By Natalie Holsten                                                                                                   

The sounds of prayers and praises blended with the hum of the airplane engine.

“We surrender our city into your hands, Lord!” one woman prayed with hands uplifted.

It was not a typical flight for MAF pilot Lance Kanagy. Most flights involve transporting cargo or picking up medevac patients or moving passengers from one village to another. This flight was all about prayer.

As Lance flew around the island of Tarakan in North Kalimantan, Indonesia, his passengers prayed for their city, with its shrimp farms, busy port, and population of nearly 300,000 people.

Praise at 2,500 Feet

The prayer flight was one of three Lance did for the GSJA (Assemblies of God) church in Tarakan as part of their prayer convoy ministry, an annual event MAF has helped with for over a decade.

Each flight was a quick 10 to 20 minutes over the island. “Since this was my first time helping with the prayer convoy, I had no idea what it would be like,” Lance shared. “It was super encouraging to be a part of it.”

Lance said the first two loads of passengers mostly sang songs during the whole flight. “I remember on the second round getting chills down my back as they sang with so much passion and heartfelt strength.”

The third group was exuberant, Lance said, singing loudly on the ramp as they waited for clearance to take off. In fact, he had to ask them to stop for a minute so he could hear air traffic control.

“As I fired up the engine and taxied, they sang a few more songs, then prayed the whole time once we took off.”

In addition to the prayer flights, a group of 20 people prayed as they circled the island in a speed boat. The day concluded with a convoy of vehicles driving around the island, stopping for prayer along the way at the beach and ending at the church with a prayer service.

A Vision for Evangelism

“Our goal in this prayer convoy, our vision, is to win this city for Christ,” said Frans Kansil, head pastor of GSJA Tarakan. “We pray so that the hearts of people will be open, that they will come to the Lord Jesus. We pray for open doors for evangelism.”

Beyond that, they pray for Tarakan, that it will become a blessing to Indonesia, and to the nations. This year’s prayer convoy included pastors from other parts of Indonesia and two pastors from other countries.

Pastor Frans sees opportunities for evangelism in the country growing, compared to how it used to be. His church regularly sends out teams to bless other churches throughout Indonesia, providing training in evangelism, and through youth camps, women’s ministries, and pastors’ groups.

“This year, the door is very open,” he said. “I believe this all started with our prayers in Tarakan, and it’s not just Tarakan that is being blessed, but all of Indonesia. We pray for the fire of evangelism!”

The prayer convoy is a way for their church to unite in prayer, Pastor Frans said, and the MAF flights are a unique experience for many of their church members.

“I heard from those who went on the flights. They were amazed to be in a small plane, and when the plane turned, they were scared and prayed even harder!” Pastor Frans said with a laugh. “It was amazing. We’re so thankful to MAF for helping us facilitate this prayer convoy.”

A Dynamic Ministry

As the last prayer flight for 2024 wrapped up and passengers were unloaded, an urgent call came in from the nearby town of Malinau. Two patients—a man with a brain bleed, and a sick, dehydrated infant—needed to get to the hospital.

“I had a medevac flight shortly after the prayer flights and was just so thankful to be a part of such a dynamic ministry,” Lance said.

Medevac flights like this one are at the heart of MAF’s work in Kalimantan, seeking to meet the needs of isolated people, while also supporting the work of evangelists and local churches, like the GSJA prayer convoy ministry.

“It is truly a very special event to be part of,” MAF program director Jeremy Toews said. “May the Lord indeed light the fire of prayer and evangelism in all of our hearts.”

Story appeared in FlightWatch vol. 3, 2024. Read the entire issue here:

The post By land, by sea, by air appeared first on Mission Aviation Fellowship.

By Natalie Holsten

As the tropical sun beat down on the village of Long Pujungan, young children filed into the church building by ones and twos, freshly bathed and ready to learn.

They gathered at the front of the church, sitting on the floor in a semicircle, little folding desks before them. Their eyes were fixed on Refi, a young man tasked with teaching them the basics of reading and writing.

Refi is one of several young people helping with Hati MAF, or the Heart of MAF ministry, a discipleship initiative started several years ago by MAF and local church leaders in North Kalimantan, Indonesia, to reach remote communities.

Since the early 1970s, MAF has operated in Kalimantan, flying in places that previously took days or weeks to reach by river or overland routes through the mountain rainforest. Through the years, MAF has provided air support for the national church, as well as helping with medevac flights and community development.

Though much has changed in the decades since MAF first began flight service here, one thing remains the same: isolated communities need Jesus.

The need for discipleship

Starting in 2019, several MAF staff began discussing how they could be more strategic in helping the churches interior to be more effective in discipleship.

“The pastors in many of these communities were a bit overwhelmed, not even knowing where to start because of the issues their communities are facing,” said MAF pilot Jeremy Toews. “They specifically requested help from MAF to help bring in teachers, people who can bring in godly Christian teaching and disciple the people.”

Jeremy didn’t know exactly who their partners in a discipleship ministry might be, but as they were praying and discussing how MAF could be involved, one name in particular came up: Esther Adam.

