Adopt a Plane: Ecuador HC-CFQ
Field Correspondent: Dan Whitehead, MAF Ecuador Program Manager
Model: Cessna 206 Turbo (TU206G)
Registration: HC-CFQ
Common Name: 206 Turbo
Meet “HC-CFQ”!
This MAF Cessna 206 serves the Amazon Basin of eastern Ecuador. Some of its stories are fascinating … many of its flights are lifesaving … all of its service in Ecuador is life-sustaining. Welcome aboard!
Without HC-CFQ, the only access to many jungle villages in Ecuador is by hiking trails—an extremely grueling, dangerous and time- consuming mode of travel. Almost daily, this Cessna 206 Turbo makes one or more medical emergency flights, where a mere 30 minutes in the air saves two to three days on the trail—a trip that a severely ill patient might not survive.
This MAF plane is also helping plant at least a dozen new churches among the Atshuar people. HC-CFQ flies an itinerant missionary to one village where he teaches and encourages local church leaders. He then hikes through the jungle to another nearby village to disciple believers there. Then HC-CFQ picks him up and takes him to yet another village further away. On his circuit, this missionary eventually visits several more places to strengthen churches, before resuming his circuit again. The plane meets and transports him at strategic locations, greatly maximizing his time.
Another missionary has been asked by the Ecuadorian Ministry of Education to provide teachers for a large number of schools in jungle villages. As often as he can, he recruits Christian teachers, who teach Bible classes as well as reading, writing, and arithmetic. HC-CFQ not only flies teachers to their teaching assignments, but children as well. If they memorize a certain number of Scripture verses, the children are eligible to attend camp—a coveted reward! Every year, HC-CFQ travels from one village to another picking up children for camp and returning them home afterwards. Some former campers now work with this veteran missionary, teaching in village schools and helping operate this program that ministers to hundreds of children in remote jungle villages.
Through the MAF Adopt-a-Plane program, you too can play a significant part in saving patients’ lives, planting churches, teaching children about the love of Jesus, and translating the Scriptures.
For just $1 a day, you can adopt HC-CFQ and help transform lives through this vital ministry. Please sign up today! On behalf of missionaries and thousands of Ecuador’s needy who depend on MAF, thank you for your prayers and support. We thank God for you.
Some of the MAF staff and national personnel who keep this plane in the air include the following (note: pilots also help with some of the maintenance duties):
- David Aquilar
- Kevin Borror
- Mateo Chimbo
- Oscar Guerrero
- Bruce Harcey
- Chad Irwin
- Fernando Pastor
- Dan Rogers
- Fred Schmidt
- Freddy Velasco
- Dan Whitehead
