By Natalie Holsten                                                                                                    

Fifteen years ago, Pastor V in coastal Mozambique held up a freshly printed book. The slim volume contained Genesis, Jonah, Luke, and 1 Timothy, translated into the EKoti language.

“Our book has four books,” he exclaimed to a group of believers. “But the full Bible has 66 books. We want them all!”

The Koti believers are moving closer to their goal of having the full Bible in their language, EKoti. It’s a language spoken by 100,000 that borrows heavily from Swahili and Arabic. “Through and through it’s an African language,” said translation consultant Sebastian Floor. “It’s very difficult to learn but sounds very beautiful. It has poetry.”

Sebastian recalled how a linguist couple began studying this poetic language in the mid-1990s and wrote a grammar to begin teaching literacy classes, which continue to this day.

“The language is very much alive. The children speak it, so it’s not a dying language,” Sebastian said.

While linguists labored to master the language and reduce it to written form, short-term evangelistic teams from Japan began visiting the Koti people, and a new group of believers was baptized in 2001.

What happened was nothing short of miraculous. Since that first group of believers, thousands more have put their faith in Jesus and been baptized. Believers, who called themselves ‘Tarikhi ya Haakhi’ (Way of Truth), were transformed by the truth of the gospel, with fewer marital problems and less violence.

“No one could ever imagine what God has done among our people,” one Koti believer said.

As the Koti church grew, the linguistic team translated some parables of Jesus from Luke, then focused on the book of Jonah, which seemed appropriate for a seafaring people like the Koti.

After that, portions of scripture were translated for specific needs of the growing church. To understand who Jesus is, the gospel of Luke was completed. Genesis was translated to help correct a faulty belief about separation from God. The book of 1 Timothy was translated when church leaders needed guidance. A selection of Psalms was translated to help give structure for worship.

Eventually, linguists—including many local Koti translators—focused on the New Testament, which was completed and dedicated in 2021, a huge step towards Pastor V’s desire for the entire Bible.

In 2022, two translation coordinators flew into Koti Land on MAF (known in Mozambique as Ambassador Aviation) to kickstart the Old Testament translation project.

MAF pilot Ryan Koher described their arrival. “The coordinators were joyfully welcomed by members of the local church, which reflects their love for God’s Word and the eagerness and excitement for the Old Testament.”

Later in the fall, Ryan flew Sebastian in to help with the translation for Psalm 117, the shortest psalm.

Sebastian and other consultants make frequent trips into Koti Land, where they are currently working on Psalms in a workshop setting. The consultants help the local translators fully understand and internalize a psalm through oral translation and creative songs, with the work concluding in a written transcription before moving on to the next psalm.

The consultant teams prefer to use MAF to travel into the area. It’s a 45-minute flight to reach the Koti from Nampula, where MAF’s base of operations is located. Last September, a cyclone washed out a major bridge on the one road from Nampula to Koti Land, and torrential rains continue to wreak havoc on road conditions.

“Doing a trip on MAF saves days. It’s an efficient way to travel. When I was in regional administration, I didn’t have time to spend weeks in one country. I have a trip of four or five days to visit three or four projects,” Sebastian said. “So MAF took me from one project to another. It saved me a lot of travel headache.”

Today there are 20,000 believers in the Koti church. “The New Testament is used passionately,” says church planter Graeme, “and they have sent church planting teams to take the gospel to an unreached people group further to the north.”

Safely transporting Bible translators is just one of the ways MAF is helping isolated people in Mozambique be changed by the love of Christ.

“It is a privilege for me to play a small role in making the Word of God accessible to thousands of people,” Ryan says. “I see partnering with translators as one of the most important ways we can minister to the people of Mozambique.

This story ran in the August (Vol. 3) 2023 issue of FlightWatch. Read the full issue here:

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“We are trying to reach the Koti people, and it is in their own language that they respond to the Gospel,” said the local translator working in Angoche, Mozambique.