Esther is a longtime friend of MAF, a “frequent flier” who often travels interior in her dual roles as an instructor at a Bible school, and as the head of children and youth for the Indonesian branch of the Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA) in North Kalimantan.

When MAF staff met with Esther about how MAF might be able to better assist the church’s efforts, she had recently returned from a trip to Long Pujungan, where she met with Pastor Musa, head pastor for the CMA churches in that area.

She knew exactly where MAF could help.

A pastor’s plea

Pastor Musa shared with Esther how burdened he was for his people. Families were hurting, marriages were suffering, children were growing up in church but without discipleship in the home. The family problems he saw were compounded by the presence of drugs in the area, as well as the influence of the internet via smart phones.

In tears, he pleaded with Esther—was there anything she could do to help the people in Pujungan?

Esther was able to bring Pastor Musa’s request to the meeting with MAF, which also included Bob Lopulalang and his wife, Sery, a couple active in children and youth ministry. Bob had recently been part of a team that developed a curriculum specifically for the discipleship of children.

“We decided to focus on three areas: Bob focuses on Sunday school kids and the training for Sunday school teachers, I do the class for parents, and Sery does the class for teens,” Esther said.

With their ministry plan formed, it was decided that the first location would be Long Pujungan, an hour’s flight from the MAF base of Tarakan. MAF’s ability to provide safe and efficient transportation was a key component of the ministry, said Esther, who had experienced the harrowing, days-long river route from Long Pujungan to Tarakan in a long boat. “Without MAF, we for sure couldn’t be here.”

Caring for kids

In the fall of 2019, the new discipleship effort began, with MAF providing flights for six weekend trips into Long Pujungan.

“We asked that Pastor Musa, and the head pastor of the church, and the important people of the village attend the first parenting class we did,” Bob said of the ministry’s early days. “We knew that would have an impact on the others, to have the leaders attend. And they did, they came.”

Bob’s curriculum included not just how to teach children but also focused on how the Bible shows we are to value, nurture, and teach children about Jesus. “We found the parents needed discipleship and encouragement to help their children,” Bob said.

After the first few classes, Bob began to hear stories about how families were impacted, including one family known to be abusive that became more loving to their kids.

“We have heard testimonies from a few families that they shared with others in the village, saying this program really pushed them to care for their kids,” said Bob. “That really encouraged us, we saw the fruit, we saw this program is being used by the Lord.”

Esther was also hearing testimonies from families who were becoming more loving to their kids and less harsh. “Their difficult homes had transformed,” she said. “It’s amazing!”

Unexpected interruptions, new opportunities

The ministry was moving along, until a government runway renovation project shut down the Long Pujungan airstrip for months. Then COVID-19 pandemic restrictions severely limited where MAF could fly.

When restrictions finally lifted and the Long Pujungan airstrip reopened earlier this year, MAF began flying in the ministry teams  again.

As the ministry resumed, it expanded to include early childhood literacy. This was a need the leaders identified early on as they saw that children weren’t reading well, which provided a challenge to Sunday school teachers.

Rindu Siahaan, the office manager for MAF Tarakan, with a background in early childhood literacy, stepped forward and offered his services. He met with leaders in Long Pujungan to make sure they agreed with this new facet of the ministry focused on the children of the village.

“I thought if they don’t have a culture of reading and they don’t know how to read, then how will they know how to read their Bibles well?” Rindu said. “That’s what motivated me to pursue this.”

Rindu provides training to young adults, fresh out of college, like Refi, who volunteer for the program. They are usually sent in pairs for two weeks of intensive teaching with a group of four- to six-year-olds, with the goal of preparing the children for entering elementary school. And they’re seeing results, not just in literacy, but also in the students’ interest in school.

“The second time we met, I asked the teacher, are you seeing a difference in your students? And she said, ‘yes, they have more enthusiasm for learning,’” Rindu shared.

The literacy program has provided a way for other church denominations to be involved in Hati MAF, which has been a desire of the Hati MAF team.

“Rindu’s been very actively recruiting young people from a variety of churches here in Tarakan…that are also very missions-minded,” Jeremy said.

According to Jeremy, having people from different church backgrounds come together united under the banner of discipleship broadens the potential and reach of the ministry. And MAF, with its long history in Kalimantan, is well known and respected in interior communities. Using “MAF” in the Hati MAF name provides a neutral umbrella so that communities know the ministry is something MAF supports and can be trusted.

The word spreads

Word about Hati MAF’s work interior has spread to other villages, and people are asking for the team to bring the ministry to their communities. One such place is Long Belaka, a village two hours upriver from Long Pujungan.

One of the local church leaders, Pastor Sadung, is burdened for the villagers there, and invited members of the Hati MAF team to visit and assess the needs.

“The people there are still tied to their old beliefs,” Pastor Sadung shared. “On one side, they go to church services, on another side, if they have somebody who’s sick, or a child is born, they revert to their ancestral ways to protect themselves from evil spirits.”

On a recent visit to Long Belaka, members of the Hati MAF team saw a deep need for the gospel to impact the village, along with educational and other needs, and will prayerfully consider next steps.

