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Mission Aviation Fellowship Records

 Collection
Identifier: CN 136

Scope and Contents

Office files of MAF, a mission agency that provided transportation, radio contact and other support to missions working in remote areas, as well as some services to non-mission agencies. Materials, including correspondence, minutes, reports, prayer letters, personnel files, and budgets, that document the administration and activities of MAF, especially the regional offices in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America, the Development division (extensive individual prayer letters from entire mission staff), the Research and Planning division, Personnel division, and the technical requirements of mission aviation. These documents reflect its origins and early history as CAMF, operation, flight service, policies, personnel management and pilot training, relations with governments and other organizations, outreach to a wide financial support base, stewardship of finances, and publications to maintain communication with financial and prayer. Other topics documented throughout the collection include missionaries' adjustment to foreign climates and cultures; exacting technical aspects of aviation, especially concerned with small aircraft; evaluation of aviation and radio as mission tools; political and cultural affairs of Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia; and inter-mission relations and cooperation; sister movements in other countries (particularly British Missionary Aviation Fellowship), production of publications, missionary adjustment to culture, technical aspects of aviation, political and cultural affairs of Africa (particularly Zaire), South America and Southeast Asia, relations with the Catholic Church in predominantly Catholic countries, missions in much of the developing world, inter-mission relations and cooperation, the murder of missionaries by Huaorani Indians in Ecuador in the "Auca Incident," and other mission-related topics. Persons prominently featured include: James Truxton, Charles Mellis, Grady Parrot, martyr Nate Saint (and his fellow martyrs and their families), Charles Bennett, Max Meyers.

Dates

  • Created: 1944-2006

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Selected files are closed to researcher use until the expiration date below without the written permission from the President of Mission Aviation Fellowship:

Box-Folder # Expiration date

  • Folder 148-6: December 31, 2028
  • Folder 148-7: December 31, 2040
  • Folder 148-8: December 31, 2027
  • Folder 148-13: December 31, 2028
  • Folder 148-14: December 31, 2032

    Several files (folders 148-1,6,8,14,19) for MAF staff contained documents with personal identifying information. These documents were replaced with copies on which all such information is blacked out for one hundred years from the birth year of the person whose form was removed:

    Box-Folder # Date originals restored
  • Folder 148-1: December 31, 2028
  • Folder 148-6: December 31, 2038
  • Folder 148-8: December 31, 2037
  • Folder 148-14: December 31, 2042
  • Folder 148-19: December 31, 2027

    Permission requests should be directed to:

  • MAF President
  • P.O. Box 47
  • Nampa, ID 83653

    Forms are available from the staff in the Reading Room or at archives@wheaton.edu
  • Conditions Governing Use

    The copyright to this material is retained by the rights holder, usually the Archives or the donor. Please contact the Archives staff for additional information or contact details.

    Organizational History

    Nondenominational agency providing aviation services to mission agencies; incorporated May 20, 1945; initially staffed by former World War II pilots; provided aerial transportation, ambulance service, supply lines to remote areas, cooperative medical and dental services to rural and frontier stations, and surveying of potential sites for new missionary efforts; also operated a radio communications network, maintained its planes and airstrips and lent personnel to sister MAF groups; principle service to mission stations, but also to governments and on non-mission assignments; presidents of MAF were James Truxton (1945-1949), Grady Parrott (1949-1970), Charles Mellis (1970-1973), Charles Bennett (1973-1985), Max Meyers (1985-1997), Gary Bishop (1998-2004), Kevin Swanson (2004-2007), John Boyd (2008- ); headquarters located in Nampa, Idaho (following Los Angeles, Fullerton, and Redlands,California); field bases established in various countries; named Christian Airmen's Missionary Fellowship until 1947 when it changed to Mission Aviation Fellowship; public relations and information productions include publications (MISSION AVIATION, WINGS OF PRAISE AND PRAYER and PRAISE AND PRAYER BRIEFINGS), films and books; provided air transportation, ambulance service, and supply lines to remote areas; brought cooperative medical and dental service to rural and frontier stations depending on air transport; and surveyed possible sites of new mission endeavor; also operated a radio communications network, maintained its airstrips, and lent personnel to sister MAF groups; worked in cooperation with independent sister organizations in Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Holland, Finland, Surinam, Mexico, Brazil, and South Africa; provided rescue during political uprisings, and relief for famine and drought, floods, hurricanes and earthquakes.

