EDITION#30 WIN TROUBLE!DOUBLEDOUBLEADOZENTEENAGERINPNG1224
The precious bundle Pilot Brett Reierson (left) and Claudine Mukhena (right) with her beautiful babies
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It'sold,'Thirty-seven-week-conjoinedtwinsbornnaturally!unheardof!'
A peaceful flight Word about the conjoined babies must have spread fast, with MAF staff shooing the crowd away multiple times as Pilot Brett Reierson finished preparing for the flight. Hundreds of people lined up to see them Escapingoff.the crowds in the safety of the plane, the family enjoyed a few quiet moments before they ended up re-entering the world of doctors, hospitals and curious crowds.
Vanga Evangelical Hospital Vanga is a remote village in the heart of the DRC, with a large missionary hospital that provides medical care to thousands of people each year. MAF often transports doctors, patients and supplies to Vanga, and occasionally carries out medevacs (medical emergency flights) when needed. But their journey didn’t end there, because the nine-day-old twins needed specialist care.
Landing in Kinshasa, the capital, MAF contacted the surgeon coming to pick Anick and Destin up at the airport, giving him directions. Now what?
‘When I was told that MAF would help, it was great news for us!’ the doctor explained enthusiastically.
Double trouble becomes twice the joy
Epic journey for help
Although they were born without the need for a C-section, the family was desperate to get medical help for the twins, so they’d left their nearest health centre, squished on to the back of a small motorbike, and travelled for 15 hours through the jungle to reach Vanga Evangelical Hospital.
Unaware of the miracles she was about to meet, MAF’s Jaclyn Reierson watched as a large crowd of people pressed in and swamped a doctor who was trying to lead a woman to an MAF plane in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) ‘Despite his best efforts to shield her from the throng, the woman was swarmed by more than 200 people touching her, taking pictures, shouting questions and staring. As they approached the plane, I could see she was clutching a small bundle in herThearms.’doctor whisked her into the plane and proceeded to tell the mother’s incredible story to Jaclyn.‘The bundle in her arms contains two girls. Conjoined twins. Attached at the navel, they were born in a remote village so far away that no one around here even knows where it is. And they were born naturally! Thirty-seven-week-old, conjoined twins born naturally! It’s unheard of.’ Giving birth to two babies joined together is extremely rare and dangerous, so most conjoined twins are born by C-section. Because the mother lived in such an isolated area, Claudine wouldn’t have had all the routine scans we have in the West, so she wouldn’t have known she was carrying conjoined twins!
Wait, pray and trust in God’s good plan for the young Twofamily!become ones
Two weeks later, Jaclyn received a short text from the doctor in Vanga. ‘I just got the call! The twins have been separated!’ Thank you, Jesus!
The girls, Anick and Destin, with their parents flying home after their surgery 3
Mark & Kelly Hewes / Jaclyn Reierson
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ANDREW: MAF’s Flying for Life magazine landed on my doormat shortly after, and it was a revelation to me that serving God and flying planes could be a long-term career. I was instantly excited — it was a lightbulb moment. But I had never flown a plane in my life! It seemed so far-fetched, but Liz and I talked about it and we started to pray, asking others to pray about it too. A few months later, we booked a ticket to South Africa so I could begin my pilot training.
MAF YOUTH: And did you travel?
Originally from: Durban, South Africa
NEWFEATURE
Hobbies: Windsurfing and sailing
MAF YOUTH: What happened next?
ANDREW: Growing up in the suburbs of Durban, my childhood brings happy memories of riding bikes, swimming and playing on the beach. After completing a Commerce degree at Durban University, I had an interest in travel.
ANDREW: Yes. I explored Australia and New Zealand with friends including Liz, who became my wife in 2003. Then we settled in London and began to pray about our future. As a qualified teacher, Liz was prepared to use her skills wherever God called us, but we had no idea where that would be!