“We have to pray and ask the Lord to lead us in what He wants us to do for this village,” said Esther. “We will wait for what He asks us to do, after that we will move according to what the Lord wants.”

A partnership with donors

Hati MAF is funded through the National Church Subsidy, a funding initiative donors give to that also covers the cost of flights for Bible schools, translation projects, and church conferences.

“For all the people that donate, that support us in prayer as well as financial means, thank you,” said Kalimantan Program Director Tyler Schmidt. “We can’t do this alone. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.”

Watch the video of the MAF Hati team’s visit to Long Balaka:

Story ran in the Vol. 3 2022 edition of FlightWatch. Read the entire issue here:

The post The Heart of MAF appeared first on Mission Aviation Fellowship.

MAF KODIAK PK-MEA is very busy serving the people of Papua, Indonesia. Looking back at one of the MAF pilots’ flight logs shows a variety of ways she has served.

One day she was called for a medevac flight, to pick up a child in Nipsan village who had a piece of wood stuck in his eye. She flew to the village and whisked him away to get medical care. He has healed well after receiving medical treatment in Wamena.

In December she brought a Pioneers missionary couple back to the Nalca area where they had served for so many years before. They spent Christmas with the local churches there and encouraged the people in their Kingdom work.

PK-MEA also helped train one of the new MAF pilots so he could get “checked out” at the remote villages of Sumtamon, Paro, and Kenyam, which means the pilot can now fly by himself and safely land or takeoff at these three villages. The new pilot flew PK-MEA along with the chief pilot and together they tackled each day’s schedule, handling medical evacuations, church flights, or general community flights.

On another day the KODIAK took a load of building materials and food supplies to Soba. From there, she traveled to Obukain where she picked up a missionary family. Then there was a stop to pick up six adults and two babies at Welarek before the airplane continued on to Sentani.

Whew! As you can see, PK-MEA gets a lot done on any given day. From training pilots to helping people stay healthy to transporting missionaries, villagers, and basic necessities.

Did you know you can adopt this KODIAK with a one-time or monthly recurring gift? By doing so you’ll play an important role in sharing Christ’s love with the Papuan people through this airplane.

The post PK-MEA appeared first on Mission Aviation Fellowship.

By Jennifer Wolf

In October of 2021, a team of four disembarked the MAF Cessna Caravan at the Mbandaka Airport, in the western Democratic Republic of the Congo. Their flight from Kinshasa had covered 362 miles and lasted two hours. But it was only the beginning of their journey. Their next stop would be the Congo River. They were on their way to hold a Kids Action Network (KAN) Sunday school teacher training in the Pygmy village of Lotumbe, deep in the Congo rain forest. 

A huge opportunity

“It is currently not possible to do this type of trip without MAF. The alternative would be to reach these areas by canoe, and possibly by road, but this would take several weeks,” said Kennedy Fumba Gagaya, KAN Coordinator/ReachGlobal. He leads these Sunday school teacher workshops in areas that are quite difficult to reach.

Considering that 46 percent of the DRC’s population falls in the zero to 14 age range*, these workshops are sorely needed.

Over the years, with the departure of many western missionaries, there’s been little oversight for children’s ministries—especially in remote areas.

As a result, Kennedy says, “Many children do not come to church, and most communities no longer have a teaching program for children.”

Kennedy has always had a heart for ministering to children, and he believes the transformation of the DRC will start by reaching them. To that end, he and his small team are training and equipping children’s leaders in western DRC to make the gospel accessible to all children. Through the use of games, songs, Bible storytelling, discovery questions, and application, children are taught God’s Word in a fun and memorable way so they can live it and share it.

Stephen Hale, MAF West DRC’s program director, has flown Kennedy a number of times for these workshops. A few years ago, Stephen flew him to Inonga and stayed there through the weekend, so he was able to observe the process.

It started on a Friday afternoon, with 20 kids showing up. “So you’re going to spend the weekend with these kids?” Stephen had asked Kennedy.

“Oh, no. Not just these kids,” Kennedy had responded, his smile beaming. “You’ll see.”

As the children’s leaders were practicing the KAN methods with the local kids, word spread through the village. “By Sunday morning, there were maybe a 100 to 150 kids there,” Stephen said. “The church went from being a few pews full of kids to every pew being full of kids by the end of the weekend.”

The rest of the way

At the banks of the Congo River in Mbandaka, Kennedy and his KAN teammate, Raymond, stepped into a long dug-out canoe. They were joined by Jay and Kathy Shafto, who serve with the International Mission Board (IMB) in the DRC. Each passenger took a seat on a plastic chair, and the driver of the motorized canoe pulled onto the river highway.

During their nearly 12-hour boat ride, they passed people of all ages. Young boys navigated their small canoes to meet the wake of the team’s motorized one. Old women rowed out to check their fish traps. Nine boys in white shirts and blue shorts traveled up river in a “school canoe” to get to school.

Jay and Kathy had been to Lotumbe multiple times, and they’d discovered that none of the Pygmy churches had any kind of children’s discipleship. So they asked Kennedy if he and Raymond would accompany them to Lotumbe to do a KAN workshop there.