Recently John Iseminger, of The Seed Company, was on MAF’s C9-AAL, a Cessna 206. The Seed Company is funding and managing the Bible translation program and John was traveling to Angoche to encourage the team, check on their progress, and make plans for the year ahead.

John has been working in Mozambique, overseeing the Koti translation work, for the last 20 years. While he doesn’t always get to fly with MAF, he appreciates it when he does. “It’s the best way to get around,” he explained. “It’s time efficient. It’s cost efficient.”

There was an unexpected benefit of MAF starting-up in the country shortly after John arrived there. He says trying to do a language survey and mapping out the area was difficult. “One of the questions that the mappers would ask us was, ‘Where’s the border? Where does this language group end and where does the other one start?’

“Well, all we had to do was get up in the air!” said John. “Flying has really helped to get perspective and see what people are living with and dealing with. You can’t see that stuff on the ground.”

John went on to say that the group should be done with the Koti-language New Testament in about two years.

While Bible translation is a long process, C9-AAL is happy to speed things along whenever she has the opportunity. By adopting this airplane you, too, can play a supporting role in flights like this and many others that bring hope to the people of Mozambique. All it takes is a one-time or monthly recurring gift to make C9-AAL part of your family.

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By Jennifer Wolf

A six-year-old Mozambican girl frantically wrapped her 3-month-old sister around her back. She could not fight the men who had just killed her mother, but she could run.

Grabbing her younger brother by the hand, she fled with her siblings into the bush.

Christian workers Henry and Patricia* were visiting homes in “Beach Town,” in northeastern Mozambique, to share the gospel. As they were speaking with an elderly couple in front of their house, they were surprised when people of all ages began to file out—nearly 20 of them. This is where they met the young girl and her siblings and heard their story. After hiding for a few days, the children had been found and were taken to their grandparents, who were now caring for them along with all the others.

This was one of the couple’s first encounters with Mozambique’s internally displaced people (IDPs). Hundreds of thousands have fled their homes since violent attacks by an extremist group began in 2017. Henry and Patricia had been serving in Beach Town for several years and had opened a community center where they taught English, computer classes, and various trades. They helped with food distribution as the people began arriving.

“[Because of the attacks] the roads were closed to the provincial capital so we used Ambassador Aviation** to bring in teams as well as supplies for food giveaways,” Henry said. “One weekend in particular, they did several trips back and forth to bring all the supplies needed for this.”

In early 2020, the attacks were getting closer to Beach Town and another threat appeared—COVID-19. Patricia and Henry had to shut down the community center.

“We needed to leave town for a couple days to re-stock in the provincial capital and prepare for lockdown,” Patricia said.

An Ambassador Aviation (AA) airplane landed in Beach Town and soon Henry, Patricia, and their children were flying to the city of Pemba.

“Two days later we got a call from friends saying our town was under attack,” Henry said.

This Current Crisis

The violent attacks continued to escalate until, on March 24 of this year, several days of fighting in the town of Palma caused thousands more to flee—some on foot, to the jungle; others by boat, to a southern town or a nearby island. Some fled to the border of Tanzania but were turned away. Many were traumatized by what they experienced and were exhausted, hungry, sick, or injured.

According to reports, there are approximately 700,000 IDPs in the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado due to the insurgency. Over 50,000 were displaced in this latest attack on Palma.

In late March, Ambassador Aviation began evacuating those fleeing the violence and delivering relief supplies. The AA team carried medicine to Ibo Island and delivered food and relief items for another partner, VAMOZ (Voluntários Anónimos de Moçambique) that is also coordinating distribution to those in need.

Job’s flight

Job is a Mozambican man who’s been on the receiving end of one of those flights. After he came to know the Lord a few years ago, his family kicked him out, saying he was an embarrassment.

After last year’s attack in Beach Town, Job’s wife was due to deliver a baby.

