Brian & Bailey Pruett

Brian & Bailey Pruett

McNeal, Arizona

Brian and Bailey began ministry with Ethnos360 Aviation in 2007. They first went to the Philippines where they worked as Chief Pilot and Program Manager with a small team. They were involved in rebuilding three airplane flight programs and served to facilitate the work of church planters in three major regions of the Philippines. Three airplanes supported about 15 church planting projects spread over hundreds of miles of ocean, mountains and jungle.

Over the years, it became harder and harder to find land to build airstrips. Many of their church plants were ready to send out their own missionaries deeper and deeper into the jungle. It became clear that the only way to truly enable new church planters to reach the most remote places in the country would be through the use of helicopters. It seemed an impossible task, requiring finances they didn’t have, helicopters they didn’t own, and helicopter pilots who needed training.  God truly did what He does best and showed us all that He is much bigger than our own ideas or plans. Today there are 2 helicopters in the Philippines serving dozens of locations!

After 12 years of working on the Philippine team, the Pruett family transferred to the training center in McNeal, Arizona. Brian is now the International Chief Helicopter Pilot and flight instructor for Ethnos360 Aviation. The organization is in the process of starting several new helicopter programs in strategic locations around the world. This means many of their existing airplane pilots, along with new pilots, need to learn to fly helicopters in the challenging environment where they have church planters. There is a steady stream of trainees coming Brian’s way! He teaches pilots from their first helicopter lesson, through commercial pilot and helicopter flight instructor courses. After that, he trains them in enhanced emergency procedures, extensive mountain flying and an external load course. He is also responsible for all of their helicopter pilots overseas, traveling to visit with them and give them flight checks.

As a family, the Pruetts are involved in training and discipling new families for life on the mission field. Each family that comes for helicopter training spends roughly one year in McNeal - one year that the Pruetts can invest in and love on them! Because of their years in the Philippines, they can now share what they learned (both technical and non-technical) with the next round of missionary aviators and their families.

Ethnos 360 Aviation

More than 6,000 of the world’s people groups are still unreached - meaning they have no church, no teachers, not a word of the Bible translated into a language they can understand. Many of these unreached groups are not accessible by road and take days or weeks to access overland. There is a reason they are still unreached! Sometimes the only way to access these people with the knowledge of their Savior is by air.

Ethnos360 Aviation’s core purpose is to assist the church planting ministries of Ethnos360 through the use of aviation to achieve the goal of a thriving church for every people.
 
We serve pioneer church planting teams in the most remote regions of Brazil, Asia Pacific, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines.  These teams spend 10 to 20 years immersing themselves in the language and culture of the people.  The goal? To establish thriving groups of trained believers, Scripture in hand, who can in turn reach neighboring villages and beyond with the gospel.  

As the missionaries — often national and indigenous people themselves — work year after year, Ethnos360 Aviation sustains them.  The helicopter brings food and supplies.  It transports translation and church planting consultants and takes children back and forth to school.  Aircraft act as the ambulance for medical emergencies and in times of drought, flood, and other natural disasters, the helicopter brings relief.

In a nutshell, the goal of Ethnos360 Aviation is to do whatever it takes to expand the reach of our church planting missionaries, enable them to teach and live among extremely remote tribal villages, and encourage them along the way.

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