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Change The Ending

“She is not dead yet,” said one of the villagers, “but she will die soon.” Lihut, a 15-year-old girl, was pregnant and trying to deliver, but the baby had turned. There was no healthcare at the time and the people in her village had no hope that Lihut would live.   So they turned to the local witchdoctor. He and a few other men decided to jump up and down on the girl’s belly, thinking this would help. Of course, it only caused further damage. Lihut’s story was nearly over. ...

A Journey Across The World

Four young American students from Midwestern College in Kansas City, Missouri went to Chad to teach English and engage with the culture and the people. MAF was involved in flying them to their hard-to-reach destinations. Stephen, Arshia, Jackson and Jeremiah reflect on their time, in their own words. Jackson said, “There's a lot of uncertainty when travelling in that part of the world. You never know exactly what type of vehicle you're going to get, the people you're going to be with and you'r...

The Girl With No Feet

A little disabled girl was considered worthless—until she was noticed by someone outside her family. Imanya was only 6 months old when her mother left the home to do some errands in Abalwa village, east of Torit, South Sudan. Imanya woke up and started to cry and search for her mother. Inside the little tukol, built with clay walls and a thatched roof, there was a fireplace for cooking. Somehow the little girl crawled into the fire and was stunned with agony while her feet started burning....

Miracle Of The Conjoined Twins

Against all odds a pair of conjoined twins in the Congo were born naturally. Then they survived an epic 1,400 kms round trip to be separated! Anick and Destin, two baby girls who were born naturally at 37 weeks in the remote village of Muzombo, western Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The family then travelled for 15 hours through the jungle on the back of a motorcycle, the twins wrapped in a blanket, to get to Vanga Evangelical Hospital, where they came under the care of Dr. Junior Mudji. Th...

An Eventful Day's Flying

Pilot Danny Gill recounts an eventful day of flight training with Christiaan Haak in Kenya. I've been training for 6 months in Kenya, going through the process of license conversion and renewing my IFR (Instrument rating) on a C208 Caravan. I am nearing the end of my orientation flight training. I'd had two flights earlier in the week and am planning my “check ride” (so I can progress to solo flying). This Friday I was flying the shuttle service to Marsabit. It was an interesting day with lo...

Bridget Ingham

God first placed the desire to be a pilot in my heart when I was 11 years old. I grew up in a Christian family and excelled academically. I completed a PhD in physics in 2005 and worked as a research scientist in the UK, USA and New Zealand. During my undergraduate study I gained my private pilot’s licence, but let it lapse when I went overseas. In early 2016 God reminded me of the dream to be a pilot. When I looked into what it would take to become a MAF pilot, God showed me how the different...

A Sawmill For PNG

In May, MAF flew a charter flight from Mt Hagen to Mougulu to transport a sawmill to the community there. Although the sawmill barely left enough room for passengers, the 45 minute flight was accompanied by another passenger from Care International, who was bringing care packages for the people. The earthquakes destroyed many of the food gardens local people depend on to grow their vegetables and a lot of people looked hungry. It seemed incongruous when a Bible School student thanked MAF for vol...

Supporting Schools In Madagascar

MAF is proud to support local schools in Madagascar! Yesterday, pilot Patrick Keller delivered 1,023 kgs of building materials for a school administration building in Marolambo. From the plane, the materials were carried through the village to the river where boats took the materials the rest of the way. It is very difficult to reach this place by road, but it’s only a 40-minute flight. A truck carrying building supplies for this project started out from the capitol but had to turn back due to...

Building A Base In Loglogo, Kenya

LogLogo is a small village in northern Kenya, populated primarily by members of the Rendille and Samburu tribes. Life for most consists of herding sheep, goats, cattle, and most valuable of all—camels. LogLogo was once home to an Africa Inland Mission (AIM) mission base (which has now partly become the MAF base), and the AIC church is thriving there today. Melvin and Kari Peters have been serving in LogLogo since 2016. LogLogo is a single-family base positioned to facilitate flights to the...

Partnering In Arnhem Land

MAF and Pioneers have had a partnership in Arnhem Land since 2014, but it has only been in the last year that things have really started to gain momentum. The Pioneers team has grown from one to four families, and one of the families is now based out in a remote community. Over the past year the partnership has only grown stronger. MAF’s work in Arnhem Land provides Aboriginal homeland communities with access to healthcare, education and development opportunities as well as supporting the loca...

Training Specialists In Liberia

Three MAF families in Rumginae, Papua New Guinea (PNG) are probably reading psalm 113:3 (From the rising of the sun to it’s setting, let the name of the Lord be praised) with more gratitude than ever before. Sunshine is not only providing them with warmth, light and Vitamin D—since December 2015 the sun is also providing them with energy! Power has always been sparse and unreliable at Rumginae. It is a remote, hot, humid, and tropical area which needs a constant supply of electricity. Be...

Visiting A Refugee Camp In Bunia

When we arrived at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) refugee camp in Bunia we parked on the side of the road and got out into sewage. Apparently there was a ditch right next to the road and when it got full they just shoveled the sewage out and spread it on the road. I'm not too bothered by dirt, but it is hard to believe everyone isn't repelled by such smells. The entire time we were waiting there was a crowd watching us from the other side of the ditch. The people in the camp are from ver...

Bill & Angela Harding

In the early 1990s Bill and Angela changed their priorities and gave up law careers to go to Bible College. In 1994 they left New Zealand to work with MAF in Tanzania, East Africa. With MAF they moved to Kenya in 1996, England in 1999, Australia in 2003 and back to New Zealand in 2021.  They have four adult children – three of whom live in Christchurch and one in Brisbane, Australia.Bill is responsible for a team providing legal services across MAF International.  He also oversees pr...

