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'They Will Now Spread The Gospel': MAF Brings Bible Training Within Reach

“We had a big gap for most of us to travel to Juba by land—or for the trainers from Juba to Torit,” said Canon Peter Oduha, a pastor at the Diocese of Torit in South Sudan.“It was a very great challenge because of insecurity, finances and the bad roads.”For local church leaders in distant counties and villages, accessing basic pastoral training was once a nearly impossible task—with treacherous road journeys taking four to six hours. Today, a vital partnership between Agape Mission S...

Nick Pays School Fees With The Gold He Finds

It’s time to board the MAF flight in Mount Hagen, Papua New Guinea. Sitting down on the small plane, I greet the passenger sitting next to me, a man wearing a heavy red jacket on this fresh highland morning.Meet Nick Samson. He is returning to his home village of Kaiam, one of the most remote communities that MAF serves.“I’m not sure of my age,” Nick says in Tok Pisin, responding to my questions. On further probing for even an approximate age, he simply says, “I’m not able to be clea...

Protecting all creatures great and small

The isolated nature of Lantoto National Park should be the perfect sanctuary for African wildlife to thrive, but that same isolation also creates opportunities for poachers who are putting those creatures in danger.The site, co-managed by the Enjojo Foundation alongside South Sudan’s Ministry of Wildlife Conservation and Tourism, sounds like a ‘Noah’s Ark’ that is home to antelopes, leopards, ostriches, hornbills and turacos.But this vast wilderness, which shares a 98km border with the D...

Education reaches Hewa children

When you land at Yifki airstrip, you can’t help but notice the smart-looking buildings of Yifki Christian School, in stark contrast to their rugged surrounds.This is something special: it’s the first school ever in this particular area of the Hewa tribe.The vision for the school grew from the community’s hunger for education, starting with a teacher and a few children meeting in the church. Since then, it’s progressed into a well-equipped permanent learning centre, through the vast effor...

Safer births bring new life to Yifki

“You’ll be quite surprised when you land. You will see hundreds of babies and children!”These are the proud words of Susan Kopf. She and her husband Jonathan have served in the roadless mountainside community of Yifki, working to translate the Bible into the Hewa language. But having seen the high number of childbirth deaths in the area, they took action and helped to introduce safer delivery practices.“We started the midwife programme in 2012,” Susan says. “MAF flew in a team from S...

Hope for the Hewa

In the year 2000, missionary and Bible translator Jonathan Kopf moved with his wife Susan, a nurse, to Fiyawena, a remote village in Papua New Guinea’s Enga Province.“For years they lived with us in the village. Jonathan started preaching the Word of God, but we were only a few who listened,” remembers Yanis, a teenager back then.But existing tribal tensions rose during this time, and then calamity struck in 2006.“One of my tribal friends got killed in my front yard,” says Jonathan.“...

From killing and fear - to hope, health and education

For generations, the Hewa people lived in violent conflict, cut off from medicine and education – and the Gospel.The following stories and testimonies reveal how the arrival of missionaries and the construction of an airstrip have transformed the Hewa people.Father of eight Kepson Pokiau tells us how his people used to live and what the transformation means for his own family today:“We killed people, we fought other men, that’s how it was.My ancestors, my father, my mother, it was like tha...

Behind the lens: "My most challenging photoshoot by far."

When Bob Ditty agreed to take his camera on board with MAF and fly to Renk – the fragile northern tip of South Sudan – he began researching the isolated region.Every US travel advisory warned against visiting the town under greatest pressure from deadly conflict raging across the border. With around 80% of refugees entering South Sudan through Renk — one million desperate people who have fled the Sudanese war — it is a place steeped in suffering, and a temporary home for over 12,000 peop...

When isolated is not a choice

Papua New GuineaCraggy mountain peaks and steep river gorges surround Sikoi, a small village in Papua New Guinea. There are no roads to the nearest town, and when a child contracts severe asthma, village health workers quickly run out of treatment options.“It would take three days’ walk to reach a road, plus an extra day for stops along the way,” said Ani Aipe, a mother of four whose daughter Iprio was saved by an MAF flight.For Iprio, those four days of walking would have been fatal. Inst...

