What Does M.A.F. really stand for?

M.A.F.- what do these 3 letters really stand for?

On the MAF UK website, we can read that M.A.F. stands for Mission Aviation Fellowship; a Christian organisation, using light aircraft to: "fly medical, relief and life-transforming help to vulnerable people in hard-to-reach places."   Of course, this is the true representation of the 3 letters in the acronym.

However, during our 7 years of working with MAF, we have also heard the letters M.A.F. used tongue-in-cheek to stand for the statement, "Move Again Friend"! This is because staff constantly need to move between the different overseas countries where MAF serve. Friends and families arrive in one place, but then move on. 

Just as you get to know your neighbours and friends on the team, someone needs to move- to another MAF programme, to serve in another country or maybe to return to their home country. And if it is not your neighbours and friends moving house, it will be you! In our own stint of 7 years within the MAF family, we have moved between 3 countries: Tanzania to Kenya to South Sudan.

Life never stays the same- and nor do the friends living around us!

Last week, we had to say goodbye to a family who have served here with MAF in South Sudan (previously Sudan) for 6 years. It was sad to see them go. Ben was doubly sad as their eldest son was  his best Juba friend. Ben misses him: it feels like there is a gap somewhere.

There were several farewell events. The farewell with the National Staff was very moving, as individuals stood up one by one to make short speeches to express what this family has meant to them over the past 6 years.

The day came when this family had to leave the compound, leave Juba and begin their journey to Madagascar, where they will continue to work for MAF. 

All of the families and staff went out to the compound car-park, where we waved them off in the early morning sunshine. Eventually, Andrew stepped forward to close the doors of the vehicle, as this wonderful MAF family move on:

Over the past seven years, there have been many farewells in our journey with MAF. 

When you live far from home and are learning a new culture, a new language and a new way of life, your friends become a lifeline. These are the friends who live beside you for an intense period of time. Friends who...

-understand the learning curve you are living, because they have lived it too

-offer support and hospitality in a foreign land

-help care for your older children when your baby is sick, or who cook for you when you get ill and your husband is flying somewhere remote and won't be back for a few days...

-whose children are your own children's playmates and spend half their time in your house or garden!

-who are there on your birthdays and Christmas celebrations when your own family can't be there.

These are the friends you share your life with in a far-flung country; who laugh with you, cry with you, drink endless cups of African tea with you and pray with you when you are far from your own extended family and friends. They become like family! So it's hard to say goodbye. It is hard to accept that there's no guarantee you will meet again.

Some farewells are harder than others, as we naturally connect with some friends more easily than others. When good friends leave, those are the hardest farewells. I remember saying goodbye almost 4 years ago in Dodoma, to a MAF family who had become good friends to us there. There were tears as we let our friends go and waved them off from Dodoma...Move Again, Friend!

BUT last weekend, I received a wonderful opportunity to see this particular family again! Although they had moved far away from Dodoma and left Africa, they have recently been back on African soil to serve a shorter term placement with MAF in Kampala. Last week, a small MAF plane needed to be repositioned from South Sudan to Kampala - and there was space on the small 4-seater to squeeze in Esther and I! This was a golden opportunity to visit, before they leave the African continent again!

So Esther and I packed a bag, whipped out our passports, arranged with Andrew to look after the boys and then set off on a trans-Africa flight, on a tiny 4-seater plane! It was an exciting opportunity- and we even got to to fly right over Uganda's amazing Lake Victoria:

Safely in Kampala, at the MAF hangar. Esther stands in front of the tiny plane that took us all the way from Juba to Kampala on a flight of over 3 hours:

And here I am, with my lovely MAF friend, catching up after nearly 4 years! It was good to be able to catch up on all the news of the past few years:

We work for "Mission Aviation Fellowship" and we can also relate to "Move Again Friend", but it is good to know that with all the change and fluctuating neighbours and friends in our overseas life, paths can and do cross again! :-)