Kennedy had not been familiar with the place or known of the great need until the IMB partners told him about it. “It was God’s love that guided us there.”

God allowed MAF to play a role as well, by providing the air portion of the transportation.

It was to be the first-ever child-focused training in Lotumbe. The KAN workshop lasted three days, then the participants helped run a two-day VBS for the kids. In the end, 13 churches and 37 leaders were chosen to begin Sunday school. And today 1029 Pygmy children are learning God’s Word.

 “I love the partnership that we share between KAN, the IMB, and MAF,” said Kathy. “It’s a wonderful reminder of how we can see the gospel spread farther faster, if we work together as the body of Christ.”

Far-reaching change

At 5:30 in the morning, in the remote village of Nioki—where KAN workshops have been held—a young boy roused his family for morning prayer time. Since Sunday school had started in his village, he’d taken the initiative to lead his family and shares God’s Word by reciting the Bible stories he’s learned.

This is just one example of the impact KAN trainings are having. “Parents are following their children to church,” said Kennedy. “Children themselves take the initiative to evangelize and invite their friends to Sunday school and to club. Bible stories have even reached the Muslim children through their friends that we’ve taught.”

The hearts of children’s leaders have been changed, too. Kennedy explained: “In every place we went, after the training, they would often say, ‘We ask for forgiveness from God for not properly caring for the children by showing them love and care the same way our Lord Jesus did.’”

A recent MAF flight allowed KAN and IMB members to partner together again. They traveled to Djolu, one of MAF’s most remote airstrips. This time, 96 children’s leaders from 28 churches, along with students from a Bible institution, were trained.

In a report to MAF, IMB, the local church, and other partners, Kennedy stated that most churches in this area had not had a Sunday school since 1995. But in February, directly after the training, the pastors decided to restart the Sunday school.

“Soon 9,214 children will be reached by the Word of our Lord!” said Kennedy.

Bearing fruit

On that last evening in Lotumbe, Kennedy witnessed the children joyfully sharing the Bible stories they’d learned. “These Pygmy children were the first in history to be able to recite and read the Word of God,” he said.

Kennedy’s hope is for this next generation of children in the DRC to become good servants of the Lord who can change many things in the country, and become missionaries all over the world.

Because of your generous support for MAF, you are one of the partners enabling the gospel to reach the most remote areas of the DRC. Please pray that children here will have the opportunity to hear God’s Word and be changed by the love of Christ.

*The World Factbook (CIA.gov)

Story ran in the (November) Vol. 4 2022 edition of FlightWatch. Read the entire issue here:

The post Fruitful Partnerships  appeared first on Mission Aviation Fellowship.

MAF delivers letter of encouragement to new believers

By Natalie Holsten

“You Dem there who have put your faith in Yagwe*, trust him. Yagwe has not forgotten you. He loves you so much. You also are now my family and I want to be there with you but right now I can’t.”

These heartfelt words, written from a missionary to a group of new believers from the Dem tribe, are reminiscent of the letters the Apostle Paul wrote to the early church 2000 years ago.

Nowadays, with Zoom, email, Facebook, and texting, sending a letter on paper seems almost antiquated. But for the Dem people living without cell service or electricity in the highlands of Papua, Indonesia, a letter is sometimes the only option for communication.

Last summer, the body of Dem believers in the village of Bina was brand new. After months of hearing the teaching of the redemptive story of Christ, many had made decisions to place their faith in the Lord.

It was time for the missionaries to take a break – some for a longer time of furlough in their home countries, and for Jay† and his family, a short vacation on the island of Bali.

But that short vacation turned unexpectedly long because of COVID-19 travel restrictions, and Jay began to worry about how the new believers were doing.

Like the Apostle Paul writing to the early church, Jay wanted to write the new believers and remind them of the good news they had heard and believed, and to reassure them that they were not forgotten.

But how to get a letter to the Dem believers?

Jay happened to see on the MAF flight schedule that a flight was going to Bina that week, so he reached out to MAF pilot Peter Santana.

“He sent me a message and said, ‘Is there any way if we email you a letter, can you print it out and drop it in to Bina,” Peter shared. “I said ‘yeah, we can figure that out.’”

Jay wrote out his letter of encouragement in the Dem language and emailed it to Peter, who printed it and delivered it to Bina, along with a load of cargo.

“It was pretty cool,” Peter said. “We brought in this letter, kind of like Paul writing a letter to the church, but it’s from Bali to the Dem in the middle of Papua.”

In his letter, Jay told the Dem believers that the missionaries were coming back soon, and the believers should continue to trust the Lord.

“I wanted to make sure they knew that we hadn’t abandoned them,” Jay said. “The letter…reminded them of what God had done for the Dem in sending a payment for their sins and that they are now children of God and how God knows all things and we do not, so we need to trust the Lord and follow His words that we have learned.”

Not only was the letter meant to encourage, but also to convey their regret that they couldn’t be there to help with medical needs.

The first morning after Jay and his family took off from Bina, they received word that a close Dem friend of Jay’s son was seriously ill. MAF flew him to a nearby town for treatment, but sadly, the boy died a few weeks later.