It's our First Week of Flight Operations, but Steven's Already Flown With Us

“I used to charter MAF from Arawa to Buin,” says the white-haired 73-year-old. “It was a five-seater single-engined aeroplane — I used to give ten dollars, and they would take me to Buin.”From the age of 18, Steven Kopana worked for Bougainville Copper Limited at the mine in Panguna, 50 kilometres as-the-crow-flies from Buin.“I played so many roles there. I was employed in many sectors,” he says. “At that time, there was no road system — the roads were useless. The only means o...

Flying High: How Access and Connection Continues to Shape Education at Makarrata

The basic premise of the Laynhapuy Homelands School Makarraṯa programme might seem like a bold logistical exercise – flying students in weekly from remote communities to attend school.However, behind the aviation aspect lies something much deeper: an innovative story of access, consistency, and human connection that’s shaping young lives across the Laynhapuy homelands in Arnhem Land.In 2024, Makarraṯa was extended from Years 10-12 to include Year 9 students, and the programme has taken o...

How Evangelism Team Reached 2000 People in Six Days

“We visited over 2,000 people in over ten villages” evangelist Elisha Moita, the head of Malambo Discipleship Training Centre, beamed in the cockpit of the MAF Cessna 208 on the return flight from the outreach trip to the Kiteto District in Tanzania.About 180 km from the capital Dodoma, getting to Kiteto means crossing mountainous terrain, and travelling on dirt roads which are frequently affected by weather conditions.MAF flew the team from Malambo to Dodoma, a swift hour and a half flight ...

Inside the Learning Journey Meant for Nomadic Kids

For Ruth Wuerzle and Corinna Boecker, that road was never really the plan. The journey from Nairobi to Illeret would have taken 18 hours. MAF flew them instead as they carried six bags of teaching materials bound for 20 mobile schoolteachers.“Thanks to MAF, we were able to travel for two hours instead of 18,” said Ruth.This was Ruth’s 20th trip with MAF to Illeret since 2014. Raised in Wajir as a child to AIC (Africa Inland Church) missionaries, she grew up close to the schooling struggles...

41 Years of Preaching the Gospel to the Massai

“For many MAF Tanzania staff, the partnership with the Maasai evangelists has been one of the highlights of serving in Tanzania,” said MAF country director in Tanzania, Stewart Ayling.“These guys really copy the lifestyle of the evangelists that we read about in the book of Acts – they have such an enthusiasm to tell others about Jesus and so they simply walk from house to house and village to village sharing about Jesus’ love for all people.”Malambo village buzzed with joy when MAF�...

When Options are Few: The Cost of Being Far from Care

For the sixth consecutive year, MAF flew HoverAid’s ‘medical safari’ team to Nosy Varika in 50 minutes, saving the volunteer doctors and dentists days of difficult travel and giving them more time to care for patients.For Liva, access to this medical care came after a long period of suffering.A year ago, whilst working as a maid in northern Madagascar, she got pregnant. Unfortunately, the baby died in her womb and she required surgery. As a mother caring for her children on her own, she fa...

More Than Medicine: Where Healing and Hope Come Together

“I never expected my baby to survive,” said Kyampaire Winnie, the mother of baby Itungo Phoebe. “I first brought her when she was not even a month old, but she’s doing well and hitting her milestones.”Eight-month-old baby Itungo can now make sounds and her family from Kiruhura district, western Uganda, has hope for further improvement.CURE hospital maintains a team with a spiritual focus that ministers among the medical doctors, both at the hospital in Mbale and the health camps they h...

Walking in his Father's Footsteps: How MAF Supports Alfred from Ok Isai

Alfred is also a proud son and an entrepreneur who runs a local ‘trade store’ near the Ok Isai airstrip to help sustain his small family. Along with his wife Luminar and daughter, Zitah, Alfred uses MAF for his travel to and from work and also to fly in stock for his small business.“I sell second-hand clothes, freezer meats like lamb, turkey, chicken—and ice-cream,”Alfred said. “I get my cargo in Mount Hagen and fly them with MAF to Ok Isai.“MAF exists as one of the main service pr...