“Ambassador Aviation helped us get him and his family to the provincial capital as well,” Henry said.

The baby came into the world safely and Job rented a house there. Just a few weeks later, his extended family’s village was attacked. They all sought refuge at Job’s home, where two of his siblings and a sister-in-law came to know the love of Christ.

From fear to hope

When Henry and Patricia received the call about their town being under attack, they also learned their home and community center had been ransacked and robbed. While saddened by the news and concerned for their friends, they were also in awe of the timing of their flight out of Beach Town.

“That flight represents God’s sovereignty over us,” Patricia said. “He knew what the future held and he aligned everything for us to get out in time. Our family is safe and able to continue ministry to refugees now!”

Ambassador Aviation will continue to work with our partners on the ground—VAMOZ, Henry and Patricia, and others—to bring relief to the growing number of displaced people who are suffering at this time.

MAF partners are a key part of this, praying and supporting the important work of serving these precious people, like the little girl and her siblings—and many others.

“The Mozambicans live in great fear,” Patricia added. “They never know what is rumor or truth. So, if they don’t have the peace of the Father to hold on to, they give in to that fear. This is a great time to share the hope we have!”

*Names changed for security reasons.

**AA uses MAF aircraft and staff to conduct their operations that align with MAF ministry priorities.

This story appeared in the summer 2021 edition of FlightWatch. Read the full issue here:

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We are required to count our aircraft parts inventory by the end of November. This means the week of Thanksgiving we needed to get all the parts counted and adjustments made. The inventory count requires going through tubs and tubs of aircraft parts, counting each screw, grommet, o-ring, and nut. We comb through shelves of filters, tire tubes, hoses, belts, bearings, and radio parts to get an accurate list of what parts we have on hand. This is extremely important for timely aircraft maintenance as the mechanics need to know if the parts they need are in stock and where to find them. It gives us a chance to put parts back in their proper place if they were mistakenly placed in the wrong tub.

This year we recruited some teenagers from other mission groups along with several hangar staff to help with the count. In one day we made it through most of the parts, and I spent much of the next day making the adjustments in our system to reflect what we counted.

On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, we shared a pizza lunch with our staff at the hangar and took a moment to do a different type of counting. We shared with our Mozambican colleagues what this American holiday is about and then, as a team, we counted blessings and shared what we were thankful for this year. It was a chance to take inventory of another type. We were thankful for the new baby added to our team, new co-workers, health, and for our families. We discussed some of the struggles our program has had over the past year but were reminded to not let them overshadow the victories. In this case, our blessings inventory came with an adjustment as well, an attitude adjustment in which we can give thanks to God in all circumstances.

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Story by Roger Clark

The tail of the airplane wasn’t just damaged. It had been eaten. I was in central Mozambique helping with a long inspection of an MAF Cessna 206 when the call came in from the Niassa Game Reserve in the far north of the country, nearly up into Tanzania. MAF has long supported conservation work in this, the largest game (animal) reserve in Africa. The Wildlife Conservation Society flies their Cessna 206 in this 42,000 square kilometer reserve, providing anti-poaching and game counting flights. Now their airplane was grounded thanks to a hungry hyena that chewed on the airplane …

What a treat to be back in my old stomping grounds of South Africa, Lesotho, and for the first time, Mozambique. MAF Moz has been around for 20 years, serving one of the poorest countries in the world. A country whose flag features an assault rifle, a lingering symbol like the lingering effects the 16-year civil war had on Mozambique’s 30 million people. Last year I heard that their Cessna 206 was down for a long inspection and had hoped that I could go and help get it done, as they are short staffed, especially short on mechanics.

