News for Prayer Issue 482
22 August 2013
A new opportunity
Baptisms Praise God for a recent Youth Rally in Milingimbi, Arnhem Land. We transported young people from their communities into Milingimbi, and pilot René Don says ‘it was really special to feel unity in Christ and celebrate this as Christian brothers and sisters.’ Pray for ongoing transformation in the lives of young people in Australia’s remote outback. Give thanks too for a recent outreach to Bremmer Island, which enabled pilot Lisa Curran to stay overnight in the community, enjoy fellowship and witness some baptisms. Pray for believers on the island to grow in their faith and that more people will believe and be baptised.
Pilots needed Godfrey and Glen Sim praise God for our team of 30 international and 99 national staff in Papua New Guinea (PNG). They operate 14 aircraft, including a training Cessna 172, from 5 piloted bases and 5 ground staffed bases. Pray for God’s leading, and that vacancies for national and international staff will be filled. Pray also that talks with government ministers and provincial authorities will open up new ministry possibilities, aid resourcing and enable our flights in PNG to be increasingly cost-effective.
Recruitment is a challenge for a number of our operations. One significant example is Liberia, our newest operation, which cannot begin until suitable MAF staff are recruited. Liberia is a desperately poor country in eastern Africa, bordered by Sierra Leone, Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire. Our operation will cover an area of 43,000 square miles, and has a population of 3.7 million people. A military coup in 1980 marked the beginning of Liberia’s political and economic instability, with two successive civil wars leaving approximately 250,000 people dead and its economy in ruin. Today, following democratic elections in 2005, Liberia is beginning to recover from this devastation. Yet over 80% of its people are said to live below the poverty line. Pray for those planning how we can best serve Liberia, and for the many MAF staff needed to launch this programme. Pray particularly for a Country Director to manage the operation. This role will oversee the services we can offer churches, missions and NGOs in Liberia, ensure the wellbeing of MAF personnel, and develop relationships with potential partners. Finally, uphold our search for an Airfield Development Manager, who will identify where to establish airfields, oversee their construction and ensure they receive approval and correct licensing.
Finally, pray that an Administrator and more technicians for our Christian Radio Missionary Fellowship in Goroka will soon come forward. The number of radios needing repair is mounting up.
Toys R Us
A team from MAF South Africa’s Flying for Life initiative recently delivered a large number of educational toys to Gondeni Crèche in a remote village of Venda, Limpopo. This small preschool has a tin roof, no running water, no toilets and no toys or educational materials for the children. It is part of a village that exists to serve a local business, which is now running at a loss and may soon close down. MAF staff and volunteers are working hard to help the villagers’ financial problems, and assist them in their efforts towards sustainable farming. When our team arrived, they found the children playing on some jungle gyms, which were erected during their previous visit earlier this year. To help combat malnutrition and sickness in this desperately poor rural area, they also distributed e’Pap – a fortified maize product containing 28 nutrients, the nutritional content equivalent to a ten-course meal.
Gondeni is the second preschool that MAF South Africa has adopted. Last year, we also assisted a crèche in a neighbouring village. The 23 children there were being taught in a dark and derelict building with holes in the roof and cracked plaster. MAF personnel repaired and revamped the building and provided vital educational resources. Pray as we continue to support needy communities in this way. Our staff not only strengthen and improve existing programmes, but also develop new ones and share the Gospel with the children they meet.
Great opportunity Give thanks for the three MAF staff who flew to Kotido, northern Uganda, to carry out repairs on the airstrip there. They spent the day hacking away at long grass and digging out and filling in termite mounds in temperatures near 40C. During the afternoon an unexpected downpour resulted in the team, together with some Karamajong men (an ethnic group of agro-pastoral herders), taking shelter in our plane. Pilot Achim Appel used the opportunity to share the Gospel, and several people gave their lives to the Lord. Praise God for this divine appointment and for sending rain to this drought stricken area.
Prayer points • ARNHEM LAND Pray for our pilots’ safety, stamina for our aircraft maintenance engineers, strength for MAF families, healing for the sick, and peace for those under pressure. • HAITI Give thanks that the MAF Haiti programme has found a new home just 200 metres from their previous site at the Port-au-Prince airport. Pray for the safe move of the hanger structure and work spaces to this new location. • MONGOLIA Praise God for our ability to airlift two patients – one suffering from a stroke and the other from internal bleeding. Pray for their complete recovery. • We recently flew a team from Reaching the Light to a number of remote airstrips so they could carry out medical checks on disabled children. Pray for the continued effectiveness of this wonderful ministry.
• PNG Our staff and their families live in areas often troubled by unrest. Pray for their peace, protection and security (NfP 473). • SOUTH AFRICA Give thanks for eyesight restored and lives changed when we flew three eye professionals to clinics in Mulala and Masisi on a Flying Eye Clinic flight. • TIMOR-LESTE (EAST TIMOR) Flying requests continue to build, so pray for Country Director Jonathan Lowe as he works on the planning necessary to meet the growing needs. • Give thanks that Mike Bottrell has an engineering licence, enabling him to do regular maintenance on our aircraft alongside his flying. • WORLDWIDE Pray for MAF operations throughout the world that are short-staffed, and ask the Lord to bring more qualified personnel into the MAF family.
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