    Ministry emphasis: MAF provided air transportation, ambulance service, and supply lines to remote areas; brought cooperative medical and dental service to rural and frontier stations depending on air transport; and surveyed possible sites of new mission endeavor. MAF also operated a radio communications network, maintained its airstrips, and lent personnel to sister MAF groups. It worked in cooperation with independent sister organizations in Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Holland, Finland, Surinam, Mexico, Brazil, and South Africa. By 1976, MAF had established a branch office in Ontario and field offices in Zaire and Indonesia. Self-described as "a servant of missions," MAF was a nondenominational service agency to Evangelical Christian missions, both denominational and independent. Ninety percent of its flight time was dedicated to service to individual mission stations, at per mile costs calculated to include equipment depreciation and replacement, insurance, and fuel. The small remainder of its time, MAF charged commercial rates for services to government and other non-mission assignments. MAF owned an air-maintenance organization, partially self-supporting on profits from commercial services, that included a training program for aeronautical mission specialists. MAF provided rescue during political uprisings, and relief for famine and drought, floods, hurricanes and earthquakes.

    Other significant information:

    Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) grew out of a realization of Christian aviators (primarily men but also including women) in the armed forces that the Christian missionary effort could increase its range and effectiveness by the use of aviation. MAF was established just as World War II was in its final months, with the initial wave of MAF members was largely war pilots, no longer employed by the United States government, who wanted to serve Christianity with their specialized skills.

    In its "founding" years, the Fellowship was guided by its executive officers and an Advisory Council, then later by a Board of Directors. The first council was formed of Evangelical leaders V. Raymond Edman, Dawson Trotman, R.C. McQuilkin, Jack Wyrtzen, and C. Stacey Woods. In 1959 the Council was enlarged and became known as the Board of Reference.

    Active membership in MAF was comprised of pilots, mechanics, technicians, office staff, etc. Admission to membership required an age of twenty-one (thirty-two years maximum in earlier MAF history), compatibility with stated principles and practices, agreement with the statement of faith, and screening by MAF leaders and selection by a nominating committee. Associate membership was open to any interested party, but did not include voting privilege.

    Qualifications included age, Christian technological education (such as Moody Bible Institute's Missionary Technology degree or from Le Tourneau College, or from certain reputable secular schools like the Spartan School of Aeronautics), and technical proficiency as commercial pilot with flight AP mechanical rating. Pilots underwent several months of orientation, including to mountain and desert conditions to prepare them for field work, preparation for transition to an unfamiliar culture, instruction in budgeting and proper record-keeping, and training to be an unofficial ambassador for Christ in working with foreign populations and governments. Periodic effectiveness and flight evaluations were used to keep MAF personnel a highly-selective and competent group. Personnel slated for foreign countries were given intense study in the national language of the country to which they were appointed.

    The home office, when based in California, was used for overhauling new planes, policy decisions, personnel selection and assignment, overall financial operation, pilot orientation, and radio laboratory. Field bases were responsible for maintaining their own flight schedules, fuel purchases, and bill-collecting.

    MAF equipment was purchased by the organization or by the mission that the equipment was to serve, and then sometimes leased to MAF. Planes were modified at the Fullerton base for optimal function in the mission purpose. Planes were not smaller than four-seaters. The standard models most often used in earlier years were Cessna 180, 182, 185, Piper, and Piper Pacer. Later, the Cessna 206 and twin Aero Commanders, twin Otters and a few helicopters were put into service.

    MAF’s financial operation was based primarily on funds solicited solely on a faith-mission basis. Candidates raised their own support (monthly salary and overhead costs of relocating in a mission field). Any over-support of a missionary spilled into the general fund to contribute to the deficits in others' support. Income came from individuals, churches, organizations and foundations, loans, and receipts from mission and commercial flights. Monies were budgeted to cover upkeep and replacement of equipment, support systems (hangars and repair centers), reduction of long-term debt, publications, salaries and administration, operation of flight schedules, and continuing education programs (language, technical, etc.) for employees.

    MAF operated its own film ministry as well, circulating motion pictures to churches and other groups. The half-hour long films included the titles Unforgettable Friday, On Wings of Love, Conquering Jungle Barriers, Of Wings and Mission, More than an Ambulance, Mission to Mayaland, and Wings of New Guinea. A longer film was Flight Plan.

    Founded: Coalescing of staff and vision in mid-to-late 1944 under the leadership of James C. Truxton, with the name Christian Airmen's Missionary Fellowship (CAMF); incorporated May 20, 1945.

