Deep in the Amazon of Ecuador, MAF staff members Sixto Quiñones and Wilson Cuvi are discipling residents of the small village of Panintza. MAF airplanes have been taking them into the jungle once a month for the past two years, so they can teach God’s Word and help the people grow in their faith. Everything is different for them since they accepted Christ as their Savior.

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Story by Jennifer Wolf
Unless otherwise noted: Photos by Lemuel Malabuyo

Sixto Quiñonez called out in his jovial, megaphone voice within the Amazon jungle, inviting the people of Panintza village in Ecuador to come to the evening service. Entire families started making their way to the small church.

In no time they had filed in and were seated on wooden planks with tree stumps for legs. Then they began shouting out the numbers of favorite worship songs, starting with a Spanish songbook and then transitioning to Shiwiar, their native language.

Their voices rose in praise to their Savior Jesus, accompanied by an acoustic guitar and a choir of jungle birds, cicadas, and other buzzing insects.

A call for help

Samuel Mayancha was born in Panintza and attended elementary school there. As an adult, he went away to the city to be trained as a teacher and gain experience. During that time he also gave his life to Christ.

When he returned to the village to teach the children, Samuel found the community divided over religious ideas. There was no spiritual work happening, and there was no one to teach them God’s Word. He desired to start a congregation but wasn’t sure how to do that.

Then he heard that the MAF team in Shell had a jungle ministry. MAF would adopt a village in which to plant a church and disciple the people. Samuel and the leaders in Panintza desperately wanted this for their community.

Samuel made a video stating their need for missionaries to come and teach them about God.

Sixto, the MAF chaplain, says they had just finished three years of ministry in a small jungle community and it was time to choose the next location. They had already received many requests.

Then Samuel’s video arrived, imploring MAF to come to Panintza.

“And I remembered in Acts, when the Macedonian cried out to Paul to come over to them and help them,” says Sixto.

MAF doesn’t force its ministry on villages. They wait until they’re asked to come. It was obvious that Panintza was desperate for God’s Word.

MAF accepted Samuel’s request and, two years ago, Sixto and Wilson Cuvi, the MAF base maintenance manager, started making monthly visits to Panintza. Other teammates joined them as schedules permitted. MAF staff also donated their own money toward the trips and provided gifts of food, medicine, and school supplies.

Doors opening

MAF first started doing these jungle outreaches back in 2010, when an expatriate water engineer—a believer—was working in the Quichua/Sapara area of the jungle. At that time, many communities rejected the gospel and were opposed to having missionaries come. But in this area, the people began to ask the engineer about Jesus. He tried to answer their questions, but eventually suggested they talk to MAF, which they did. They invited MAF to come to their community one weekend each month to help them study the Bible.

Wilson was the main teacher then, and the fact that he is Quichua and spoke the language opened doors to preach the gospel there. Trust was built between MAF and the neighboring communities, who later asked them to come and work with them as well.

To date MAF has done this type of discipleship ministry in 15 communities. People have chosen to follow Christ in each place, but in one village in particular—Suraka—the teaching had a profound impact. Out of 30 families, ten couples made the decision to unite in marriage before God, committing their partnerships to Christ. MAF never told them they needed to do this. They just felt convicted to do it. Along with this special celebration, many were baptized that day.

“It was a joyful and connected experience,” said one of the MAF pilots who attended. Three MAF airplanes flew in with civil authorities, and MAF staff raised money to buy rings for the couples.

Wilson stresses the importance of working in these smaller villages, which tend to be neglected. He says there are more than 400 small communities within the Amazon jungle of Ecuador that need someone to disciple them.

Challenges and rewards

When Sixto and Wilson began ministering in Panintza, people’s lives were a mess, home situations were not good, and there were complex sins.

“But the moment they knew and accepted Christ as their only personal Savior, it was different for them,” says Wilson. “Although there are struggles and there are still problems, they are feeling the love of God.”

At first Panintza’s new believers were meeting in the community gathering place, where there were all kinds of activities and parties. But Sixto challenged them to build a church because it would make a statement that they are Christians now. It would be their “light on the hill.”

Now, here they sat during the evening service, in the church they had built with their own hands. Bibles were open on their laps, as they followed along and took turns reading verses out loud for the group.

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I’m happy to say that Timmy the tarantula, my roommate in the Amazon jungle, did not disturb me one bit. Honestly, I don’t think he even moved from his spot by the door while I was in Panintza, Ecuador.

