Celebrity billionaires Jeff Bezos’ and Richard Branson’s joy rides to space in July were met by as much celebration as derision. 

In the world of global missions, however, the gift of flight is met with far less controversy. 

At the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), a plane takes off or lands somewhere in the world every three minutes, delivering supplies or transporting expert personnel to help with the development of isolated and remote regions.

The Mission Aviation Fellowship team is building a new training centre and maintenance base in Mareeba, Australia, for their work in global missions. All MAF photos courtesy of Stephen Charlesworth.

Founded in 1945, the organisation today has a fleet of 135 airplanes, serving some 1,500 non-profit, churches, and humanitarian organisations in 37 countries.

MAF has made it its vision to “see isolated people changed by the love of Christ”.

Salt&Light catches up with Stephen Charlesworth, a trained pilot and MAF’s regional director for Asia Pacific, to find out how God has been working through those blessed with the gift of aviation. 

Can you tell us more about MAF? What does missionary aviation look like?

MAF uses aviation resources and technically qualified people to open up access to isolated communities.

We want to meet the whole needs of these communities, so our services do not centre only on taking in missionaries or Bible translation, though these are part of what we do.

The focus of the work will vary, depending on the needs of the local community. 

We prioritise transformational work – this could mean working with partners to provide medical services where healthcare access is scarce, or helping with evacuations. Services are priced according to the client’s capability.

Corporates will be charged commercial rates; flights for local governments or international bodies like the United Nations will be charged a community rate, which is still slightly higher than what churches would pay.

And if individuals we support are financially strapped, we have them contribute what they can – this could be a bag of coffee, or maybe they have got a pig, or some produce.

Does that mean everyone in MAF is a pilot?

Interestingly, for every pilot, we have eight additional support staff.

So, it’s not very intuitive, in that you may think that the majority of our staff would be pilots. But because of the remote operations and because we’re a charity, we have additional staff requirements. 

We have mechanics who service the planes, flight programmers who plan the flights, accountants to manage the finances, a legal team, and many others in non-flight roles. 

The Mission Aviation Fellowship team at work in Mareeba, outside of Cairns, Australia, where Stephen is based as MAF’s regional director for the Asia Pacific.

We go to more destinations than any other aviation operator in the world. We don’t carry as many people because our planes are small. But we do fly to over 1,200 destinations, most of which are small, remote places people have never heard of.

You may not even find them on Google Maps. It’s like they don’t exist.

That said, MAF’s two largest programmes are in the Papua province in Indonesia, as well as Papua New Guinea.

How did you get involved with MAF?

I was born in Papua New Guinea in the 1960s. That was a time when it was a territory of Australia.

Stephen met his wife, Sue, when they were theological students in Brisbane. Both felt called to global missions.

My father was a missionary pilot. Growing up, we would often go to air shows and that got me interested in aviation. I grew up in a household that spoke about faith in Jesus and I saw that lived out in my parents. 

My wife and I studied theology in Brisbane together, and at the end of our theological school, we applied to join him in the Mission Aviation Fellowship. I already had a commercial pilot’s license then.

We served in Papua New Guinea for five years before coming back to Melbourne, and returned to work in the corporate world.

When we both turned 40, we wondered again: What do we want to do for the rest of our lives? Will we continue working in our respective professions in Melbourne?

We both had a strong desire to get back to being involved in global missions. We got back into MAF, and I thought I’ll continue to serve as a pilot, but the mission had a need for leaders and management staff. MAF has a support office in Cairns, which oversees the operations in the Asia Pacific region, and I’m now working there as a regional director for the region.

How does MAF know when a need arises, especially when it primarily serves remote areas?

We try to establish and prioritise needs through strategic analysis by working with local governments and other development agencies.

We also look at the sustainable development goals of the country and certain key indicators, like infant mortality or maternal death rates, and then identify the gaps in development. Or it could be a community that has no access to high school, then we’ll work with an education provider and see if we can build a high school and, hopefully, we can also provide a service to connect them with teachers.

There is more reactive work, where the user with a need establishes contact and requests a service. But it is true that much of the infrastructure to do so is not very accessible.

In some areas, we use high-frequency radio, an old technology, to establish connections with cell towers. Even then, some places are so remote that it takes four hours to walk to the nearest phone box.

