Year End reflection and URBANA

This has been an awesome year for recruiting for several reasons. First of all we have seen a real increase in those headed to MAF with both of our candidate classes for this next year with more candidates than usual. MAF has experienced very little decrease in giving throughout 2009. This past year was also highlighted with the US's largest air show highlighting Mission Aviation and Humanitarian service by general aviation. That gave us a lot of great exposure and opportunities to share why we do what we do. We want to thank all of you for your prayers, support both financially and in personal contribution of time and talents, and for your trust in what God is doing through MAF. You have helped make this past year a great year in MAF. We also Praise the Lord of the Harvest for bringing us more workers for the harvest fields. It truly is a privledge to serve HIM. May God continue to challenge you, grow you, and show you HIS majesty, grace, and love through the New Year. Blessings, Perry Pust

Pray for the recruiting gang and others that have gone to represent MAF at the Urbana conference. Pray that God would work in the hearts of the students attending this year, that they would hear the voice of God, seek His direction for their lives, and come away knowing more of what God has created for them to do for HIM.

Christmas at MAF

Today in recruiting I am watching a few snowflakes add to the dusting we got overnight, and remembering celebrating Christmas, as most of our MAF families do, in another country and a tropical climate

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I love the Christmas emails from other parts of the world. Reports of ministries – discipling new believers, a New Testament ready to print in another language, plans for a TB facility to help tribal people get the nutrition and consistent medication they need to heal. MAF is part of all these ministries – carrying people and stuff, but also sharing the Good News for all People – that Jesus came to be a Light to those (all of us) who were walking in darkness.

MAF's first Kodiak aircraft made its first operational (real work!) flight in Central Asia - the pilots who made the flight were pretty excited to have that privilege, but they were quick to point out that many, many people poured their efforts into getting it on the field. Another Kodiak is nearly at its destination of Kalimantan, Indonesia, and one more sits in the hangar across the street waiting for better weather to start the cross-Pacific flight.

Right after Christmas, a team from recruiting will fly to St. Louis to participate in Urbana 2009-'a place for college students to see, hear, and respond to God?s global mission'.

There are about 16,000 students registered for this missions conference, held once every three years. Brian and Pam Behal, Ron Hilbrands, Crissie Rask and Brad Rhoads will represent MAF with a display in the exhibition hall - talking with students about opportunities to use their skills and talents through ministry with MAF. PRAY for the conference – for many to clearly hear God’s call to serve Him in some of the needy places of the world. If you aren’t going, the URBANA website is still a great way to learn about Missions. www.urbana.org

It will be an exciting and appropriate way to follow Christmas and to welcome the New Year.

Christmas Blessings!

Kodiak arrives in Central Asia

This is a festive time of the year. Christmas is always a reminder of why we do what we do in MAF. Jesus is focus for all that we do and at this time we reflect on all that he is. Christmas is also a time of giving and receiving gifts and that also reminds of of God's gift to the world. One of our Central Asia programs received a blessing of a new Kodiak and a second Kodiak is due to arrive in Indonesia in 4 or 5 days. The third Kodiak will leave as soon as it gets good weather for the trip. Pray for good weather flying weather and for endurance and safety for the pilots for these long ferry flights. A trip in a small aircraft half way around the world is not to be taken lightly. These aircraft will be a huge blessing to the people that get to use them. We have a 4th Kodiak in the hanger getting ready for its ferry flight and a 5th one to be delivered to us right after the 1st of the year. We have much to give thanks for and pray with us these aircraft bless many people.

It seems someone is always on the road somewhere. Brian is traveling through, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Mississippi this week. I just returned from visits to Indiana State University, University of Illinois, Purdue University, and late evening Pizza in Chicago before returning home. MAF will also have a booth again at this year's Urbana conference which means you will find several of our recruiters in St Louis, MO between Christmas and New Years.

Email and phones are always available but if you have ever felt you would like to sit down and talk with someone from MAF get in touch with us. You never know when we might be in your area. We want to get to know you and you to know MAF. You can find contact information at www.MAFrecruiting.org under Contact Us. My email is jlemmon@maf.org.

You can also just pick up the phone and call 1800-FlysMAF. Ask for the recruiting department and they can track down whoever you need.

Blessings to all and stay safe this Christmas season.