Now that we have the issue of the spider out of the way, I want to give you a glimpse of what it looks like when Lem Malabuyo (MAF’s video producer) and I do interviews in a foreign context. On day two of our stay, we interviewed MAF teammates Sixto and Wilson in between their teaching sessions. A translator conveyed my questions for them in Spanish and then paraphrased the answers back to me in English.

We also interviewed a few other people, including the schoolteacher, a former president of the village, and a young couple who walked for three hours through the jungle to be present for Sixto and Wilson’s teaching of God’s Word.

Some of the families lived on the other side of the river so, later in the afternoon, we crossed over in dugout canoes (another first for me). Then, it was a steep hike up the side of a hill on a makeshift staircase made of halved logs.

We were warmly greeted by one of the husbands, who treated us to some delicious fruit, which he knocked down from a tree with a stick. It looked sort of like a tangelo but, inside, the flesh was white and not pulpy (yay), just juicy. I had two and they were so refreshing, especially since it was quite warm and humid by then.

Next, we walked over to one of the homes and interviewed Olmedo and his wife, Nelly. We sat on the floor of a big front room. The entire home was covered by a beautiful and intricate thatched roof. Most of the houses were set up like this, with one closed-off room at the back, where I’m guessing they slept.

Olmeda said that before MAF came to teach them God’s Word, “they were dancing, drinking, and doing everything in the world. That’s the way we were.”  

“Now we have changed. We have left the things we were doing and now we want to continue in the new life,” Olmeda added.

I thought you might enjoy this short clip from the end of the interview, where Olmedo recited one of his favorite verses.

Last-minute visits

On Wednesday, we expected the MAF plane to arrive late morning, so we hurried off to visit another family. They had invited us to their home for breakfast. So around 8:00 we walked to the other end of the airstrip and then stepped carefully through a wet, muddy, and slippery forest.

Once we reached the home, we ventured to their kitchen and watched them prepare boiled bananas. When everything was ready, we ate together in their front room.

After breakfast, we interviewed the husband (the wife didn’t want to be in the video). Then, we thanked the couple, said our goodbyes, and started our hike back to the center of the village.

Walking through the rainforest here is like a symphony for the senses. First, you take in the beauty; it is something else. Then there are the sounds, from the sloshing of our shoes as we walked to the chorus of bugs and the accompanying bird calls. (Click on the photo below for audio.)

Lem, and brothers Levi and Daniel (translators), happened upon a fallen log in the path and noticed leafcutter ants streaming over it. Of course, Lem had to capture that on film before continuing down the path. As we were exiting the forest, I heard a commotion behind me and turned around to see Lem crouched down. An ant was tugging on his shoelace so he was using a leaf to remove it before it could bite him through his sock. But as he did so, the ant bit his finger through the leaf and drew blood!  

That is one bug bite he will probably never forget.

Rain delays and goodbyes

Back in the village, Lem and I and the translators started packing up our stuff. Then, the rain really started coming down. We moved from shelter to shelter as we waited for it to let up, and realized our flight was going to be delayed.

Morning turned into afternoon and things began to dry up. We had no idea if MAF was coming, because the village radio was broken. Since all our things were ready to go, we joined one last worship time at the church. The people knew we were leaving, so they asked the four of us to lead a few songs in English. They wanted to hear what it would sound like.

So we sang these two songs from their songbook.

Top: “I have decided to follow Jesus”

Bottom: “I have the joy, joy” (joy, joy down in my heart)

After the short service, we had some free time. Lem took off to get overhead shots with the drone, and I kicked the soccer ball around with some of the young women.

Finally, around 3:30 we heard a man shouting, “the plane is coming.” I couldn’t hear a thing, but somehow his ears picked it up from far away. We started grabbing our backpacks and the camera gear and headed down to the airstrip. Sixto and Wilson would have to wait until the next day to return, since only one airplane could make it in. We arrived back in Shell by 5:00.

Thursday and Friday we did interviews in the hangar, then Saturday was a sightseeing day. On Sunday, we made it to the Waorani church in the morning and then it was time to start our drive to the Quito airport. Sadly, our time in Ecuador was coming to an end.  

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But God already had something in mind for my last visit to a remote village in the western part of the country.