What were your most memorable encounters in overseeing work in the Asia Pacific region?

One story that comes to mind is that sometimes our own staff underestimate and forget the difference that they’re making. And sometimes they think they’re only having an impact for God’s Kingdom if they are delivering sermons, preaching to the people, or distributing Bibles.

Now, we do that. Our pilots are involved in distributing Bibles. And on their weekends and in evenings they are involved in local churches. But, predominantly, we are a service organisation providing technical services. 

Flight students at the MAF air base.

On one occasion during my time in Papua New Guinea, I was having a meal with two pilots. One pilot was sharing about the previous weekend, when he’d taken some musicians and a local evangelist out to a remote location where they’d shown a number of Christian films.

The local evangelist preached on a number of occasions, and they had played music together. It was a real encouragement to the local church and quite a few people became Christians. 

And at this meal table, the other pilot said: “Well, I’m really glad that there is one mission pilot on this table.” 

And I said: “Why do you say that?” 

And he goes: “I haven’t been doing anything of significance.” 

And I asked him to tell me what he has been doing. He then shared about how he had been transporting materials to build a health centre in a remote location at Papua New Guinea, such as timber, plumbing, taps and a vaccine fridge.

And I told him that also is mission work. In the busyness of carrying these building materials on his flights, he had forgotten the significance of the big picture and how God was using him even if the work was not outrightly evangelistic.

This was significant to me because I think it’s very important for all of us to be able to see how God has placed us into our vocations for good purpose. He wants us to see the things that Jesus would see, and to hear the things that Jesus would hear, for our hearts to break for what breaks His.

So no matter what we’re doing – whether we are preaching, or flying, or writing, or taking minutes for a meeting – our lives can glorify God through whatever tasks He has given us. That encounter reminded me to constantly encourage our staff in this way.

Can you expound on your idea of missions?

I very much see it as aligned with the priorities that Jesus lived and taught. When asked which is the greatest commandment in the law, Jesus said that is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. In Matthew’s version of the Gospel, He said the second is “like” the first – and that is to love your neighbour as you love yourself (Matthew 22:34-40).

An airstrip in Myanmar is almost 95% ready and MAF’s mission work may also take them to Nagaland, India.

Now, when I think about the things that are important to me, they include access to healthcare, shelter, reliable food, security, providing my children with an education, and to not have to be afraid of violence and war. So one way of loving my neighbours is to try to make those things happen for them. 

In the case of MAF, we try to facilitate that in remote locations. We look at how we can love those isolated neighbours by helping them in a holistic way, and that involves education and health, and bringing peace and reconciliation. Of course, we can’t do that ourselves, so we have many partner organisations.

There is certainly a need to communicate the Gospel. But as a foreigner with limited knowledge of local customs and the local language, I can preach a message of salvation and reconciliation, with risks of being misunderstood.

But if, in addition to that, I practise what I preach by helping somebody in a practical way, I don’t need knowledge of someone else’s language to demonstrate an act of love. That’s something we will all understand.

How has the ongoing pandemic affected MAF’s work?

It has affected the work more so in some countries than others. In some of our programmes, there’s been almost no change, while in others, there’s been almost no flying for the past year.

Because of the pandemic, some people who are involved in the charities we work with have gone back to their home countries. Lockdowns within some cities also means we couldn’t get government permissions to fly to remote locations. We also have some aircraft that are stuck on the ground, waiting for maintenance inspections, and pilots who have not undergone their regular flight assessments. 

How can Salt&Light readers be supporting the ministry and its ongoing projects?

Some of our ongoing projects in Asia are happening in Myanmar. We’ve got an air strip that is 95% complete. We hope to continue construction of that after the monsoon season. But it all depends on permissions. It’s uncertain because of the political situation.

We’re also building a new training centre and maintenance base in Mareeba, Australia. We have some desire to do a programme in Nagaland, in northeast India, but that is still in an early, exploratory stage.

We’d love prayer for this work and for favour of governments in the countries we have presence in. Please also pray for staff who will step up and serve in remote regions.

We’d appreciate financial support for those who are able (about two-thirds of MAF’s funds are contributions from the wider community).

And finally, please pray that the labour will be fruitful and God’s spirit will work within this body.

Click here to find out more about MAF, or to contribute towards their ministry of offering help and hope in the remote regions of the world.

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