    Headquarters location:

  • 1944-1954: Its home office was first in Los Angeles, CA, then in Fullerton, CA until 1980, when it moved to Redlands, CA
  • 1954-1980: Fullerton, CA
  • 1980-2006: Redlands, CA
  • 2006- : Nampa, ID

    Presidents:
  • 1945-1949: James C. Truxton
  • 1949-1970: J. Grady Parrott
  • 1970-1973: Charles Mellis
  • 1973-1985: Charles T. Bennett
  • 1985-1997: Maxwell Meyers
  • 1998-2004: Gary Bishop
  • 2004-2007: Kevin Swanson
  • 2008- : John Boyd

    Significant MAF dates:
  • May 20, 1945: Incorporated
  • February 14, 1946: Purchased first aircraft, a Waco bi-plane, purchased; flown by Betty Greene on February 23 carrying two Wycliffe workers to a remote area in Mexico
  • January 3-8, 1956: MAF pilot Nate Saint and four missionary companions landed on a beach in Ecuador to reach the Huaorani Indians (known as the Aucas), made contact and were killed by the Indians.
  • January 1961: Introduced use of Missavia transistorized radio for long-distance communication.
  • 1993: Completed installation of GPS receivers on all its aircraft
  • 1994: Installed first satellite communications link in Goma, Zaire, to provide mission and relief agencies the capacity to communicate with the US and each other
  • June 1994: Recovered Nate Saint’s plane on “Palm Beach” in Ecuador
  • October 2001: Launched Operation ACCESS to survey 364 isolated areas in 64 countries; results were released in March 2006.

    Geographical emphasis: The mission operated throughout the world, with fields opened in the following countries (chronologically):
  • Mexico (1946)
  • Ecuador (1948)
  • Honduras (1949)
  • New Guinea (1954)
  • Indonesia (1954)
  • Brazil (1956)
  • Kenya (1959)
  • Ethiopia (1960)
  • Zaire 1961)
  • Surinam (1963)
  • Southern Rhodesia (1964)
  • Venezuela (1964)
  • Afghanistan (1970)
  • Colombia (1971)
  • Nicaragua (1972)
  • Sudan (1973)
  • Cameroon (1974)
  • Russia (1992)
  • Kalimantan (1995)

    Alternate names:
  • 1944: Initially called Christian Airmen’s Missionary Fellowship. (About the same time CMAF was formed in the United States, a similar organization was begun in Britain under the name British Missionary Aviation Fellowship.)
  • 1946: Changed organization’s name to Missionary Aviation Fellowship in alignment with the name of its British sister organization.
  • 1981: Changed name to Mission Aviation Fellowship

    Selected Affiliated Ministries:
  • Alas de Socorro (Mexico, also abbreviated to ADS)
  • Asas de Socorro (Brazil)
  • Asociacion Guatemalteca Aerea Para Edificacion (AGAPE)
  • Korea Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAFK)
  • MAF Canada (MAFC)
  • MAF Russia
  • MAF Singapore
  • Surinaamese Zendings Vliegdienst (Suriname)
  • Yayasan MAF Indonesia (YMAFI)

    International conferences:
  • 1969: Fullerton, California
  • 1974: Melbourne, Australia
  • 1979: Folkstone, England
  • 1984: Banff, Alberta

    Mergers:
  • MAF absorbed a related concern, Missionary Engineering, in 1962.

    Publications:

    Included Mission Aviation, Wings of Praise and Prayer and Praise and Prayer Briefings, periodic newsletters containing a potpourri of information about MAF missionaries and concerns. They served to keep a widely-scattered personnel in touch with each other, and to fan the fires of interest in the broad grass-roots financial base on which MAF rested. The monthly prayer bulletin, Intercessor, was begun in the 1970s. MAF published and was the subject of several books as well, including the life of Nate Saint.