Normally, I work at MAF headquarters as a writer. But I was here visiting our programs in the DRC for the first time, along with MAF’s video producer, Lem Malabuyo, to do interviews with our partners and staff. We had previously developed a list of subjects to interview. Since schedules and flights could easily change, we went with open hands, willing to accept whatever the Lord made available to us.

Our initial plan to interview a medical missionary couple at the Vanga Evangelical Hospital didn’t work out, as they were out of the country. Still, we were happy to tag along on this training flight for one of the pilots who needed to be checked-out at Vanga.

Once we landed, Lem went off to set up on the side of the airstrip to film the training flights (aka takeoffs and landings). As I started walking away from the airplane, a woman approached. One of the pilots introduced me to Marta Klein, an expat medical missionary.

She told me a bit of her history and how she serves in the northwest part of the country with the Congo Covenant Church, as well as at the hospital in Vanga. She’s trained as a physician’s assistant and focuses on nutrition and continuing education for local doctors and nurses.

MAF had flown her and two nurses from Kinshasa to Vanga the previous week so they could teach nurses at the Vanga hospital the “Helping Babies Breathe” class for resuscitating newborns.

The name of the course was familiar to me from past stories I’d worked on.

“Are the nurses here now?” I asked her.

“Yes,” she said, pointing toward the hangar building.

She mentioned they were waiting for their MAF flight. Turns out they would be on the return flight to Kinshasa with us! I told her I’d like to talk with them, so we headed in their direction.

Marta introduced me and explained what I was doing in the DRC, and that I had some questions for them.

One of the men agreed to speak and Marta served as translator, since he spoke Lingala.

I asked how many people they had trained over the past week.

“We came to do the training with six people beforehand,” answered Alphonse NDOMBE, an obstetrical nurse, sonogram technician, and a teacher at a nursing school. “We have a method called Train the Trainers, where we trained six people and then those six people will train six more people. So we have trained a total of 12 this last week.

“We do the training in groups of two, so they will be able to go out and train the rest of the doctors and nurses that are in the Vanga Health Zone.”

“Has he flown with MAF other times for this work?” I asked.

“We were able to use MAF to work with the Paul Carlson partnership,” he said. “We got on the plane in Gemena and we flew to Wasolo, and we did another training there.”

I recognized the organization he mentioned, and when he said Wasolo, something clicked in my mind. I had written a story about that a few years back …

“Was this when they had run out of a special gel for the umbilical cord?” I asked.

“It was,” Marta said. “We were having difficulty obtaining that medication. And then we were able to get it right at the end of the trip.”

Suddenly, I realized I was with the people who had a part in that earlier story. I was so excited that I may have hopped up and down a few times (well, truthfully, I did).

Marta explained to them why I was jumping. They seemed to understand and shared in my joy with a chuckle or two.

But really, it was just one of many times on this visit to the DRC where God surprised me with an unexpected gift like this one.

When I asked what they had accomplished on the Wasolo trip, Alphonse replied:

“Since we did the training, and they [the doctors and nurses] were using the chlorhexidine gel and following the protocol we taught, they were able to reduce the neonatal mortality rate in that region.”

After the chat with the nurses, Marta shared with me how MAF helps them reach Vanga, which otherwise could take up to 15 hours or more by road.

“We’re very grateful for MAF offering their services to fly from Kinshasa to Vanga, because it only takes one hour and 15 minutes,” Marta said. “It’s much more convenient, and I feel it is much safer because there are so many accidents that happen on the road. And not just accidents, but also there’s a risk of getting robbed or worse.”

When asked if she had a message for MAF’s supporters, Marta said, “I really want to thank people who donate to this ministry … It’s life-changing, it’s lifesaving, and it’s time-saving as well for missionaries and local people.”

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Imagine this: you’re a missionary living in a remote jungle village, relaxing as you comfortably read a book at night. Suddenly the power goes out, robbing you of your joy and instantly plunging your world into complete and utter darkness. Of course, there are no streetlights, so your surroundings have been entirely swallowed up by the blackest blackness you’ve ever known.

Disorientation sets in, and your ability to see clearly and regain your bearings has been reduced to exactly zero. In times like this, the darkness can almost feel like a physical force, threatening to smother you within the void as you try to make your way. Perhaps you begin to feel lost, alone, or even afraid.

Sometimes life can be like this. Things are going great just before sudden darkness descends. A loved one becomes sick. A relationship fractures. A job is lost. A dream shatters. The light, hope, and comfort you’ve been walking in gets snuffed out, leaving you fumbling about in confusion and despair, grasping for answers. How is this happening? Where do I go from here? Why would God ever allow this?

