From the First Day Until Now
“From the First Day Until Now” is a video specially produced as part of MAF’s celebration of 75 years of “Flying for Life”. It shows how one man’s life was changed—and how his life then transformed his community and the generations to come! This one simple story is repeated many times over in the 30 countries where MAF works. The light of Jesus is shared and touches other lives. The sound of a MAF plane approaching is the sound of hope. As you watch this video you can be sure t...
April 9, 2020Update - 24th March
As events unfold regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, we wanted to be in touch with you on how this is impacting MAF’s ministry, both here in New Zealand and around the world. As far as possible our work carries on and continues to need your prayer and support!Our goal is to respond wisely and without fear, while following the current NZ government advice about how to keep the workplace safe. Although our 75th Celebration has been postponed until November 6-8, MAF’s ministry around the world car...
March 24, 2020Partnerships Make All the Difference
One of MAF’s core values is Partnership—we value the strength and diversity that co-operation and collaboration bring and partner with those who share our beliefs and values. One such partnership is with Lentera Papua, a small, efficient non-profit organisation that focuses on the highlands of Papua, Indonesia. They train and disciple the young generation of Papua to become professionals in ministry, aviation, medical, education and social fields. Lentera was using their PAC750 aircraft...
March 18, 2020One Teams Story
When faced with an “impossible” journey, what do you do? Not long ago Micha, a young German with a passion for Jesus, joined a team of six planning to share the gospel with people in the remote Highlands of PNG. After a time of prayer, the team felt that God was putting a particular area on their hearts—but then they found out it would be almost impossible to get there. That was, until they got in touch with MAF, who told them they could fly the team in! Micah said, “Once we arrived,...
March 6, 2020Calling all Aviation Engineers
The amazing work of MAF's Aviation Engineers allows our planes to keep flying. Meet some of the engineers in the hangar and see how vitally important their work is! To find out more about current vacancies with MAF: https://careers-mafint.icims.com/...
February 24, 2020New Amphibious Plane Arrives in Bangladesh!
Programme Manager Mark Blomberg writes: “The plane is here. It landed in Dhaka around 14:30. This marks the start of a new season for the MAF Bangladesh program and our ministry in this country”. The new Cessna Caravan C208 with Wipaire 8750 amphibious floats and the latest avionics equipment will replace our existing aircraft that has served in Bangladesh since 2005. The new arrival will enable MAF’s programme to better serve the people of Bangladesh for the next 15-20 years. Bangladesh i...
January 15, 2020Nick & Ruth Hitchins
“Dreams do come true—just never in the way we could ever have imagined! My initial dream of a life of flying began as a teenager, and after a career spanning Business Admin, Operations Management, Film & Television Production and more recently as the CEO of an IT company, joining MAF in 2021 has brought all the threads together into the perfect package. Working around the world and back again, including stints in Canada, Japan, UK & Australia, our journey has been an unfolding mir...
December 26, 2019Andy & Sharon Campbell
Originally raised in Gisborne, Andy joined the RNZAF after leaving high school. Around the year 2000, he read personal accounts of the response to the Gospel of Papua New Guinean Highlanders —it left an impression on him. He recalls wondering if he might end up in PNG some day! In 2016, he obtained a job with Pacific Helicopters, a PNG commercial company. This was ideal preparation for his role as a Maintenance Controller with MAF, a role he took up in late 2020 - as the “middleman” b...
December 26, 2019Jerrycans Of Jet Fuel
Over the years we have been amazed at God’s mercy and compassion for even the most marginalized and how, by working together, we have been able to bring God’s love to isolated people in places of deepest human need. Begun by two young pilots from New Zealand after the Second World War, Mission Aviation Fellowship now has 130 aircraft in over 30 nations and flies in some of the most challenging places on earth. In 2019 we flew teachers, pastors and resources to the aboriginal people living i...
November 18, 2019The Greatest of These is Love
Francis Wayambo and his family moved to Australia from Papua New Guinea two years ago. Francis serves as a Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (LAME) in the MAF Arnhem Land programme. They live in the Yolngu community of Yirrkala and have established good relationships with the people there—everyone knows of the Wayambos and their passion for ministry among the children and youth of Yirrkala. Every week, they set up their local church building to run a thriving ‘Kids Ministry’. ...
November 5, 2019A Girl With A Broken Arm
Mission Aviation Fellowship has been serving the remote areas of Papua New Guinea for over 60 years. Recently Mark Fox, the CEO of MAF New Zealand, had the chance to see first-hand the difference MAF makes. He was flying with a missions team in PNG when they made an emergency detour. A 4-year old girl had broken her arm in three places. With no roads in or out, the only access to her village was by air. Mark and the MAF team were able to fly her and her parents to a hospital for treatment. If no...
October 29, 2019A Privilege To Help
In Western countries medical emergency needs are addressed through a country-wide call centre. In Germany for example, an ambulance should reach you within 15 minutes. The ambulance itself is furnished with high-tech medical emergency equipment, at least one doctor plus and two highly qualified nurses. It’s so different in Papua New Guinea—and even more challenging in remote areas! Recently a medevac was requested through a hand delivered letter! This story is by Siobhain Dales in ...
October 18, 2019Dodomona HF Radio Install
MAF sponsored six HF Radios’ to be installed in six different remote areas last year. Five of the six HF Radios were installed by our installation team in five remote communities in Edwaki, Kabori, Kwieftim, Yebil, and Seserimi which are located in the West Sepik Province and Western Province of Papua New Guinea. The Christian Radio Missionary Fellowship (CRMF) installation team recently completed the installation of the 6th and final MAF-sponsored remote HF Radio installation in Dodomona, a r...
