MAF Youth Magazine #12

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PRAY PRAY PRAY!

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MEET JENNY DAVIES

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SPRING UPDATE

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WIN these on page 4

o t r a e f m Fro surf

It’s understandable — the sea is a scary place — but imagine what it would be like if the reason you wouldn’t dip your toe in was because you thought you might get pulled under by evil spirits.

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Photos LuAnne Cadd and Tim Conibear

This is exactly why many coastal dwelling Liberians can’t swim!

Waves for Change Tim Conibear is the founder of Waves for Change, an organisation that helps relieve fear and stress in young people by teaching them to surf! Since 2011, the team has run surf programmes for 11 to 14-year-old kids living in rough townships in South Africa.

‘Surfing gives me more hope than ever before,’ said one of the participants.

Considering what the Liberian people have gone through since the first of two civil wars in 1989 to the outbreak of Ebola in 2014, you can see why a whole generation has been scarred by war and loss.

Not only will the Waves for Change programme help many of these young people lose their traditional fear of the sea by learning to swim and surf, there will also be the opportunity to address the trauma the youngsters have suffered.

With numerous success stories and a bunch of awards under its belt, Waves for Change decided to set its sights on Harper in Liberia and expand its work there.

This time, the team would be looking to set up the same year-long programmes beginning with 15- to 20-year-olds.

‘In Harper,’ explains Tim, ‘there’s a need for [us to work with] the older age group because they’re growing up close to the conflict and they’ve been more aware of what the country’s gone through with the Ebola crisis.’

Tim began setting up the programme in Harper earlier this year after eight months of preparations and much time spent reassuring an anxious community.

He was able to jump aboard one of our flights from Monrovia to Harper and back — avoiding a 42-hour road trip!

Here’s to the future Through the work of Waves for Change, there’s now hope that the young men and women of Harper can break free from fear and embrace the wonderful adventure surfing has to offer.

We love the work these guys do and we’re excited for their future partnership with us in Liberia. They’ve worked hard throughout 2017 to get the programme up and running, and have made good use of our flights.

Upwards and onwards!

Go bigger

Fear, trauma, anxiety

Breakthrough

'Surfing gives me more hope than ever before '

Main // Students from Tubman University who will be coaches in Liberia Top // A surf class underway in South Africa Above // Tim Conibear, Waves for Change founder and director

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COMPETIT Snap us YO U & YO U R YO U T H LEADER ImporTanT!

INCLUDE 1. YOUTH LEADER’S NAME 2. CHURCH NAME 4

TION//TIME FOR YOUR CHANCE TO

wIn ONE OF THESE!

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! y A R p Y a R p y A Pr It’s a new year. Are you excited about 2018? We sure are!

Please remember us in your prayers as we tackle fresh challenges here in the UK and in our overseas programmes.

We want to go bigger and better, but we need God’s help.

KEGATA // PAPUA’

PHOTO MURRAY BENN

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WHEN MAF Y O U T H M E T //

J en n y Dav i e s

Jenny works as Communications Officer in MAF UK’s Folkestone office. She recently visited our programme in Chad, and recalls her experience.

What were you up to in Chad?

‘I had the privilege of going with LuAnne Cadd, our MAF journalist, and together we went to meet some of the partners we serve with in Chad and hear their stories.’

What’s it like out there?

‘It’s hot, dry, dusty. There’s a huge chunk of the Sahara in Chad so that bit is pretty sandy! There’s an incredible mountain range in the very far north of the Sahara called the Tibesti Mountains and it’s like the surface of the moon. It’s almost as if a volcano had erupted yesterday – you can see the lava flows!’

What was it like experiencing MAF’s work in Chad?

‘It was actually really exciting being on a plane – I’m such a dweeb. It made things quite real. It’s one thing to hear stuff, but it’s another thing to actually see it. Everything they were doing, they do every day, but every day is different.

‘Being part of that for just a week was really cool, and meeting people who are just as much a part of MAF as we are, who we don’t know, yet do a really important job for MAF, that’s so different.’

What excites you most about what you saw?

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‘Distance is massive in Chad – really, really huge – and it is quite exciting knowing that places can be reached by plane that would be mammoth journeys if you had to do them overland.’

Did you have any ‘wow’ moments? What amazed you most while you were there?

‘There was this one time where we’d reached the other side of the Tibesti and you could see dust in the air.

Basically, dust funnels through an area called the Bodélé Depression, which is blown up into a cloud that makes its way over to help provide nutrition for the Amazon rainforest 1,600 miles away.

‘The second one, we got to meet this guy called Steve Godbold, who we thought was just an ordinary guy.