JL

Moody Spokane and URBANA 09

It has been just over a week now that I have been back from the Moody Missions Conference in Spokane, WA. Perry Pust and I had a good chance to talk with many of the students about what MAF is doing around the world. Moody is about a 6 1/2 hour drive from where our headquarters is here in Nampa, ID. There continues to be a lot of interest in serving with MAF and missionary aviation in general.

The recruiting department is also gearing up for the huge mission conference called URBANA which is being held in St. Louis, MO this year. The event happens every 3 years and is hosted by Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. Last time we were there, there were 20,000 students and 450 mission organizations there. If you have a chance to go, it is a life changing event. Check out the website at www.urbana.org. Maybe I'll see you there. It is from Dec. 27 to January 1.

Home again, home again....

Well I'm finally catching up after being on the road for 3 weeks. I left home 18 Oct on my way to Jacksonville (FL) University's Career Day. I spent 3 days in the JAX area then headed south to Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne where I spoke to their Aviation Fraternity as well as their InterVarsity group.

If you ever want to know where one of us recruiters are you can check the Google Calendar on our home page (www.mafrecruiting.org). We try and list every event we'll be at so you can come visit us.

The last week of my trip was spent visiting the Baptist College of Florida (Graceville), Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Daytona Beach), Hobe Sound Bible College (Hobe Sound), and 3 recruits in the Tampa Bay area. While at ERAU I had the blessing of sharing my faith with about 5 muslims, 1 agnostic and 1 mormon. I also got to talk with quite a few folks who had no idea that aviation was being used in missions. I've been studying lately in John Chapter 4 and 5 about sowing and reaping and fields white unto harvest so it was a good application of that!

My next trips are to NC later this month and then TN, KY, MS & GA in early December. If you're reading this and would like me to try and visit you, please just drop me a line at bbehal@maf.org.

I do enjoy the traveling part of my job and getting to meet so many different folks who are interested in missionary aviation.

After Christmas I'll be attending Urbana (InterVarsity's tri-annual missions conference - see www. urbana.org) from Dec 26-31. If you're interested in any type of mission work that's the place to be! Come look us up and tell me you found out about it on our blog and I'll give you a little gift!

NW Recruiter travels again - Salem

For any of you in the Salem, Oregon area, I will be hanging out at Corban college all next week for their mission conference. Please stop by if you can. I'd love to talk to you about MAF, opportunities, and generally try to encourage you in some way!! :-) Help me fill in those less than active times while I'm hangin.

Perry Pust
360-606-9559

Word this morning from the Kodiak crew was that weather and Icing conditions across the Midwest would keep them from making the stop at SMAT. Weather is forcing them to take a more southerly route probably stopping near Indianapolis before continuing on to the South Cleveland area.

I am off to Kankakee, Illiniois and Olivet Nazarene Univeersity. I will be back to Holland, Michigan on Saturday. JL

Those in the Michigan area might already know one of the MAF Kodiaks will be in Holland, Michigan on Saturday. It will also be at SMAT Thursday afternoon about 2:30pm weather permitting. It will be making a short stop on its way to the Cleveland area. It will be in Kidron, Ohio at Stoltzfus Airfield for an open house Friday evening. Friday AM it hopes to make a short visit to MMS Aviation at the Downing airport in Coshocton, Ohio. Saturday it is back to Holland, Michigan and then down to Indianapolis, Indiana for Sunday afternoon.

I hope to see some of you in the next few days. I will be at SMAT on Thursday in Ionia, Michigan. Then down to Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Illinois on Friday for a missions day, and then back up to Holland, Michigan on Saturday for the Kodiak open house from about 2 to 5pm. If I am not out of gas :-) I will try to make it to Indianapolis also. We might even get a few pictures posted. JL

Picture of Kodiak in Seattle

As I promised, here is a photo of the crowd viewing the Kodiak during the Seattle tour. A very nice crowd indeed! Several flights were done for major contributors for the Kodiak project and a very nice demo flight by Paul Bergen amidst sky jumpers and lots of other flight activities going on that day.

Mission Fest Seattle

Mission Fest Seattle was last weekend with thousands in attendance. Our booth was quite busy with not only interested candidates, but also those finding out about where the Kodiak was going to be on display on Sunday. I had about a dozen conversations with potential mission candidates, and then helped at the Kodiak event that had over 150 in attendance. An impressive flight was also done by Paul Bergen, demonstrating what this aircraft can do. Significant donors got to go along with him on these flights, plus one recipient from the drawing. Praise the Lord with us for the great support, interest, and trust we have from the many that pray and give to our ministry.