    Other significant officers and staff are listed separately. (Also see the Select List of MAF Personnel)
  • Extent

    135.0 Linear Feet (204 Boxes (62 RC, 141 DC, 1 ODC), Audio Tapes, Films, Negatives, Oversize Material, Photo Album, Photographs)

    Language of Materials

    English

    Arrangement and Description

    The documents in this collection include correspondence, memos, reports, newsletters, flight reports, accident reports, medical reports, radio data, personnel affairs, policy statements, handbooks, presentation manuscripts, aircraft technical booklets, incorporation documents, financial reports, reference articles, meeting agendas and minutes, assessment questionnaires, lists, strategic plans, prayer letters, publications, audio tapes, photographs and MAF films. These documents reflect its operation, flight service, policies, personnel management, relations with governments and other organizations, outreach to a wide financial support base, stewardship of finances, and publications to maintain communication with financial and prayer. Other topics documented throughout the collection include missionaries' adjustment to foreign climates and cultures; exacting technical aspects of aviation, especially concerned with small aircraft; evaluation of aviation and radio as mission tools; political and cultural affairs of Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia; and inter-mission relations and cooperation. The collection was initially arranged alphabetically (see original folder-level container list). The papers records series of the collection has been rearranged into subseries that reflect the organizational divisions of MAF; major portions of the original arrangement have been integrated into that structure, while a few remaining files have been consolidated into the Miscellaneous subseries.

    There are no files for either the President's or Chief Operating Officer's offices; the collection also does not include any files from MAF's human resources department.

    The collection is arranged according to the following subseries. The International subseries is further subdivided into various subsequent subseries that are detailed in their respective descriptions further below:

    Board

    International

  • International | MAF in Other Countries
  • International | MAF in Other Countries | Regional and Area Offices

    Development (also called Ministry Partnership or Partnership Development or Partner Services)
  • Development | Staff [prayer] letters
  • Development | General correspondence
  • Development | Publications

    Research & Planning Office

    Technical

    Finance

    Personnel | D-2 Personnel Correspondence

    Other Missions

    General
  • General | Old Correspondence
  • General | Other Correspondence

    Miscellaneous
  • Series: Board

    Arrangement: Chronological

    Date Range: 1980-1988

    Volume: .5 linear feet

    Boxes: 103

    Type of documents: Minutes and attached reports

    Notes: These files document the office deliberations and decisions by MAF’s board during most of the 1980s. Among the issues documented were: long-range goals, organizational restructuring, area and committee reports, finances, personnel, equipment and facilities, board functions, internationalization of MAF, divorce, role of women, membership, presidential search, relations with other MAF bodies around the world and opening offices in international locations, changes in by-laws, establishment of the MAF Foundation.

    Series: International

    Arrangement:

  • MAF in Other Countries
  • Regional and Area Offices

    Date Range: 1945-1973, undated

    Volume: 3.5 linear feet

    Boxes: 51-53, 93

    Notes: This series consists of MAF records of both its interaction and coordination with sister organizations, and its regional divisions in selected continents.
  • Subseries: International | MAF in Other Countries

    Arrangement: Alphabetical by folder title

    Date Range: 1945-1973, undated

    Volume: 2.5 linear feet

    Boxes: 51-53, 93

    Geographic coverage: Australia, Great Britain, Indonesia, New Zealand, South Africa, South Pacific (especially Dutch New Guinea), Sudan

    Type of documents: Correspondence, reports, memos, newsletters, insurance correspondence, flight reports, accident reports, medical reports, radio data, personnel affairs, MAF films and some accounts

    Correspondents: Grady Parrott, Charles Mellis, James Truxton, Charles T. Bennett, executives of MAF’s sister organizations in Africa (S. Sendall King, Russell Morton, Brian Winter), Australia (Vic Ambrose, William S. Clack, Stanley W. Fairfull, Bruce Lumsden, Doug McCraw and Charles W. Rout), Great Britain (Stuart King, Jack Hemmings, Murray Kendon, William H. Knights, Alistar Macdonald, Gordon Marshall and Steve Stevens) and New Zealand

    Notes: The documents in this subseries consist of correspondence files with MAF's sister organizations: Africa (Folders 51-36 and 93-5), Australia MAF or AMAF (Folders 51-38 through 52-4), British MAF or BMAF (folders F2-5 through 53-5, 93-6), MAF of Canada (Folder 93-7) and New Zealand MAF (Folder 53-4).

    Exceptional items: Among the Australian MAF materials are documents about visits in 1952 by Grady Parrott (Folder 51-38) and Marj Saint (Folder 51-40), mention of Billy Graham’s 1959 Australia and New Zealand Crusade (Folder 51-42), relations with Anglican Lutheran missionaries (Folder 51-43), flight service to non-Evangelicals (Folder 51-44), a survey of the British Solomon Islands (Folder 51-47) and correspondence about the 1969 MAF International Conference (Folder 52-4).

