Stories from the Field: MAF Supporting Local Churches

I absolutely love reading up on what MAF is doing around the world--especially when it's about a topic that really interests me. Today's topic is about how MAF supports the local church in countries around the world. This is something that weighs large on my heart because this is what the ultimate goal of missions is: to establish local, indigenous churches (full of local, indigenous Christ-followers).

Fun fact: The face of Christianity is changing. Once upon a time, 80% of all Christians lived in Europe and the US. Now, over half of the world's Christians live in Africa, South America, and Asia. And while the US still leads in the number of missionaries it sends out across the globe, not far behind are Brazil, India, South Korea, and China!

Cool quote, by a cool guy: "We now realize for missions to go full circle, it is necessary for churches established by missionaries to become sending churches in order to gather the momentum necessary to penetrate each of the world's remaining unreached people groups." (Ralph D. Winter)

So ... is the work of MAF missionaries finished? Or is there still a role for MAF to play--just different from what it was in the past? This, people, is why I love MAF and am so excited to work for MAF. Because MAF has an important role to play by partnering directly with local churches and asking, "How can we help you? What are your needs?"

Here is one example from the field:

Petrus Giay, an Indonesian evangelist, hiked for four weeks to reach a very isolated tribe through thick jungle in Papua, Indonesia. Now, with MAF's help, he is able to reach the tribe and share the gospel in a fraction of the time by flying in one of MAF's amphibious planes and landing on a nearby lake.

How cool is that? Where once, perhaps, MAF was largely a conduit for western missionaries to come in and serve in countries far from their homes, now MAF is changing with the changing face of Christianity to better support local missionaries and churches. Sure, there's still a role to play for us "western missionaries"--but it's a very cool role with a servant heart. How can we support you? How can we help the work here and the church here in (insert country)?

*All info taken from MAF-US FlightWatch magazine, Volume 1, 2014, "A Changing World". You can find it here: http://issuu.com/maf.org/docs/2014_flightwatch_volume_1/4