HAVERHILL, Mass. — In remote areas of Honduras and Guatemala, natives have to walk for three days on land or take a boat down river to get to a hospital.
But those trips that used to take three days on foot are now only 20 minutes long on a Cessna 206 plane used by Missionary Air Group.
"I didn't realize what an important tool a plane was until I started providing medical help," said the Rev. Sean Donnelly, president of the Christian relief organization headquartered in Haverhill.
Donnelly, 44, founded Missionary Air Group after he saw hundreds of people waiting in line for medical care in Guatemala, a country with one of the lowest life expectancies and highest infant mortality rates in Latin America.
The organization is a bridge for doctors, medical teams, ministries, and relief agencies to get people and supplies to the needy. It does not own its own aircraft, but operates two in Honduras loaned to it by another ministry. Right now, they are used only in Honduras and Guatemala.
"This is what makes this work so amazing, because we don't own any planes but are able to do so much," Donnelly said.
Donnelly, senior pastor at Advent Christian Church in Haverhill, has been flying for 12 years. He is an airline transport pilot and a certified flight instructor with more than 3,000 flight hours under his belt.
He said his passion for flying began as a child watching airplanes land and take off from Quonset Point in Kingstown, the former military base once home to the Seabees. His love of flying took off when his father brought him to watch the air shows at the naval air station.
Donnelly took his first flying lessons almost at the same time he was learning how to drive a car.
"I always liked to fly. It is something that always captivated my imagination," he said.
Then in 1998, Donnelly felt God calling him to be a missionary pilot.
"As much as I love to fly and love to be in the air, I'm not doing this for the excitement of flying," he said. "It's a huge privilege that I've been given when you look at the number of people we've helped."
Donnelly was pastor of a church in Eliot, Maine, and as soon as he was licensed, joined the missionary pilots in 2002.
He began working in Honduras, where the Cessna 206 functions as an ambulance. He was then invited to Guatemala, where there was no medical service in remote areas. More recently, the flight ministry expanded its operations to the African country of Zambia.
Donnelly now travels to Latin America two to three times a year when an airplane or communication equipment needs repairs or to do pilot training.
He returned recently from a trip to Honduras, where he took his eldest daughter, Meghan, 12. Upon her return, Meghan gave a presentation to her classmates at Salem Christian Academy in Salem.
Donnelly trains would-be missionary pilots out of Lawrence Municipal Airport in North Andover, Mass.. The pilots need a commercial pilot certificate, instrument rating, 400 hours as a pilot and an airframe and power plant mechanic certificate.
Flight students are taught to land on dangerously outdated landing strips and grassy areas. In addition to the flight training, future missionaries work in the field with pilots who have experience.
Donnelly has two families who work for him full time, including Westley Wiles, formerly of Haverhill. There are also 25 volunteers. He receives financial support from 10 churches and 150 individuals.
Wiles and his wife, Denise, have been working in Honduras since 1998.
A pilot since 1993, Wiles worked for United Airlines as an aircraft mechanic. He had been traveling to Latin America for years before he, his wife, and three children, Rachel, David and Joshua, decided to become full-time missionaries. They are also raising a Honduran child, Keila.
"I wasn't satisfied with the work I was doing before, and I wanted to work for God all the time," Wiles said.
In Honduras, he flies to different villages to pick up the sick and injured, takes them to the hospital and then back home.
"We feel this is what we're supposed to do," Wiles said. "We're not here for the money, but to make a difference in other people's lives."
how to help
Donations can be sent to:
Missionary Air Group, Inc.
370 Broadway, Haverhill, MA 01832
978-374-8878
www.missionaryairgroup.org
Doing God's work
Missionary Air Group Honduras logged 201.2 hours from July to December, 2008:
Emergency medical flights — 218, for a total of 163.6 hours.
Community service flights — 15, for a total of 14.8 hours
Missionary Support flights — 11, for a total of 22.8 hours
