Witt flies into a village bringing supplies for the medical brigade.
The glory cloud has not returned, but the Mercy Wings pilots have come to expect the miraculous as they help spread the gospel to the indigenous tribes in central Mexico. The danger of flying into these remote mountains and canyons is so extreme that the pilots literally depend on the hand of Jesus Christ for protection daily.
Pilot Jerry Witt, the founder of Mercy Wings, has been shot at in the air by drug lords and robbed by bandits. The pilots thread their single-engine planes over and around mountain ridges and land on primitive, man-made airstrips made of rock, dirt and rough patches of grass.
“...You literally go off the side of a mountain. Wind is always a factor. A down draft can put you into a mountain side and there is nothing you can do about it.”
“I have one airstrip I call the aircraft carrier,” he says. “It has a launch ramp. You literally go off the side of a mountain. Wind is always a factor. A down draft can put you into a mountain side and there is nothing you can do about it.”
Witt once damaged his plane on an airstrip when it hit a muddy bog and tilted onto its nose. Unable to fly, Witt hiked 43 miles for help. Later, he learned the mishap probably saved his life. During repair work on the plane, he discovered a mechanical flaw that could have caused an accident on a future flight.
The ministry team works together to lift a heavy concrete cover and place it over the new septic tank.
Despite the risks, the three pilots – Witt, Wiley and Alex Fedorenko – have dedicated their lives to evangelizing these indigenous people groups that Mexican society has forsaken. Mercy Wings works with other ministries to spread the gospel and meet practical needs in villages. Witt has used airplanes to support outreach teams by transporting supplies such as cement, lumber, medical supplies and gasoline. “We’ve even flown in bees,” he says.
One of Mercy Wings’ most daring projects is using parachute drops to distribute palm-sized, solar-powered radios in hard-to-reach locations. The short-wave device receives gospel messages transmitted by High Adventure Ministries in Los Angeles.
The pilots drop the tiny parachutes from a cockpit window, sometimes dodging mountain ridges and rooftops by as little as 20 feet.
