Cool Story from the Field: The Word on the move | MAF in Tanzania

The Word on the move | MAF UK

Check out this cool story about how the MAF team in Tanzania is helping reach the Maasai people for Christ. MAF flies Maasai pastors and evangelists to the notoriously "on the move" tribes to disciple new Christians. Just one example of the cool work MAF does to support the local church!

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

Podcast with the Church Unity Project

We had the fun and awesome pleasure of partnering with a friend from West London Alliance Church, Nigel Garnaitis, on his new podcast the Church Unity Project. He is passionate about building networks and understanding between Christian communities and transcending denominational divides. His Church Unity Project podcast and blog allow him to highlight people, projects, and organizations that do exactly that: transcend denominational divides in their work for God's kingdom.

Not surprisingly, this is one of the things we love about MAF! You can listen to our interview here. For more information about Church Unity Project, check out the site: http://churchunityproject.wordpress.com/.

Breakfast with the Boers (Monday, Feb. 3)

So ... when I told Marcel we are making a video this morning (about 5 minutes after he got out of bed), he was not very happy. You know what I told him? "People think you're funny when you're tired!" You'll see why :). Watch our two minute video where we update you on where we are at, and what's coming up next.

Upcoming events:

Tuesday, Feb. 4--Blenheim Christian Reformed "Coffee Break" presentation and an opportunity to meet with a few Chatham-Kent connections

Feb. 10--Feb. 17--Gone on family vacation with the Boers!

Friday, Feb. 21--MAF General Meeting (sounds important!)

Sunday, Feb. 23--Luncheon/Info Session at our house following second service (around 12:30)! All are welcome, see Facebook event.

Tuesday, Feb. 25--Our two year anniversary! Yay!

Thursday, Feb. 27--Dessert Night/Info Night in Blenheim, 7 pm, Blenheim Youth Centre. If you would like to attend, help us (and my mom) out by letting us know via email (kboers@maf.org) or phoning my mom @519-676-2182!

March, TBA--Dessert Night and Info Session in Ancaster, Ontario.

Feel free to message us about any of the events for more details (kboers@maf.org or mboers@maf.org). Please pray for these events as well!

A Thankful Heart

Lately, God has been challenging me to be more thankful. Have you ever been in that same place? God is so good and yet, like second nature, when I pray, I skip over my blessings and focus on what I still need from God. I make light of the many ways He has been faithful, and go right on requesting.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 (New Living Translation) says: "Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus." 

So, after I burst through the doors Sunday night and exclaimed to Marcel, "My heart is so thankful, I feel like it might explode! Like actually ... I feel like I'm having a heart attack and I just need to dance!" I'm going to do the blogiquivocal thing and share some of the good things God has done and how He has shown His faithfulness. If you pray for us, or just enjoy being happy for us, here are some things you can join us in praising God for:

- His faithfulness in bringing in new monthly partners. This past week He provided us with four new monthly supporters--some of them a complete surprise to us! We are so thankful for dear friends and family!

- His encouragement through conversations and visits with friends and family. Also, his encouragement through epically amazing food (I am 100% certain Thai food and Tim Tams will be on the menu in heaven!)

- His provision in bringing our monthly support up to 15% and outgoing funds up to 32% ALREADY! Should we start packing? YAYYY!

- His faithfulness in lining up several upcoming events and meetings for us--dessert nights, ministerial meetings, bible studies, and coffee dates!

- His mercy in allowing us to go on a family vacation in February brought to you by the the Boers clan! So pumped to make memories with the family!

For all the things God has done, and continues to do, I have to add one little thing at the end. I am most thankful that God does so much of His work through people. We are so thankful for the people God has used to bless us in the past weeks and months, and we desire to return those blessings to those people. Thank you to all of you who follow God through big or small steps of obedience! You set an incredible example to us!

"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.

Looking back and looking to the future!

Hi Everyone!

As we start back in to the "post-vacation grind", Marcel and I want to take a few minutes to share with you some reflections on the last year and updates on our future in 2014!

2013 brought many exciting new opportunities our way. As you can recall, we started with MAF in November. For Marcel, this meant a change from working on airplanes every day to working from home. As for me, I have continued to supply teach but less frequently, and also work on MAF work from home. Our job with MAF is actually a lot of fun--we get to connect with friends and family and share about a ministry we feel very passionate about! But it also requires a lot of faith and trust, teamwork, and an extensive amount of time and energy.

2013 also brought a new house in to the picture. As we talked about in a previous blog, we wanted to buy a house (specifically a condo) that we could rent out to Western students or families in the future while we are overseas. Well, we love our new house so far, and we even had over 30 young adults crammed in to the house for New Years Eve! That's one thing we could have never done in our basement apartment!

Sold! Dec. 20, 2013.

The most exciting thing about 2013 though has been seeing how God is already working in peoples' hearts to partner with us in our MAF ministry. We already have several monthly supporters, as well as many one-time donors to our MAF ministry. Despite our trepidations that no one would want to partner with us so close to Christmas, God has been faithful at launching our ministry and showing He is in control! Thank you to everyone who has joined us already! We're excited to get more people on board in 2014.

But as exciting as 2013 has been, I have this feeling 2014 is going to be the biggest year yet. New Years Day it dawned on me ... this could be the year we move overseas! This could be the year we pack everything up and take a huge leap of faith! (Extra huge right now, since we are still waiting on God's leading for where we should go.) This could be the year that this massive MAF dream comes true--a dream that really can only happen because of God's mercy. We've still got a lot of money to raise and a lot of prayers to say, but God is doing big things through MAF and we are trusting in His faithfulness to carry this through to the end. Our goal is to have all of our support raised by August--can you help us make that a reality?

2014 could be our biggest year yet ... and it could be yours too! I want to end with a challenge. I know a lot of people aren't in to New Years resolutions and things like that. But if you've been tracking along with us, praying for us, reading our blog or Facebook pages, then I challenge you to pray about how God can use you this year. Maybe it's through MAF--maybe the Holy Spirit wants to use you to partner with us in sharing the gospel. Maybe it's through local ministries or your local church. Whatever the case, don't ignore the Holy Spirit's whispers. We're praying for you too. Please pray for us.

Happy 2014 friends, may it be totally awesome and a chance to grow closer to Christ!

Kelly and Marcel