How MAF helped save a young girl’s life

For Mission Aviation Fellowship pilot Kevin Borror, patience isn’t just a virtue––it’s a decision that forever changed the course of one young girl’s life.

Maria was an orphan and a sponsored child through the Compassion International program. Borror received a request to pick her up and take her to the hospital in Shell, Ecuador. The Compassion coordinator told him to make sure an adult accompanied her. And if he couldn’t find someone, Borror was instructed to leave her there.

Maria after her recovery and while she received treatment in Ecuador.

Upon arriving at the airstrip, he did not see the girl. Then he spotted her walking toward the plane, carrying her backpack, all by herself. He started asking around, “Who can come with her to Shell?” But no one wanted to come.

Looking at Maria, now waiting patiently to go, Kevin could not tell that she was severely ill. “I just sensed that the Lord was telling me to wait a little longer. I didn’t have anything pressing to do, so I just waited. Then I kind of pushed, ‘Somebody, one of you can come out!’”

Finally, another extended family member agreed to go. He ran home to get his shoes and joined Kevin and Maria in the plane. At the hospital in Shell, doctors discovered that Maria had kidney failure and other major health issues. They did not think she would make it through the night. They flew her to the HCJB hospital in Quito, where she was treated and put on dialysis. Maria survived and from that point on, her life changed drastically.

Lloyd and Linda Rogers, who started a ministry called Ecuador for Christ, worked closely with the Compassion program, and Maria came under their care for a time. The Rogers have been in Ecuador for 43 years with the Quichua, Shuar, Achuar and Waodani Indians, and have strong ties to MAF. The Rogers shared about the importance of MAF to their work: “Without MAF for transportation, it would be impossible for us to have done the work we have done; and presently, the work that the 15 national missionaries working with us could be doing as well. We are the largest mission users of MAF in Ecuador.”

While she stayed with them, the Rogers took Maria for dialysis every morning, five days a week. The doctors told them she would need a kidney transplant, so they began to pray that the Lord would open a door for the surgery to happen in the U.S.

Maria today.

Soon after, the Rogers’ nephew, Steve Wilson, and his wife Mitti, were considering adopting another child. They were previously missionaries with HCJB and served five years in Ecuador. After prayerfully seeking the Lord’s will, they decided to start the process to adopt Maria. In 2007, Maria moved to the U.S. with her new parents; she received a kidney transplant in June 2008. Now 19 years old, Maria has grown up with the love and support of a Christian family, and knows Jesus as her Savior.

All because one man decided to wait.