My health kept me home last year, but I was surprised to hear that the plane was still languishing for a mechanic this year. Feeling good, I made plans to head to Moz in April. My main goal was to complete the landing gear portion of what we call a 1000-hour inspection. Every 1000 hours of flying (around 5 years in this case), the airplane is disassembled, and every system and sub system inspected, cleaned, repaired, lubricated, in some cases repainted, reassembled and tested. This is a big job and tough on an MAF program that doesn’t have a full-time mechanic, aka “maintenance specialist.” In my three weeks there I was able to get the landing gear portion of the inspection completed. This is one of my favorite Cessna 206 jobs, so it was a real treat!

For the past few years, MAF has been supporting medical work in the Niassa Game Reserve by flying doctors and dentists into remote villages “trapped” within the game reserve. When the opportunity arose to combine a two-day dental clinic with a “rescue mission” to fix the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Cessna 206, I was the only mechanic around, so I got to go! I think the corresponding five flights over the next two days, visiting remote villages, bringing dental health to the isolated, and, of course, patching up an airplane eaten by a mauling carnivore, were a real highlight of my MAF career.

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After Kenneth hit, we provided a shuttle service from Pemba to the islands of Ibo and Matemo, islands that were particularly hard-hit by the cyclone. The goal was to use our Cessna Caravan to get aid workers to and from the islands and deliver aid supplies. While at dinner one evening we came into contact with a local organization, IKURU, wanting a way to transport food and supplies to Ibo for distribution to those affected by the cyclone. We began to coordinate with them, and each day they would bring family kits of food and supplies for us to transport. Every time we had empty space on the plane, or enough to do a full cargo load, we would deliver the goods to Ibo where they had someone on the other side responsible for distribution.

We later learned it was not just one organization, but a group of organizations and individuals all volunteering in different ways to help victims of the cyclone. On our last night in Pemba we went to dinner at a local restaurant and discovered they were doing a fundraising event that evening. We got to meet some of the individuals on the other end of the family kits that arrived at the airport: those raising funds, buying supplies, and packaging the kits. That night they had a Jazz band playing as part of the fundraiser and were selling stickers that said “Unidos Por Cabo Delgado” or “United for Cabo Delgado” (the province where the cyclone hit.) When they came up to our table, they saw the MAF logos on our shirts and were so excited to see us. They expressed great thanks for all our help in transporting the food to Ibo and gave us each a sticker.

Although disasters such as these are terrible, it is wonderful to see people come together using their various tools and gifting to help those in need.

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It was heartbreaking to fly over and see people trapped on their rooftops surrounded by floodwater, waving at us, and to know we could do nothing to help them in that moment. My husband Dave, who was flying the Caravan, recounted seeing a man all alone on a grass roof, with kilometers of water all around him, waving madly at the airplane. We shared his geographic coordinates and those of other stranded individuals with our partner, Mercy Air, but their helicopter could only rescue a few at a time.

When we returned to our hotel each night, where we were safe from the elements and could enjoy a hot meal, my mind was haunted by those spending the night on their roofs. One evening it was pouring rain and we got soaking wet running from the building to the car. Despite the heat and humidity, I shivered a little in my wet clothes. I couldn’t fathom what it must be like to spend the night out in the rain, hungry and without shelter, not knowing if help was going to come.

Thankfully, as the days passed the waters began to recede and we were able to transport tents and shelter kits to Beira to be used by those who had lost their homes. We partnered with Mercy Air to help do food drops from their helicopter. Aid organizations arrived to deliver food and medical care. It was a chaotic mess and yet comforting to see so many people coming together to help.

It will no doubt be a long-term recovery, with all the crops and structures that have been destroyed. Please remember to continue to pray for, and support if you can, the people of Mozambique.

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Thank you for making it possible for MAF to respond to the people of Mozambique in the aftermath of Cyclone Idai. We’re grateful for your partnership! Our crew has been busy on the ground and in the air these past few days.

Members of the MAF Mozambique team and disaster response (DR) staff, continue to do aerial survey flights for the many government agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) joining the relief efforts. World Vision, Samaritan’s Purse, World Food Program, and Red Cross are just a few that have arrived on the scene.