Pictures coming!

LAMP

You might think of light when you see the title, and I am in a Bible Study Fellowship (www.bsfinternational.org) class that is studying John this year (see John 1:4,5,7,8,9) but that's not what I'm referring to here.

LAMP stands for Liberty (University) Aviation Missions Potentials - as in folks who are potential missionaries or who want to serve in Missions. They have a monthly meeting the 2nd Tuesday of each month and Oct. 13 I will be their main speaker. I plan on showing them a new MAF DVD from Paul College and speak to the 3 main things MAF looks for in a recruit.

Those would be Technically Qualified (meets our minimum standards in the area of expertise (Flight, Maintenance, Avionics, Teachers, Learning Technologies, Business & Finance, Administration each have their own set of standards).
This is the easiest to measure but probably the least important of the 3.

The second is Spiritual Maturity. MAF (as does most missions) requires a certain number of Bible Credits to join). Bible credits are one way of measuring Spiritual Maturity but we also ask for a Pastor's reference and we try to gauge this level through conversations both with the candidate as well as people who know the candidate. This area is harder to measure and is also more important.

The third area is Moral Integrity. Is the person who they say they are. Do they walk the walk rather than just talk the talk. Do they live up to their Biblical beliefs even when no one is watching. Is their public and private (thought) life pure. Probably the hardest to measure but the most important of the three.

So as you remember me between now and Oct. 13 would you pray that I can communicate these 3 ideas with clarity so those attending will understand? Thanks!

And as you think of the 3 areas, would you examine your life and see how you measure up. God wants each one of us to be quipped to do the best job we can both in our careers, in our ministry, but more importantly in our relationship with Him.

Grace and Peace
Brian

Upcoming BIG event - Mission Fest Seattle

MAF will be among many mission agencies represented at the upcoming Mission Fest Seattle. We hope that you can come and en joy this event with us, and visit us at the booth. The event runs from 4 pm Oct 2nd through 8 pm on Oct 3rd. Check out their web site for more details at www.missionfestseattle.org and at least stop by to say HI! See ya there. Perry Pust - NW Recruiter. 360-606-9559

Hi everyone. Last week our domain name www.mafrecruiting.org expired. I contacted the registrar to renew it. Well after 3 attempts over 6 days no success (long story). Today I registered the name mafrecruiting.com (notice the dot com instead of dot org) so the website can be accessed now as www.mafrecruiting.com or click on the JOIN link on the main MAF.org web site.

sorry for the inconvenience.

We all got together

(men: Brian Behal, Perry Pust, John Hook, Ralph Dawson, Ron Hilbrands, John Lemmon

women: Crissie Rask, Karlene Stehling, Carol Lehman, Danielle Scholten)

After a week of meetings, we were still able to smile for the camera. Twice a year, all the recruiters get together to meet and strategize and just have fun together. We have a great team that covers the U.S. WE have 3 recruiters who live regionally away from our HQ in Nampa, ID(Virginia - SE Region, Michigan - Midwest Region, and Washington - NW Region) ID and 4 who work out of the HQ in Nampa.

Moody Aviation flight students arrive today for tour of MAF. They are advance flight students doing training in the back country of Idaho.

Recruting meetings going on this week. All the recruiters are here in Nampa, Idaho.

All Church Clark County picnic

today we're joining the all church picnic at the Pearson Airport Museum with an MAF booth. We're hoping to see or have nearly 10,000 people there. Come and bring a picnic lunch and join us. Vancouver, WA!!!

The ramp is full in front of the MAF hanger in Nampa, Idaho. Last Friday MAF took delivery on its 3rd Kodaik (#20 from the factory). Here you see 3 Kodiaks, 3 Cessna 206 and 1 Cessan 182.

The 3 C-206s are based in Nampa for training. The Kodiaks are headed for Asia and the 182 will be going to South America.

This week is Graduation week at the School of Missionary Aviation Technology (SMAT) in Ionia, Michigan. I plan to visit there tomorrow as well as be at Graduation on Friday. SMAT is one of the few schools in the country where you can obtain you A&P license in one year. Classes run August to August.

This year sixteen are graduating and next years class I am told could be as many as 20. Plans are being made to break ground on the new classroom building sometime in September.

Midwest Recruiter

Oshkosh Afterthoughts

Well EAA's AirVenture 2009 has been over 4 days now and I think I've finally recovered! I spent a few hours Sunday Night and all day Monday driving back to Blacksburg, VA. Having Pam along made the trip go much faster. It's so much nicer (especially for the recruits!) when she can travel with me.

