Recently at the MAF Sentani base in Papua, Indonesia, there were big grins all around as two new Quest KODIAK planes arrived for service. Everyone gathered in the hangar to watch the planes as they taxied in, and to get a closer look at the enhancements––especially the ones that were gracing the bellies of each […]
Everything went dead.
Great, I thought. This power outage would probably last at least eight hours. The list of tasks that needed electricity ran through my mind. No laundry would get done. No email could be sent. No bread would get made—unless of course I wanted to do it by hand. Which I didn’t—not while holding […]
Editor’s Note: MAF pilot Dave Forney serves in Indonesia and takes a yearly trek through the jungle that he flies over each day. He says understanding how challenging it is to travel through the dense vegetation and dangerous wildlife habitats makes him appreciate what MAF does for isolated people that much more. A story about […]
I had just hit snooze on my alarm when my phone rang. “I need an extra flight in the Kodiak to Malinau. My mother died last night,” Nelson told me. Pak Nelson is one of our karyawan, or Indonesian staff, who has worked in our hangar for quite a long time. He is the kind […]
I wear a special badge most days – it’s the Missionary Badge of Honor. I like my life as a missionary in Southeast Asia. I relish in the fact that I live in such a crazy and foreign place that looks like something out of National Geographic. I think it’s pretty miraculous that I can […]
Sometimes as a missionary here in Papua, it’s easy to lose hope. Just outside of our gate lies a world filled with shrouded faces and absent eyes, poverty and ignorance. And in the deeper villages, a world filled with immorality, an ensuing AIDS epidemic and war. Sometimes it can feel overwhelming, like we’re fighting a […]