends meet here at MAF this year."

In an effort to offset these unbudgeted expenses, MAF cut operating costs by 10 percent. Fyock says despite that, it may affect their work into the next fiscal year. "We're working on budgets for the coming year and looking at where we may need to either cut back on hours or possibly even ground for the next year a program or two."

So what can we do? What can you do?

read the rest of the article here: Mission Network News