Jesus walked a similar, albeit even more difficult path. In the final hours of His crucifixion, He was thrust into the most profound darkness of His life: complete separation from the Father. The brilliant illumination of Their perfect communion winked out the instant He took on the weight of our sin. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He cried from the cross (Matthew 27:46). From His perspective, the Creator had turned His back on Him in the hour of His greatest suffering.

Sometimes all hope appears lost. We might feel as if God Himself has abandoned us in the dark night of the soul to fend for ourselves. We cry into the silence, suffocating in the sense that we are both forgotten and forsaken.

But your darkness is not The End. Likewise, we as believers know that Jesus’ sacrifice and death are not the end of His story. We know that Sunday is coming. There is hope because Jesus overcomes death and darkness, and someday we will live with Him forever.

Whatever you might be facing today, God’s plan for you is always good. Ask Him to renew your perspective, to reveal how He is working even in the silence and shadows.

We know that the Lord loves us with an everlasting love, and He showed us how much by sending His son to die for us. So if you’re in the dark at the moment, I pray that it’s only temporary, just as Jesus’ unbearable darkness was temporary. 

Hold on, because Sunday is coming!

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An airstrip overhaul reestablishes a vital lifeline for a remote African village

As he stood at the edge of the abandoned airstrip at Gwendjé in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), MAF pilot Stephen Hale imagined what it had once been and what it would take to reopen it.

“The forest had overgrown the airstrip. The trees at the end were incredibly tall; it just looked very daunting. The amount of work required would be significant,” said Stephen.

Forty years ago Gwendjé (aka Ngwenzé), was a thriving mission hub, with a hospital, a Bible school, and a bustling airstrip. Political instability in the 90s caused many missionaries to leave the country, and the strip soon fell into disrepair as Gwendjé became increasingly isolated and neglected.

When missionary Jay Shafto with the International Mission Board (IMB) first visited Gwendjé in 2017, reaching the village required a commercial flight combined with a grueling five-hour drive on deteriorating roads. After experiencing two incidents on the treacherous route, Jay was inspired to make a change. He spoke to village leaders and proposed working alongside MAF to revitalize the abandoned airstrip.

The Power of Helping Hands

Moved by his vision of a brighter future, the Gwendjé villagers spent two years rehabilitating the airstrip.

Jay continued to visit regularly and shared photos with MAF, along with detailed progress reports of the various improvements taking place.    

The obstacles were numerous. The Gwendjé people faced constant delays due to the global pandemic and fuel shortages in the DRC. Some in the local community were adamantly opposed to having a missionary presence in the area again.

It was slow going and at times discouraging, but the villagers didn’t give up. Their persistence was soon rewarded when MAF sent Stephen Hale to help Jay assess the airstrip.

Reset and Rewind

After a six-hour delay, Jay and Stephen and two Congolese pastors and a missionary took off on a commercial flight from Kinshasa to Gemena, DRC. Upon their arrival, they discovered that torrential rainstorms had washed out the “good” road to Gwendjé, making it utterly impassible; they had to take a backroad. After five hours of non-stop bouncing and jostling over terrible road conditions, the men finally arrived.

As Stephen and Jay inspected the airstrip on Sunday, they became increasingly worried. It was supposed to be ready for an MAF flight arriving in two days, but it wasn’t finished by a long shot.

“Oh boy,” Stephen said, recalling his initial assessment of the area. “The surface was not flat; it was pockmarked with holes and uneven areas of overgrowth.”

The ground was too soft, the landing strip too short, and entire sections were littered with footpaths or covered in patches of tall grass.

They gathered the community and explained the gravity of the situation. Banding together, the village got to work. Men cut down grass and rolled barrels—weighed down with water—to pack the earth until it was firm. Women filled soft spots and ruts with a mixture of crushed termite mounds, rocks, and crushed bricks. Children used the village’s one wheelbarrow to move dirt and rocks.

Even with the villagers’ enthusiastic help, both men knew it would take a miracle for the strip to be ready in time.

Obstacles at home

Meanwhile, back at the MAF hangar in Kinshasa, the pilots and mechanics were encountering their own roadblocks.

The airplane that was needed to pick up Stephen from Gwendjé on Tuesday was having mechanical issues. It took two days before the team found a solution.

