C O NN E C TING THE DOTS.
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E-MAGAZINE EDITION #2
GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT NEPAL SO FAR TARGET — ACTUAL
FLIGHT FREQUENCY EVERY 26 MINUTES EVERY 8.7 MINUTES
NEPAL – RIPPED TO SHREDS Imagine this. You’re at school and you notice the classroom door beginning to rattle. It gets more intense as the text books fall from the shelves. Everyone runs outside. Moments later, the hard floor you’re standing on feels as unstable as the sea. There’s one word on everyone’s lips: ‘EARTHQUAKE!’ You look around as people panic and buildings begin to collapse. Even the most descriptive writing can’t fully describe what it must have been like when the earthquake struck Kathmandu in Nepal. Perhaps you caught a glimpse of it on the news, but that’s very different from actually being there!
AFFECTED DISTRICTS SERVED
MAF REACTS After the first enormous quake on 25 April, MAF was quick on the scene. We pulled together a team of staff from some of our international programmes. Our crack team got to work – looking at what we could do to help! Our first posting was at the airport in Kathmandu. Were we flying? No. The team was happy to help unload the planes bringing in the thousands of tonnes of humanitarian aid being shipped into Nepal! However, we soon realised what we were really needed for. So, a few days later, team leader Daniel Juzi signed a contract with a local helicopter charter company called Fishtail Air. What on earth were we doing?
GOOD QUESTION The priority was to assist organisations and charities in getting life-saving aid to the most isolated Nepalis who hadn’t received any help. Many mountain villages had been flattened by the first quake and the locals had to live outside without clean water. If that wasn’t desperate enough, the second quake on 12 May made matters even worse. Thanks to funding from the British government and our generous supporters, many organisations benefited from a 90% subsidy in flight costs on the two helicopters from Fishtail Air that we had use of. Imagine paying only 10% of a bus fare!
W E L I K E I T T H I S WAY We’re not flying, we’re booking. Sounds less than glamorous, doesn’t it? Our team have been out in Nepal these last three months scheduling flights for other organisations and charities. But what we’re doing is vital, whether it gets seen immediately or not, and we’re okay with that! Involvement in Nepal has been yet another opportunity for MAF to fulfil its desire to see isolated people helped, especially in times of desperate need.
Top Ariel view of the destruction caused by the earthquake Bottom A Helicopter operated by Fishtail Air in Nepal 2 MAF Youth E-zine 2015 www.maf-uk.org/youth
4 10 MEDEVACS FLOWN
30 NGOs SERVED
40 77 LOCATIONS SERVED
40 255 HOURS FLOWN
236 771 FLIGHTS CARRIED OUT
354 2,018 AID RELATED PASSENGERS FLOWN
707 2,399 KGs OF CARGO FLOWN
15903 374,910 3
WHEN MAF YOUTH M E T… FAITH CHILD MEET FAITH CHILD, A CLOSE FRIEND OF MAF! - Rapper - From Croydon, London - Brought up by single mum - Testament of God’s faithfulness
CIRCUMSTANCES I’ve grown up in a Christian home since I’ve been alive as my siblings grew up in the church, but not in a Christian home as such. My mother went through domestic violence, poverty. I came at the end of the poverty streak.
YOUR STORY My mother actually went to abort me at a clinic. On her way there, God spoke to her audibly. ‘Don’t abort the baby. I have a plan and purpose for when he grows up. He’ll be a man after my heart and he’ll serve Me.’ She said, ‘But Lord, I’m a single mum with four children already! How am I going to cope?’ And God said to her, ‘Have faith in Me and I’ll show Myself to be God.’ So I was a ‘faith child’, so to say.
WALKING WITH GOD Scripture says, ‘Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.’ And I think I’m a testament of that Scripture. When I was 9, I got hit by a car travelling at 40 miles an hour. But I felt a cushion underneath me. Only my thumb was grazed! ‘That was God,’ I said to the paramedics. Even at a young age, I could testify to the evidence of God. So I’ve had God within me from an early age, and ever since.
CHRISTIAN HIP HOP WHO ARE YOUR FAVOURITES? Right now, I’m really digging KB. He’s part of the 116 Movement. I’m a big fan of Lecrae! I got to see him live for second time at the Big Church Day Out. We got to talk as well! He’s such a great guy! I loved the way he’d thrown his set together and how he was able to
share the Gospel boldly. My ‘go-to’ on my playlist at the moment is A Star – he’s pretty cool at the moment.