Andrew Macdonald

Growing up as a pastor’s kid, Andrew moved frequently in his early years before calling Hamilton home. He spent eight years in Hamilton completing his education and following his lifelong dream of learning to fly. Andrew was accepted into a full-time training course in the Waikato in 2010. Eighteen months later he finished with his Commercial Pilot’s Licence and a Diploma in Aviation Science.During this time Andrew wondered what God’s plan was and what He was preparing him for. He then cam...

Flying Medical Teams In Bangladesh

Bangladesh remains one of the poorest and most densely populated countries in the world. The lack of development and basic services in isolated and inaccessible areas is directly attributable to its geographic location. Can you imagine what it would be like if you–or someone you love–got sick or hurt in Bangladesh? If you were poor and had no money for hospital, what would you do? How would you get help? What can be done in such situations? MAF’s one amphibious aircraft provides a critical...

Teda - The Mother Tongue

Anja remembers the first time Brahim read—and understood—a joke in his own language of Teda. It took place in the cultural center library of Bardai, the central oasis in the Tibesti Mountains in the Sahara“He laughed so much because he could understand what he was reading,” Anja describes. “His eyes were like… wow! He had to tell everyone. ‘Read that! Read that! Listen!’ He was so excited. It’s something amazing when you are able to read and understand what you’r...

The Eleven Year Wait

Scott and Susie had been waiting in Chad a long time. Over 11 years, in fact. Praying and waiting. Working and praying and waiting. Drilling wells, teaching hygiene, holding dental and medical clinics, sharing the Word…and waiting on God for that miracle when someone would choose to follow Jesus. MAF has supported this work for years by flying visiting dental and medical teams, short-term visitors, the team’s families, and medical emergencies to and from their location. In a Muslim coun...

Kevin & Angela Nicholls

Kevin has been serving as the Regional Quality Manager in the Asia Pacific region since 2009, while Angela works in Community Rehabilitation as an Occupational Therapist. They have two wonderful sons, Jeremy and Peter, who have returned to New Zealand to study at Canterbury University.In 1985 Kevin felt a definite call on his life that sometime he would serve God in aviation. After a trip in early 2008 to Cambodia (to visit their sponsored child), and attending a mission's course, this call was ...

Vaughan & Rosemary Woodward

From Hamilton New Zealand, Vaughan and Rosemary started serving with MAF in March 2001, coming from the technology and business fields. The Woodwards served with MAF in PNG for five years prior to Vaughan taking a position in MAF’s support office in Cairns, Australia. Vaughan has held multiple roles, doing work in Cains and on a global scale. He has served as Director of Global Disaster Response and is now serving as both the Interim Regional Director for the Asia Pacific Region and the E...

Colin & Rosemary McIntosh

Colin and Rosemary originally joined MAF in 1988. After spending a short time at MAF Aviation Services in Ballarat they joined the MAF team in Papua New Guinea in 1989 where Colin served as an engineer. During their time in Papua New Guinea, Colin filled a variety of positions including Maintenance Controller and Quality Manager.In 2011 they returned to New Zealand and settled in Tauranga to be close to family. Since returning to New Zealand, Rosemary has been working in our home church office w...

MAF Flight For Don Bosco Charity

MAF South Sudan pilot Florian Poinstingl chats with Father Jan Marciniak, a Polish Salesian missionary who has worked in missions in Africa since 1991. Florian flies a MAF charter to Maridi for the Catholic charity Don Bosco with a full load of cargo made up of mostly medicine for their dispensary and some food items, plus two passengers, Emmanuel Simon Mbiko, a candidate for priesthood, and Salesian priest Roman Portukhai from Ukraine who will volunteer for two months. Father Peter, who met the...

The Gabbra Tribe In Northern Kenya

The flights of Loglogo-based MAF pilot Melvin Peters mean a lot to the Andersen family, who have served in northern Kenya for several generations—Eddie Andersen’s grandfather started the work at LogLogo. Eddie and Rachel Andersen and their six children work amongst the Gabbra tribe in Northern Kenya, a people group who are spread over a vast geographical area with towns separated by large desert plains. Based in the remote village of Dukana since 2014, their work involves church planting...

Doctors Who Stay!

The hospital in Bardai is impressive, well equipped and bizarrely, for a hospital in Africa—empty! Inside the spacious walled compound the cream and green-trimmed buildings are well laid out but there are no inpatients on most days. If you searched all the buildings, you’d find only a few hospital staff with little to do. After years of neglect, with equipment gathering dust, this shell of a hospital had few vital signs until recently—when two experienced British doctors arrived, r...

Blessings Beyond Belief

In September 2017 the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) headquarters in Mt. Hagen, Papua New Guinea received an interesting request. The Yamka community, greater tribal clan(s) living around the area of the airport (Kagamuga), wanted to have a celebration honoring MAF for its more than 65 years of service and commitment to rural communities of PNG. This would also be an opportunity to share the mission and vision of MAF with those of the community who were new or were unaware of the nature of th...

The De Leeuw family in South Sudan

In 2015 a simple, dirt airstrip was built and this now provides safe access in and out for missionaries in Kali, South Sudan. “Without MAF, we couldn’t have a ministry to the unreached people in Kali. There is only one road in and out. So when there is trouble on that road, we have no exit. MAF is a big blessing to us.” Carin de LeeuwJust a year ago, the de Leeuw family were ministering to unreached people groups in Uganda with Africa Inland Mission (AIM). But they felt God calling them to...