While these problems were happening, the Kinshasa team considered calling off the flight and having Stephen take a commercial flight home. But there was no cell service in Gwendjé so they couldn’t reach him.

Without the ability to communicate with each other, both groups—those working on the plane in Kinshasa, and those working on the airstrip—were racing the clock to finish. Only God knew how it would turn out. 

Stephen described the dedication of the villagers to complete the work. “They were literally running into the forest to get more material. People were really moving with pep in their step,” Stephen said, smiling. “It was very moving, seeing the entire community come out to help.”

From Vision to Reality

Through everyone’s hard work, by Wednesday afternoon the new airstrip was restored to its former glory. Elation erupted in the village when the residents first spotted the MAF airplane overhead. Gwendjé’s connection to the outside world had been reestablished. After being isolated and completely cut off for decades, a reliable lifeline to medicine, education, and transportation, as well as continued discipleship by visiting pastors had been firmly launched through MAF once again.

Today, Gwendjé’s formerly forsaken airstrip stands as a testimony to the power of partnership in overcoming vast distances. And for a nearly forgotten community, it means the world.

“MAF is already in contact with other partners to plan further trips to the area,” Stephen said. “We experienced opposition and obstacles, but God overcame it all. We don’t know the full extent of the ways that He is going to work in this area, but we are thankful to get to be a small part of it.”

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MAF serves medevac patients and families through hospitality ministry

Novianty was wasting away, unable to eat and plagued by constant nausea and vomiting.

Her condition was critical when she was flown by MAF airplane from her remote village to the city of Tarakan in Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Doctors at Tarakan’s regional hospital tried to treat her stomach and kidney issues. But after several weeks, she was told there was nothing more they could do for her, and they discharged her.

Novianty and her husband, Ben, moved to Rumah Singgah, MAF’s hospital house in Tarakan, until she was strong enough to travel home. Through tears she recalled how hopeless she felt in the face of the doctor’s grim prognosis.

A Home Away from Home

Rumah Singgah was established in 2013 after MAF staff saw the difficulties medevac patients faced when coming to an unfamiliar place for treatment.

Patients often arrive with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. If they don’t know anyone locally, they face the daunting task of navigating the medical system alone.

Family members or caregivers typically accompany the patient, and they have nowhere to sleep other than the hospital floor.

Rumah Singgah offers help to patients and their families in tangible ways—from providing a clean and safe place to stay, to assisting with paperwork, to helping family members with logistics if a loved one passes away.

Mince, wife of longtime MAF employee Nelson, is a fixture at the Rumah Singgah. She’s from a remote village herself and understands how much the hospital house ministry means to the people who come here. She loves helping patients and keeping the house clean and organized.

Other MAF staff pitch in and help, including MAF kids, who sometimes play with children of patients, and decorate the house for Christmas. MAF staff attend and help lead a monthly time of worship at Rumah Singgah.

“Every time we have a service like that, it’s such a blessing to the patients and families who are here. It encourages all of us,” shared Mince.

Healing and Hope

Rumah Singgah chaplain Bob M. Lopulalang also ministrs to the patients and caregivers.

Novainty was one of the first patients Bob met. He saw her regularly for counseling and prayer. Slowly, Novianty gained strength, which Bob attributes to God’s healing power.

“I know it was the Lord who was at work on her behalf,” he recalled.

After three months she was healthy and headed back to her home village, full of gratitude for God’s healing and for those who helped her.

“MAF helped us so much,” Novianty said. “For those of us who are from the interior of Kalimantan, it can be hard to find a place to stay while getting treatment at the hospital. But praise the Lord, there’s a house here, prepared by MAF, and we’re very thankful.

“But it’s not just the place to stay. There’s a chaplain who comes and serves and prays with us and gives us guidance. And that strengthens us.”

After returning to her home village, Novianty resumed her work as a midwife. She recently accompanied a young patient on a medevac flight, coming full circle from patient to helper.

For Kalimantan program director Jeremy Toews, flying someone like Novianty home to her family is one of the most satisfying aspects of his ministry.

He adds, “While it thrills me to know that they have received care for their physical health, the deepest source of my joy in this ministry is in knowing that their lives have been touched by the love of Christ and they will never be the same.”

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Story appeared in FlightWatch Vol. 2 2023. Read the entire issue here:

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Your support is enabling the light of Christ to reach a dark place on the south coast of Papua

“Can you please come to the south coast?”

