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An Incredible Day!

Tod Aebischer, Programme Manager in PNG, said, “What an incredible day it was to welcome the Hon. Nanaia Mahuta (New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs) along with the High Commissioner, Hon. Phillip Taula, and entourage, to the PNG Programme!   Much preparation, by so many of our team members, went into making this a very special day. Decorating the facility, cleaning, arranging, setting up chairs, sound equipment, media, coordinating logistics, cooking food, cutting up fruit, shop...

One Last Push

None of us like to wait. But most of what we want to achieve in life does not happen instantly. It takes time and effort and often involves delays and setbacks. We talk about life being a “journey, not a destination” but in reality, we want to “arrive”. The Bible is full of stories of waiting. In Genesis 12:2-3 God made a promise to Abraham that continued far beyond his lifetime. This promise included the promise of fame, divine protection and that Abraham, through his descendants, ...

Closing the Loop

Closing the Loop is about walking alongside people, from the initial emergency evacuation, through the stressful stay among strangers in a hospital in an unfamiliar city to offering a fast, comfortable return home – in the same plane that flew them out. Closing the loop means being the Christ who walks through the valley of the shadow of death and out the other side. The reality for a number of our medevac patients is that they find themselves discharged from hospital onto the street, wit...

Derek Harding

I grew up in England where our local church supported MAF UK and we often had MAF missionaries come to speak. As time progressed I married and served in a parish in the South East of England, where I was licenced as a worship leader and lay-minister and in due course became a Deacon and Priest. In 2007 I came to New Zealand to work in Blenheim on a Missionary Visa. Once again I came into contact with aviation and MAF. In 2011 I was able to develop my own interest in aviation by earning my Privat...

Renee & Pascal Mühlematter

Renee and Pascal are recently married and serving for MAF in Mount Hagen, Papua New Guinea.Renee, from Taranaki, New Zealand, started learning to fly when she was 15. She heard about MAF while she was in school and was inspired by the idea of using flying to help people. After finishing her flying training and working as a Flight Instructor, Renee left for Papua New Guinea in 2023 to work as a pilot.Pascal grew up moving between Austria and Switzerland because his parents were mis...

Now It’s Moving!

These words are from Margrit Kundig as she describes the momentum happening in Guinea as God provides step by step. From its earliest days MAF has been involved in bringing hope and healing to parts of the world in greatest need—and today pioneering efforts to start new programmes continue. Medevacs will transport those who are sick or injured quickly to the nearest hospital. MAF flights will greatly aid Bible translation as well as help the church in Guinea grow. Nearly 100,000 children ...

Jane Eddy

After nearly 40 years overseas, my husband David and I returned to New Zealand, serendipitously just before COVID-19 hit in 2020. We believe God has directed our course home, helped David find employment and provided me an opportunity to work in the wonderful family of dedicated talent called MAF. Every skill the Lord has blessed me with will now be used in His service to meet the needs of the families who cross my path.My background has been varied; from early days in advertising, sales an...

MAF launches new programme in Guinea

Like people everywhere, the eleven million living in the West African nation of Guinea have dreams and aspirations. But all too often their hopes are restricted by the lack of resources. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. Isaiah 43:19 A “new thing” is already taking place in Guinea. Through MAF, God is bringing a new “pathway”—in the air!—to...

Leigh & Inneke MacRae

Leigh was born in Napier and Inneke in South Africa, and they met in South Africa. Leigh is a qualified electrician and a refrigeration mechanic and has managed his own business for the past four years. Inneke is a physiotherapist, Mum and has helped with administration in the business. This experience has enabled them to work together as a strong team and overcome the challenges of finding practical solutions to unexpected situations. They have three children Cameron, Levi and Mikaela. They bot...

Phil & Tania Sproul

Phil & Tania joined MAF in 2022.  They met at a church in Christchurch, this is where Phil’s career in aviation had begun as an apprentice with Air New Zealand.  Together they have served in churches in Christchurch, Seattle, Nadi and Auckland, and enjoyed being part of what God has been doing in each location. Phil has been on mission in various airline engineering and maintenance roles for over 30 years prior to joining MAF.  They have two adult daughters who live in New Z...

MAF—The Lifeline to Missionaries at Owena

”MAF is our main lifeline connection and continues to service the community through medevacs, bringing in medical supplies, taking out coffee, etc.” These are the words of Judy Young, a missionary, after her fourth return to Papua New Guinea to serve the people of Owena through a new missionary training school. Owena is a village situated around a steep airstrip on a mountain range in the Eastern Highlands of PNG with no road access. The people often walk between one and one and a half days ...

Andrew Pound

Relationship Manager As a twelve year old at a Ngaruawahia Easter Convention I responded to a challenge to consider full time service and from that time the sense of call to being a pastor was very strong. As a springboard into ministry I chose to teach in primary schools for five years before training at Carey College in 1983—1985. I spent five years as a sole charge pastor at Oamaru Baptist Church and fifteen years at Westgate Baptist Church working in a team of up to five pastors. My wi...