Bringing Judith Home: One Less Burden for a Grieving Family

In eastern Uganda’s Kapchorwa district, pupils from King David Primary School of Ndejje-Wakiso were enjoying a study tour away from their home in the nation’s capital, Kampala. Tragically, their bus went out of control and fell into a ditch, leading to the deaths of over 20 children, the bus driver and the school director.Among the young lives lost was Judith Namanda, a vibrant 12-year-old girl from Yambio in South Sudan. Due to lack of good education facilities, it is not uncommon for South...

Nyalam gets a second chance at life amidst humanitarian crisis

When violent conflict broke out in Akobo County, Jonglei State, it severed the vital lifelines connecting thousands of vulnerable families to the rest of the country. For over two months, severe access restrictions meant no aid could get through, leaving over 200,000 displaced people trapped in an escalating humanitarian crisis. Homes were looted, water systems were destroyed, and healthcare facilities collapsed.For 20-year-old Nyatong, a mother of three, the conflict forced her into a distressi...

'Part of the chain': Osam's multi-stage medevac transcends borders

When Osam Osman Idriss Sulieman developed serious heart problems, he urgently needed specialised medical care.But there was a major problem: He was working in a troubled part of Sudan, and the nearest suitable care was in Nairobi, Kenya.In seeking medical care, Osam had already travelled by car for ten hours into Chad.Travelling another 13 hours by road from Adré to N’Djamena was deemed too risky for his condition. Instead, MAF was able to fly him to the Chadian capital in just three hours, h...

'Out of my comfort zone': Ashley's journey of faith and service

As a 20-year-old university student from Canada, Ashley Leyenhorst has a world of opportunities ahead of her. But she chose to put it all on hold for six months to test herself in the beautiful but challenging environment of Papua New Guinea.The business and marketing student joined Mission Aviation Fellowship’s communications team on a Mission Experience Placement which has allowed her to experience a different way of life, engage in mission work, and undergo personal growth.Ashley admits tha...

'Life is hard.....I don't have clothes or food'

“My desire is that people will know God for themselves not just to go to church but have a personal relationship with Him,” said Bishop Lucy Bulgar, of Peace Praise Full Gospel denomination.Bishop Lucy has been in ministry for about 30 years and she is based in the Liberian capital Monrovia – but she would struggle to reach communities across the country without MAF flights.In a recent flight, MAF brought Bishop Lucy back from Harper to the capital after a week of intensive training - teac...

Bringing care to forgotten corners of Arnhem Land

Ely is married to MAF aircraft maintenance engineer Josh, and mother of four active children, but she’s also an occupational therapist working part-time in a private practice based in Nhulunbuy, Arnhem Land.Her clinic gets referrals from the Northern Territory Government for a wide variety of clients, so Ely’s job takes her to the homelands and communities of East Arnhem Land, in addition to work in Nhulunbuy town.“Coming here is really lovely,” says Ely. “I really didn't think that I ...

When cyclones strike, MAF responds

Cyclone Narelle: Evacuations and food relief in Arnhem LandWhen Tropical Cyclone Narelle made landfall in Arnhem Land in Australia’s Northern Territory earlier this year, MAF planes were kept busy making evacuation flights for more than 70 residents from the Laynhapuy homelands to the safety of cyclone shelters in Nhulunbuy.After the cyclone passed, residents were safely returned home. However, damaged tracks and depleted fuel supplies soon created another crisis, with several homelands runnin...

Tanzania transformed: MAF begins a new chapter

As MAF begins to transition out of Tanzania in the coming months, the country today is in far better shape than when MAF first started serving there over 60 years ago.In 1963, life expectancy was a dismal 44 years – today it’s 70. In the last 25 years, maternal mortality has drastically reduced by 71%, and primary school enrolment has boomed to 93% since the government introduced free basic education in 2015.The electrification rate has reached 69% across rural areas (source: Int’l Trade A...