Visiting Kalimantan
In August I visited the MAF Kalimantan program based on the island of Tarakan near Borneo.
The program serves the people living in the Indonesian province of Kalimantan. The region is one of the worlds most isolated and remote areas. It is largely undeveloped with dense forests, mountains and a lack of roads leaving people in villages isolated from medical and educational services, and the Gospel. There are 14 MAF families living in Kalimantan and MAF air services enable outreach teams, Pastor training,
Japanese machine gun post - Tarakan airport
medical support, general goods, medicine and school supplies to get to these remote areas.
I was really encouraged to see the opportunitys our guys and their families have to connect and minister to people in these villages. Paul, one of the MAF pilots there had been invited to play in one of the village soccer teams from Binuang in an upcoming tournament. It was great to see the way that he was welcomed by the people as a brother, and build friendships through sport and conversations. The tournament was a week away, but some of the players had already left on foot (5 day walk), some left on their motorbikes (2 day trip) and some were flying (13 minutes). For me that highlighted the necessity for air services to be available and affordable for these people.
Please pray that MAF can continue to fly in this area, and that these opportunities for MAF staff continue to be available, are intentional and that they impact people to walk with Christ.