A Small Act of Kindness

Six year-old David came to see the MAF plane in Hamilton last year and he loved it. He was excited about the Christmas Jerrycan cards too. He liked how MAF helps people in other countries with the supplies they need. Over the summer David decided he wanted to raise some money for MAF. He used a refreshments stand he had built with some spare wood lying around and sold lemonade made with lemons from their tree. He added some pocket money he had been saving each month to total $57 and sent it to M...

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Working With MAF NZ

Benji and Jess have recently returned to New Zealand after serving in Papua New Guinea for two years with Mission Aviation Fellowship. Benji works with a team of engineers in PNG, making sure MAF's fleet is operational. Benji talked about his work with MAF and growing up with a love of aviation. He shared insights into living in a totally different culture and the adjustments he, along with his wife Jessica and young son Elliot, had to make. ...

The Flying for Life magazine is out!

We are excited to send you our next edition of Flying for Life magazine. Hear of the continued vision of MAF NZ from Mark Fox and how MAF internationally is continuing to navigate COVID-19. Read about MAF New Zealand’s hangar purchase and development and be challenged by our latest candidate’s journey to MAF. And, as always, there is much, much more. Hard copies of the magazine are available. If you would like to receive one, contact our office at: info@maf.org.nz...

Wearing Many Hats!

Often commercial pilots become jaded by the repetitive flying they do and begin to hanker after more challenging flying. Working for MAF often means learning to handle a variety of roles and developing the ability to “wear many hats”. It’s seldom boring! Since starting out in Tanzania as a pilot in 2005, Martin Zimmerman has worn a number of different MAF hats, including ground ops training, Flight Training (Crew Training Manager) and Chief Pilot. In 2014 he and his family moved to Uganda,...

Flying for Peace

We all know that sin and pride results in a world marked by division and “isms”; racism, consumerism, ethnocentrism, elitism, agnosticism, atheism, and many other “isms” that separate—and finally end in conflict. The Bible is quite clear about the root cause of conflict; “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel�...

Supporting Bible Translation and Literacy in Liberia

MAF partners Aaron and Amy Speitelsbach have served with mission organisation Ethnos360 since 2007, first studying French in France, then moving to Abidjan, Ivory Coast for one year, before relocating to a village close the Liberian border for two years and finally settling across the border in Liberia in 2011. They are working among the Glarro, a people group numbering about 4000-5000, who live mainly on the border between Ivory Coast and Liberia. “We are doing church planting work,” Aaron ...

Jonny & Glenys Watson

Jonny and Glenys Watson, along with their children, Katie, Alana, Danielle and Lucy are from Hamilton, New Zealand, and have been MAF in PNG since 2017.  Glenys is currently a Mission Pilot in the Papua New Guinea programme flying the Cessna 208 Caravan. She finds joy in flying into bush strips in the mountainous and challenging terrain in the Highlands of PNG and seeing spiritual and physical transformation in these isolated communities. The Watson family live in the city of Goroka where t...

Jonathan & Michele Pound

Jono and Michele met in the Royal New Zealand Air Force and were married in 2010. They have four children, Abby (12), Daniel (11), and twins—Joseph and Benjamin (9) - all home schooled by Michele (the one thing that has remained the same since leaving NZ!).Prior to having children Michele worked as an outdoor activity instructor in the UK, trained and worked as a chef, and flew in the RNZAF as a Navigator. Jono joined the Air Force as an Avionics Technician and after six years remustered to pi...

A Bold New Vision

Great news! We have made the first step towards purchasing a hangar at Tauranga airport, which will be developed into the Kendon-Strong MAF Centre! In response to the urgent global need, the Kendon-Strong MAF Centre will allow us to meet the changing landscape of recruiting and developing missionary pilots, engineers, ground staff, managers and leaders. It will be a “hub” of MAF activity—prayer, fundraising for the work overseas, recruitment, equipping of new staff, training and connec...

The Humble Hero

Greeting Trevor Strong is like meeting a long lost friend. His warmth and graciousness are the first things I notice as I shake hands with one of the men who, in the midst of the horrors of WWII, dreamed that aircraft could be used for a better purpose than war. Trevor Strong is also a true gentleman, and the first thing this soon-to-be- centennial does when I meet him in his rest home on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand is to offer me his chair. He asks me about myself and my work, and ...

High Impact Flights!

Tod Aebischer, Country Director in PNG, recently flew from the “remote—to the really remote” to see first-hand the difference even one MAF flight can make on a community. Despite the heat and humidity of the lowlands, being soaked with sweat and the buzz of mosquitoes, Todd reported, “I can tell you...I was surprised and pleased beyond my expectations. This is truly “high impact flying!!” On his two-day trip Todd saw how, in partnership with others, vaccination programmes, airstr...

Together We Learn

My name is Harriëtte Knigge and at the beginning of March, I flew to Moropote, in a remote part of PNG, with a friend Caroline Wälde, to give a trauma healing course. In typical Moropote tradition, Caroline and I were greeted with sing-sing and a beautiful welcome letter. The trauma healing course we brought to Moropote explained what wounds of the heart and grief are, as well as how we can help others. We also discussed what God says about all this, what we can learn from the Bible and what f...