Here are a few snapshots of the impact MAF airplanes have around the world, thanks to the generosity of faithful donors.
In Papua, Indonesia, KODIAK PK-MEA has been bringing food to a community rocked by an unexpected freeze.
Back in early July, the temperature dropped below freezing in the village of Kwijawagi, located at 8,700 feet. It’s the highest airstrip that MAF serves in Indonesia. The sudden freeze killed all of their crops, mainly staples like potatoes and sweet potatoes. Not only are these a main source of food, but they are also a source of income for the people—losing them was a devastating blow.
From July to early September, the people who adopted PK-MEA made it possible for the plane to visit Kwijawagi four to five times a week as she helped deliver 11,000 pounds of rice that was donated by the Indonesian government.
PK-MEA’s adoptive family includes compassionate donors who care for isolated people. And thanks in part to their support, the people of Kwijawagi won’t go hungry.
PK-MCB, known as “Charlie Brown,” is a Cessna 185 floatplane that serves the people living along the rivers of Central Kalimantan—people like Pastor Sukardi.
Years ago, Sukardi remembers Charlie Brown visiting his own village when he was just a boy. Back then, the plane was on wheels as it served West Kalimantan and CMA (Christian Missionary Alliance) missionaries who brought the Gospel to his village.
Today Sukardi is a pastor with a church started by CMA, and Charlie Brown traded his wheels for pontoons. Sukardi is now a missionary to his own people and, with the help of Charlie Brown, is ministering in remote, hard-to-reach villages along the central rivers.
“Personally, MAF has helped me a lot,” said Sukardi. “When I tried to start reaching people with the Gospel in Katingan, they flew me several times to many different areas. Without MAF, it’s very hard to visit the villages.”
This summer, Cessna Caravan 9Q-CMO brought two new doctor-missionary families from Kinshasa to Vanga in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where they would be serving at Vanga Evangelical Hospital.
Not long afterwards, one of those missionaries, Shannon J. Potter, MD, was doing her rounds in the maternity ward. A medical student was in labor with twins. She wasn’t progressing, even after a difficult day and night of labor. Since the babies were not in distress, Shannon advised the woman to wait until a set time later that day before going forward with a C-section.
Staff and students gathered around the woman and prayed. Friends, family, and the MAF team in Kinshasa also prayed.
God intervened in a miraculous way. The woman had a normal delivery within an hour of those prayers! She didn’t have to face a long recovery from a C-section. Instead, the Caravan was able to take her and the twins comfortably and quickly to Kinshasa, where her husband and the rest of her family live.
Supporters of 9Q-CMO had a hand in missionaries reaching the places they’ll be serving and enabled this mother to reunite with her family so she could have help with her newborn twins.
These are just a few snapshots of our airplanes in action, and the impact their families are making around the world.
