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A former Kiwi missionary to Papua New Guinea is riding a motorcycle across the length of New Zealand to raise funds to buy an aeroplane to serve the rural people of PNG. Interestingly, the motorcycle that Frank Carter, 76, is riding to raise funds is the same one – a 1955 DOT Scrambler– he used while serving in the Western Highlands province in the late 1950s.

Carter Family and the DOT motorcycle - 2009

Mr Carter rode into Dunedin on the South Island on Wednesday and was expected to ride into Gore yesterday, before reaching the town of Bluff today – clocking up 2,220km in 14 days. He plans to end the ride at an annual motorbike rally called the Burt Munro Challenge at Oreti Beach near Invercargill this weekend.

So far, he has been able to raise more than NZ$20,000 (K40,000) on his road trip – far short of the NZ$1 million (K2 million) needed to by a new Australian-built GA8 Airvan and donate it to the Missionary Aviation Fellowship (MAF) for its work in PNG. Mr Carter was reported by the Otago Daily Times as saying that he was praying hard for more funds.

The DOT tackles a rough stretch of road in PNG

Mr Carter bought the motorbike in 1959 and shipped it to Mt Hagen where he and his family were doing missionary work. He said the DOT (devoid of trouble) was ideal for the remote and rugged conditions he encountered in the Western Highlands province, and it was his only mode of transport for the seven-and a-half years he lived and served God there. When it was time to return to New Zealand, the motorcycle was “a wreck”, so he sold it to the mission and left it in PNG.

Thirty-eight years later, Mr Carter had retired and was keen to relive a small part of his youth by buying another 1955 DOT Scrambler. After a long search, he found one and, to his astonishment, it turned out to be his very own old 1955 model – refurbished. “I was convinced that God was part of this reunion and I made the decision to ride the DOT from Cape Reinga to Bluff, as a fundraising venture towards the purchase of a new Mission Aviation Fellowship plane for Papua New Guinea,” Mr Carter said.

PNG men admire the DOT

Source: PNG National newspaper

Overcoming Barriers, Transforming Lives, Building God’s Kingdom

MAF Learning Technologies provides educational and technical expertise to facilitate the training of church leaders around the world.

Millions of dedicated pastors and church leaders in the developing world have no access to conventional classroom instruction methods. Many are new Christians themselves. They have a call to minister and a passion to learn but distance, danger, cost and lack of resources present significant barriers. Those living in areas where believers must hide their faith face even greater challengers.

By responding to the needs of these pastors and church leaders MAF – Learning Technologies is transforming lives around the world. Through distance education, pastors, church leaders and new believers have access to courses in church ministry, Bible study, theology, evangelism and a wide variety of other topics to develop spiritual growth.

The services of MAF – LT allow them to remain in their communities and care for their congregations and families while receiving critical biblical education and training:

• Partnering to Develop Courses – working in partnership with organisations such as Moody Bible Institute, MAF-LT evaluates curriculums and develops or customises courses to meet the specific needs of each community of believers. This often includes language translation and review of courses for cultural relevancy.
• Consulting for new Technology Development – MAF-LT assess the needs of ministry partners and assists in the development of new educational technologies. From Learning Centres strategically located  around the world, MAF-LT supports distance education programs worldwide, including those of a growing number of Christian ministries in the Middle East.
• Creating Free and Easy to Use Technology – MAF-LT develops software tools to facilitate distance learning in places where internet connections are either expensive or unreliable, and commercial software is cost prohibitive. MAF-LT equips pastors and leaders by collecting and organising Biblical resources beyond what they ever thought possible: 45000 books, 4000 hours of audio training and 1000 hours of video training – all in numerous languages.
• Establishing Computer-Based Learning Centres – MAF-LT assists ministry partnersby establishing distance learning centres in remote areas. MAF experts provide the resources to launch each centre, then they train local facilitators to operate them.
• Training Leaders to Facilitate Distance Learning – MAF-LT assists organisations such as the Latin America Training Network, Open Doors in Sudan, Central Asian Theological Seminary, Baptist Convention of Kenya, PTEE in Jordan and Here’s Life Inner City, by training facilitators and teachers to develop and deliver their own training and distance education courses.

Video – Introduction to MAF – Learning Technologies [3:53]

To learn more about MAF-Learning Technologies visit www.maflt.org

For 7 year old Anna, it was very special when a medical mission team arrived at her home town of

Lusinga on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya.

MAF flew the team of 11 people from two American churches for a mission to Christ’s Gift Academy (CGA).

Team leader Dr Jeff Folk wrote, ‘We treated close to 1,000 patients in our 4 full-day clinics and 2 half-day clinics. Local Kenyan pastors preached the good news as the patients waited and there was also time for prayer after they went through the clinic.

‘It is a blessing for CGA to host a team that can reach out to the surrounding community and provide quality services that are much needed, while also reaching their hearts spiritually. We hope and pray that the patients that did not know God before coming, would commit their lives to Him and join one of the local churches to be nurtured.’

Overwhelmed with joy

Young Anna had not been able to hear out of her right ear since she was 2.

She was almost the last patient on the first day and physician assistant Dave Brost could tell that something was wrong and sent her away to have drops in the ear for 2 days.

When she returned he removed 2 black seeds but it was still not right. So more days of drops until the last day of the mission, when after several attempts at flushing the ear Dave was advising her to go to an ENT specialist.

Dave writes, ‘Just prior to leaving we decided to flush the ear one last time. To my utter amazement and only by the grace of God; this time it worked! A small piece of brown material began to exit the ear canal. I scooped it out and recognized it as a half of a bean. Amazing!

‘Anna and her mother confirmed that she could hear and were overwhelmed with joy.’

Appreciation

Team leader Dr Jeff Folk continues, “I first want to thank you and all of the MAF staff who assisted in that flight. The pilots were awesome! This was actually my fourth trip to Mbita and each trip provides incredible stories of how God uses us to reveal his love for everyone.

via maf-uk.org