    The early files of British MAF cover the post-World War II era and the beginnings of MAF organizations. Folder 52-7 includes discussion of a possible merger between the English and American MAFs and a proposal for an MAF International; the options of founding of MAF groups in South Africa, Switzerland and Sweden are seen in Folders 52-7 and 51-38. Folder 52-7 also touches on Billy Graham's 1954 London Crusade. BMAF's major field was Africa, and its files reflect a detailed account of its work there. Sudan was an early area served (Folder 52-7, see also Folder 51-37, containing an early 1950s survey of Sudan, dividing the country into a Muslim north and a pagan south). Civil problems in Sudan are discussed in Folder 52-8 and another survey (along with one of East Africa and Kenya) is in Folder 52-9. Sudan data appears in almost all the BMAF folders, including a report in 1959 showing that government requests there accounted for twenty-five percent of BMAF's Sudan traffic. Folder 52-15 contains the 1962 Sudan Missionary Act that expelled missionaries; Folders 52-16 and 19 discuss BMAF's demise in that country. The Congo became a field for BMAF (Folders 52-14,15) until civil war there forced a missionary retreat for a time (Folders 52-18,19). (See also later work there in Folders 52-21 and 53-3). The Congo material concerns Africa Inland Mission as well (Folders 52-17,19). Ethiopia was an area of BMAF Service from 1958 onward (Folders 52-10 through 14,16,19) as were Kenya (Folders 52-9,14,16,17 and 53-3), Nigeria (Folders 52-19,21), and Tanganyika (or Tanzania, Folders 52-13,14). There are surveys on Nepal (Folders 53-13,14) and Somalia (Folder 52-12). A visit from Marj Saint and reports about the converted Huaorani or Auca Indians are documented in Folder 52-12; the film MidCentury Martyrs is discussed in Folders 52-9 and 52-10 as well as a French version for Canadian distribution (Folder 52-16). Inter-mission relations are a topic of concern, especially those with the Seventh Day Adventist Church (Folders 52-11,14,18) and the Roman Catholic Church (Folder 52-14,18). Policies on providing ferrying service to governments are found in Folders 52-11,13. Opposition from Communist governments is discussed in older 52-19; (also see a Moscow-based report on "Church and Missions in Africa" attempting to attribute mid-1960s political problems to the work and influence of missionaries (Folder 52-20). Also see Folder 115-3 for information on British MAF in the 1982 Partnership Development series.

    There is only a little on MAF Africa work. Folder 51-36 contains correspondence, mostly related to Sudan but also to South Africa. Folder 93-5 from the early-1970s relates to a joint-mission project in Africa called ACROSS (Africa Committee for the Rehabilitation of Southern Sudan) that MAF was a partner in with nine other organizations including Africa Inland Mission, Sudan Interior Mission and World Relief. Also see Folder 199-1 for more correspondence and issues of “ACROSS Situation Report” from 1978-1983, and Folders 126-2,3 in the Research & Planning series are also about MAF Africa.

    Folder 93-7 includes the minutes from the organization meeting MAF of Canada, and copies of the charter, by-laws and statement of faith. Folder 126-1 in the Research & Planning series also contains documents from MAF Canada.

    Subseries: International | Regional & Area Offices

    Arrangement:

  • Latin America
  • Asia
  • Africa

    Date Range: 1945-2002

    Volume: 22.0 linear feet

    Boxes: 143-186, OS 15

    Notes: Regional office files for the selected countries in the African, Asian, Eastern European and Latin American regions where MAF had operations or was exploring establishing an operation. The few flight operation reports in the subseries have been incorporated into the Operations series (not yet processed), in which MAF already consolidated most of these reports.
  • Subseries: Regional & Area Offices | Latin America Region

    Arrangement:

  • CEO of Latin America Region (vice president, director)
  • Latin America Area Office

    Date Range: 1945-2002

    Volume: 18.5 linear feet

    Boxes: 143-179, OS 15

    Notes: This subseries records the oversight of MAF’s operation in Central and South America and the Caribbean, primarily through its executive officers responsible for the region, but also in letters, reports and more on the details of MAF’s services.

