Kodiak Not Coming – Sites Now on Cessna 206

Mission Padamo/ May 5, 2015/ News, Updates/ 1 comments

Dear Prayer Friends,

This finds us in Caracas renewing my USA passport. We don’t know what the future holds here in Venezuela but thankfully, we do know who holds the future. Things continue to go downhill here. We struggle to find the most basic of items like milk, sugar, coffee and any kind of soap or shampoo even bathroom tissue, not to mention bottled gas for cooking, but in spite of this, we continue to see Christ building HIS Church as HE promised. Just last week, during our morning prayer and Bible study time, we had opened it up for general sharing. I was surprised to see Freddy stand up. As a matter of fact, when Freddy had started coming to the class, about a month earlier, I could not believe my eyes. He has never shown any interest in spiritual things at all.

This is a man who grew up in Cosh, under the influence of the Gospel his whole life, but he never showed any interest. While a teen ager, he had been bitten by a large bushmaster snake and had almost died. My sisters worked with him for months doctoring his leg and never giving up even when it seemed his leg had to come off because of so much infection. His leg stunk so badly that it was difficult to even be near him, let alone work on him, but God healed him and although he lost some toes, he regained full use of his leg, yet, he wanted nothing to do with the God who had healed him. So I was surprised to see him stand up, even more surprised when he quietly gave his heart and life to the Lord. He told how in spite of all he tried to do, God continued to work in his heart and he was finally giving his life to the Lord. He asked us all to pray for him that he would truly live for the Lord. Praise the Lord with us. He was someone I never thought would become a Christian.

We praise the Lord for this victory and for others like this one. God has promised to build HIS church and we are humbled to have a small part in this work. Thank you so much for your part in this ministry. We know we could not be here without you all!

I am attaching a letter from the Mission Padamo Aviation and Support mission board. This letter is detailing changes in regards to the Kodiak airplane. I will be the first to tell you that I am disappointed. Disappointed, but not discouraged. God has a plan for this country, this ministry and our precious Yanomamö and the many other tribes in Amazonas state that have been abandoned. We continue to seek God’s favor as we make adjustments to our plans and goals to provide air service not only for our missionaries and our tribal church brothers, but also for anyone with medical emergencies and other needs. God has a plan and we only desire to fit into HIS will.

 

To those of you who gave so generously to this effort, I can’t thank you enough. I do ask that you stand with us in spite of this change. With our limited sight, I cannot see the future but I do know that for some reason, God has allowed us to continue working here and we continue to see people come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. In the end, this is what it is all about! Again, Thank you.

If anyone has any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.

 

Sincerely,

Michael and Keila Dawson

 

April 18, 2015

Dear Faithful Donors,

In February of this year, Quest Aircraft Company was sold to “Setouchi Holdings Inc.”, a member of “Tsuneishi Group”. “Tsuneishi Group” is a well-established global entity, with solid roots in the shipbuilding, transportation and related industries. Since the economic downturn in the general aviation sector in 2008, Quest has almost gone bankrupt once and has restructured twice. The Quest manufacturing plant will remain USA based in Sandpoint, ID and all employees and factory management will be retained. The good news is that Quest will now be supported and stabilized by a very well capitalized company and that the KODIAK will continue to be available to Mission Agencies. This sale also supplies significant cash to immediately refund a significant part of the Missions deposits still outstanding. This would otherwise have taken an indeterminate length of time to recoup. The agreement also assures that mission organizations will indefinitely receive a discount on all future KODIAK purchases.

Because of their commitment to missions, the owners of Quest tried to keep the company as long as they could. But the harsh realities of this economy forced them to finally sell. Because of this sell, Quest will no longer be offering the KODIAK at cost to missions. The owners have however, attempted to give back some of the funds that were deposited on account with the company. As such MPAS has received about one third of our deposit as a cash payment. Though this sounds bad at first, we can see that the Lord is in control and this is actually not too bad for us. The original founders of Quest had two goals when we came on board with our original deposit for a KODIAK. First, they wanted to produce an airplane designed specifically for mission flying. Second, they wanted to fund missions by supplying these aircraft to missions at substantially reduced cost. The first goal has been met. There are currently 25 KODIAKs (out of 140 built) flying on the mission field. Of the second goal, only two of those KODIAKs are of the original mission slots sold to missions at a substantially reduced price.

As you remember, when we raised these funds for our KODIAK slot, all funds we raised were matched by a Trust associated with Quest. So basically, half of the funds we had on record were donated for the sole purpose of seeing a KODIAK reach the market and be available for missions. These donors, who matched our funds, do not consider their donation wasted, as the KODIAK is flying now and will be available for missions for years to come.

At the time of the sale, MPAS had about $1.2 million on record at Quest. Of this, $100,000 was interest earned, $450,000 was the Quest Trust matching funds, $150,000 was funds from a grant to Quest that was distributed among all the mission organizations involved, and $90,000 were matching funds paid to MPAS by a donor for Quest. So, of the $1.2 million at Quest, the funds donated specifically to MPAS by our donors for an airplane, comes to just over $400,000 and MPAS received $408,000 in cash from the sale of Quest! And it is available now, not just a promise for the future. We truly believe the Lord is in control of everything and as you can see, we still have all our donations available to purchase an airplane to start our flight program.

Since we have the $408,000 returned by Quest, the MPAS board feels that this is a good time to purchase an aircraft and start our flight program in Venezuela. There are still many hurdles to get through especially with the political and economic situation in Venezuela, but we feel the Lord’s leading to begin the program. We are currently looking for a used Cessna 206, an airplane used widely on the mission field. We would then have some modifications made to the aircraft that would make it more suitable for jungle flying. All of this could take two to three years to complete, which will give us time to complete the needed registrations, etc. needed in Venezuela.

Our prayer going into this endeavor of starting our flight program has always been that God would do this in HIS time. We only want to make sure we are ready to walk as HE guides and provides. Our motivating verses are from the book of Joshua where Joshua commands the priest to pick up the ARK and march. The Bible goes on to say that when the priest carrying the ARK walked into the water, the water split before them. We praise the Lord for His goodness and His omniscience. Losing the opportunity to purchase a KODIAK was not our will and not like we would have done it, but every step taken was bathed in prayer. We watched God do miracle after miracle in our fund raising efforts, yet for some reason, God has closed this door. Since we know beyond any shadow of doubt that none of this has happened without His knowledge, we rest in HIM. Please pray for His guidance as we proceed. We want to do nothing outside His will and everything for His honor and glory. Thank you so much for your support throughout this process, both financially and with your prayers. Nothing could be accomplished without faithful supporters like yourself.

God Bless,

MPAS Board of Directors

Michael Dawson
Jerald Dawson
Joe Fogle

Don Shire