STAFF HIGHLIGHT More than just a job
WHEN MAF YOUTH MET ANDREW PARKER
MAF base: Uganda Job title: MAF Pilot
I remember praying, ‘Lord, please give me something to be passionate about.’
Favourite snack: Biltong with a cup of tea
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Biltong is a form of dried,cured meat (usually beef) thatoriginated in South Africa
MAF YOUTH: Tell us about your early years.
MAF YOUTH: So, more than a decade later, what’s life like for you now?
ANDREW: We are now a family of five. Esther, Benjamin and Joel have grown up across East Africa as missionary children in the MAF community and experiencing cultures of Tanzania, Kenya, South Sudan and now Uganda. I am still loving the varied work and I have to pinch myself that this is what I get to do as a job.
LuAnnepossible.Cadd/Dave Forney / Jill Vine 7
ANDREW: Yes, we sat on the plane wondering what on earth we were doing, but our friends had been praying and we felt so strongly it was from God. It was a big step of faith, but God provided in miraculous ways.
ANDREW: Even if what God is calling you to seems completely far-fetched, remember that nothing is impossible with God. The important thing that God wants from us is our willingness to be obedient to Him. If we offer Him that, He will use us in ways that we wouldn’t have thought
ANDREW: It ranges from shuttling people to Uganda’s vast refugee settlements to sitting in the baking heat of rural Tanzania while a team of medics run an open-air bush clinic. Knowing that the Gospel is at the heart of everything we do is what makes this job unique — and that is the most satisfying part.
MAF YOUTH: Wow, that was quick!
ANDREW: From seeing that photo of an MAF plane landing on a mountainside in 2003 to 12 years of mission flying, I feel hugely privileged that God has given me the opportunity to be part of this.
MAF YOUTH: What words of wisdom would you like to leave us with?
MAF YOUTH: Looking back on your MAF career, what are your thoughts?
ANDREW: Be patient and keep praying. God stays the same — even if things don’t go the way you planned.
MAF YOUTH: Tell us more about the work?
MAF YOUTH: What would your advice be to anyone who dreams of flying for MAF?
ANDREW: I qualified as a pilot in 2005, then built up my flying hours as an instructor — finally joining MAF in 2009.
MAF YOUTH: How long before you joined MAF?
COUNTRY LIBERIA CAPITAL MONROVIA POPULATION 5.3 MILLION* Known for its rubber trees, iron ore and tropical fruit Please pray for protection for children at risk of abuse *Source: www.worldpopulationreview.com MONROVIA
LuAnne
Cadd
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The nature is amazing here. The people are so cool in the way they live. They are really kind and nice. They love their traditions and are proud to show them. It seems to be a happy village.They’re not as judgemental as other people in the world. You can see that in the way they greet you and how they behave, bringing us fruit and vegetables. Small kids were coming up and hugging us, which was really sweet. One tradition they showed us was how to cook a mumu, where they cook food under the ground. On that occasion, they actually killed three pigs, which is a pretty big thing to do. So, that was really cool. They seemed really happy to show us how they do things in the traditional way and how they also cook food in their houses. They make a fire without any matches or lighters, and hunt for food.Right now, a lot of people are helping to build a new school building because the one they currently have is an old missionary house that’s getting too small for the students. The kids are really excited to go to school and learn newTheythings.don’t have TV, and there’s no power, no electricity – nothing! They have each other and flashlights, which is pretty cool. When we stayed there, we had no internet. We had no connection or mobile reception at all. We just had some books that we could read. I don’t think they know what’s happening in Mount Hagen – a large city in PNG – or what’s going on in the world. The elders in the village explained how they first reacted to planes and helicopters; something that really scared them in the beginning. I imagine that if you’ve lived in a village where there’s no power and no connection to the outside world, it can be hard to know what a plane is, and what it can do for you.MAF is there to help the people, but they hadn’t had aircraft flying to their airstrip for two years. We could see their worn-out clothes and how they had lived with a lack of food, so it’s a blessing that MAF is now flying into Yifki.
