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Around the World in an Airvan

By on March 24, 2010 in MAF

Two men from Bendigo (Vic) are preparing for a world-first circumnavigation of the globe in an aircraft totally designed and manufactured in Australia.

And MAF will be one of only two organisations to benefit from funds raised by the epic journey.

Ken Evers 33 and Tim Pryse 51, will depart from Bendigo Aerodrome on a day to be determined in May bound for Norfolk Island.

roundtheworld small Around the World in an Airvan
Tim Pryse and Ken Evers

They will continue their journey across the Pacific to California via Hawaii then on to Arizona and New Orleans. From there they will touch down to refuel in Jamaica and Barbados before heading south to Brazil, then due east across the Atlantic to Africa, on to India, Vietnam, the Philippines, PNG and back to Australia.

011011 Flight Plan Map1 300x178 Around the World in an Airvan
GA8 Flight Plan

The history-making flight commemorates Australia’s Centenary of Flight when the famous contortionist Harry Houdini conducted Australia’s first controlled, powered flight in March 1910, changing the landscape of flying in this country forever.

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GA8 TC Airvan

Ken and Tim will fly a GA8-TC Airvan over 26,740 nautical miles in 230 flight hours. The eight-seat Airvan is manufactured by Gippsland Aeronautics in Morwell (Vic).

The flight aims to draw attention to malaria, the world’s most common infectious, mosquito-borne disease, claiming over a million lives annually. Most victims are those least able to afford preventative drugs or treatments.

The pilots hope to raise one million dollarlogo Around the World in an Airvans

to combat the global impact of malaria by inviting donations via the millionsagainstmalaria.com website to two nominated charities - Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) and the Australian Foundation for the Peoples of Asia and Pacific (AFAP).

People in many of the tropical and sub-tropical areas the pair will fly across suffer from malaria including Papua New Guinea where Ken Evers grew up as a teenager and was deeply impacted by the Work of MAF.

“MAF pilots are my heroes”

“For me, MAF was the epitome of aviation. MAF pilots are my heroes,” he said.

“Living in PNG and watching the work of MAF taught me the lesson that you can use the gifts you have been given to do the right thing. And of course in the case of MAF it is using the gift of flight to help people.

“I watched what MAF did in PNG. I saw my friend’s life saved (by a MAF flight) and now I want to offer my support. I think MAF is such an unsung group. People fail to see that MAF is saving countless lives every year. ”

For further details about Ken and Tim’s epic journey and an opportunity to donate online to MAF, go to  www.millionsagainstmalaria.com


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News from MAF Haiti

By on March 3, 2010 in MAF
MAF has been serving in Haiti now for over 25 years. Here is a look into some of the work that MAF staff have been involved in recently in Haiti since the earthquake January 12th 2010.  It gives a glimpse into what it is like for these folks down there.  To follow the flights of one of the two Kodiaks flying down there go to:  http://grace.ly/px8r16
John Woodberry, MAF Disaster Response/Security Manager:
  • Feb. 8: USAID has seen us moving out cargo from the ramp in under 24 hours to missions, hospitals and Christian relief agencies. This government group has approached us about moving even more. USAID food and other essentials will fly out on the KODIAKs and also be distributed by the truckload to Operation Blessing and other partner agencies.
  • Feb. 8: Flight trends into Haiti have moved past the evacuation flights and rapid influx of passengers. No longer are swarms of people trying to get in and out. There are still more passengers than we can fly, but transit between Port-au-Prince and the United States is becoming a scheduled operation where passengers book flights for specific days. The Saab airplane of NASCAR team Joe Gibbs Racing will fly with us again on Thursday and Friday. Commercial flights into Haiti are tentatively planned to resume Feb.18.
  • Feb. 8: The seaport still has only one dock open, creating a real bottleneck in the flow of relief supplies.
  • Feb. 7: While the MAF team was taking a much-needed break to watch the Super Bowl, recovery crews arrived at the airport. They were bringing the body of a US citizen who died in a collapsed hotel. The protocol and respect for the body was moving to watch.
  • Feb. 6: I was awakened at 4 a.m. by the sound of the MAF/MFI forklift running around the yard. It was James, our amazing forklift guy. The US military has given us five pallets of rice and other goods that we will transport to outlying areas on KODIAK flights.
  • Feb. 6: In less than three weeks of the MAF Haiti earthquake relief effort, we have flown around 2,500 passengers and 500,000 lbs of cargo.
  • Feb. 6: A Southern Baptist team from the Dominican Republic is in one of the large tents in our logistics yard. The team is building family-sized 15-gallon water filters. They have brought in and distributed 4,500 so far. There is great need for clean water.
  • Feb. 6: Both KODIAKs are loaded and ready to fly out early tomorrow morning. The morning will start at 6 a.m. with a C-130 that will arrive with 46,000 lbs of food, tents, medical supplies and other essential items.
  • Feb. 6: I received an e-mail from a Boeing 707 captain who sent us pizza: “You have no idea what a blessing it was to see the MAF staff at the Port-au-Prince airport this week. I hope the pizza found your folks well! It’s the least I could do, you all deserve so much. Keep up the good work. My spirit leaped when I talked to Will White yesterday. I know the LORD is working through you all in Haiti. Please continue spreading the Word through all that you do, and know that you have prayer partners in my wife Shannon and I.”
Jason Krul, Pilot, MAF Haiti:

