Your vote could put New Tribes Mission in position to get funds for a helicopter in the Philippines.

A popularity contest is helping aviation mission groups get the support they need.

Lightspeed Aviation Foundation’s Pilot’s Choice Awards allow voters to pick one group to receive a $10,000 grant. If New Tribes Mission Aviation (NTMA) wins, Phil Koop says there’s already a place for it.

“We’re hoping to apply that grant to our helicopter needs in the Philippines,” he says.

NTMA supports church-planting teams working in the world’s most remote and rugged locations. Without access to a neighbourhood grocery or pharmacy, these teams need equipment, medicine, medical evacuation, and mail to be supplied by air.

“Providing these kinds of services…is really expensive,” Koop notes. “We’re really asking the Lord to provide the funding that we need in order to … serve each of these missionary outreaches.”

NTMA pilot Brian Schaadt says a helicopter makes perfect sense in the Philippines.

“Most of the indigenous people we work with…are in very mountainous areas, remote areas,” he states. “It’s taken very little-to-no work to get a place suitable for landing our helicopter, whereas it would’ve taken years, possibly, to build an airstrip…for our aircraft.”

The voting deadline is November 1. Cast your vote now.