    Subseries: Latin America Region | Chief Operating Officer of Latin America

    Arrangement:
  • Vice President (Harry C. Worthington, 1967-1973)
  • Vice President (Jack Walker, 1974-1982)
  • Regional Director (Dave Jones, 1982-1991)
  • General office

    Date Range: 1945-2002

    Volume: 17.0 linear feet

    Boxes: 143-174, 178-179

    Geographic coverage: The Latin America region overseen by the vice president or regional director for the region, including Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Surinam, Venezuela

    Notes: This subseries consists of the files of three of its directors and the general office

    Subseries: Chief Operating Officer of Latin America | Harry C. Worthington (1967-1973)

    Arrangement:
  • Correspondence by countries
  • Correspondence by countries | Correspondence sent to countries
  • Correspondence by countries | Correspondence from countries
  • Missions
  • Administrative
  • Personnel

    Date Range: 1961-1974

    Volume: 3.0 linear feet

    Boxes: 143-148

    Geographic coverage: United States, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Brazil, especially Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Surinam, Venezuela

    Type of documents: Correspondence and memos, with some reports, personnel records, transcribed summaries of phone conversations, sketches (of facilities, runways, mechanical problems or solutions)

    Correspondents: Worthington, Jack Walker, MAF staff (pilots, mechanics, country directors, administrative staff, stateside headquarters staff) in the region, representatives of other agencies

    Notes: Worthington’s files include a record of various operations in the Latin American portion of MAF’s work, including operation of airplanes, ordering of equipment, planning logistics, surveys, budget and finance-related matters, training, personnel issues, aircraft safety evaluation, interaction with affiliated service ministries, and coordinating aeronautic operations by other mission or Christian agencies. The bulk of the subseries is correspondence that was divided by the office between outgoing to staff in various countries from the Latin America Office (LAO) and incoming from various countries. Also included are a few personnel files, most of those for staff who left MAF.

    Exceptional items: The personnel files (Folders 148-1 through 20) consist of a record, mostly correspondence, of those MAF staff that Worthington maintained a file on, in some cases for those who relocated within MAF or left the mission, including Betty Greene (Folder 148-9); some of these files, each for a person or husband and wife, had documents with personal information – these documents were removed for one hundred years from the person’s birth year. The correspondence in Folder 146-11 concerns Worthington’s interaction about accounting and financial matters. The correspondence and memos in Folders 146-12,13 and 147-1,2,3,4 are with MAF executives, including respectively Don Berry (Director of Personnel), Charles Bennett (President), Bob Lehnhart (Director of Special Projects, much concerning financial aspects), from and to Charles Mellis (President), Roy Parsons (VP of Africa Region). Folder 147-5 contains correspondence with Moody Bible Institute’s Moody Aviation program. Special projects or emphases are sometimes identified in a separate folder, such as airplane overhaul and maintenance in Brazil (Folder 143-3), SSB radios in Mexico, (or single-sideband, Folder 144-2), a Surinam foundation (Folder 144-6), purchase of a house in Surinam (Folder 144-9), and country surveys in Colombia, Nicaragua (Folders 143-5, 144-4 respectively).

    Subseries: Chief Operating Officer of Latin America | Jack Walker (1974-1982)

    Arrangement:
  • Correspondence by countries
  • Correspondence by countries | Correspondence sent to countries
  • Correspondence by countries | Communication from countries
  • Administrative
  • Financial reports by countries
  • Notepads

    Date Range: 1970-1985

    Volume: 7.0 linear feet

    Boxes: 148-161

    Geographic coverage: United States, the Caribbean, Central and South America, especially Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Surinam, Venezuela

    Type of documents: Correspondence and memos, with some reports, notepads with handwritten notes, transcribed summaries of phone conversations, sketches (of facilities, runways, mechanical problems or solutions)

    Correspondents: Jack Walker, Harry Worthington, MAF staff (pilots, mechanics, country directors, administrative staff, stateside headquarters staff) in the region, representatives of other agencies, sketches (of facilities, runways, mechanical problems or solutions)

    Notes: Walker’s files, like Worthington’s, were separated by the office between outgoing to staff in various countries and incoming received at the Latin America Office (LAO) from various countries; these correspondence files comprise the bulk of the subseries. Walker’s files include a record of various operations in the Latin American portion of MAF’s work, including operation of airplanes, surveys, ordering of equipment, arranging logistics, budget and finance-related matters, training, personnel issues, aircraft safety evaluation, interaction with affiliated service ministries, and coordinating aeronautic operations by other mission or Christian agencies.

