MAF missionaries raise support for a pooled fund out of which MAF covers salary, housing, benefits, and staff-related ministry expenses. MAF exercises discretion over the use of missionary support to carry out its mission and care for its staff.
Keith and Jan Anderson work at Mission Aviation Fellowship. They have returned to MAF twenty-six years after serving two terms in Venezuela and Guatemala. The in-between years were spent gaining valuable experience teaching aviation classes at a university, doing maintenance and flight operations in Uganda, working on aircraft design and customer service development, and being involved in additional leadership positions at an aircraft modification company and a flight simulator company. Keith has returned to MAF as the International Director of Maintenance.
Jan grew up in the Tulsa, Oklahoma, area in a Christian home and a church that introduced her to the loving grace of Christ at an early age. She was involved with helping in children’s ministries from an early age, but it wasn’t until her time at John Brown University that she felt the Lord leading her towards missions. This was confirmed at an Urbana Missions Conference, which is also where she met Keith. They were married after they graduated from college.
Keith’s parents were with MAF and served in Mexico for seventeen years. It was during his growing up years that Keith felt the Lord leading him towards mission aviation. This desire was cultivated as he saw the tremendous way that the airplane helped people around him. Keith was eight years old when he said to the Lord that unless He led in a different direction, he would go down the path of mission aviation. The Lord opened those doors for Keith and Jan, resulting in service with MAF.
The Andersons’ have three adult children and four grandchildren, scattered across Washington, Idaho, and Iowa. They and their spouses pursue a variety of fields, from coaching, to engineering, and working with special needs children.
The U.S. offices of MAF serve as a hub for MAF services worldwide. A day in the life here includes specialized flight training, staff mobilization and counseling, purchasing and shipping of aircraft parts, finance and accounting, administration of an Internet gateway for worldwide email, fund raising, printing and mailing of various materials, and many, many more activities. Some staff serve around the country; training future pilots and mobilizing potential candidates to serve with MAF.