Because remote Karimui has no roads to connect people to the rest of Papua New Guinea, the only way villagers can obtain Bibles is to get them from the back of an MAF aircraft.
Pastor Kimin Mauwe, the community-appointed agent for Christian aviation charity MAF, began ministry in Karimui 33 years ago. For the past 32 years, he’s served MAF by providing weather reports and preparing passengers and cargo for travel.
“When the MAF plane comes to the airstrip,” the pastor says, “everyone gathers around the pilot, and many buy [the heavily subsidised] Tok Pisin Bibles quickly.”
If the outlying villages also want God’s word, Kimin contacts MAF, saying: ‘There are people here who would like a Bible, so bring Bibles.’
Although people sometimes find the Scriptures in a Christian bookshop, the main way to obtain them is for MAF to bring copies to remote communities in the back of a plane.
“Most people can’t get to town or don’t have the funds to go there and back – it’s expensive – so if MAF didn’t bring Bibles to us, all the people in the bush would have a really hard time. But MAF makes it easy for us.”
Administration assistant Johnson Irarue orders and distributes them, with the team at MAF Technologies in Goroka giving the Bibles to MAF pilots.
“Every time an order comes in,” Johnson explains, “I pack it nicely and neatly. I pack it praying that, when the printed or audio Bibles go out, they will be the answer to people’s needs and prayers, whatever situation they’re in.
“Another thing I really love is that, when someone goes into the bush and a wild pig gores them or a person falls and breaks a bone, MAF comes quickly. The aircraft just comes, gets them, and then goes.”