    Exceptional items: Special projects or emphases are sometimes identified in a separate folder, such as establishing in Brazil an engine shop and training school (Folders 150-2, 152-1,3), a MAP (Medical Assistance Program) request for funding of the cost of shipping medicines to Colombia (Folder 150-4), and a project to add an airplane to Brazil’s fleet (Folder 152-2). Among Walker’s assorted administrative files are correspondence with the Central America field manager (Folder 156-5), with the Director of Safety Hobey Lowrance (Folder 156-6), with Moody Aviation (Folder 156-7), members of his regional team (Folders 157-1,2,3,4), reports on the Ft. Lauderdale program (Folder 157-5) and Northern Mexico program (Folder 157-6), correspondence regarding Irian Jaya with the Asia Region vice president and country staff (Folder 157-8), a report on “Flight Operations Safety Analysis (Folders 157-9), a 1988 formulation of MAF’s vision statement (Folder 158-2), and a project with World Vision to provide relief to Ethiopia in 1980-1981 (Folder 158-3). The correspondence and memos in Folders 158-8 through 159-3 are with MAF executives, including respectively Don Berry (Director of Personnel) and president Charles Bennett, discussing issues, staff matters, planning and policy. Also included are audits from the early 1970s (Folder 159-4), and monthly financial reports to Walker from Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico (Folders 159-5 through 160-10). Walker’s handwritten notes on notepads (Folders 160-11 through 161-5) record information gathered or presented on trips to various countries he oversaw, drafts of messages or reports or memos, summaries of phone calls, etc.

    Subseries: Regional Director of Latin America | David Jones (1982-1991)

    Arrangement:
  • Countries (not described further in separate section)
  • Ft. Lauderdale Project
  • Financial files (not described further in separate section)
  • Miscellaneous (not described further in separate section)

    Date Range: 1946-1991

    Volume: 5.5 linear feet

    Boxes: 161-171

    Geographic coverage: Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Suriname, Venezuela

    Type of documents: Correspondence, memos, reports, flight incident reports, interview transcripts, copies of legal documents, flight manuals, handwritten notes like those in his set of notepads (see following description), a few flight operation reports (for Ecuador)

    Correspondents: Jack Walker, Bill Born (MAF Director of Safety), Ross Drown, Mark Nord, country directors or area managers and other country personnel for Brazil (Eldon Larsen), Colombia (Steven Grames), Ecuador (Jan Zwart, Gene Jordan, John Lemmon), Guatemala (Jeff Nelson, Edward Pearse (president of Guatemala affiliate, AGAPE)), Haiti (Bruce Smith), Honduras (Roy Haglund, Neal Gesell, Steve Grames), Mexico (ADS director Pedro DeKoster, ADS chairman Moises Lopez, Duane Harlow), Nicaragua (Roy Haglund ), Suriname (Russ Chasteen, Dave Richardson, Dan Rogers), Venezuela (Mike Stull, Fred Gere, Kevin Swanson, Joe Stehling, Bill Schultz, Ernie Krenzin), and national church and ministry representatives

    Notes: The Jones subseries includes a record of various operations in the Latin American portion of MAF’s work, including operation of airplanes, surveys, ordering of equipment, arranging logistics, budget and finance-related matters, training, personnel issues, aircraft safety evaluation, interaction with affiliated service ministries, and coordinating aeronautic operations by other mission or Christian agencies. The subseries includes correspondence sent or received by Jones’ subordinates. A small amount of financial information for the Ecuador field is included in the Flight Operations Reports file (Folder 163-1). Folder 164-3 documents the transition of the Mexican affiliate in 1986-1987 to more direct oversight by MAF-US. The Nicaragua file (Folder 164-5) includes documents about disaster relief following a hurricane there in 1988. The Christian Aviators Bulletin file (Folder 164-6) contains copies of the Spanish Boletin de Aviatores Cristianos. A sizeable portion of the subseries consists of financial records (Folders 169-1 through 171-11), including planning the 1985-1986 budgets for the Spanish Americas Area Office, language school, and for the programs in the countries of Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, as well as monthly finance files for the regional office, showing in generated reports the financial activity of the department (receipts and invoices in these files were not retained).

