MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) - Flying for Life
Imagine yourself travelling on the isolated roads of North Western Ontario. Your car breaks down, there's no cell service, you are alone. You wait, and then a car drives by, the good Samaritan stops and provides assistance and all is well. Now, imagine instead of NW Ontario you are in Angola, Africa. The nearest town is 200 miles away and you need medical attention. There are no roads. You have to walk. This is one of the situations where MAF can help. MAF was created in 1945 after a few WW II veteran pilots wanted to use their planes for good. Fast forward to 2020 and WAF has 130 airplanes and a lot more missionaries, who are helping isolated and remote people in over 30 countries world wide. They bridge the gap between the developed and the developing world. Not only do they provide transportation for medical assistance, they haul supplies to isolated communities and provide healthcare and support to people in these remote locations.
Speaking to us this morning about MAF were Andrew and Jaelynn Stutzman.
Andrew grew up on a farm in Southern Ontario. He attended aircraft maintenance college in North Bay, Ontario in 2008, where he initially felt his call to missions with Mission Aviation Fellowship. After a few years working as an aircraft mechanic in northern Ontario, Andrew went back to school to complete his Bible and flight training.
Jaelynn was raised in various towns in northern British Columbia, working various part time jobs throughout high school and college. Se has desired to help people spiritually and physically throughout her life. She has worked at children's summer camps and short-term missions trips to youth centres. She received her nursing education at Prairie College and had the opportunity to grow in her community nursing while working for a month in remote villages in Columbia.
Since getting married in 2017, Andrew and Jaelynn have been working in their respective fields - Andrew as a pilot flying to northern reserves in Ontario and Jaelynn in Long Term Care in Thunder Bay.
In December of 2019, they both gave up their full-time jobs to partner with Mission Aviation Fellowship and are anticipating being sent to Lubango, Angola by January 2021. Andrew will be flying MAF aircraft into remote locations in order to bring the hope of health care and education, as well as famine and disaster relief. Jaelyn will be working with people who are isolated due to social status and health concerns. Her work will be to return dignity and provide basic health care to a community capacity.
The vision Statement of MAF encapsulates their goal for the future: to see isolated people physically and spiritually transformed in the name of Christ.
Andrew and Jaelynn are currently consider "pre-field missionaries" and are working towards finding people and organization willing to partner with them prayerfully and financially to enable this work to happen.
Right now, they are working with Ministry Partnership and Team building. Once they reach 90% of their funding goal they will begin Flight Standardization. By June 2020, they hare hoping to be 100% supported. At that time they will be travelling to Portugal to spend 6 months in intensive language training, which should bring them to January 2021 where they will arrive in Angola.
If you are interested in helping Andrew and Jaelynn on their journey you can find them on the MAF website at https://www.mafc.org/. Alternatively you can email them at astutsman@maf.org or jstutzman@maf.org or follow them on Facebook at Andrew and Jaelynn with MAFC.