Tasty Tidbits of Life on the Field

Every once in a while, I stumble upon some interesting blogs from the field that I think just exemplify the good work MAF is doing around the world. Here are some tasty tidbits of life as an MAF missionary ...

From Lesotho:

In Lesotho, MAF staff had the opportunity to participate in a "Letsema"--a partnership to complete a project for the good of the community. In a very remote village called Lebakeng, the airstrip had become unsafe due to deep ruts. This airstrip is an important lifeline to the people in the village to receive medical care. At best, without MAF and the use of an airstrip for quick medical evacuation, it takes a minimum of 16 HOURS to get to a hospital--lots of walking and if you're lucky, you'll catch the once-a-day taxi/bus, followed by at least 10 hours of public transportation to Maseru, the capital city! But with MAF, it's just a short 40 minute flight! WOW!

In April, the community invited MAF to come help them fix the airstrip, recognizing the vital importance it had in the community. 80 people gathered together to fix the airstrip and work shoulder to shoulder. The cost? Two flights and enough food to feed everyone. And the other cool part ... after everyone was fed, the Gospel was shared and Sesotho bibles handed out--one for each village represented! Some people even heard the good news of the Gospel for the first time. Now that ... that is good news! See full story here: http://www.mafblog.com/stories/it-takes-a-village-part-1

Working shoulder to shoulder to fix the airstrip ... looks nothing like a Canadian airstrip though, eh?
Photo by Kimberly Baker

From Mozambique:

I recently read the blog of MAF'er Jill Holmes. She recounted some of the work MAF flights had made possible over the past year or so. Take a look at some of God work that is going on:

• MAF flies a missionary along with some much needed supplies to a village, where two missionary families are teaching the Bible chronologically. 
• MAF flies doctors and workers to a titanium mine. When one worker got a serious head injury, MAF flew the man to a hospital--a journey that would normally take hours on very bumpy roads (not exactly preferable travel for someone with a head injury!).
• MAF staff, along with Mozambique pastors/evangelists often get the chance to show the JESUS film in different villages. This is an important ministry in sharing the gospel.
• See Jill's blog here: http://holmeslogbook.blogspot.ca

Delivering an injured mine worker to safety ... Photo by Jill Holmes.

"Ice"-olation and Isolation!

Brrrr .... it's COLD here in London!!!! Marcel said the wind chill makes it feel like -40 degrees Celsius out--a figure which makes me ready to move overseas any day, please and thank you!

This cold has me reflecting on the importance of MAF and their ministry of reaching the isolated. I tried to imagine this morning what it would feel like to be isolated--something that wasn't too hard to imagine on a cold day like this, where I don't want to leave my home or start my car.

How encouraging would it be to see an MAF plane land in the isolated village where you and your family serve as missionaries, bringing encouragement from other Canadians and comforts of home? 
How exciting would it be to see family you haven't seen in years coming off of an MAF airplane? 
How relieving would it be to see food, water, and basic living supplies coming from the cargo hold when your community is in the middle of an awful famine or terrible drought? 
How thankful would you be if an MAF plane brought in supplies, food, and hope in the midst of a terrible natural disaster that has left you isolated and terrified? 
How crucial would it be to your son or daughter's health if they could get a life-saving flight to a "nearby" hospital (200 miles away) after a terrible accident?

These are just a few of the important reasons MAF exists. These are just a few of the ways MAF ministers to isolated people.

I'd like to end by re-posting a couple cool photos from the MAF-US blog that show some of the work MAF staff do every day to help the isolated. Some of these pics are pretty cool and worth a scroll!!

A medevac flight for a miner with a head injury in Mozambique. Photo by Jill Holmes.

A joyful reception of 1000 Zandi language bibles along the CAR/Congo border. Photo courtesy of John Cadd.

South Sudan flight for amputees getting prosthetic limbs. Photo courtesy of John Woodberry.

The village of Kiwi comes out to greet passengers arriving. Photo by David Holsten.

The Why

"Where are you going?" "...When do you leave?" Two big questions that start with the letter "W" that Kelly and I have been asked in the last year or so, and we are glad people are asking them as it hopefully means that they care or are interested in our work with MAF. A lot has happened in that time (see previous post) but we still don't have many new answers for them, and that is okay.


There is a third "W" question though that doesn't seem to get asked quite as much, and maybe that's because people already know the answer. Why? as in "why are you moving?" "Why leave the greatest country in the world for potentially a third world country?" "Why move away from good healthcare, safety, a neighbourhood that's comfortable, from friends and family, from the familiar and routine?" Too many times I've given the quick and short answer which is "oh, we want to travel while we can." Unfortunately this implies that we can't travel later on in life, and that we have to do it while we aren't settled into jobs and don't have kids.


