PHOTO TALE
CHANGING AIRPLANES, UNCHANGING MISSION A storyline of MAF’s faithful aircraft fleet over the years. When WWII pilots envisioned using small aircraft to help the gospel spread to hard-to-reach areas, could they have imagined what missionary aviation looks like today? Could MAF’s founders have conceived of the complexity of the tools—the aircraft—that now make up the MAF fleet? More than 77 years after the start of MAF’s ministry, its aircraft have changed dramatically. But one thing that has not changed is MAF’s mission to serve together to bring help, hope and healing through aviation. Sharing the love of Jesus Christ so that isolated people will be physically and spiritually transformed.
The Beginnings 1945 – 1965 Nate Saint works on a Stinson Voyager in Ecuador. Photo: MAF Archives.
Fabric-covered airplanes like the Piper Cruiser, Piper Pacer, and the Stinson Voyager helped start the earliest programmes, in Mexico and Central and South America. These light aircraft served remote jungle outposts where missionary families were bringing the gospel to remote tribes. MAF pilot Nate Saint was passionate about reaching one tribe in particular— one that was feared as a “tribe of killers”. In 1948, he wrote to his parents that he expected the airplane would play a part in reaching them with the gospel. His prediction proved true. In January 1956, Saint landed a bright yellow Piper Family Cruiser on a sandbar nicknamed Palm Beach, along the Curaray River. Initially, he and four other missionaries had friendly interactions with members of the feared Waorani. But then, days later, the world learned of the five men’s martyrdom at the hands of the tribe. Far from slowing down the dream of those early WWII pilots, this incident catapulted the idea of missionary aviation across the globe. As a result, young Christians caught the vision of using airplanes to reach the lost—and MAF grew rapidly.
1947 MAF’s new Miles Gemini aircraft in UK.
1980s Australia
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