I spent Tuesday unpacking, going over materials and business cards I'd received as well as cleaning out my inbox (it's under 500 now!).

I took Wednesday off to help move our daughter into her new apartment and today is my first day back to the daily grind. Hard to prioritize after 8 days of Airplanes! Now to fill out the forms and reports (the job's not over until the paperwork is done....)

If you get a chance, check out the International Association of Missionary Aviation (IAMA) website at www.iamanet.org. There you can find a lot of info about this year's airshow as well as a podcast featuring our flight simulator (Podcast #7).

This morning got an email from my boss asking if I want to help ferry a 182 down to Ecuador at the end of the month. I have a lot of trips planned between now and the middle of Sept. when I have to be at HQ for our semi-annual recruiting meetings so am struggling whether to go on this trip or not. I sure would hate to miss the opportunity....

If you're reading this after the Aug 10th deadline, write me and ask what I decided to do!

Day 5

MAF's display has heavy traffic today. Here is a picture of MAF Advocate and Alumni Mike Roarke talking with a visitor at the MAF tent.

The Kodiak is a big hit. Brian Shepson is busy showing guests around.

Nice sunny day today. We had a lot of visitors to the MAF tent. The big attraction yesterday was the White Knight, launch platform for space ship 2. (pictured above) Today on the flight line was the new Airbus 380, the worlds largest airliner, I will post pics later.

We are here at Oshkosh and it is really exciting. I don't mean the airplanes (yes they are exciting to see) but I am referring to the people here. There are 30 mission organizations and over 400 missionaries, mostly pilots, here to talk to the public about what we do in mission aviation. Pray for us as we have conversations and divine appointments. Here are a few pictures of the opening day.

Aviation Camp

Wow! Did we have fun! And learn a lot about God's work around the world. Mission Aviation Adventure Camp was held in Cascade, Idaho. This is the first one in Idaho and it was a great experience for everyone involved. We had 11 students attend the camp, one from Washington State and 2 from Montana. The remainder of the students were from the Bosie area. The students had flights everyday (weather was nice) and ground school. Activities in the afternoons included building balsa wood models, canoeing on the North Payette River, swimming and playing games. One night we had a wonderful time around a huge campfire. Christian Zimmerman made a special appearance and spoke about his aviation experience along with being hijacked. He is currently teaching English in a University in China.

From May 20-22 two of us recruiters attended the annual IAMA (International Assoc. of Missionary Aviation) conference at Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA. Brian Behal and I (Ron Hilbrands) represented MAF there and had good time connecting with other mission groups and schools that train specifically for missionary aviation. There were over 80 attendees there and Liberty did a great job of hosting all of us. Next year the event will be at UIM (United Indian Mission in Tucson, AZ. MAF will be hosting the conference next in 2012 here at Nampa, ID.

At the conference we heard from all the groups as to what was happening in their organiziation and how the economy was affecting them. There was discussion and a presentation on safety and security training for missionaries. We also discussed the major changes involved in moving toward turbine aircraft. IAMA is always a great place for networking. There was also a lot of talk about how IAMA and missionary aviation will be highlighted at the EAA Airventure in Oshkosh.

MAF Kodiak # 2

While visiting Moody Aviation in Spokane I took the short drive to Sandpoint, Idaho to tour the Quest manufacturing facilities. It is very impressive to see how far they have come in a short time.  Here is a picture of the next MAF Kodiak. It is in stage 5 of a 6 stage process. Each stage takes 10 days to complete. This Kodiak, #17, should be out the door in less than 20 days.

Moody Aviation Graduations

I traveled north to Spokane to attend the commissioning service for the Moody Aviation students on Friday May 29, and the graduation on Saturday May 30. It was a very nice ceremony. This was my first time to see the Spokane campus. I arrived early Thursday morning and participated in the chapel at 6:45am. MAF has 5 staff on loan to the Moody Aviation program. Three of the families have passed milestones in service. I was privileged to present 5 year service award to Gene and Jen Arnold, 15 year service award to Dan and Jodi Appleby and also Bruce and Wendy Devries. These families have been doing an excellent job in mentoring the next generation of  missionary pilots and mechanics.