This was the request of Pastor Simson, who had gone to great lengths to seek out missionaries interested in serving the swampy south coast of Papua, Indonesia.   

Through a series of providential connections, God led him to Sam and Kari*, a missionary couple living in Sentani at the time.

“He just showed up on our doorstep one day and said, ‘Every single Sunday I preach the gospel from the pulpit and the people go home and worship demons. I want to help my people know who Jesus is. I want to help my people be free from fear of spirits. But I’m failing to do that because we don’t have a Bible that makes sense in the Asmat language,’” said Sam.

God had already placed it in Sam and Kari’s hearts to minister on the south coast. Now they had an official invitation from Simson.

Knowing that MAF flights would support living in such a remote place, Sam and Kari began serving the Asmat area seven years ago. The community warmly welcomed them and helped them build a house, by hand. Sam and Kare are raising their three children here—now twelve, ten, and four years old.

Two Boats

“The only airplane on the island that can bring us in and out to our location is the MAF floatplane. The ground here is so swampy and muddy that essentially an airstrip is not possible,” said Sam.

Sam described the spiritual needs here as “enormous.”

“Church for them is like a shirt. It’s something you put on,” he added. “It’s not a heart change. It’s not a deep understanding of who God is.”

Since the Asmat travel by boat, Sam uses boat illustration to explain God’s redemption versus those who are separated from God and under wrath.

Unfortunately, Sam says the majority of Asmat people are in “Adam’s boat.”

There is a young group of believers who are in “God’s boat,” which is how Sam describes those who’ve been redeemed and hidden with Christ Jesus (Col. 3:3). But it’s hard for them to grow spiritually since they don’t have God’s Word in their southern Asmat dialect. 

Sam and Kari desire to see a mature Asmat church that’s alive and growing, that has the Word of God, that’s discipling its own people for the next generation.

Today, Simson and other church leaders are working alongside Sam and Kari to translate portions of Genesis and Exodus. Then they’ll tackle Mark and Luke. They’re also leading literacy classes, which have just started.

One Airplane

The MAF floatplane is the only one in all of Papua, and it’s critical to Sam and Kari’s mission.

“The fact that the floatplane can land right on the river, pick us up in the case of emergency, and take us directly to a hospital … That is a really key thing,” said Sam.

The other option is a four-hour boat ride on the ocean to the nearest airstrip. And that’s not even possible in certain seasons. When the wind kicks up, massive waves cause boats to capsize.

“When you think about a snakebite or a compound fracture … four hours is a lifetime. We couldn’t be here without the organization flying us in,” added Sam. “It’s almost impossible for us to function and be here.”

MAF medical evacuations have saved Asmat lives. The medevacs are vital, but they’re a last-ditch effort.

A new Siloam Clinic opened here last summer, which will help with day-to-day health and treat minor illnesses and injuries before they become a problem.

“The clinic here is going to allow the entire village to be healthy, to move towards wholeness, to move towards health,” said Sam. Malaria and parasite prevention, vaccination—these are the things that keep people alive and functioning well.”

“The fact that the floatplane can land right on the river, pick us up in case of emergency, and take us directly to a hospital … That is a really key thing,” said Sam.

MAF brought in a generator, a chainsaw, nails, tools, medicines, and other supplies so the new clinic and school could be built and open in time for the school year. Finally, MAF brought in the team of teachers, nurses, and a doctor.

God’s Blessings

When he reflects on the new school and clinic, Jack Gandy, the MAF floatplane pilot who did all of those flights said, “No one in the U.S. knows that the Asmat people even exist. But the Lord knows about them and He cares for them.”

Now, the Asmat children are receiving an education. The people will lead healthier lives. And, most importantly, hearts will change when they come aboard “God’s boat.”

As more missionaries—including families with children—are called to take the light of Christ to the swampy areas of Papua, they too will depend on MAF.

“Without the MAF floatplane, it would just be so impractical that it wouldn’t work,” said Jack. “The floatplane opens up so many more doors that would be closed otherwise. It opens up the whole south coast of Papua to the gospel.”

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*Some of our partners request that identifying information be withheld for security reasons.