I realize that now is the best time to travel while our life doesn't require as much attention from things dependent on us, but the real answer for "why" is because we feel God's call to use our skills and abilities for His use. Paul wrote in Romans 12:5-7, "...and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching." I see Kelly's profession mentioned in there, so I like to think that if Paul were to add one more example, it would be "and for the aircraft mechanic, let him perform maintenance in accordance to the applicable standards of airworthiness to the glory of God!"


Enough of the "why" talk for now. I'd like to address the "when" and the "where". As it has been shown to us, the goal is to complete our ministry partnership in the next 12-14 months. After this would be up to 3-4 months of additional technical, security, and standardization training (all fancy words for stuff I haven't realized I don't know yet) that would take place in either Guelph, Idaho, or England, depending on where the "where" actually is. When we do find out "where", that could potentially lead to a year of language school in another country that we'll call "Somewhere-2B" (see what I did there?).


So as you can see, there is still lots to find out, and lots of work on our behalf in the next year or so (which may include how to properly write a blog). If you are interested in learning more about what we are involved in with MAF, please ask us! or else we will do our best to find you and tell you what we are doing anyway!

“All around you, people will be tiptoeing through life, just to arrive at death safely. But dear children, do not tiptoe. Run, hop, skip, or dance, just don't tiptoe.” 
― Shane Claiborne 

Official Beginnings!

Hi Everyone! Welcome to our blog! I'm so excited to be starting my third ... or maybe fourth ... blog ever. Blog consistency is not my strong point, I'll admit. But this blog is entirely different because unlike previous attempts at blogging, I think we'll have some really interesting stuff to blog about and some people who might actually want to read it! Yay!

So ... let me take you on the journey we've been on over the past months ... err ... years.

The Dream

Way back in 2009, Marcel and I travelled to Urbana Missions Conference in St. Louis Missouri. Thinking back on it now, I have no idea what compelled me to go and spend what I remember to be a significant chunk of change on the event. I personally had never felt a particular call in to missions, but after my time abroad in South Africa during 2nd year of university, I was going through a phase of really hungering for more. I had seen poverty over there, but I had also seen amazing faith in action ... and I wanted more.

Thankfully, that trip to Urbana changed our lives completely. Over many tense conversations, Marcel and I came to some sort of agreement on our future: we would leave the idea of missions open. We checked out the Mission Aviation Fellowship booth, made some contacts, and the initial dream was born. Maybe ... just maybe ... one day we would go in to missions. 

The Past Year-ish

It's hard to say when that dream started becoming a reality, but it did eventually. We got in contact with MAF again. As Marcel continued to work on airplanes here in London, it was becoming clearer that he did not want to stay in the same job, at the same place forever. MAF offered an alternative: fixing planes for an organization that was making kingdom impact in the world--spreading the hope of Jesus Christ to isolated people.  We could see our work make a real difference for hurting and the poor. We could live and work in an exotic place. We could give our careers over to God and watch Him work.

Then Jazz decided to close its hangar in London. And the wake up call became real. If we weren't going to leave London and pursue Missions, God would give us the nudge (or the gigantic push). Fortunately, we had lots of time to start making plans (almost too much time from our human perspective ... but I'm sure for God it was perfect timing!).

So we prayed and waited. And then the application process begin. We filled out lots of forms and answered questions we'd never had to answer before. We had interviews. We took some fun psychological tests. We took a course called Perspectives on World Missions (I could spend a whole blog post talking about how that course changed our entire outlook ... and also about how much we DIDN'T miss school work). Then we waited some more and prayed some more.

Then ... came our candidacy course! Finally!

Candidacy

Last week (it feels like much longer) we spent a week in Guelph for our candidacy course. Our what?! Our week of orientation and training that, barring any major life changes, would propel us into MAF full-time. It was overwhelming and tiring but fun. We ate lots of food. We learned a LOT about MAF that only reinforced the excitement we had to join the organization. We met amazing staff. We heard incredible stories from Gary and Doreen, two missionaries that are basically the most interesting people in the world. And then we were offered our official acceptance on Thursday. I cried tears of joy. It was sort of embarrassing. And then Monday, Nov. 11 we started work as pre-field missionaries!!!

Now the real journey begins ...

Well, I won't drag this blog post on any longer. I want to have stuff to write next week too! But now we begin a process of partnering with people and churches around London, Ontario, Canada, and North America in our ministry with MAF!! Without diving in to details yet (they come in the newsletter), we need a ton of people to come along side us and pray for us and support us financially. The exciting thing is that "our ministry" with MAF becomes a ministry that is WAY more than just us. It becomes your ministry too. It becomes a ministry of hundreds of individuals whom God is preparing to join in and make His name and His hope known in the world. It becomes something more than just airplanes and prayer letters. So ... stay tuned because something this exciting and this big won't be boring.