“We felt so burdened because we were supposed to be there to help with meds and there were some other health issues going around, and so in the letter I addressed that as well….just that we were sad we weren’t there to do medicine, but God is in control and knows all things,” Jay said.

Delivering the encouragement letter is just one way that MAF has supported the work of Jay and his coworkers in Bina. Through the years, MAF planes have flown in cargo and done medical flights, and MAF staff have assisted with the construction of the building where the teaching is done.

“We have such a unique role as the transportation arm of missions and the church,” Peter said. “Sometimes that comes in the form of flying in church leaders, sometimes missionaries, sometimes pigs, and occasionally we get to deliver a message for the young church in Dem. One flight like this is such a boost not only to their work leading a group of new believers, but also for each of us that God allows us to play a part in His story.”

Want to read the letter that Jay wrote? Here is the Letter to the Dem believers.

*Yagwe is Dem for Yahweh

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

Story appeared in the FlightWatch Vol. 3 (summer), 2022 issue:

The post Special Delivery appeared first on Mission Aviation Fellowship.

By Jennifer Wolf

One day in 2012, a few men from Bina, a village in the highlands of Papua, Indonesia, started a two-day trek to traverse a huge valley. When they reached the rushing river in the middle, they stepped barefoot and sure-footedly on a narrow vine bridge to cross to the other side.

The bridge had been torn down years before due to tension between their tribe—the Dem—and the Wano people. They had recently rebuilt the bridge because they’d heard a group of missionaries were visiting the Wano people in Mokndoma and they hoped to bring them to Bina.

In Mokndoma that day, four men were helping a fellow missionary with a project. They were all expatriates from the same Christian organization.* As they were working, they got word that some men had come from Bina and wanted to talk with them. They put down their tools and met them at the local meeting area.

Through a translator, the Dem men shared how they felt like forgotten people; all the tribes around them already had missionaries come and translate the Bible in their language.

“We know when Jesus comes back we’re going to die. We are in darkness,” said one of the Dem men, wiping tears from his eyes.

Although missionaries had passed through Bina around 50 years ago, they hadn’t stayed. They were on their way to bring the gospel to another tribe. But they told the Dem that if they were to build an airstrip in Bina, missionaries would be more likely to come. So they did, but no one came. And while a few Dem people had some brief Bible training, it wasn’t in their mother tongue. What little the people knew was mixed in with their animistic beliefs—the belief that spirits lived in inanimate objects. And they continued to live in fear of these spirits.

Dylan, one of the four men helping at the time, and his wife had been asking God to reveal where He wanted them to serve. They had committed to go to a people group who were asking for the gospel, which is how they came to be in Papua, Indonesia. The visit to Mokndoma was an unplanned, last-minute trip.

“I knew right away that this was the answer from God we had been waiting for. It couldn’t have been any clearer,” said Dylan.

Dylan told the Dem men, “If it was up to us we would grab our bags and come to the village to live with you.” But first, they needed to return to the city to finish tasks, check with their organization’s leaders, and talk it over with their families before they could come to Bina.

But they did come. Almost a year later, Dylan returned to build a home so his wife and three young children could come and live there. Near the end of Dylan’s visit, MAF officially opened the Bina airstrip and began serving Dylan’s family and the other three men who were with him that day—and their families—who followed shortly after.

Over the next seven-plus years, MAF airplanes landed in Bina often, bringing the families in and out; transporting zinc roofing for their homes, a literacy building, and a large gathering place; and delivering appliances, food, and other supplies needed to live in the remote village. MAF also did medical evacuation flights for the Dem people.

Together, the missionary families learned the culture and the language of the Dem. They taught literacy classes so the people could one day read God’s Word. And, eventually, they were able to translate and prepare a series of 79 Bible lessons covering Creation to Christ—“God’s Talk.”

The Hamstras’ Path to Papua

Just days after Christmas 2020, Jack Hamstra, an MAF maintenance specialist, his wife, Angie, and their three teen children, along with other teammates, were spending a few days in the village of Bina, to help with a special building project—a large gathering place where the Dem people would soon be hearing about the God who loves them.

Jack had been serving with his family in Papua, Indonesia, for a few months and he was happy to do this work project for the Bina missionaries who were supported by MAF flights. As Jack thought and prayed about what would soon transpire under the shelter they were building, he was amazed at the goodness of God and the path He had brought them on to get to this point—even though that path had included some tough things along the way.

A few years earlier, Jack and Angie had stepped out in faith in their first “mission field”—fostering and adoption. Angie had cared for their four children, including an adopted daughter who had several medical needs. Jack had been working on corporate jet engines for several years but was beginning to feel unsettled at work.

“I  liked my job fixing airplanes and the guys I worked with. I just felt like there was something more.”

His discontentment had gone on for three years while the couple had prayed together every morning for the Lord’s direction. As time went on, their daughter’s health had begun to decline. The family had been through some difficult times before, but when Laila died, it was the most heart-rending trial they’d experienced. They hadn’t known it was coming, but the Lord knew.

Six months later, after they’d taken time to grieve, God finally began to reveal what he had in mind for them next.

