VENICE -- After losing its lease at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, Agape Flights, a humanitarian relief organization, has made a safe landing at Venice Municipal Airport.

The Venice City Council approved a lease agreement Tuesday that would allow Agape Flights, which carries more than 100 tons of mail and relief supplies to missionaries in Haiti and the Dominican Republic each year, to move its operations to the Venice airport.

"Venice is really the right place for us," said Agape Flights' executive director, Charlie Gardner. "The people know us there, and the community is very supportive."

For 25 years, Agape Flights has served as a lifeline to nearly 300 missionaries in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. In the early 1990s, when Haiti was under international embargo, the organization was the only American nonprofit group allowed to continue its regular flights to the country. During the civil unrest that broke out early last year, the company kept up its service.

Keith and Clara Starkey, two former Ohio farmers who had participated in missionary work in Haiti, founded the nonprofit Christian ministry in 1980.

"Our hearts were really broken for missionaries. The things they wanted us to do really couldn't be done because they didn't have supplies," said Clara Starkey. "We just realized that Haiti was such a needy country, and it was just off the tip of Florida."

Though neither had ever flown an airplane, the couple purchased one with money from the sale of their farm. They enlisted a staff of volunteers, and at one point, kept the mission running by taking second mortgage out on their home. They claim no credit for the success of Agape, which takes its name from the Greek word for love.

"It's worked," Clara Starkey said, "because God put the right people in the right place at the right time."

Agape began searching for a new location in 1999, when the Florida State University Foundation, which controlled the airport property, chose not to renew the Christian ministry's lease, transferring it to the Asolo Theatre Company.

The theater company then transferred the lease to a land trust controlled by Sarasota developer Mark Famiglio, in exchange for Famiglio renovating a storage facility on the property.

But the deal fell apart in a controversy that erupted when Agape went public with the news. Those involved promised to allow Agape to stay at the location while the organization searched for a new home.

Agape considered a slew of other locations, including airports at Fort Pierce, Fort Lauderdale, Sebring and Immokalee, before deciding on Venice, where Gardner said he received a warm welcome from city leaders and local congregations.

"We needed a base to draw volunteers from, a strong Christian community willing to pitch in, roll up their sleeves," Gardner said.

"There's a great community spirit in Venice."

The new lease gives Agape twice the hangar space it had at Sarasota, as well as office and workshop space. The group, founded in 1980, recently averaged about 70 flights per year out of Sarasota-Bradenton International, Gardner said.

Meanwhile, the Sarasota-Manatee Airport Authority has refused to recognize the lease transfer from the Asolo Theatre Company to Famiglio, citing an unresolved dispute between the theater company and the developer.

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