News & Stories

Bongolo Aviation Ministry: In-Flight Update

March 11, 2010

Editor’s note: Pilot Steve Straw, an Alliance pastor, spearheaded the purchase and refitting of a single-engine, eight-seat Cessna 207 to provide air ambulance service for Bongolo Hospital in Gabon, West Africa. This ministry is the culmination of more than six years of prayer and a successful partnership between Air Calvary, Bongolo Hospital, and The Alliance Chretienne au Gabon (the national Alliance church in Gabon). The following is an adapted excerpt from Steve’s March update. 

Here are some stats from our first couple months of flying (January-February). But first, read what people are saying about the air ambulance service . . .

Thank you for bringing our sensitive eye equipment! We used it right away.

Without AMB (Air Calvary) it would have been tough to get the equipment without too much jarring-but everything worked just right.

The whole trip-the flight, the treatment by the team at the hospital- everything has been a testimony to me.

January/February Flight Facts:

• 23 Flights
• 33 hours of flight time
• 69 Passengers
• 300-plus pounds of medical equipment and 100-plus pounds of   medications transported

Passenger breakdown: 40 percent patients, 30 percent Bongolo Hospital team members, and 30 percent visitors.

What You Can Do

Pray for the continued success of the new air service; that it will open additional doors to share the good news with many who need to hear about the eternal hope found only in Christ Jesus.  

Learn More

Read Alace Straw’s (Steve’s wife) article about the new Bongolo aviation ministry in the March 2010 issue of Alliance Life magazine.

Check out Alliance ministry efforts in Gabon.