Merry Christmas

As you can see from our photo we have been trying to get into the Christmas spirit this advent! Living in a hot, predominantly Muslim country, Christmas could almost pass unnoticed. In some ways, this is nice, as we can stay away from all the commercialisation of Christmas, but in other ways we have to make a conscious effort to bring Christmas alive for our family. So, our little tree is up, we have some lights twinkling and our banana fibre nativity from Uganda is set out. Each day the girls are enjoying lighting the advent candle and putting the next nativity figure up on their advent calendar, while understanding more about the meaning of Christmas. 

Rachel as Mary in the school play

Rachel took part in her amazing school Christmas play this week and was a beautiful Mary, Abby is busy preparing the Sunday school children for a small slot on Sunday morning, while Sam is preparing to lead the candlelight carol service on Sunday evening. It’s a fun time of joy and expectation as we look forward to Christmas day. To the day our Saviour became a tiny helpless baby…to the day Mary and Joseph showed incredible faith and trust as they carried the Son of God into the world…to the day God brought hope and healing to us all. May the true joy of Christs birth be central to all our festivities this Christmas time.

Flying for Life... While trying to think through what to share this time, we were struck at the vast contrast in what we can share. On one side, we could focus on the daily impact our work has on so many people, through the many flights we make. Like the story of the missionary family we were able to pick up last week after a terrible car accident. They were travelling between two cities in the east of the country and had an awful car accident. Miraculously the whole family plus two young ladies travelling with them walked away with minor injuries, and thankfully the next day our plane was already flying that way with space for all the adults and children. Praise God we do what we do, and praise God for protecting and healing this family.

But on the flip side the arduous daily work that goes into ensuring that each flight can take place can sometimes preoccupy us and we get bogged down by the huge amount of paperwork, logistics, legalities and personnel management that keeps our planes in the air. For Sam, this is his daily work and at times it can feel like an uphill struggle as he works so hard to keep the integrity of MAF and the witness we have, central to every aspect of our work. If this side of the work was easy enough for us to do within our own strength, then it wouldn’t be the frontline of mission that God has called us to, so we thank God that he has enabled us to continue to work in this environment and uphold the vision of MAF.   

MAF Chad International Team

Brief updates…   
The team: After two years of running with a shortage of international staff, both pilots and a permanent engineer, we are very grateful that these positions have now been filled and our team is slowly building back up to meet the demands for flying that has been increasing steadily since we restarted operations in April this year. Two new pilot families joined the team, one in April and one in October of this year and we are looking forward to the engineer family joining early next year.

The MAF Chad team at the Hanger

Partners: Many of our partners that we regularly fly, especially to the North and the East of Chad, are beginning to see more people coming to Christ amongst the unreached people groups whom they have been working with for so many years. As a result of this the number of missionaries in these areas are expanding and MAF is playing a critical role in enabling many of these missionary families to be living within such remote communities

Operating environment: The political and economic situation in the country which forced us to temporary suspend our operations at the end of last year, has not greatly improved, and although the risks that we were exposed to have somewhat diminished, the situation is still unstable and quite unpredictable. Sam finds this takes up a large proportion of his time in trying to work towards a fair and just resolution to these ongoing issues

Flying to a remote airstrip in the
far north

New opportunities: During the rainy season (June-September), many communities get completely cut off as roads become impassable. We are looking to work closely this coming year with two partners who are working in rural communities and are forced to leave their work and home during the rainy season. Therefore, we are hoping to build two new airstrips before June next year to enable the missionaries working in these areas to carry on operating in the villages even when the rains come, knowing they have MAF to help them come in and out once the roads are blocked

Rachel and Becca's birthday party!

Family: Thank you for your continued support to us as a family. We very much appreciate your prayers as we live here in Chad and navigate daily life in the city. As a family, we are doing well at the moment. We enjoyed a recent break to Uganda and Kenya in October which really re-energised us, and then Abby’s parents came out to Chad for a two week visit in November and we were able to take a MAF flight and visit a game park in the South of Chad. The girls have both just had their birthday and are now 6 and 4 years old. They enjoyed a party with a few friends at the horse farm where Rachel continues to have her horse riding lessons. Rachel is doing very well at school and is enjoying all the new experiences that school brings. Rebecca continues to be at home with Abby, and is enjoying new friends to play with in the team. Due to all the new families arriving and limited housing available on the MAF compound, we have decided to move to a new house off the compound but still in the same neighbourhood in January to create space for the new families coming into the team

Please pray with us:

• For our two new families that have recently arrived as they settle in to Chad and their roles, and for two other new families as they raise support and do their final preparations before coming to join our team early next year.
• That the word of God continues to really take root and spread among the unreached people groups within Chad and for MAF as we are so privileged to be working closely with so many partners facilitating them to do this work.
• For Sam as he continues to work with government officials and regulatory authorities on the financial and tax issues. Please pray for wisdom and the strength to stand up for truth in very complex situations.
• As we look for funding to complete new airstrip development work, and that we will be able to have the airstrips operational before the next rainy season in 7 months’ time.
• As we move house, especially the girls as they cope with new living arrangements and being off the compound and further away from their friends. Please pray for continued strength for us all as we find living and working here quite tiring, with many daily demands, the unpredictability of driving around the city, and coping with doing ‘life’ in a different language.

Wishing you a very happy Christmas and many blessings for the New Year.