YOUR NEW ALBUM Airborne plays on the concept of taking off and flight. When you’re flying there’ll always be turbulence and the clouds can block your view. The whole aim is to reach your destination. Relating that to life, there are so many obstacles in the way, whether friends, fear or background. The whole concept is about seeing the bigger picture in every scenario.
MESSAGE IN THE MUSIC I believe Christianity is underexposed. People know the obvious things like John 3:16 but they don’t know about the wisdom in Proverbs or conflict resolution in the Bible. Those who are ‘unchurched’ don’t know about this. My message is to show that Christianity is relevant to 21st century living.
WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT MAF? I have a big heart for service, whether I’m onstage or offstage. Just to be able to see happiness on someone’s face means the world to me! With MAF being about serving and going to the most impoverished places in the world to give them aid, that’s all me. I’m all about being the hands and feet of Jesus. It’s not just a cause; it’s a team as well. MAF has a great team with a great heart to serve. Without a team like that, the vision is put to shame. But the heart of MAF and the workers are really what drew me towards loving the work of MAF.
WOULD YOU JUMP IN ONE OF OUR PLANES? One hundred per cent!
WHAT’S YOUR VISION FOR THE TEAM-UP WITH MAF? I love to raise awareness of the great work that MAF is doing. I also want to shed light on MAF for Youth as well. We live in a generation where a lot of young people are very dependent on their parents; they’re always about taking as opposed to giving. The fact that you’re engaging the younger generation in how MAF is helping others less fortunate than they are, will help them to appreciate the work and their own lives. I’d love to see MAF fly more and touch more lives and hearts too. That’s my hope for MAF.
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PAST TO PRESENT
1945// MAF office opens in London, UK
1944//
1948//
Murray Kendon proposes MAF concept
Stuart King and Jack Hemming’s survey of Africa
1977//
1966//
1959//
1950//
Tanzania: MAF programme starts
Chad: MAF programme starts
Kenya: MAF programme starts
Sudan: MAF programme starts
1993// 1987// Uganda: MAF programme starts
Now operating 30 aircraft and 80 family units overseas
2001// First flight in Mongolia
2011//
2005// MAF flights aid tsunami relief in Aceh, Indonesia
MAF provides flights for aid workers to reach famine affected areas in South Sudan and East Africa
A new base opens in Marsabit, Kenya
2015//
Our first plane and staff arrive in Liberia
MAF’s 70th Birthday! Now operating more than 130 aircraft in 25 countries!
2010// MAF plays central role in relief efforts after the earthquake in Haiti
YO U ARE HERE
GET DEEP – A VITAL INGREDIENT
hunted down by the Romans. All because they had become followers of Jesus! The writer was pleading with the Jewish Christians to not give up hope but to consider the concept of ‘faith’.
SO WHAT’S THE VERSE GET TING AT ? God is utterly reliable. Why’s that important? Well, it means we can cling to the things He promises because we know He’ll keep them! For example, Jesus said in John 14:27: ‘Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.’ That’s a promise! God gives His peace to those who love Him – the same peace Jesus had. The Jewish Christians sure needed this peace. The Bible is peppered with moments where God has proven Himself to be a promise keeper.
LETS GO WITH THE SECOND HALF ‘Faith’ can sometimes be boiled down to being a classic Christian buzzword, and that’s a shame. There probably isn’t a word more jam-packed with juicy meaning than ‘Faith’! Hebrews 11:1 defines faith like this: ‘Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.’ You may have heard that verse mentioned a whole lot too, but let’s dig in and dissect. We have to remember that the book of Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians, probably in Rome, who were going through a seriously tough time. They’d been chucked out of the Jewish community – losing family and friends – and they were probably being
Having true faith means that you’re content with finding hope in things that are unseen. But this is hard to do. The problem is that we tend to put our faith in things that are far less reliable than God, because they’re visible and look strong. Family and friends can let us down sometimes despite our faith in them! Everything may be falling apart, but God isn’t. That’s what the Jewish Christians in Rome needed to hear as they considered abandoning their faith in Jesus for something visible but unstable. So if we put these parts together, it looks like true faith in God sees Him as reliable and able to deliver on His promises despite the fact that He is unseen! But wait, there’s more…
WE CAN’T CREATE OUR OWN FAITH IN GOD That’s not actually a problem. If we were able to create our own faith in God, we’d have a reason to boast in our own abilities, and that leads to pride. Thankfully, God is the giver of faith! We can only get true faith in God by Him giving us faith in the first place. We must ask Him! We must ask God to open our eyes to how reliable He is and how hope-filled His promises are, so that our faith in Him will grow even more.