October 3, 2019A Redbird Helps Pilots Prepare
In a milestone for the flight training department in PNG, the recently installed Redbird Flight Simulator was dedicated to enhance and improve in-house training on Caravan aircraft. On Thursday, 22 August 2019, during the little dedication ceremony, Markus Bischoff, MAF PNG’s Crew Training Manager, explained the advantages of the ‘sim’, as everyone is calling the Simulator, “Compared to a real aircraft, the sim is much cheaper to operate and we can use the actual airplanes for operatio...
September 23, 2019Connect, Equip, Send - Our Highest Priority
We can have the aircraft, the fuel, the teachers, pastors and medical teams that urgently need to reach isolated areas. We can have the landing strips, the building supplies and educational materials...but if we don’t have the right staff, the MAF planes can’t fly. And at this point, many key positions overseas urgently need to be filled. If just one of these positions is vacant, it impacts on the whole programme—and in turn on all those who depend on MAF’s aviation services! W...
September 18, 2019What a Difference a Vaccine Fridge Makes!
Late last year our technical team installed a High Frequency (HF) Radio in Kabori, a remote village in PNG. The HF radio was installed in a local pastor’s house, part of which he dedicated to serve as a health clinic in Kabori—the only health clinic for the community. Despite the lack of proper health equipment and medicines, the local pastor went out of his way to help provide basic health-care treatment for people in need of medical attention. Upon entering the clinic, the Christian Ra...
September 5, 2019Working Together in Bible Translation
It is 2019 yet there is still a long way to go to complete translating the whole Bible to Yolngu-Matha, the heart language of the Yolngu people. The encouraging news is that there are both indigenous and non-indigenous translators in North East Arnhem Land who have invested years in building relationships and learning language to effectively translate the Bible. Yolngu-Matha was originally an oral language. Though the Yolngu excelled in bark paintings, traditional dances and other forms of...
August 27, 2019The “Forgotten People” of Northern Kenya
The Turkana people call themselves “Emuriakin”, the forgotten people. This is understandable given the fact that the government’s attention towards this region was drawn off when the borders of southern Sudan were opened and the money left, together with the NGOs. All plans to develop the area were put on hold indefinitely, and Lokichoggio (the outermost Kenyan town, on the border with Sudan) became a town of derelict and abandoned buildings and people without hope. When a Swedish pilot an...
July 25, 2019Help Transform a Nation!
Can you imagine being among the 70% of the population of Timor Leste who live in rural areas? You would face significant inequality with those in the capital Dili. In fact you, your family and your community would face urgent medical and health issues that include: Rheumatic heart disease (one of the highest rates in the world —1 in 20 children impacted)Tuberculosis (51% of the nation has latent TB)HIV/AIDs (there was a 15% increase in cases last year)Child malnutrition and stunted growth ...
July 15, 2019A Force To Be Reckoned with!
Joe Knighton, Senior Flight Instructor for Mareeba Flight Training Centre strongly believes that, “God gives us skills and abilities, and it is our duty to use those skills to help others.” Growing up in England, Joe’s first flight was at the tender age of 14 as an Air Cadet. This led to his first solo flight at 18. He was all set to enter the Air Force, when—at just 19—Joe had a debilitating motorcycle accident, which left him paralysed. While in hospital he had been told repe...
July 2, 2019Managers Needed
TREE TOPS LODGE IN BEAUTIFUL NORTH QUEENSLAND is a joint venture of MAF and Wycliffe. It provides accommodation for missionaries seeking a break from the mission field, offering rest in a peaceful Christian atmosphere. There are currently positions for Management Team Members, typically husband and wife couples, that urgently need to be filled. POSITION TITLE: Management Team Members (typically husband and wife team). POSITION TYPE: Full-time volunteer on a rotating two-week roster that in...
May 27, 2019Clean Water, Fresh From the Mountain!
Flying over the highlands of PNG and looking down on the huge forests, more and more houses with a corrugated iron roof can be spotted. For hundreds of years the people used to live under a grass roof. Many still do. But apart from easier maintenance and higher sustainability, having a corrugated iron roof helps with collecting rain water. However, even for those with corrugated iron roofs and a small drum to collect water, after a couple of days of dry weather this runs out. Then a time-consumi...
May 20, 2019Help Dreams Come True
In 2013 Josephine was living in an orphanage in Kajo Keji, South Sudan. She was a teenager, exhausted by a life that had left her powerless. Her broken wheelchair had condemned her to crawling on the ground, her legs and knees caked in mud. The only way Josephine could keep her dream of an education alive was to crawl to school and back every day.Verses like the one below show God’s amazing mercy and compassion for every person on the planet, even the most marginalized:He raises the poor from ...
May 16, 2019Overcoming “Runny Ears” in Arnhem Land
From the very beginning, the vision of the Menzies School of Health Research has been a commitment to examine, understand and improve Indigenous health, including those living in Northern Australia and the tropics. Thirty four years later, the organisation has four headquarters across Australia, with an influence that spans across the developing countries of the world. Menzies is the global leader in tropical research into life-threatening illnesses. For the past two years, MAF has helped fly M...
May 13, 2019MAF Makes It Possible
Friedemann Urschitz, from the Liebenzell Mission in Austria recently wrote: Thanks to MAF I was able to get to remote villages to conduct courses, get airstrip equipment repaired and visit churches over an eight week mission trip to the East Sepik Province of PNG. Without MAF’s flights into remote villages, I could not have done that many visits and courses. The first village MAF flew me to was Nungwaia. Shortly after we landed, the pilot sold almost a full box of Bibles and some reading glass...
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