MAF at work in Haiti

MAF is hard at work in Haiti. For information on MAF’s involvement check out this link http://www.maf.org/news/earthquake-haiti-2010 to our MAF website.

Today, Wednesday 1-20, MAF dedicated one of the new Kodiak’s and it left Nampa, Idaho enroute to Haiti. With Avgas supplies running low the turbine powered Kodiak and increased load capability will be a big boost to relief efforts.

Although our piston fleet has been doing a number of flights to outlying areas, the supply of AvGas is a concern. This morning there was a three-day supply on hand.

The Kodiak’s progress can be followed at: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0D1PXJl3qUEr3JnlFt9jYrAhIK3fcdFYC

Email is flooded so we ask that, except for family, you not email staff in Haiti for now. The ability of headquarters to communicate with staff there is critical.

Please pray for:
A safe trip for the Kodiak.
Rest for our guys in Haiti. Enough breeze to get rid of the mosquitoes for a few hours so they can sleep.
A solution to the AvGas problem.
Wisdom for leadership as decisions are made on how to proceed.

Thanks. Never stop praying.

For Recruiting John Hook is in San Diego this weekend at the Misson Conference at San Diego Christian College. He will be traveling Monday to Letourneau for the Mission Conference there. As always you can find links to connect with us at http://www.mafrecruiting.org/.
JL

Biggest January Candidate class in a long time

The apartments are full and children are everywhere. As I write this, the candidates are on a field trip to visit a Buddhist temple and an Islamic center. We have pilots, mechanics, several teachers, an administrator, a finance manager, a speech therapist, plus many others all here for our January Candidacy. This week and next are big weeks for all these folks as they meet with the Candidate Committee of MAF and final decisions are made about where they should be assigned for service. For many, this is the culmination of many years of preparation for service. It is exciting for them and for MAF as we anticipate how they will be such a blessing to the programs they go to.

Some may even be assigned to Haiti because of the devastation we recently witnessed. Haiti will be in recovery and rebuilding for years to come and MAF will play a big part of that. Candidacy is fun time as we see the new MAFers take their place in our organization. Pray for a long and fruitful ministry for them.

Urbana update

Thanks to those of you who were praying for the 5 of us at Urbana 09 (Ron, Brad, Crissie, Pam & me). There is a reason Urbana is geared to the college age crowd (the first Bible study started each morning at 8:30 and the last one ended around 11 pm each night!)

It was a wonderful time of spiritual feeding and we had a lot of folks stop by the booth asking for information about MAF. Because of our new display we had more Teachers and Business/Finance folks stop than I ever remember. It was a good thing Crissie was with us to answer all the questions!

We also had quite a few IT/LT folks stop and again, I'm thankful that Brad was part of the team so he could fill them in on that side of the operation.

One neat experience is that a fellow stopped by the booth just to tell us thanks for a couple of flights we had done for his family. A little background is needed to fill in the details as to why this was significant.

In one central Asian country where we serve our only single engine airplane had been out of service for a while. Thankfully a Kodiak (our first one ever in Mission service) had arrived just a short time ago and was able to fly his siblings into the area where his folks were serving a few days before Christmas. Without the plane it would have been a long trek taking quite a while.

A few days later (Christmas day to be exact) his dad experienced a massive heart attack and the plane was able to fly him out to medical care. Without the Kodiak being able to extract him quickly the doctors said this fellow would have certainly died which would have affected the ministry efforts quite significantly.

If I'm not mistaken that's the first life saved by a Kodiak in mission service! I'm so thankful to be part of an organization (MAF) that is dedicated to serving those on the mission field.

Another neat "coincidence" is that the group this fellow worked with was in the booth next to ours at Urbana so we got to hear some of the other details about the situation as well!

Please continue to check back frequently because from now until May is a busy time for various mission conferences. I know Perry will be at Mission ConneXion NW this week so if you're in the Pacific NW be sure to stop by and say hi to him.

I'm scheduled to be at Liberty U for their MC from Feb 14-18 and then MissionFest Lancaster (PA) from Feb 19-21. Of course you can always check the calendar on our webpage (www.mafrecruiting.org) for the latest travels. If you see me somewhere along the way mention this blog and I'll give you a special gift!

Brian (SE Recruiter)