Great New stuff in MAF

Regina Manley directed MAF’s first US Story & Oral Strategies Workshop in March. 17 representatives from 9 different organizations wrestled with seeing life from an oral communicators perspective. We made 3 tracks available that could be taken independently or in various combinations – Instructor’s Workshop, Practitioner’s Workshop, and an Oral Strategies Seminar. Read more at www.maflt.org/node/108

The folks that Regina trained in biblical story telling last January at the Mayan Bible School in Huehuetenango, Guatemala are now training 3 pastors’ wives to reach Tztujil (Mayan language) speakers. They ask prayer for “Demonstrating the Simply The Story method of story telling and coaching the ladies in discovery of God's word for themselves.”

MAF's first Kodiak will be visiting the Vancouver, WA-Portland, OR area May 23rd and 24th. You're welcome to come and see it at the Pearson Airport near the museum. See pictures on our main web site http://www.maf.org/

Liberty University LAMP Meeting

I went to Liberty on 21 April to attend their LAMP (Liberty Aviation Missions Potentials) meeting. I went over early and availed myself of a "Discovery Flight" in the Schweizer Helicopter (300 CBi) as an early (late?) birthday present. Had a great time and am trying to justify how to do more of that!

At the meeting Tim and Rebecca Ingles with New Tribes Mission presented their work with the Wano tribe in Papua, Indonesia and the Ingles' heavy reliance on Missionary Aviation (both fixed wing and helicopter) to accomplish their task.

I then showed the newest MAF video which was produced by CTN's All Over the World (see http://www.aotw.tv/) about MAF's work in Kalimantan. Afterwards Tim and I answered questions.

LAMP meets regularly throughout the LU Academic year. See the Facebook Group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=47283539099 for more information.

My next trip to LU will be for the annual IAMA conference (International Association of Missionary Aviation - see http://www.iamanet.org/). Each year IAMA rotates where their meetings are held and this year LU is the host.

I'm also in the final stages of planning my annual Vision Trip to Ecuador for prospective Missionary Aviators. That trip will be from 29 May - Jun 7.

After that the next big trip on the calendar (see http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=v3svo8c4i91jgs2amrfpu2oo6c@group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/Los_Angeles) is our annual Oshkosh AirVenture trip. This year the theme at AirVenture is Fly 4 Life and will feature Mission and Humanitarian Aviation. If you have even the slightest opportunity to attend I encourage you to do so.

Hoping to see you then!

The orientation classes started this week. The class did a chapel on Wednesday and told about how God meet them during their fund raising time. These are always are favorite chapels.

Exciting to see new staff returning from support raising to begin the final phase of training before going overseas. They begin non-tech orientation on Friday. Two weeks. Then the pilots begin 6 weeks of flight and maintenance. 

March Recruiting Meetings

Today we discussed plans for Urbana 09. Getting excited about what the Lord's going to do in December!

MAF BOARD is meeting this week

This week the MAF US board is meeting and today Larrie Gardner gave a Chapel.

MAF Kodiak #1 (#11 from the factory)

Here is the Kodiak just as it arrived at our hanger in Nampa, Idaho.

Kodiak Arrival in Nampa at MAF headquarters

Here is John Boyd, MAF-US CEO, receiving the keys to the Kodiak.

MAF Kodiak arrives today!

Standby. In just a few hours the new MAF Kodiak aircraft will be arriving at MAF Nampa. I will post pictures later.

Learning about social networks

The MAF LT (learning technologies) team gave us a seminar on using facebook, twitter, yammer etc....

Regional directors

Yesterday we had a good meeting talking with Regional directors. They shared their vision for the future and that includes more staff needs.

Advocate Wing

The MAF Advocate Wing is a group of volunteers who help promote MAF in their churches and other appropriate places. Connie Shepson is the manager of Advocate Wing and shared with us in our recruiting meetings about what they are doing. They currently have 25 Advocates and growing. Advocates have given 75 presentations to over 9000 people in the last 6 months. Yeah for the Advocates!

Meetings....

We are in meetings as we speak

Meetings....

Today is the second day of safety seminar given for regional directors and staff development. It seems to be going well. I will get some feed back from the attendees later.

Meetings and more meetings

This week at MAF in Nampa, Idaho we have lots of meetings going on. The regional directors from all around the world are here. It is a time for them to reconnect with one another, plan and strategize for the future and report to the Board of directors. The office staff always look forward to the chapel times when the regional directors share what God is doing in their part of the world. We will have 2 chapels this week to fit in all the reports, Wednesday morning and Friday morning.Publish Post