Northern Exposure: Liberty aviation students serve mission organizations, train with pilots in Alaska

A group of eight students in the Liberty University School of Aeronautics witnessed the life-changing impact of missionary aviators on a trip to the Alaska communities of Chickaloon and Soldotna near Anchorage in July.

“The intent is to give our students an opportunity to see what mission aviation looks like on a day-to-day basis by flying with real missionary pilots in Alaska who are following God’s call,” said Jerry Wangberg, executive director of affiliate operations at LUSOA. “They have plenty of opportunities to hear stories and testimonies of how God works through missionary aviation — things like helping to deliver a baby, providing disaster relief supplies, and seeing people come to the Lord.”

The Alaska Mission Aviation Intensive was held July 4-19 and was coordinated through LU Send. Wangberg and LUSOA-certified flight instructors Austin Freier and Olivia Lewis shepherded the students on the adventure to our nation’s Last Frontier.

As the 49th state, Alaska is the largest by far, nearly two and a half times the size of Texas, and it has the lowest population density with 1.3 people per square mile.

“Alaska is a huge place, and there aren’t roads that connect all the cities and villages together, so the only way you get there is by air,” said Wangberg, who has led the summer trip to Alaska six times. “So aviation is extremely important to get to places that you just can’t get to otherwise, as a tool to help share the Gospel. It’s a pretty cool mission to get to use airplanes to bring people to the Lord.”

“It’s a blessing to be able to go up there and share that experience with our students, to show them what the beauty of Alaska looks like and the opportunities with evangelism and sharing the Gospel,” Lewis added.

The vision for the trip aligns with the school’s aim to equip, mentor, and send Champions for Christ into the aerospace community by providing a hands-on, faith-integrated aviation experience.

The team spent the last half of the trip at the Missionary Aviation Repair Center (MARC) in Soldotna. MARC pilots provide maintenance services, flight training, transportation, and direct support for pastors serving in bush communities. Additionally, they directly support statewide evangelism, deliver supplies in support of ministry efforts, and transport village students to Bible camps.

The student pilots each logged five hours of flight time in MARC’s Cessna 210 high-performance aircraft to earn course credit.

“They got Alaska flight experience in confined area operations — meaning flying in valleys, flying around glaciers, flying off of gravel strips, and flying into unimproved areas and uncontrolled areas — to learn those skill sets … in a high-performance, complex aircraft,” Wangberg said.

Alaska’s rugged terrain and primitive landing locations plus snowy and icy conditions with persistent fog create more hazardous flying conditions than in most other states.

“Students fly with technically excellent pilots in a place that’s technically challenging, so that they learn how to recognize situations and make sure they’re taking appropriate actions to deal with those situations,” Wangberg said. “Gaining a good understanding and a humility for just how big a 20,000-foot mountain like Mount McKinley is, or just how steep a cliff face is, or how strong the wind shear can be coming off of a glacier and flying through a valley, it gives you a perspective that you just don’t get flying around in Virginia. It’s a real-world experience.”

Students learned about aircraft and engine maintenance from the MARC staff and those at Kingdom Air Corps, another missionary organization with outreaches across the U.S. and in Russia and Thailand. They also served alongside staff from Arctic Barnabas in Kenai.

“This trip has some amazing technical training and is also a vivid window into what it looks like to see many organizations partnering together to minister to and support the furtherance of the Gospel,” Freier said. “Students walking away from this trip should not be asking if they are going to be involved in missions but rather in what context will they be involved — sending or going.”

While flight training in Soldotna, the team lodged and fellowshipped each morning with the staff, volunteers, and student ambassadors at Alaskan Christian College, a two-year Bible college focused on ministering to Alaska Native students.

The team started the trip by volunteering at the Chickaloon Retreat Center, located 75 miles northeast of Anchorage. The center was founded in 2024-25 by the Covenant Youth of Alaska (CYAK) and offers a respite location for pastors and other ministry workers and their families as well as native Alaskans. The facility also hosts youth retreats and Bible camps.

“It’s a place that’s kind of off the beaten path that feels a little bit more like a village environment,” Wangberg said. “Really, it’s a place where visitors can feel at home and be connected with the Lord, to be in His beauty, His creation, and just be able to fellowship together in a place that’s just very welcoming.”

While there, the eight LUSOA students also volunteered their time to clear brush and clean and organize cabins, yurts, and a pavilion, earning Christian Community Service (CSER) credit.

On previous trips, students have served with Samaritan’s Purse’s Operation Heal Our Patriots program in Port Alsworth and its Mission Aviation Services in Soldotna.

Wangberg said the experience is transformational for students.

“They come away changed people, they really do,” he said. “Relationally and professionally, they’re connected to a group of (student pilots) because they spent a couple of weeks together. Spiritually, they’re also now connected to missionaries and other students and native (Alaskans).”

A future intensive trip to Alaska is scheduled for 2028. Next summer, the school has planned an exposure trip to northern Kenya to meet with staff from African Inland Missions AIR and Samaritan’s Air, another branch of Samaritan’s Purse.