At the Opening ceremony, Andrew Jenkins, a Flight Instructor at the Australian Centre for Mission Aviation and former eleven-year field pilot with MAF, entertained the crowd with exciting adventures and humorous incidents that showed just how essential MAF pilots and their planes were in remote areas around the world.
Two real-life MAF aircraft flew all day providing joy-flights for those attending. One of these, a brand new GA8 Airvan, built in Victoria by Gippsland Aeronautics, is the first turbocharged Airvan off their production line. The first 20 children to check in were given a free flight. This aircraft is destined for work in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, just one of the nearly 40 countries where MAF provides its strategic air services to remote and isolated communities. At the start of the day, hundreds of supporters, led by John Sedden, gathered in prayer around the GA8 and committed it's future work for God into His hands.
The second aircraft flown for the day from MAF, the veteran Cessna 206 (VH-MAF), is the same type used by MAF around the world, but now gradually being replaced by the GA8 series Airvan.
Eight hundred free sausage sandwiches and many litres of delicious Papua New Guinean coffee were consumed by those attending and children enjoyed face painting, clowns, paper plane flying competition, and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to sit in a Tiger Moth similar to the aircraft first used by MAF 60 years ago.
Many people attended the various forums that were held throughout the day, with a "full house" for Jetstar Captain Keith Southcott, who has many years of experience flying in Papua New Guinea with MAF. Keith spoke about the techniques of flying light aircraft in that challenging environment, where the monsoons meet the mountains.
MAF conducts flights to around 2,500 isolated communities to facilitate Gospel ministries and the efficient delivery of development services on a regular basis, as well as emergency relief in times of natural disaster, eg Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh in 2008. MAF focuses on people, planes and isolation, and is helping transform the lives of isolated people, physically and spiritually by overcoming physical and geographical obstacles to the Good News of Jesus. At the same time, MAF provides the means of access for a thousand Christian and humanitarian organisations in Africa, the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region.
Source: MAF