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News from MAF Haiti

cdsmythe — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:02:42 +0000

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.

MAF Haiti Earthquake Response

cdsmythe — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:42:10 +0000

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.

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.

Commercial Jets Get Through; MAF Returns to Its Missions Work

cdsmythe — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:23:34 +0000

After commercial jets were able to get through, MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) has halted its emergency relief and assessment flights to Indonesia’s city of Padang, which was devastated by a massive 7.6 magnitude earthquake. “Once the large Boeings were able to come in to Padang airport, MAF emergency services were no longer needed,” said John Woodberry, MAF disaster response/security manager.

The quake hit Sept. 30, destroying hundreds of buildings and homes, triggering landslides, knocking out power and cutting off roads into the city of approximately 900,000 people. An estimated 700 people have been declared dead so far, with hundreds more still missing. Responding to the emergency, MAF provided flights for Operation Blessing International from nearby Pekan Baru to Padang, close to the epicenter.

MAF, which has worked with OBI since the 2004 tsunami, flew OBI medical teams into Padang, where OBI set up a base camp for relief workers in the center of town. Woodberry said MAF was extremely grateful for the prayers and generous financial gifts from supporters that enabled it to respond quickly to disaster relief work. MAF has worked in Indonesia since 1954. It has two aircraft in Sumatra – a Cessna 206 and a Cessna Caravan – that are based in Aceh, which is well north of the earthquake zone. The Caravan, according to Woodberry, has returned to northern Aceh province and resumed its regular program flying.

via www.maf-uk.org

Shot by Road

cdsmythe — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 06:11:20 +0000

A woman who was shot while travelling by road in Sudan was flown by Mission Aviation Fellowship to hospital in Kenya.

Beatrice was shot during an attack while travelling between Juba and Torit.

Africa Inland Mission asked MAF to fly her from Torit to receive medical treatment at Kenyatta Hospital in Nairobi.

Pilot Adrian Rose was able to accommodate the patient on an existing shuttle flight from Sudan to Nairobi. The patient was placed on a foam mattress and was accompanied by two people. A Medair doctor already on board looked after her.

Upon landing at Nairobi, the ambulance rushed her to hospital.

Stolen Rain – Sudan

cdsmythe — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 06:27:10 +0000

An Africa Inland Mission (AIM) team accused of ‘stealing the rain’ was rapidly evacuated by MAF from Napep, Sudan, following threat of death.

The Training In Ministry Outreach team (TIMO) returned from holiday to learn that it had not rained in the area near MurKuzhen, ‘Tall Mountain’, since they had left – a total of 19 days. The community east of the mountain decided that the white people had put the rain on a plane and flown it back to America.

The TIMO team were first alerted to the judgement at the end of one of their clinics. Singing and horns resounded in the air as fifty to a hundred people entered the compound singing and waving leaves. David, the team leader, was called out to talk to them. The rest of the team prayed for grace and wisdom while David and two team members were forced to go to the elders for a trial.

At the trial, the elders of the villages accused:

“You took the rain on a plane . This is your fault. We will decide what to do with you.”

David received the verdict: bring two bulls the next day for sacrifice. If not he would die. The elder’s decision was final, despite David advising he did not own one bull, let alone two.

The team had no choice. In the middle of the night, leaving most of their possessions behind, they began a 6.5 hour trek to the airstrip (a walk that usually takes about 3.5 hours). They didn’t dare to use torches in case it alerted people to their sudden exit. MAF rearranged the flight schedule in order to collect the team and fly them to safety.

We don’t know what the spiritual battle will bring next, although we know that the community has threatened to curse us, amongst other things. We also know that it will take a miracle for us to be able to return, but we know that God is bigger than all of it.Deborah, one of the TIMO team

Late June, Phil Byler, AIM country director, flew back to Napep to speak to the elders about the incident. Ironically, it rained very heavily- so heavily it took three attempts for the pilot to land the plane. The meeting went fairly well, though its anticipated that more meetings will be required before the team returns.

Africa Inland Mission seek to spread the word of God in unreached areas. Their work includes: youth ministry, medical care, community development, community health, leadership development, aviation and support services.

AIM founded the two year TIMO programme in the mid 1980s. Its purpose is to train future missionaries in areas of cross cultural ministry. Their ultimate goal is to develop a working and ministering church. Twenty two-year teams have been trained so far. They operate in over thirteen areas in six African countries.