Missionary Pilot -Lesotho/South Africa

Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) provides vital aviation and radio communications services to national churches, the Flying Doctor Service, Christian missions, and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) ministering in Lesotho.

Lesotho is a mountainous country made up of tiny, often inaccessible villages.

Nearly half of all the native Basotho people are unemployed.

26 % of the population is currently malnourished.

Less than 10 % of the land is arable.               

As much as 32 % of Lesotho’s population is infected with the HIV/AIDS virus

100,000 HIV/AIDS orphans live in mountain villages with little or no access to medical services.

Traditionalism and nominal Christianity is widespread with little understanding of the truth of the Gospel.


THE SOLUTION
Currently, MAF serves 12 rural mountain health posts from 27 dirt airstrips carved into the nation’s rugged mountains.
Nearly 200,000 people depend solely on the Flying Doctor Service for medical care.



HIGHLIGHTS
In 2006, the MAF program in Lesotho …
• Saved Christian and humanitarian workers 4,003 days of travel time⎯or 16.5 work years redeemed for productive Kingdom work!  
• Executed 2,379 flights, transported 5,505 passengers, and delivered 337,333 pounds of cargo in order to provide access to the Gospel and to basic services such as health clinics, medical emergency evacuations, and education⎯services otherwise unavailable in this mountainous region.
• Sustained the Lesotho Flying Doctor Service, providing medical care to some 200,000 people.
• Supported an evangelistic home-based patient care project, teaching families to care for their critically ill relatives infected with HIV/AIDS.  
• Delivered 153,333 pounds of desperately needed emergency food aid to the village of Bobete.
• Provided safe, efficient aviation services to missionaries reaching mountain villagers with the Gospel.
• Facilitated new and ongoing mission endeavors showing the JESUS film in remote villages. MAF has enlisted the aid of a Baptist missionary as well as that of a Global Missions preacher, resulting in a significant number of believers in Keubunyane and Thlanyaku.
• Assisted NGOs and the Ministry of Health in providing proper health and HIV/AIDS training in very remote areas of Lesotho.