The Pilot Episode

We spend a lot of time looking forward right now.  We try to see what life in Papua New Guinea will be like and try to find examples of the many ways that MAF impacts lives there.  In this post I want to look back a bit, and tell you about the journey I have been on to be able to even apply to be a missionary pilot with MAF.

To begin this story we need to go back to 2008.  I was in Calgary working in an unrelated field and was more and more convinced that aviation, specifically mission aviation, was where I wanted to invest my energy.  I was aware of the flight training program offered at Prairie Bible College through the (then named) Prairie School of Mission Aviation.  I applied and was accepted into the program and arrived on campus in January 2009.  The program is a two year diploma, but since I had a year of Bible school credits from my time at Peace River Bible Institute, I was planning on spending one year there, focusing on the aviation elements of the course.

After finishing my training at Prairie, I had my Canadian commercial license with Multi Engine IFR.  The next step was arguably the hardest part of this whole process: finding that first flying job!  It took a long time, countless resumes were sent out to anybody who I thought might look at me.  During this time I needed to keep working, and got a job working on the ramp at Calgary International with Air Canada.

This is what the cargo hold of an Air Canada 777 looks like

They even let me drive the push back tractors.  This would have been either Calgary to London or Frankfurt.

Working for Air Canada was not without benefits.  With Laura's teaching schedule we were able to spend a fair bit of time traveling on the standby employee passes that were available. 

In November of 2010 I visted Dallas Derksen (PSMA Instructor and friend, now with MAF in Mongolia.) in Northern Alberta.  Since I always had a stack of resumes in the car, I dropped one off at the airport in Peace River on my way home.  About two weeks later I received a call from the Chief Pilot saying that they needed a ramp worker, with the intention of being moved up to the flight line in due time.  I called Laura at work, we talked about it a little bit, and I gave notice at Air Canada the next day.  We were off to Peace River.

Thanksgiving: Why 'Every Stone Precious'?

At Thanksgiving we pause to focus on the things for which we are grateful.  The blessings. The good things in life.  Often it is easy to see the hand of God in our lives and count the blessings we have been given.  But there are always those nagging items that we wish we hadn’t been dealt.  Are we thankful for those things? 

When we brainstormed titles for our blog, I had in my mind a line from a poem by Stanley Kunitz: “every stone on the road precious to me.”  The poem was part of the English 30 distance education course that I’ve been marking for the past few years, and I’ve marked hundreds of assignments on those lines.

 We tried to come up with aviation-related titles for the blog, mostly composed of bad puns: “The Plane Truth”, “Planely Speaking”, and so on.  Tim vetoed these and so – in the absence of further creativity – we were left with “Every Stone Precious”. 

If life were a cobblestone street, each stone would be an event, a person, or an experience that – for better or worse – has shaped me.  As I look back through my life, there are some stones for which I am immediately grateful.  There are others that, given the choice, I would not have chosen to include.  An illness.  A loss. A delay. A regret. 

On further reflection, it is often those unchosen stones that have taught me the most about myself and about faith.  They remind me of my inadequacy and my inability to control people and circumstances (don’t we all need that reminder once in a while!).  When I’m forced outside of my own abilities, I have nowhere to go but God.  I am forced to focus on the eternal as the only hope in light of my present experiences.  And yet, despite how I see God work in hard times, I am quick to forget when comfort returns.

In Scripture, stones are often used as a visual reminder of “God moments”.  Jacob sets up the stone that was his pillow as a reminder of when God visited him. In the book of Joshua, God provides Israel with a powerful sign that he is with them: he stops the flow of the Jordan River – during the flood season, no less – and allows them to walk across on dry land.  As they cross the river bed, the children of Israel choose twelves stones from the middle of the river which they then set up as a reminder of God’s powerful provision.  Joshua tells the people:

“In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over.  He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.”    (Joshua 4:21-24)

Joshua reminds the people not only of God’s provision at the Jordan but also at the Red Sea before that. Looking back on the milestones, the blessings, and the “God-moments” gives me strength to continue on with what I have before me in life.  Each stone on the road is precious to me, not necessarily for the experience that it represents, but for the impact that it has had on my faith and perspective.  At Thanksgiving, I don’t have to be thankful for the hurt in my life, but I can thank God for his faithfulness through it and for the ways that I’ve seen him provide.  When I share those experiences, they demonstrate God’s provision to others as well.

This blog is a place to record the God-stories that we will experience as we move overseas and as Tim flies for Mission Aviation Fellowship.  Although we look forward to the adventure and the opportunity to serve the people of Papua New Guinea, we are well aware that there will be rough spots ahead on our road.  We hope you’ll join us as we experience how God will strengthen and provide even in the tight spots. 

Welcome to the Blog

We have created this blog to share our stories as we prepare to serve as missionaries with Mission Aviation Fellowship in Papua New Guinea.  Some of you may know us well and others we have not met yet.  If that is you, allow us to tell you a little about ourselves and our ministry

Tim, Laura, and Hannah Neufeld

Tim is a commercial pilot who has been flying out of Peace River, Alberta, for the past five years.  He earned his commercial pilot's license at Prairie School of Mission Aviation in Three Hills, Alberta, with the intention of using his skills as a missionary pilot.  Laura is a certified teacher with experience teaching high school English and drama.  More recently, as a stay at home mom, she has been marking distance education modules. Learn more about us HERE.

Together with our 3-year-old daughter, Hannah, we will be moving to Papua New Guinea to join the work that Mission Aviation has been doing in that country for the past 60 years.

Mission Aviation Fellowship: Sharing God's love through aviation and technology

Mission Aviation Fellowship is a global organisation that seeks to share God's love through aviation and technology.  Our vision is to see isolated people physically and spiritually transformed in Christ's name.  MAF operates 130 aircraft in 30 countries across the globe. We will be joining MAF's program in Papua New Guinea where Tim will be serving as a pilot.  

Papua New Guinea
Population 7 million

Located north of Australia, PNG's rugged terrain and jungles isolate much of the population from the outside world.  The 800 different languages spoken around the country are evidence of the isolated communities.  MAF planes provide support to isolated communities by providing air support for churches and mission organisations, transport of supplies for health and development, emergency response and medical evacuations.  Find more about MAF's work in PNG here.

Medical Evacuation Flights Save Lives

Currently, we are slated to leave Canada in February 2017.  Our first stop will be in Cairns, Australia, for cross-cultural and flight training.  From there we will continue to Mt Hagen, Papua New Guinea, for a month of language and culture training.  We don't know yet which of MAF's bases in PNG we will be calling home after that.

Before leaving, MAF has asked us to raise monthly financial support that will cover the cost of keeping a pilot and his family (us!) in the field.  This allows MAF to provide flights at little or no cost to the people who need them most.  We are so grateful to the many churches, families, and individuals who have already committed to partner with us.  We have reached 70% of our target for monthly support.  You can join our ministry support team by clicking on the Donate tab at the top of this page, or by contacting the MAF Canada office at:

Mission Aviation Fellowship of Canada

264 Woodlawn Rd. W.

Guelph, ON N1H 1B6

Phone: 1.877.351.9344

Fax: 519.823.1650

Email: info@mafc.org