As we come to the end of a strange, challenging and disconcerting year, we thank God that, even though the number of flights MAF made in 2020 was reduced because of COVID-19, our planes continued to fly to remote and isolated areas.
Although there are too many stories to share them all here, let’s praise God for a year in which MAF:
- MAF aircraft delivered food to Arnhem Land’s indigenous inhabitants.
- We flew a medical team from Haydom Lutheran Hospital to Gorimba, Tanzania, enabling 4 nurses to examine 126 pregnant women, inoculate 585 children and check the health of 223 youngsters.
- Transported coronavirus test kits to hard-to-reach areas in Liberia, Chad and South Sudan.
- Bought corn to Atauro island in Timor-Leste, following a disastrous crop failure.
- Delivered 38,400kg of emergency supplies when schools, houses, farms and health facilities were submerged under gallons of water in Kasese, Uganda.
- Flew a 17-year-old girl with suspected appendicitis to hospital and airlifted a South Sudanese woman who’d fractured her leg as a result of a fall.
- Completed a solar panel installation at a health centre in PNG — making it possible to store vital vaccines and anti-venom at the right temperature and giving a reliable light source.
- Airlifted a dama gazelle to the Sahara Conservation Fund’s reserve in Chad, so the graceful antelope could breed safely without danger from poachers.
- Enabled Princess Marie of Denmark to visit the Omugo Refugee Settlement, Uganda, to chat with families involved in a project that provides sustainable climate solutions for refugees living in Arua, Yumbe and Kampala.
- Flew the President of Oecusse and four of his staff to Dili, Timor-Leste, for an important meeting in Parliament.
- Airlifted a badly injured baby chimpanzee to a sanctuary in Monrovia, Liberia, after the chimp’s mother was shot by a poacher.
2020 was also the year in which, apart from restructuring our programmes in Arnhem Land and Kenya to serve our partners more efficiently, we continued to expand our ministry, with work progressing well on a new airstrip in Lailenpi, Myanmar.
Encouraging progress was made in establishing our latest African programme in Guinea, and it was good, too, to see our new hangar in Liberia completed, and a review of the 213 airstrips used to serve communities throughout PNG commence.
All this — and more — was made possible due to God’s grace and through your loyal support and prayerful commitment. Thank you for your partnership in the work God has given us. May He bless you richly this Christmas and throughout the coming year.
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- That, as 2021 dawns and our 75th year comes to end, we will continue to see many more lives and livelihoods saved, restored and transformed in Jesus’ name.
- That coronavirus restrictions will lift and we will be able to increase our flying in 2021, reaching an increasing number of isolated communities.
- That we give God the glory for all that He has enabled us to accomplish in 2020, and that we look forward, in faith and expectation, to all that He has for us in the coming year.
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