What does it take for somebody to depart the safety of job, family and friends, and step into the unknown? After leaving the comfort of the UK to boost my 4 boys in Papua New Guinea, living there for 25 years, the reply stays evident to me – it takes a really clear sense of what God wants you to do. While human enthusiasm may subside over time, God’s calling doesn’t.
Though my husband Michael and I had strong family ties within the UK, he had a well-paid job as a veterinary surgeon, and we had 4 joyful, energetic boys, we had sometimes wondered whether God would call us elsewhere. That query found a solution after we attended, in 1987, a friend’s commissioning service for Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) – the Christian humanitarian aviation charity which is celebrating its eightieth anniversary this yr.
Michael had at all times desired to fly, but he had given up that dream due to the associated fee. However, within the weeks and months after the MAF event we grew in our conviction that God wanted him to take up flying within the service of MAF. Friends, family, and ‘God instances’ strengthened that feeling. Despite knowing what we can be leaving, and potentially putting our boys’ futures in danger, we took a leap of religion and put our, and our boys’, lives in God’s hands.
The boys, then aged 10, 8, 7 and three saw this alteration as an adventure, while occasionally concerned about losing and finding friends. They adapted quickly as we moved through Michael’s flight training and assessments within the USA and Australia. God at all times provided us with recent friends, kind teachers, and financial security.
Culture shock and spiritual warfare
Despite completing an overseas departure briefing and other features of cross-cultural orientation, there was still a measure of culture shock after we finally made it to our recent home within the Highlands of Papua New Guinea in 1994. Fear of spirits, curses, and sorcery often underlie even Christian belief, especially in rural areas, and appear socially accepted in a culture that doesn’t separate the spiritual from physical features of life as Western cultures do. I saw this most clearly through a small fellowship group of local women I got to know. The stories they told me helped me to know cultural ways higher.
We were advised to be proactive in spiritually feeding ourselves early on because we were more more likely to be asked to evangelise than give you the chance to follow sermons within the Tok Pisin language at first. We took loads of Christian books, sermons, and videos with us from the UK, and we needed to be disciplined find recent ways to hook up with God.
Most Papua New Guineans we met were very kind, generous, and welcoming, but living in that country, as in another countries where MAF operates, does require a certain quantity of resilience. In our 25 years we experienced some security incidents but God at all times kept us protected, and our sense of being where God wanted us, the safest place to be, never faded. As a pilot God used Michael to move a whole lot of tons of constructing materials for rural health centres and schools and later the supplies they needed to run; to do medical evacuations for sometimes desperately unwell or injured people; take national pastors to minister in distant areas; take bible college and faculty students to and from school, and so far more.
There are at all times things for the non-job holder to do and I discovered flexibility vital. Initially I used to be involved within the boys’ local school, teaching computer skills, then helped with the cultural and Tok Pisin language orientation for brand new international staff. Offering hospitality and supporting out-of-town families helped us to get to know others. In our last ten years I used to be involved with the security systems of MAF-PNG and was trained as Safety Administrator. Over the years I discovered these roles variously very enjoyable, difficult and really fulfilling.
Our boys attended the local school at first, then went to Wycliffe Bible Translators’ boarding school where lots of their friends had gone. In due course, they travelled to the UK and US for further education, with one following in his father’s footsteps as a vet. Their cross-cultural experiences have helped shape them into the young men they’re today.
After 25 years of service Michael and I moved back to the UK in 2019. We recently had the honour of shaking hands with the King as he commissioned a recent aircraft for MAF’s service in Papua New Guinea and celebrated MAF’s eightieth anniversary and Papua New Guinea’s fiftieth anniversary of independence.
Following God’s calling requires an awesome leap of religion, putting our lives into God’s hands. It is straightforward to doubt and feel weak after we face challenges, but trusting His plans and purposes for our lives is at all times price it. William Carey experienced tremendous hardships after he sailed to India together with his wife and 4 sons, and it took seven years before he saw someone who he ministered to change into a Christian. Today he’s thought to be one in all the best missionaries who ever lived.
If you are feeling that God is looking you overseas but are unsure whether mission is feasible with a family, let me encourage you by saying that it absolutely is. The best place to be is where God has put you, and He will use you to do incredible things. It just takes a leap of religion.
Nicki Duncalfe is a retired member of the MAF staff. To discover more about Mission Aviation Fellowship’s Future Pilot Programme, visit: www.maf-uk.org/maf-future-pilot-programme.