“A week ago today when we arrived in Beira there were only a dozen or so people,” reports MAF’s Jill Holmes. “Today, there are hundreds involved in the response. At this morning’s briefing meeting they announced that the UN has classified this response as a system-wide response, meaning it is their top priority crisis.”

One of the main roads between Beira and Chimoio is now open, and some aid can be moved by road and boat. But aircraft are still needed for areas that remain unreachable by road.

MAF is transporting food, as well as tents and “family kits,” while partner Mercy Air continues to do food drops of high-energy biscuits from their helicopter.

Rick Emenaker, a member of the MAF DR team, accompanied Mercy Air on one of its flights. He reports seeing a small camp set up at a farm on the north bank of the river. But on the south side, people were cut off.

Rick learned that the farm had lost 45 of its workers in the flooding. “They have been using a boat to rescue people and deliver aid, and today was the first day the boat was able to access the south side. One lady with a newborn baby had been stuck on the south.

“The farmers are anxious to get seed because they believe if they can plant within the next two weeks (still rainy season), they can still get a crop and prevent further food security issues in the future,” added Rick.

MAF’s ability to be there for people suffering because of Cyclone Idai is only possible because of generous donors like you. We can’t thank you enough!

Here are the flights you made possible through March 24:

MAF Flights
MAF flights: 31
Flight hours: 26.8
Passengers: 107

MAF-Assisted Mercy Air Flights
Mercy Air flights: 22
Flight hours: 16.5
Passengers: 67

Here’s a quick update on our team in Papua, Indonesia and the clean-up efforts there.

People are starting to dig out after the floods and landslides that devastated many in Sentani, Papua. The city water system is down and MAF has been taking a truck around with a 1,100-liter water tank, filling up containers and storage tanks for our local employees and their neighbors as well as for different mission agencies and the local church. We’ve also passed out several Filter of Hope water filters at various locations around Sentani.

Many of our local staff have been helping others dig out homes that have been buried, in some cases with over four feet of sand and mud! This is being done completely by hand and is a painstaking process.

There is a big need for cooking fuel and MAF staff members have been working on getting and distributing that. In the meantime, MAF has supplied about 100 liters of AVTUR (jet fuel) that can also be used in stoves.

Here’s how you can be praying for our staff and those affected by these natural disasters:

• [In Mozambique] Cholera and other diseases are starting to be a concern. Please pray that the people in the area will be protected.
• Pray that people will be able to plant soon to prevent long-term food insecurity.
• Pray that people won’t have to be long in temporary camps or shelters but will be able to return to their homes soon.
• Pray for the fortitude of our teams (in both locations).
• Pray for the local staff families in Sentani, some of whom experienced a great deal of trauma.
• Pray that the hearts of unbelievers will be drawn to Christ through the outpouring of love and help being shown by the body of Christ.

Thank you for your partnership with us to bring help and the love of Jesus to those who have lost so much. We appreciate you!

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Rick Emenaker of the MAF Disaster Response Team reports that the storm did damage, but flooding is the bigger concern.  At least another meter (three feet) of rain is anticipated to fall in the next couple days (18-19 March), adding to the already devastating flooding.

On Saturday, 16 March, MAF did a survey flight and was able to help Mercy Air and INGC deliver two loads (1,400 kg) of rice and flour from Caia to Marromeu. INGC is the Mozambique government disaster response management agency, Instituto Nacional deGestao de Calamidades in Portuguese.

Sunday MAF picked up three INGC officials in Caia and flew them to Beira. A survey flight for INGCis planned for Monday. As the situation evolves, MAF will be working with INGC and other groups to determine how we can best assist.

Here is a situation report from the UN OCHA.

Please pray that the people in the affected areas will be protected from flooding and other danger, and that they will turn to Jesus through this crisis. Pray also for the injured and those who have lost loved ones. Please ask the Lord to protect our MAF team in Mozambique.

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