Story appeared in FlightWatch Vol. 2 2023. Read the entire issue here:

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Bryan Eygabroad landed his Cessna 206 at the Lebakeng airstrip high in the mountains of Lesotho. He was unloading cargo when he overheard a group of nurses from the local clinic chattering excitedly in a mix of Sesotho and a Zimbabwean language. The nurse relayed to Bryan that a tragedy had struck the village the night before. A local woman had died shortly after giving birth.

The baby survived … but there was no milk or formula in Lebakeng. It had already been hours and the baby needed food—fast.

“Looking at my flight schedule for the afternoon,” said Bryan, an MAF pilot, “I realized I was going to finish the day a mere 10 minute-flight away from my current stop. Surely there was something that could be done!”

Two clocks were ticking: one counted down how long this new infant could last without nourishment, and the other measured the time until the high winds would begin sweeping over the mostly treeless mountains of Lesotho in the afternoon.

If Bryan could not make it back to Lebakeng before the winds picked up, his chances of landing were slim.

High in the Mountain Kingdom
Like many villages in the tiny mountain kingdom of Lesotho, Lebakeng is remote.

Without an airplane, a trek out would involve a steep hike down a ridge, somehow crossing the wide Senqu River, and then hiking up the opposite mountain—which would only get one to the beginning of a gravel road—with many hours still to go to reach the nearest town.

Making this trip in the case of a medical emergency—or with a newborn baby—would simply be impossible. An MAF airplane is the only way.

Although this land and its people are beautiful, the needs here are great. Lesotho has an alarmingly high HIV rate, and there is little infrastructure in the remote parts of the country. Because of your support, MAF is able to partner with organizations like the Lesotho Flying Doctor Service and the Lesotho Flying Pastors, among others, to bring healing and hope to the people of this small nation.

Teamwork
The MAF team in Lesotho is made up of western missionaries like Bryan, along with several local Basotho (what people from Lesotho are called) who have a desire to share Christ’s love with their own people. Some of the vital roles they play include maintenance specialists, loaders, bookkeepers, and flight followers; and there is even a Basotho MAF chaplain.

“It has been really amazing to see how this team of Basotho staff have really grown,” said Bryan. “They are developing in their roles and they make our jobs as pilots easy.”

The team often finds creative ways to work out the logistics of flight plans so that Bryan and the other pilots can respond to medical emergencies—rerouting schedules mid-flight, calculating fuel supplies, and directing them to where they can safely land and refuel from MAF’s remote fuel caches.

“By the time they call me,” said Bryan, “they have worked out all the details. I love working with them—it makes flying so much more efficient.”

This day was no different.

With this baby’s life on the line, local MAF staff members—including Lehlohonolo “Oliphant” Tjokolo, the flight operations manager, and Tebello Ntebe Ntelo, the MAF flight follower—worked quickly to make it possible for Bryan to bring help.

Just in Time
From Lebakeng, Bryan radioed Tebello at the MAF base in the capital city of Maseru, and she quickly got in touch with the nearby office of the Lesotho Flying Doctor Service. They sent a staff person to the store to buy a box of baby formula. The box was waiting for Bryan in the hangar as soon as he arrived.

Oliphant had made arrangements for the plane to be loaded and refueled, and, in no time, Bryan whisked away to Lebakeng and the hungry baby.

“If it weren’t for the team on the ground, I would have had to run to the grocery store and back to the hangar, which would have tacked on a lot of time,” said Bryan. “By that point it would have likely been too late to land back in the village with the winds picking up.”

Even so, the wind was already beginning to sweep over the mountains as Bryan neared the airstrip.

“I prayed earnestly, as the turbulence rocked my aircraft, that I would be able to land,” wrote Bryan in his family’s monthly prayer letter. “I fought that wind all the way to touchdown, but it was well within limits … just another ‘normal’ day in Lesotho!”

The formula was safely delivered. By the time Bryan was airborne on the way back to Maseru, he knew the nurses and villagers had worked out a long-term plan to care for the newborn baby.

“I love that I got to be a part of this story,” said Bryan. “But it was really the national staff who were instrumental in this story’s success. I was ‘ops-normal.’ They took the extra step to make sure everything worked out.”

“I have seen God’s love through MAF,” said Oliphant. “I feel blessed to be part of MAF Lesotho, where our everyday jobs include saving the lives of the Basotho people in the mountains. I enjoy saving lives.”

MAF would not be able to serve well in Lesotho without people like Oliphant and Tebello—nor could MAF share Christ’s love with isolated people around the world without the generous support of people like you who make stories like this possible!

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