  • Feb. 6: This afternoon I coordinated several KODIAK relief flights bringing much-needed food and water purification systems to outlying villages. One flight was bound for a region called Anse Rouge, which was suffering severe drought prior to the earthquake. We loaded the plane full of 100 water purification systems and around 1100 lbs of rice and beans for Anse Rouge.
  • While organizing the flight, I tried unsuccessfully to contact missionaries Judy and Manis Lemuel whose mission compound is near the airstrip. Lemuel Ministries is involved in many vital programs including community development, environmental improvement, youth outreach, feeding programs, and church and spiritual growth projects. Once we landed in Anse Rouge, we were immediately met by the Lemuel family! They were stunned to discover what we had brought them. Judy and Ginger cried for joy and couldn’t stop thanking MAF for remembering them. They told us water was obtained by sending boys by donkey 1.5 hours each way to draw from a river. They were overjoyed as we showed them how the water purification systems work. What a rich blessing to serve this mission community!

David Carwell, Pilot/Mechanic, MAF Haiti:

  • Feb. 6: Years ago, I took a helicopter ride to survey a site in Fond de Blanc for missionary Jean Thomas, who leased land to build an airstrip. But we had many problems getting approval for landing there as the process involved much politics. The project had been at a standstill for years but praise God that flights have begun on this airstrip.
  • We have heard from Pastor Labady that this area needs food. Many refugees and wounded from Port-au-Prince have relocated there. I pray that the opening of this airstrip will assist Jean Thomas and those who are doing the work of the Lord, bringing physical and spiritual life in that area.

Frantz Angus, Administrator, Double Harvest, Haiti:

  • Feb. 6: Please THANK all the staff from MFI and MAF for ALL the great service you have provided Haiti and missions like Double Harvest. So many medical supplies and needs were sent down on your planes at a time when we needed it the most. Thank you very much. May God keep blessing your organization.

Fred Wall, Missionary, Word for the World Baptist Ministries:

  • Feb. 6: The manna you sent us is definitely an answer to prayer. We have been trying to find ways to get nourishing foods to people in need, to buy rice, beans and oil needed and pay to transport it. Our income is limited. Then you called. We are just overjoyed at God’s goodness. Thanks for thinking about us.
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MAF Haiti Earthquake Response

By on January 21, 2010 in MAF
MAF Pilots Resume Flights since Devastating Quake;
Bringing Aid to Outlying Towns
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) missionaries have set up a Port-au-Prince airport communications center connected to a GATR VSAT satellite system, supplying direly needed high-bandwidth communications to workers from at least 16 international aid groups that have arrived since the Jan. 12 Haiti earthquake.

Huntsville, Ala.-based GATR Technologies donated the use of the GATR system for the communications center, which is located at the offices of World Concern, a relief agency operating out of the airport. Dedicated phone lines are providing telephone service for the relief agencies, facilitating the distribution of emergency supplies to the millions affected by the quake. The center also allows wireless communications, Skype, voice-over-Internet protocol and email.

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GATR satellite internet equipment setup
“The earthquake destroyed the country’s infrastructure, and communication problems have so hampered relief efforts,” said MAF President John Boyd. “The GATR satellite and communications center is greatly facilitating the distribution of aid to the injured, homeless and suffering in Haiti.
“Logistics and coordination that MAF is providing to the emergency relief effort is crucial to saving lives, especially in these early days following the Haiti earthquake and later as rebuilding begins,” Boyd said.
For the first time since the earthquake struck, MAF pilots in Haiti have resumed flights using the ministry’s three aircraft. MAF flights bring desperately needed relief supplies to outlying towns and return to Port-au-Prince with internationals that had been working in Haiti before the earthquake and are evacuating the country.
The United States Air Force, which controls the Port-au-Prince airport, is sending many humanitarian cargo flights to the MAF hangar there. MAF is helping planes refuel and clear cargo through Haitian customs, as well as unload the cargo into the MAF hangar, ready for distribution.
MAF missionaries’ homes sustained little damage and are housing relief workers from many agencies. Other MAF and relief staff are sleeping on cots in the ministry’s hangar. Cargo shipping containers are serving as offices.

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Ex-Missionary’s Mercy Mission for MAF

By on November 27, 2009 in MAF

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.

img 1248219244 131 Ex Missionary’s Mercy Mission for MAF

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.

img 1248219254 137 Ex Missionary’s Mercy Mission for MAF

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.

img 1248219251 562 Ex Missionary’s Mercy Mission for MAF

PNG men admire the DOT

Source: PNG National newspaper

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MAF – Learning Technologies

By on November 20, 2009 in MAF

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.litejazz logo MAF Learning Technologies

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

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