First Baptist Church of Clarendon Hills

Thankful and thriving these Mozambican kids that I met while working under Children's Relief International have already been reached with food, doctors, medicine, and missionaries and now have a fighting chance in this world and hope for the next, but thousands of children remain suffering and forgotten. Some are orphaned, or suffering from curable diseases, others are oppressed from simple ignorance and witchcraft.

How can we reach more of them?

You can help caring people reach them faster and more frequently. Using simple affordable airplanes that don't need roads, runways or infrastructure. Imagine the joy on their faces as you and I and many other caring people make it possible to land airplanes near their villages bringing all sorts of love; from medicine, Moringa-seeds and water-filters to doctors and ministers.

My name is Jeff Tideman and I soloed when I was 16 and now teach flying part-time at DuPage airport, KDPA. When Claudia Bernhardt from IRIS Ministries in Mozambique showed up at our church and announced that she had heard from God that she was supposed to get a pilot's license everyone looked at me. What followed was 7 weeks of miracles which lead up to her going back to Mozambique with 100 hours in her pilot logbook and a private pilot license in her pocket. By God's grace, her determination made up for any lack of talent, lessons often ending when she started crying. It wasn't me; really, some of the required maneuvers really scared her as they would many people. My wife, Debbie and the whole church pitched in to provide for her needs while she literally struggled to do the work of a flight student.

The FAA pilot examiner asks for the third time "What should you do if the fuel gauges both show empty?" Thousands of feet over the ground and now a little miffed, missionary Claudia Bernhardt says, "I know there is fuel in the tank, we just filled it, we have at least 4 hours of fuel remaining". Riding in the back seat; I cringed. Her answer was based on the honored tradition that pilots keep track of fuel by time not by the gauges. But the answer lacked judgement and the knowledge that aircraft fuel gauges are supposed to be accurate when they are empty. So the examiner pulled the engine's power to idle, simulating fuel starvation, to see what this would-be pilot would do if there really was a leak in the tanks and she ran out of fuel. Well she found a nearby airport and did a gliding approach and "made it look easy" the examiner noted. The right answer...land and check fuel level.

That was 6 years ago and pilot missionary Claudia Bernhardt is still waiting for an airplane. Learning to fly was not easy for Claudia but her calling to fly was clear and she has stayed with it and her pilot's license and medical certificate are current.
More about Claudia Bernhardt
...still waiting for an airplane. Progress has been slowed by lack of funds needed for aircraft kit parts.

So your funds will be used to complete the Zenith CH801 kit plane and transport it to Chimoio, Mozambique, Africa where Claudia Bernhardt will put it to work reaching children and families the world has all but forgotten. The 4-seat airplane carries 1000 pounds of fuel, people and supplies and can take off without a proper runway in 400 feet.
    Five-minute video showing a finished Zenith CH 801
75% complete it needs everything in front of the firewall except for the engine. Things like the propeller, exhaust system, cowling and the list goes on; not to mention the controls, instruments and gauges for the airplanes instrument panel.  So you can put volunteers back to work by providing funds for the parts needed to get this airplane done and flying by July 20, 2017 and for ongoing fuel and maintenance.



Volunteer needs parts - 11 second video

Then there's the test flying, certification, fuel, oil and maintenance before it has its wings removed for transport via surface transportation to Mozambique. Large steel containers are needed for shipping and will be used for storage and aircraft support in Mozambique. With your help the experience we gain with this first airplane will drive the original vision for three more identical aircraft to spread the caring farther, wider and more reliably in and around southeast Africa.

I can't tell you how blessed I feel to be in the middle of this work.


So many people have worked so willingly and hard and long from Claudia's fearful flight lessons to the careful and painstaking re-building of the aircraft engine by, of all people, one of the 1970 Blue Flame rocket-car builders, Gerard Brennan.
Thank you for your time and I hope you will join me in blessing the poorest of poor children and their families. Your donation will speed the building of these airplanes and you will provide an immediate means for some of the world's most caring people, like Claudia Bernhardt, to reach some of the world's most needy..