For over 20 years, Juan Carlos and Johanna Portillo have served with MAF as a pilot mechanic family in three MAF affiliates—organizations that were founded
The war shut down almost everything. Our host country, Ecuador, and its neighbor, Peru, fought over a portion of their common boundary. Understandably, the Ecuadorian
One afternoon I flew slow circles inside Ecuador’s Amazon jungle clouds. Not completely gray, I’d pop in and out of bright sunshine pockets above or
Pebbles scratched the paint. Bigger rocks just turned over in the propeller blast. But golf- to baseball-sized stones pounded the tail of my airplane. Couldn’t
Medical evacuation flights really hurt during my first term. Once turned loose with an airplane in the jungle, I felt I had to be both
As the newest pilot on MAF’s Ecuador program in the late 1980s, advancing God’s Kingdom excited me. Yet, a hold-over from commercial pilot culture still
Every station on the main radio network reported low ceilings and rain. But our home base, Shell, Ecuador, looked fine sitting high above the jungle.
David McCleery, MAF’s Latin America Regional Director, just shared with me an unusual ministry report from the Shuar tribe, an indigenous group I flew for
While still in Ecuador, a late afternoon sun burned white. Good weather over the jungle allowed one more flight. I taxied to the runway, passengers
