Wings of faith

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Nathan Driediger (right) has been flying Pastor Marcel Okemow (left) throughout northern Manitoba for the Mission Aviation Fellowship of Canada.

NEAR GODS RIVER -- Only an hour in the air separates Pastor Marcel Okemow from a weekend speaking engagement at a remote reserve near the Manitoba-Ontario border.

But until recently, the only way to get there from his home in Gods River was to fly 585 kilometres southwest to Winnipeg, stay overnight in a hotel, rent a car, drive to Sioux Lookout and then take a small plane 450 kilometres up to Angling Lake, a trip of two days.

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Flying a small plane into communities with no road access fulfils a long-held dream for Nathan Driediger. (BRENDA SUDERMAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

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Nathan Driediger pulls the single-engine 1980 Piper Saratoga that is owned and operated by Wings to Northern Canada. (BRENDA SUDERMAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS )

"A mission plane like this connects me to isolated places where there is no road access," says Okemow from the backseat of the single-engine 1980 Piper Saratoga owned and operated by Wings To Northern Canada.

"It strengthens our ties, our faith. It brings us together."

A dozen or so humanitarian and Christian groups, which work in the north, are part of Wings to Northern Canada, a ministry of the Mission Aviation Fellowship of Canada.

Connecting isolated places has long been the focus of the Mission Aviation Fellowship, an evangelical Christian humanitarian and development organization that operates planes in more than 30 countries around the world.

For the last year, missionary pilot Nathan Driediger has been flying Okemow and others throughout northern Manitoba in MAF's only Canadian-based plane, now based in a municipal airport in Steinbach, adjacent to the Mennonite Heritage Village.

"That's a good chunk of what we do, moving local evangelists between communities," explains the 31-year-old father of three, minutes after taking off at 5:55 a.m. on one of the few rainy days in summer.

It's a long trip to pick up Okemow, the 53-year-old pastor of Gods River Bible Chapel and part-time travelling evangelist. At a flying speed of 298 kilometres per hour, the flight to Wapekeka First Nation, located on Angling Lake, runs 21/2 hours, mostly because Driediger needs to dodge some bad weather.

"Now that we have this mission plane, I can go home direct. I don't have to make a U-turn. And it's faster, too," says Okemow, after his weekend in Wapekeka where he was invited to speak at the annual gospel jamboree for the Oji-Cree community of about 350.

As well as being faster, it's a more economical way to travel for Okemow, who pays only the cost of the flights, about $2,600 for the two round trips over the weekend. Since he's scheduling the flight through MAF, he's able to take a friend or family member with him on his preaching gigs without incurring extra expenses.

Donations to MAF cover Driediger's salary and other costs of flying the small plane. To avoid flying back with an empty plane, he may stay up north until it's time to bring back his client.

"When it's reasonable and the schedule permits, I stay in the community with the group for three to four days, which the commercial charters can't afford to do," explains Driediger, a graduate of Prairie Bible College in Three Hills, Alta.

"That way, I have more of a sense of what's going on with mission groups in the north, which is valuable."

And on this day, after refuelling the plane in Gods River from the 200-litre green and white drum stored at Okemow's home, Driediger grabs his lunch and heads over to meet up with a youth group from Erin, Ont., just north of Toronto, who are providing a week of children's activities in Okemow's church.

Later that week, he is scheduled to ferry the group of six back to Steinbach in two shifts, three at a time.

After a 90-minute visit with the team and a brief stop at the church, he heads back to the airport by foot along a road muddied by the day's rain.

After just a year in Manitoba, MAF is still deciding exactly where and how it can provide the best and most efficient air service to northern communities, explains Willie Enns, director of flight operations for Canada and Angola.

"We can help connect groups from the south with communities which have specific needs as we come across them," explains Enns, a former MAF pilot in Brazil, now based in Winkler.

"We hopefully can find new ways in which to demonstrate God's love to those with whom we rub shoulders, whether it's the groups we fly or the people in the communities we serve."

Enns says MAF is also evaluating whether it needs to acquire a large plane to carry more people at once, or whether to base its Manitoba operation from another location farther north.

For Driediger, flying a small plane into communities with no road access fulfils a long-held dream, although the Chilliwack, B.C., native envisioned becoming a missionary pilot overseas instead of in his own country.

"I wanted to do mission work and just see the gospel spread. Originally, we were going to go overseas to Botswana, but that position ended up being filled," explains Driediger, whose wife Annie is also a licensed pilot.

"As we've been here, we've really felt God calling us to be in the north, not going overseas."

Okemow is happy Driediger heard that call. With a busy preaching schedule that includes Thompson this weekend, Garden Hill in a couple of weeks and an October engagement in Dryden, Ont., he plans to book more flights on the little white and blue MAF airplane.

That means less travelling time, and more time doing what the grandfather of four feels compelled to do: preaching the Christian gospel.

"I believe when I accepted the Lord, I found my destiny. I know what it's like to be hurting," the Gods River band councillor says of his past struggle with addictions.

"I turned my back to God. I was ignorant. Now I go to communities promoting the gospel."

brenda@suderman.com

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 27, 2011 J13