In 2017, they sent an inquiry to MAF, trusting that God would open the doors if it was His will. God opened them wide. Three years later, the Hamstras were in Indonesia serving at the MAF base in Sentani, which is how their family came to be in the village of Bina in late 2020.

They had a sweet time of fellowship during that visit with the four missionary families and learned the amazing story of how God had called them to Bina. They also met the Dem people and heard about their culture, their beliefs, and their fears. But now, the Dem were so close to hearing God’s Word in their own language for the first time; it gave Angie pause for thought.

With Laila’s death and other hard things her family had been through, plus the general craziness of the world in 2020, Angie had sometimes found herself thinking, “Jesus, can you just come back?”

But as she stood in the middle of a village of five-hundred people who didn’t know Christ, it gave her a different perspective. “Maybe wait a little bit longer, Jesus. We need these people to have the Word.”

Hope comes to the Dem

In early January 2021, Dem villagers walked across the dewy grass and took a seat on the ground under the new shelter. They may not have realized it at the time, but God was calling them to His heart. He wanted them to know the extravagant love He had for them—the salvation that awaited each and every one.

Among them were Tigitogon, Liut, Nambal and his son, Yanet, the ones who had crossed the bridge several years earlier. Terisi, whom God had saved the year before through an MAF medevac flight, was there with her twin babies. Many others filed in, some who had hiked from over an hour away to hear the teaching, even three people who were crippled and endured difficult, muddy mountain trails.

The teaching began in the Old Testament with the Creation story and continued every weekday for several weeks. By March, they were in the New Testament. In mid-April, the Dem heard of Jesus’ death and resurrection and learned how they could be made right with God. Many tears were shed and confessions of faith were shared that day.

“Jesus did nothing wrong. He took my punishment so that I wouldn’t have to die and be separated from Yagwe,”† said an elderly woman through her tears. “I believe He did that because I couldn’t do it myself; no one can. Jesus did that for me. That Talk is very true.”

One man, after he’d believed in Christ as his Savior, said, “We have always thought Yagwe was white man’s Father.”

God in His sovereign, merciful way called the Dem men to cross the bridge that led to the four missionary families coming to Bina, which led to MAF opening the Bina airstrip. All continue to be obedient to God’s call on their lives: the Dem seek after God, the Bina missionaries teach and disciple, and the MAF missionaries partner with them.

Now the Dem people know that the good news is for all people, even for those who feel like the forgotten ones—even for those who live at the ends of the earth.

##

*Some of our partners prefer to be anonymous, particularly when they are in the early stages of working with a new tribe.

†Yagwe – Dem word for Yahweh

This story appeared in the Vol. 1 2022 edition of FlightWatch. Read the full issue here:

The post The Bridge to Hope appeared first on Mission Aviation Fellowship.

October 8, 2021

Local Nonprofit Featured in Documentary Coming to Treasure Valley Theaters on October 18 and 21

NAMPA, Idaho – Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), a global nonprofit Christian organization based in Nampa, is the subject of an inspirational documentary titled, ENDS OF THE EARTH. The movie will be released in 700 theaters nationwide and will be shown in local theaters on October 18 and 21.

The film shares true stories about the lengths MAF pilots and others go to in serving the most isolated people around the world. The documentary, which explores faith, the passion to help others, and how hope emerges from tragedy, was written to challenge and inspire audiences to consider serving the deepest needs of others, whether it is around the globe or right next door.

ENDS OF THE EARTH will be shown locally at the Village Cinema 15 and Cinemark Majestic Cinemas 18, in Meridian, and the Regal Boise Stadium 22. The film will also be released to churches throughout Idaho on the same day as the theatrical release.

Watch the trailer for ENDS OF THE EARTH here

“We believe that every follower of Christ should have a passion for missions,” said Mission Aviation Fellowship President and CEO David Holsten. “Some will be called to go, others will be called to use their gifts to support, and all are called to pray that people will accept the life-changing salvation that comes through Jesus Christ.”

Chris Burgess, MAF’s creative director, is hoping the movie will inspire people to reach out to others. “Maybe that will mean that some people do go overseas and they give their lives to actual missions work. Maybe that means they’ll be involved in some way here supporting that work, or maybe that means that they will cross the street and show the love of Christ to a neighbor.”

The movie includes inspirational messages from Dr. Mark Jobe, president of Moody Bible Institute, and David Platt, church leader and author of Radical.

MAF’s key partners in making and distributing this movie include Fathom Events, Collide Media Group and Change Media.

Mission Aviation Fellowship (www.maf.org) was founded in 1945 by WWII pilots who had a vision for using aviation to spread the gospel. Since that time, MAF has grown to a global family of organizations serving in 37 countries across Africa, Asia, Eurasia, Indonesia, and Latin America, supporting the work of missionaries, Bible translators, and relief and humanitarian agencies around the world. MAF’s U.S. headquarters is in Nampa, Idaho.

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For artwork/photos related to ENDS OF THE EARTH visit the Fathom Events press site.

