Giving Wings to Alaska Missions since 1964
Giving Wings to Alaska Missions since 1964
Most people know Alaska for its idyllic beauty, but few fully appreciate the difficulty of transportation and access. With more than 230 villages inaccessible except by the sea or air, Alaska has unique ministry concerns, and it’s the remote nature of the people we need to reach that necessitates our aviation ministry. Alaska is also a place of pronounced spiritual and physical needs exaggerated by the isolation and harsh conditions. MARC is privileged to serve God here!
Across the vast roadless wilderness of Alaska are hundreds of isolated villages where Americans live in third-world conditions. The rich native culture has been overwhelmed by rampant alcoholism, teen suicide, joblessness, and spiritual darkness.
The inhospitable terrain, depressing isolation, high cost of living, inadequate housing, bitter weather, and winter darkness only serve to compound the rapidly changing cultural standards.
Fostering true change is difficult for many villages due to the lack of connecting roads. Exposure and access to Christian influence and care is likewise limited—and sadly, women and children are affected the most.
Less than 100 villages have any established evangelical church, pastor, or missionary presence; and many have no followers of Jesus Christ. When there is a pastor or missionary in the village, they are also isolated and cutoff from the normal spiritual and support networks typically afforded other Christian workers.
Pastors and missionaries in village churches are fighting an uphill battle to share Christ in meaningful ways to an increasingly hard-to-reach population.
Missionary Aviation Repair Center has provided a lifeline of hope to these villages, strengthened the ministry of Christians, and expanded the reach of the Gospel across the Alaskan frontier since 1964.
Today, MARC has a fleet of airplanes that fly throughout western Alaska and even across the Bering Sea into eastern Russia. We provide affordable transportation services, training, and quality airplane maintenance for mission organizations through our own internal staff of missionary families who raise their own financial support to serve with MARC. We’re privileged to serve God here!