pilot

“LT (Learning Technologies) has sent a pilot back out into the field,” is how Bob Dontje describes his return to Lesotho, Africa last year.

From May to November 2008, Bob logged 267 flight hours during which he spent considerable time helping to put the God’s Story Project (an MAF-LT ministry partner) into Lesotho’s language—a benefit to the residents of that country’s mountainous regions where English is not the primary language.

As testimony to the excitement generated by LT, Bob recalled a simple exchange as he and two pastors walked together following a funeral. The pastors wanted to better lead their church members. They wondered how to get an education when they could not afford to leave.

Bob Dontje’s missionary zeal appeared early in life.

“The idea and appeal of missionaries was always in front of me,” Bob recalled. As a youngster, the book Jungle Pilot  captured his attention when it told the story of five missionaries murdered in Ecuador by Auca Indians. He was further encouraged by his boyhood, mission-minded church in Ledyard, Iowa, as well as teachers, friends and family who supported his interest in missions.  

Later in life, when newlyweds Bob and Neva faced financial challenges while he attended Moody Bible Institute, his church provided support so Bob could concentrate on Bible school and aviation training. 

Soon after joining MAF, Bob completed flight and maintenance orientation.  Then, the Dontjes headed to Indonesia for language school and field checkout. They thought they were going to a one-year, temporary assignement to Kalimantan, Indonesia before heading to their permanent base in Iraian Jaya (today called Papua).  That turned into 12 years service in East Kalimantan and Sulawesi.

In 1945 God challenged a handful of ex-military airmen to overcome geographic barriers to the Gospel.  They answered the call with airplanes, forming a flight service known today as Mission Aviation Fellowship.  Suddenly, days on the trail changed to minutes in the air.  Missionary dreams of reaching people living in remote mountain valleys or impenetrable jungles gave way to the reality of doing it.  They rejoiced that the Lord finally enabled them to surmount such formidable obstacles.

But then He presented a new challenge.  By the end of WW II both military and airline operations routinely included 2-way radio communications.  So, our early pilots, fresh from those environments, automatically integrated radios into their flight service. When missionaries saw our base staff routinely speak with pilots a hundred miles into the bush, they quickly realized the potential for their own work.  “That’s amazing.  Is there any way we could do that too?” they asked.

“Sure.  Here’s how it works,” we answered and quickly found ourselves in communications ministry, installing radios in central offices and remote camps.  Runners bearing notes stained with many days sweat gave way to instant conversations with near telephone ease.  Today, setting up and maintaining a radio network comprises MAF’s entire ministry in some countries and an important part in others.

But, professional aviation’s demand for mastery of the growing body of information compelled us to adopt computers at the dawn of the digital era.  MAF began automating shop, reporting and flight planning tasks.  When missionaries saw the boon these strange machines provided to our record keeping, they asked, “That’s amazing.  Is there anyway we could do that too?”