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My sweet friend, Maggie, lives in the jungle among the Fayu people. Her family relies on the MAF floatplane for medicine and food. After months in the tribe, it was time to resupply. Greg flew four hours from MAF’s Merauke base on the South coast so he could make the 30-minute supply run. I prepared a package of fresh English muffins, candy for the kids, and a note of encouragement to send. I was delighted when Greg said, “Actually, there’s an extra seat! Would you like to deliver the package yourself?” Otodemo is one of our more challenging water strips. I gripped my seat as Greg weaved between the trees and touched down on one float in the river bend. Amazing! We are blessed to be a blessing. It is fun to find creative ways to care for and encourage the missionaries we serve.

Our Nabire patio is serving Bible translation work and strengthening the church. Here, Seth meets with Barnabas and Klaus, his Fayu language helpers. Seth is with one organization. Iwan and Maggie are with another. Seth sometimes travels to Otodemo with Iwan and Maggie. Both are focused on the same people group. Pray for the gospel to take root, for the Church to be established. Last month Seth launched a tour of villages, recruiting Fayu helpers for the next Bible story set.

Significant unrest in the Wolani valley has meant no air service of any kind. Troublemakers have moved on and things are returning to normal. The Sunday school kids in Bugalaga sang these words of Thanksgiving when Brian landed: “Yesus adalah penolong kita, dia setia… Sebab itu mari kita memuji dia.”(Jesus is our help. He is faithful. So, let us praise Him!) It is the first time any plane has landed there in six months!

Kegata village received a monetary blessing from the government. They are using it to build a new sanctuary! Brian has made 20 flights so far with plywood, roofing, tile, cement, and nails. Builders went in several weeks ago. The head pastor was away on an evangelism trip, going from village to village. He finally came by road to Nabire and Brian flew him back to Kegata the next day. Boy, was he excited to see progress on the new building.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these firsthand accounts of how the Marx family is able to bless others in Papua. Please pray for them as well as for Maggie and her family in Otodemo, Seth, Barnabas, and Klaus and the Fayu translation work.

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Peter is an MAF pilot serving with his family in Papua, Indonesia. He wrote this story back in March and we’re sharing it here in hopes that it will encourage you. 

It was another beautiful morning in the mountains of Papua, Indonesia, as fellow pilot Tom Bolser and I started our descent into the village of Silimo. Silimo is about an hour flight from Sentani, to the south side of the awe-inspiring mountain ranges that split the island of Papua almost in half horizontally. On board with us were two long-time Western missionaries (20-plus years in Papua), as well as their two national partner translators. Also on board were about 300 kgs (around 300) of Ngalik New Testament Bibles. This team of translators finished the full New Testament translation several years ago and only lack two books of the Old Testament to finish the work.

This was my first MAF flight since arriving back in Papua in late January, after an “adventurous” travel experience from the States and a five-day hotel quarantine in Jakarta. What a great way for me to start off this year of flying in Papua.

After landing, the local villagers quickly unloaded the New Testament Bibles, and a local church leader led us all in a prayer of thanksgiving.

I talked again with the missionary that I brought in that morning, and he reported that all of the Bibles we flew in that day were sold within a week. The Bibles are subsidized 75 percent but they still require the people to contribute a bit so that they truly value them. It had been several years since their last printing and these new copies were received enthusiastically by the Ngalik people.

In the midst of continued COVID-19 challenges, political strife, disappointments, and uncertainties about the future, please take heart that God’s Word continues to go forth throughout the world; and you are making an impact in the lives of new believers and seekers by supporting the work of MAF in Papua.

Thank you!

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By Natalie Holsten

In the early months of this year, while the world was consumed with the chaos of global events, something amazing was happening in Bina, a small hamlet in the mountains of Papua, Indonesia.

A church was born.

The Dem people, one of many isolated tribes in the range of mountains that traverses the island of New Guinea, were living in spiritual darkness. They did not have the Bible in their own language. They lived in bondage to beliefs about spirits, fearing them and attempting to appease them.

“We have seen the Holy Spirit change the entire demeanor of some of our friends who have lived in fear their whole lives and now have put their faith in Christ and have hope,” shared Jeremiah, one of the expatriate Christian workers serving in Bina.

He, along with his family and three other families, moved as a team into Bina in 2013 to reach the people with the good news of Jesus Christ. Because of the ruggedness of the terrain, the only way in or out of the area is by foot or airplane.

MAF has assisted these families and the Dem people from the beginning of their ministry there, bringing in building supplies, food, and the families themselves.

“It’s been a privilege to be working alongside of the team there in Bina,” MAF Papua program director Mike Brown said. “It has been over eight years getting to this point, and MAF has been part of supporting them all along.”

My husband David made dozens of flights into Bina, and I was always anxious to hear how the families, who had become our friends, were doing as they progressed in learning the language and culture of the Dem.

“I would often fly into Bina following a flight into another village where there was already a gospel understanding. And the contrast was stark,” David said. “There was this pervasive sense of brokenness that was palatable. All of us were united by a sense of faith that in the future God, in his timing, would bring light to that area.”

Our family visited Bina several years ago, after diverting there when our original destination was covered by clouds. I was glad for the chance to visit and see the place I had heard so much about. As I stood with my friends on the grass airstrip, we looked across the valley to where a completely different people group lived. My friend explained how even though geographically it’s not that far, the languages are vastly different.