K E Y S , P H O N E , WA L L E T, FAITH 1 Peter 3:15 says: ‘Always be prepared to make a defence to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.’ For MAF’s pilots across the world, having a strong faith is super-necessary for sharing Jesus with those we come across! Stuart King, one of MAF’s founders, had to exercise incredible faith to trust that God was calling him to world mission, even when his plane crashed in South Sudan in 1948. The Bible tells us to always be prepared to share the hope that we have. But without the faith that makes us hopeful, that’s difficult! This applies to where you are too! You might be in a rural village or a bustling town, but it makes no difference. A strong faith will always inform your hope. We must ask God to help us grow in faith so that, through us, God might give the gift of faith to others!
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L E T U S H O L D U N S W E R V I N G LY TO THE HOPE WE PROFESS, FOR HE WHO PROMISED IS FAITHFUL. HEBREWS 10:23
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TAMATAVE // MADAGASCAR
STORY – EAGER AS ANYTHING Two individuals in Nepal stop at nothing to help serve those affected by the earthquake. Lakpa and Santa aren’t from a local charity or a foreign organisation with lots of money, they’re Nepali. However, they’re hungry to help. The day after the quake struck, enthusiastic, 20-something Santa approached the Red Cross to lend a helping hand in any way he could. But volunteers were not needed. This didn’t stop him. Santa stuck on a hard hat and plunged his hands into the rubble of Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, to clear some of the debris. But great things followed. After seeing a Facebook post from a friend asking for volunteers, Santa joined a highly motivated group of individuals. Lakpa was one of them. They began by setting out to find tarpaulins, tents, mats, blankets and food – anything they could get their hands on. They also asked foreign friends to support them financially. Enough money soon came in for them to begin getting aid out to several nearby villages.
The group were able to set up a meeting point in a Bed and Breakfast owned by Jason, one of the volunteers. Jason was even kind enough to lend Goonj, an Indian NGO, a guestroom to operate from! As the unrelenting requests for help came through, it became harder and harder for the team’s efforts to keep up with the demand. Many of the requests were now coming from isolated areas further afield. Until now, the team had been responding brilliantly to requests from areas that were still accessible by roads, but now calls for help were coming from places that weren’t. Touched by the heart-breaking cries
of desperation from those further away, the team tried to find a way to get aid to the unreached villages. But they needed significant help. Santa and Lakpa eventually approached us, and MAF Disaster Response workers Pappy Frey and Mike Bottrell were blown away by their excitement. The dynamic duo expressed utter joy when they heard that MAF was offering helicopter flights for people wanting to help the relief effort. Fortunately we were able to assist this incredible group of Nepalis by flying the supplies they’d gathered to some of the most isolated villages affected by the devastating earthquake!
P R AY ! P R AY ! P R AY ! ‘PRAYERS CAUSE THINGS TO HAPPEN THAT WOULDN’T HAPPEN IF YOU DIDN’T PRAY.’ – JOHN PIPER • We’re still operating in Nepal! Please pray for continued strength and endurance for our staff. Pray that all those who are still living in makeshift tents will be kept safe during the monsoon season. • Remember our prayer request in the first issue about Liberia? Well, praise God that progress is being made with all the paperwork! Please continue to pray for the families that have arrived in Liberia, which was declared Ebola-free in May. Pray for them as they settle in. Pray too that recently recorded cases of Ebola won’t be the start of a bigger outbreak. • Please pray for MAF Pilot Danny Gill. We interviewed him in the first issue. Danny has now moved to Australia and is currently doing his final training before joining our Arnhem Land programme. Pray for his protection as he gets used to flying again. • MAF simply cannot run without aircraft maintenance engineers to look after our planes. We urgently need experienced engineers in many of our programmes, so ask God for the right people to come forward and apply! • Bombs have been going off in N’djamena, Chad, causing destruction and fear. Pray that peace will be restored there. Pray too that our staff will be protected and know God’s peace. • Massive answer to prayer as an urgent vacancy has been filled in Mongolia. Praise God that the programme can continue serving the surrounding communities! Uphold Pilot Dallas Derksen and his family as they move to Mongolia, and pray they will settle in quickly.
AUGUST 15 - 25
SOUL SURVIVOR GOD IS PASSIONATE ABOUT YOUNG PEOPLE AND SO ARE WE. OUR DESIRE IS TO EDUCATE, INFORM AND INSPIRE YOUNG PEOPLE ABOUT WORLD MISSION! GET YOURSELF TO THE TOOL SHED TO FIND OUT MORE!
RESOURCES
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