through western teenage eyes Remote village life
Earlier this year, 15-year-old Timnah Edsmyr spent a whole week in the remote village of Yifki in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Here, in her own words, is what she experienced
Mandy Glass / Rohit Ranwtwa (Unsplash.com) 12
A lot of people become ill or injured through accident or infection, but they can’t get to the nearest hospital because it’s too far away and could take days or even weeks on foot, assuming they know how to get there.But with MAF, patients can survive, which is really cool. They’re really grateful to MAF and are so happy every time an aircraft lands. So, yeah, they have a really beautiful village, and they are really proud of it. And for me, it was amazing to get away from where I live and visit somewhere I would happily return to.
It would be so nice to go back there and read books, play some sport, get to know new people and experience God with them, and see how others have lived their lives, which I appreciate a lot. They’re a unique people and really cool.
In the UK, every child has the right to free school meals, clean water and a free education
In South Sudan, 60% of the population struggles to find enough food each day.
Yifki is a small community nestled at about 3,400 feet (1,000 metres) in the PNG Highlands. The trip was arranged for new members of MAF PNG’s international team by Jonathan Kopf from New Tribes Missions in order to enhance their skills in Tok Pisin, the local language.
Could you learn on an empty stomach?
The World Food Programme (WFP) reaches 500,000 people a month in areas that, because of the lack of roads, vast wetland terrain and the danger of tribal warfare, are only accessible by air.
The WFP supports the charity Holy Trinity Peace Village in Kuron, South Sudan, which runs a feeding programme as well as a clinic, job training centre, road infrastructure project, and a variety of other initiatives that help local people
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Even during the worst COVID-19 restrictions in the UK, there were still people fighting for our rights to things like free school meals. (Go, Marcus Rashford!)
Now consider the rumbling pain of an empty stomach. Of being too weak to do anything physical or too hungry to concentrate on schoolwork. Three meals a day Without good nutrition, it’s impossible for children to learn and grow.
overcome the tragedies and difficulties caused by the country’s ongoing civil war.The
WFP trucks deliver supplies of food from Kapoeta, 164 miles away. The journey takes eight hours on a good day, but if it rains and the road is washed out, the supplies run late or cannot be delivered. The school has often come close to running out of food.A plane full of cooking pots!
After an 80-minute flight, the pots and other items were unloaded at Kuron’s airstrip. The feeding programme is a huge incentive for many children to come to school. As one student said, 'It's the first time I've had three meals of food a day in my life!'
Because of this, MAF provides flights for the Peace Village several times a month, bringing in essential supplies and passengers. Not long ago, MAF filled its aircraft with several huge metal cooking pots because the charity was opening a secondary school.The pots will be used to prepare food for 310 primary students, 300 nursery students, 52 secondary students and 27 staff – that’s a lot of beans and porridge!
Peace Village Kuron / Thought Catalog (Unsplash.com)
Peace Village’s feeding programme provides schoolchildren with three meals a day – lovingly prepared by three dedicated dinner ladies who work seven days a week. The menu consists of a big cup of sorghum porridge for breakfast and a plate of sorghum, posho or ugali with beans for lunch and dinner, as well as leafy greens from the village’s gardens. The students contribute firewood to keep the kitchens going.
Holy Trinity
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Any prayer needs? Snap us requestsyour—we'dlovetoprayforyou ! Forget the former things;do not dwell on the past.See, I am doing a newthing! Now it springs up;do you not perceive it? Isaiah 43:18-19 (NIV) Please pray That all those changing schools and classes in South Sudan will settle in quickly and well.
Nathan
For MAF Uganda Pilot Andrew Parker and his family in Uganda.
Dumlao (Unsplash.com) 15
For those in South Sudan who are hungry. May God provide them with food. That the gorgeous twin girls and their family will thrive in the DRC.
For the villagers living in Yifki, PNG.
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