News for Prayer 8 January 2015
Issue 516
Precious cargo MAF Pilot Chris Ball gives thanks for the precious cargo of fishing hooks, hoes, seeds and fishing nets he flew in for Christian Mission for Development (CMD) to Mabior, South Sudan. The hoes alone, which didn’t include the handles, weighed a total of 1,500kg, and were brought in on two consecutive flights. The supplies were to help internally displaced people (IDPs) who’d fled to Mabior during the devastating inter-tribal conflict last year as they move back to their villages. Our partner CMD is a South Sudanese NGO founded in 2011 to provide poor and isolated communities with essential support. CMD has been involved in livelihood projects in Jonglei State, where the hoes were delivered. Pray for CMD’s continuing work in teaching better farming practices, as well as providing agricultural tools, fishing gear and good seed to vulnerable pastoral communities. The training includes introducing farmers to ox-ploughing, crop rotation, animal husbandry, fisheries, bee-keeping, marketing and management. Pray that initiatives like this will prevent hunger and poverty. Pray too for IDPs as they return to their villages, and for peace to return to this embattled nation as we begin the New Year.
Hoes being unloaded in Mabior, South Sudan
Carrying cargo for CMA Another MAF flight carried a full planeload of cargo for Christian Mission Aid (CMA) to Longochuk, in South Sudan’s Upper Nile State. CMA staff unloaded the boxes which contained vaccines in powdered form. Once water is added, the vaccines can be used to combat illness and disease. Because the remote community has no vehicles, a handful of committed CMA personnel and local villagers were happy to carry 200kg of supplies to the medical clinic over 6 miles away. Praise God for our ability to deliver essential vaccines and medical supplies to remote areas. Pray that, once the new clinic is open, many lives will be saved and even more will find healing in Jesus’ name.
Healing and love Please pray for a poor ten-year-old girl we evacuated from a remote village in Uganda. Tragically, the girl had been sexually abused by a man who told her he’d kill her if she said anything about what he’d done. The child’s internal injuries were so severe that her community asked for a medevac so she could receive better care in the city hospital. Pilot Greg Vine prayed with the passengers before take-off, and saw the fear and tension of this wounded family diminish. When the plane landed at Kajjansi, the young girl was carefully carried to a waiting vehicle and driven
to the hospital. When this hurting family heard how thousands of people and churches all over the world made MAF’s ministry possible – including their emergency airlift - they were touched and very grateful. Two days later, Pilot Dave Forney’s wife Joy visited the girl and her mother in hospital. According to Dave, ‘Joy will do what she can to help with the obvious need for treatment and care. She will love this young girl and her mother in the name of Jesus, be a friend to them, pray and cry with them.’ Please pray for this young girl, her family, and the many others in Uganda who are hurting. Pray too that the man who fled when the village schoolteacher realised what he had done to the girl will be found, and come to repentance.
Enabling education Oksapmin High School in Tekin, Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea (PNG) is grateful to MAF for our regular flights. Our aircraft recently flew building materials from Tabubil to enable their high school building to be extended. December marked the beginning of the long school holidays – with parents, along with the Department of Education, requesting a large number of flights to return teachers and students to their home villages. School will start again in February, so pray for peace and safety as the students fly back to resume their education after spending Christmas with their families. During the rest of the year, MAF planes support
• ARNHEM LAND A 14-year-old girl committed suicide in Yirrkala towards the end of 2014. Please uphold her family and community as they grieve their tragic loss. • Pray for the protection of MAF staff and villagers in Milingimbi, Arnhem Land, where there has been unrest, fighting and vandalism. Pray too as our pilots battle high temperatures, heavy rain and storms. • DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO We recently flew 75-year-old missionary Maud Kells to hospital after she was shot in the shoulder during a robbery in her village in Mulita. Please pray for her complete recovery. • HAITI Give thanks for new equipment enabling our team to show the Jesus film, and pray for government approval to build a taxiway connecting our hangar to the ramp area. • MOZAMBIQUE Uphold Conrad Hertzler as he fills in as Programme
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Moving on Give thanks for the wonderful partnership MAF has had as part of the Australian Centre for Mission Aviation (ACMA) for the last 20 years at Coldstream, Victoria. We are grateful for the 200 ACMA graduates from over 20 countries, as well as the many others who trained with us in Australia and have gone on to become mission pilots and engineers around the world. Pray that our new training centre, which is due to open in February at Mareeba Airport, Australia, will continue to be a vital part of our ministry as flight training and engineering join forces again.
Manager while David LePoidevin is on home assignment until June. • PAPUA Praise God that most of our visas have been released, enabling vital staff to return there. • PNG Pray for our urgent need for pilots, aircraft maintenance engineers and ground operations staff. If the vacancies aren’t filled, our programme may have to be reduced. • This is the hottest time of the year in PNG, with the weather taking its toll on our staff. Pray for energy, health and patience. • TANZANIA Uphold our team who have been without power on many occasions. Pray for an efficient electricity supply. • WORLDWIDE Pray for our ministry in 2015, asking for God’s protection over our staff and families, for unity within MAF and the Church, and that those we reach will receive practical help and spiritual transformation.
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students by flying essential supplies, educational materials and exam papers. The papers have to be flown from inaccessible areas in time for the central marking process. According to MAF Pilot Andy Little, ‘Education gives access to valuable information and resources, and helps remote communities to defend their interests during discussions with outside groups such as mining companies. ‘It also gives future pastors better skills in studying and preaching God’s Word, and helps young converts to read and understand the Bible for themselves.’ Praise God that education enables villagers in PNG to better understand their faith, and pray it will continue to provide physical and spiritual transformation to isolated people.
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