We Heart 2014 – Some Of Our Favourites

We’ve had a great year! We hope you have too. To celebrate this fact, we’ve compiled some of our favourite images/moments of the year! So in no particular order…

We launched the ‘THINK//INSIDE//THE//BOX’ campaign this year and this brilliant image from Oksapmin school sums up what we we’re hoping to achieve with the project! Helping PNG kids keep their education!

More info here! http://www.maf-youth.org/thinkinsidethebox

We hope this image brings you joy as much as it did us! Little Amaraa from Mongolia having his dinner!

Love this one, Bangladeshi folk standing by the river in their vibrantly coloured get up!

Probably accompanied by one of the most compelling stories of the year is this brilliant photo of MAF worker Kiir Dau, South Sudanese lost boy, reunited with his mother after 18 years of war torn separation.

We simply picked this one because of how amazing it looks! Dave Forney is the genius behind this one. Taken from the skies above Uganda!

A snap from Soul Survivor 2014! There were many great moments but not many that topped this one and you can see why!

This image scores high in our books simply because of what it stands for. Taken at the 25th Anniversary ceremony in Madagascar! Each piece of bunting has an encouraging message on the back from our supporters!

We had the pleasure of having Jemima Sparkes working with us earlier this summer as a volunteer! She even wrote about her own experience on this very blog, check it here http://wp.me/p4k7dT-45. Ever thought about volunteering too?

We loved taking Elijah up in the clouds this year, more reasons to get involved in our competitions! He had a blast and so did we!

LOVE this image! Believe it or not, this is the MAF UK CEO, Ruth Whitaker and here she is flying down the zip-wire at The Big Picture event!

A very good year indeed! Look out for more posts in the New Year as we’ll certainly be up to more exciting things worth reading about!

 

A Pilot’s Diary: A Week In Mongolia

Our pilots do A LOT of travelling as you can imagine, MAF pilot Ryan Van Geest lets us in on one of his weekly schedules…

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Saturday-

-Leave Ulaanbaatar with 9 missionaries from Antioch church aboard

-Travel 6 hours to the far east of Mongolia

-Drop 3 Missionaries off in Uliestii, Zavkhan

-Drop 3 Missionaries off in Ulaangom, Uvs

-Drop final 3 Missionaries off in Bulgan Sum, Khovd

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Sunday-

-Go to 2 Hour service with co-worker, Baatarsukh, at the church in Bulgan Sum

-Hire truck

-Search for a semi-nomadic Karakh family

-Find them, have food and tea during a wedding celebration of a young Kazakh couple

-Pray for a boy with learning difficulties, phone for a physiotherapist

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Monday-

-Missionaries to continue travelling on land, nearby Pastor to pick up

-2 hour delay as Pastor’s truck gets stuck in a river

-Pray for and encourage Missionaries before send off

-Ryan and Baatarsukh to stay in Bulgan Sum until Missionaries return

-FREE TIME: climb a mountain

-Meet church leaders for supper and fellowship

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Tuesday-

-Stranded near hotel due to snow storm

-Teach Baatarsukh some English

-Talk about Jesus

-Brave the storm, find an open restaurant

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Wednesday-

-Meet with the Pastor Oyunga

-Have lunch with two church ladies at the restaurant

-Take details to the Doctors of restaurant owner’s 4 ½ year old disabled son for assessment

-Find Pastor Oyunga

-Search for Kazakh family

-Get lost

-Find the family amidst on-going wedding celebrations and inquire about the small boy’s condition spoken about on Sunday

-Pray for the family as they await a call from the doctors

-Visit 8 year old girl from a poor Mongolian family, a previous patient

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Thursday-

-Run up a mountain for 6 ½ hours

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Friday-

-Fly back to Ulaangom to hear about the Missionary work in Bulgan Sum and Uvs

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Saturday-

-Despite the threat of more extreme weather, fly everyone back to Ulaanbaatar

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This is just one example of one pilot’s weekly lifestyle. It certainly gives us a flavour of what it’s like to serve remote communities like those in Mongolia! Despite all the obstacles, MAF still continues to operate all over the world!

A Safe Haven

As a charity, we get to partner with some amazing initiatives and organisations around the world – 1500 in fact! One of our absolute favourites has got to be ‘Confident Children out of Conflict’, an amazing schooling centre based in South Sudan, ran by the remarkable Cathy Groenendijk!

Cathy has lived in South Sudan for 7 years and, soon after moving there, began to notice the living conditions (or lack of) endured by the young orphaned children due to the savage conflict in South Sudan. They’d live on the streets, in the slums and in cemeteries in Juba and often suffer constant abuse.

Cathy’s heart went out to these children and, little by little, she began inviting the vulnerable kids into her home to bathe, change clothes and eat until it got to the stage where 25 children would come to her daily!

After managing to raise enough money, Cathy was able to open and centre called ‘Confident Children out of Conflict’ – a place where orphaned and vulnerable children could live, learn and keep away from the streets. Isn’t that just incredible?!

MAF Staff have been supporting CCC through raising money for school fees, airlifting children to Nairobi Hospital, building fences, IT, counselling, financial help and teaching and it’s been such an amazing privilege!

“They are very good neighbours. MAF is a very, very special partner for us” says Cathy.

As if your heart toggles weren’t warmed enough, MAF South Sudan Finance Manager Elger Nieuwenhuis fosters a little boy, Moses, who was once taken in by CCC as a malnourished baby! It must be so rewarding for Cathy to see Moses as a fruit of her labour – a healthy and happy boy with his loving foster Dad!

It’s so reassuring to know that people like Cathy are around, especially in the places where we serve! We thank God for His limitless grace for there is now a safe haven in Juba for young children to escape the devastating conflict that continues to dominate South Sudan. We also thank God for the amazing lady whose heart is to see South Sudanese children live freely and safely.