For the families who moved in to work with the Dem, the process of church planting is a long haul, a “marathon, not a sprint,” one of them related. Step one was to master the language, while also absorbing the culture. As the team learned enough language, they translated portions of scripture, checking them with Dem language helpers for clarity and accuracy. They also held literacy classes to teach the Dem to read and write in their heart language.

This whole process took eight years, until the day arrived when they could begin a chronological teaching of 70 lessons that cover “creation to Christ.” The teaching would take three and a half months, starting in Genesis and concluding with the ascension of Christ and the early church.

In anticipation of the teaching, last December two MAF families, the Hamstras and the Browns, flew to Bina to assist in building a “meeting place” or teaching facility that would become the hub of activity for the team as they shared the story of God’s love and plan for this fallen world.

“It was amazing to see the Dem people so curious about what was going on,” shared Angie Hamstra. “The families had been telling them that this new gathering place was for them. They would be teaching ‘God’s talk’ and that these words are for everyone. These words are for every person, whether they have more than one wife, those who don’t have ‘church clothes,’ those who smoke, those who are poor and those who are rich. The Dem people have had a skewed vision on Christianity and church in the past, so they are not calling this a church. It is a gathering place. It is free and it will tell them about true freedom in Christ.”

The teaching launched mid-January with an estimated 500 in attendance. Many of the Dem tribe live in outlying villages and hiked miles over muddy mountain trails to hear the teaching. Special MP3 recorders were used to record the teachings and were distributed among the people to enable those who couldn’t attend to hear the lessons, and for others to listen again to “God’s talk” in their huts or as they take a break in their gardens.

Several of the lessons brought immediate responses from the Dem, evidence of the light beginning to break through the darkness. The teachings started with the creation of the world, and after the lesson about how God created man and woman, the men responded. The idea of woman being lovingly created by God as a companion for man is totally counter to what Dem culture believes.

The team members report that the men say women are like animals or don’t have brains so it’s ok to beat them if they don’t have food ready for their husbands. “In the past we were lied to,” the Dem men said. But now they were hearing the “true talk.”

Jeremiah shared how the Dem think a certain frog is a “spirit” and they fear it and won’t touch it. “After the teaching…one of these frogs jumped out next to me and they started calling it a spirit again until one tribal guy came up and said, ‘No, It’s not a spirit. Remember what we have been learning? All these things were created by the Creator, and when he created them, He did not create them with a soul or spirit. They are just animals. We do not need to be afraid of them.’ Of course, I was thrilled to hear this, and the man was still afraid to touch it, but baby steps here are very encouraging. Little nuggets of truth planted in their minds, causing them to question what they’ve believed their whole lives is all we are doing, and letting the Holy Spirit do what He does.”

After the lesson on John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus, a Dem man came up and said to team member Dylan, “I don’t speak for the other people here, but I am a bad person. I just do bad things all the time.” He started to cry and then said, “I want Jesus’ blood to wash away my sins!” Dylan was in tears as he put his arm around him and told him to just wait and he’ll see what happened.

Dylan’s wife Angie shared about another Dem, an elderly man named Kayus who has been a ‘pastor’ in the Dem region for decades. “He had attended a school in a different tribe as a young man and learned some things about the Bible, but it was all in a completely different language than his and he has some very skewed ideas about the Bible now,” she said. “We were really praying that he would respond well to the teaching and not be offended by the things he was hearing as they were quite opposite to what he’s been teaching for years. This week he said, ‘A long time ago I went to school and I heard, but I didn’t really understand. Now I am hearing, and I understand!’”

One Dem man, Mese, testified to how the teaching was affecting his everyday life. He told Dylan, “I remember you told us to talk about God wherever we are, not just in the teaching time. The other day I was fixing my fence and it stopped raining and I saw a rainbow and I remembered God’s promise to Noah. And last week I was walking to Sinak with my friends and for the first hour we just talked about random things, but then I said, ‘Let’s talk about God.’ So we spoke about God’s talk for the next four hours.”

Then Mese said, “We Dem people are like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, but God sent you four (families) to us to tell us about Him so we can be saved. You told us that God told you to come to Papua and then you said, ‘Where should we go?’ and God showed you the Dem people so that you could tell us about Him. If you hadn’t told us, we would die like the people back then, but if we believe God’s talk, He saves us.”

After the teaching on Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, Angie said her friend Joragal left after the lesson but showed up at their house several hours later, “just beaming and telling us how she believed Jesus suffered and died for her to save her. She would go from tears over remembering what Jesus suffered to big smiles saying, ‘He led me here to hear this talk and He saved me! I’m just so happy!’”

It’s the prayer of many that the Dem church will continue to grow, and believers will be added and discipled into maturity. MAF will continue to be there for them, providing the necessary flights to continue the work.

“MAF has been an incredible blessing to us families living interior,” Dem team member Melanie said. “From regular flights of supplies, flights in and out of the tribe, to medevacs. We are so very thankful to have a mission organization that backs us up and that we trust for safety for our families’ and tribal friends’ flights.”

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