Later, I found out that he’d been kidnapped 10 years ago and held hostage for 9½ months in areas around the Tibesti Mountains.

‘During that time, he got sick.

He was in this really remote village and no one knew he was there. One particular lady from the community gave some milk and bread to the people he was with and it really helped him. The reason he was coming back was because he wanted to say thank you to this lady!’

What was the strangest thing you saw?

‘Camel meat? The team have Camel Meat Friday. They all sit round and have this shared meal on a Friday, which I tried. I’m actually allergic to peanuts and it’s prepared with peanuts, so it was never going to work...’

Did you get to eat any traditional cuisine out there?

‘I had some amazing Teda bread up in Bardai. They prepare it like naan bread, in a tandoor and stick it inside a big oven. It’s really tasty and fluffy.

We had a couple of nice breakfasts with some Teda bread.’

What’s the culture like where you visited?

‘They’re just really resourceful desert people and there’s a culture that comes with that. A lot of the people in Chad are nomads. They go where their livestock go. They live in places that you couldn’t imagine reaching let alone living in.

‘Electricity, running water – all the things we take for granted – are things they still don’t have. They’re still drawing water from wells and, if they have any electricity, it often comes from a little solar panel.

‘A lot of the roads aren’t paved.

You could be walking down the main street in Bardai and sand would be catching in your sandals. It felt as if everything could just blow away in a sandstorm. It’s a really ancient culture and it just feels like it could just disappear, but it won’t – it’s been there for millennia.’

What do you love most about MAF? ‘I think what we do as a ministry is really simple and practical, I love that!

Of course, it isn’t easy work. We get people to where they need to go safely and often to places that are difficult to reach.

l l a W H t u MAf Y CompetiTiOn WiNner ISOBEL CongratulAtions!

SnapChatter Sonja smashed our caption contest with this winner!

surfers For Change Young Waves South Africa in es av w e enjoying th

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W e 'l l c o m e t o y ou

am, Josh Plett Photos Rebecca Dillingh am and FBDB Surgical Te

Melanie, who was in desperate need of medical help, was carried by oxcart to Soalala village in remote Madagascar.

Danger Devastatingly, during her pregnancy, Melanie’s child sadly died in her womb. Seriously ill, she needed specialist help fast – her life in the balance.

To the rescue At 7.30am the following morning, the team flew in to Soalala and, 1 hour later, the doctors operated. Although the 2½-hour operation was difficult and complicated, it was, thank God, successful!

But that wasn’t the hardest part.

Although the surgery went well, Melanie’s body was still in danger of infection – she wasn’t out of the woods yet!

Although things don’t always pan out so well for women in the developing world, we thank God for the hope that shines through Melanie’s story and pray we’ll hear of even more successful operations in the future.

Think fast As soon as we were notified, we knew we had to act fast. But we also knew that finding a medical team that would be able to monitor Melanie during the flight to the capital, and perform the necessary operation, wasn’t going to be easy.

Thankfully, a quick phone call to Dr Jonathan Lee, a friend and regular MAF flyer, was all that was necessary to provide Melanie with the assistance she needed. Dr Lee suggested that the medics perform the surgery in Soalala’s local clinic to prevent Melanie having to travel.

Having used the clinic in Soalala on a previous occasion, he already knew the setup.

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Against the odds With only a 20% chance of survival, the likelihood of Melanie escaping with her life was poor. However, six days later, she was able to return to her village, having made a stunning recovery. Incredible!

Main // An MAF plane sits on the airstrip in Antsalova, Madagascar Top // Melanie with Dr. Lee and another member of the FBDB surgical team Above // Melanie in surgery’

e t a D p u g n i spr At MAF Youth we love the adventures that a

new year brings!

Got any good fundraising ideas?

This year we have already seen some incredible fundraising being done by our wonderful young supporters.

This includes an amazing girl called Emily who took on an inspirational challenge which involved donating her hair to The Little Princess Trust. (The trust helps provide wigs for children who’ve experienced hair loss due to cancer treatment.) Emily used the money raised by the people who sponsored her to bless MAF as well as The Little Princess Trust.

Get in touch, let us know how we can help you, and we’ll send you some MAF Youth goodies to get you started! youth@maf-uk.org

We are so thankful for the many MAF Youth supporters who’ve taken on exciting challenges to raise money to keep our planes flying!

We’ve had wild and wacky fundraisers from a sponsored ‘How many marshmallows can you eat in three minutes?’ to some extremely delicious looking MAF cake sales from youth groups across the UK.

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WINthese this WIN on page 4

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PRAY PRAY PRAY!

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MEET JENNY DAVIES

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SPRING UPDATE

Search ‘MAF Youth’ W maf-uk.org/youth E youth@maf-uk.org