By: Hannah Braly
A few months after arriving in Mozambique as a pilot with Ambassador Aviation (Mission Aviation Fellowship’s name in Mozambique), Will Romualdo learned of a village called Quinga—located just 70 miles outside of Nampula, where MAF’s base is located.
The Quinga airstrip was built in 1930, but the last recorded flight to land there was in 1994, operated by the Red Cross. In the decades since, the airstrip has been reclaimed by nature—overgrown with trees, bushes, and tall grass. Will first heard about the village through a man named Tiago, a Brazilian missionary planting churches in Mozambique. Tiago felt called to serve remote communities, so he began planting a new church in Quinga.
Will and Tiago
“The mayor from Quinga gave Tiago some land and asked him to build a school,” says Will. “In 2017 he built the school, and in 2019 they opened with 30 babies and 65 kids. The school is called Refuge.”
Sadly, in 2024 violence erupted in the region. The school was vandalized and stripped of its belongings. Although the country is now stable, the school has not been able to reopen due to the lack of supplies.
Moved by this testimony and the community’s needs, Will and the MAF team began investigating whether the airstrip could be reopened.
“Will’s field checkout process required conducting an airborne airstrip inspection and also airborne reconnaissance of a new airstrip location,” says MAF pilot Dave Holmes. “Since the site was so overgrown, the flight over Quinga served both requirements.”
Not all overgrown airstrips can be reopened, explains Dave. In some areas, unused airstrips are taken over by individuals building homes, farming, or setting up fields for soccer. Thankfully, Quinga’s airstrip didn’t have any major problems.
“Reopening the Quinga airstrip will not only help the school and churches that Tiago built, but it will also allow other partners of MAF to serve this remote region as well,” says Will.
To speed up the process of getting the airstrip ready, Will loaded his car with power tools and drove the 70 miles to Quinga. Nearly 8.5 hours later, he arrived.
The trip to Tiago took longer than usual due to rough road conditions
Over the course of one week, Will and members of the local church worked tirelessly to clear the dirt runway—including the removal of many mango and coconut trees.
A group of men from the church in Tiago work hard to clear the airstrip
Though significant progress has been made on the airstrip, there is still much work to be done. Over the next few months, runway markings need to be added, root holes patched, and windsocks installed. Mozambique’s aviation authority will also need to inspect theairstrip before it can officially reopen.
“We’re excited because this is an opportunity for the program to expand into a new area of kingdom work,” says Dave. “With our foot in the door, we can envision future developments supporting the work of the local missionaries or potentially expanding our MozMed program.”
Will’s prayer is that everything will be ready in time to support the school for a mid-June reopening—so that once again, kids in Quinga can have refuge.
“Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.” —Psalm 62:8 NIV