    Exceptional items: Folder 162-3 includes a manual with a 1984 organizational chart for MAF’s Ecuador field. The Ecuador VHF radio project file (Folder 163-2) documents not only the development and implementation of the project, but also the cooperation and interaction of the US and Canadian MAF entities. Folder 163-6 contains a report by Robert Gordon on his trip to Haiti in 1988; also in the same folder is a report on “Haiti-MAF Relationship with National Church.” Some documents are in Spanish. Folder 164-7 contains a 1968 “MAF Survey Team Report.” Folder 165-1 includes Executive Management Team minutes when they interviewed Dan and Sylvia Rogers following their kidnaping in Guyana and the negotiated retrieval of the hijacked plane from a rebel group. All the Suriname folders touch on the political instability in Suriname at the time. Among the documents in the Folder 165-5 is an extensive debriefing report from Ron Widman’s 1985 trip to survey the MAF operations in Venezuela, Honduras and Guatemala, as well as make contact with agencies and national Christians connected to their aviation and radio services; included are a summary, transcribed conversations and recommended actions based on their findings. Folder 170-23 contains three-year business plans for Venezuela, Ecuador, Honduras, Ft. Lauderdale, Haiti, and Mexico. Folder 165-7 contain ministry status reports for Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Northern Mexico, Suriname and Venezuela.

    Subseries: David Jones | Ft. Lauderdale Project files

    Arrangement: Alphabetical Date Range: 1945-1991

    Volume: 2.0 linear feet

    Boxes: 165-168

    Geographic coverage: Florida, Jamaica, Haiti, the Caribbean area

    Type of documents: Correspondence, memos, policy statements, meeting minutes, financial records and reports, forms, project proposals, flight incident reports, legal documents and statements of agreement

    Correspondents: Jones, Fred Gere, John Gauntt, Ed Titcomb, Duer Smedley, Dave Richardson, Steve Adams

    Notes: Also called the Miami Project, these files comprise Jones’s record of the Ft. Lauderdale Project during his oversight of the MAF’s Latin American Region. The Project was initially a joint operation between MAF and Christian Aviation Fellowship (see Folder 166-13) to “provide air transportation, purchasing, warehousing and expediting to church, mission, community development and disaster relief organizations working in southeastern U.S. and the Caribbean from a base in the Greater Miami area,” but also including mail delivery (see especially Folder 168-9). The primary sites of service were Haiti and Jamaica. The records document the planning, logistical and fiscal aspects of the operation, touching on personnel, equipment and property. Among these are budgets and financial records spanning 1981-1991.

    Exceptional items: Among Jones’s files are an emergency plan (Folder 167-2) and “Crisis Management in the Event of Arrest, Disappearance, or Death of Mission Personnel” from the July 1985 International Bulletin of Missionary Research, the agreement (ca. 1980) between Christian Aviation Fellowship and MAF (Folder 166-13) and termination of agreement in October 1982. A key file is on Ft. Lauderdale History (Folder 167-7) that includes an organizational chart of which the Ft. Lauderdale Project is a part. The Jesus Film file (Folder 168-5) tells the story of the campaign in Haiti. Throughout the collection is evidence of the ongoing evolution of MAF’s organization, shown in one example in a memo (Folder 168-11) on 4/7/88 from David Jones to his staff on “MAF Structure and the new Region.” Folder 168-11 also contains documents related to MAF more broadly or showing the intersection of the Ft. Lauderdale Project into the greater organization or the effect of broad trends on the project. Also included there is a full personnel list (1/13/88) for the US headquarters and international staff. The Mission Vision file (Folder 168-10) outlines the MAF program to host trips to various sites, including Brazil, Haiti and Jamaica, for first-hand observation and participation in MAF ministry; especially helpful is “Mission Vision: ‘What It Is.’”

    Subseries: Chief Operating Officer of Latin America | General office

    Arrangement: Alphabetical by country, several administrative files

    Date Range: 1969-2002

    Volume: 3.0 linear feet

    Boxes: 171-174, 178-179

    Geographic coverage: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Ft. Lauderdale (Florida), Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela

    Type of documents: Correspondence, memos, faxes, printed e-mail messages (beginning around 1993), reports and trip reports, minutes, requests for humanitarian assistance, business plans, business agreements, government certificates

    Correspondents: Directors Kevin Swanson, Jack Walker, David Jones, and Max Beachy, Stan Black, Harry Debirsarun, Pedro De Koster-Fuentes, Willie Enns, Stephen Grames, Roy Haglund, Gene Jordan, Roy Kidjo, Jeff Nelson, Mark Nord, Dave Richardson, Mike Ross, and other MAF regional directors and staff, MAF presidents Max Meyers and Gary Bishop, representatives of other missions working in the region

    Notes: This subseries spans the oversight of the region by Jack Walker, David Jones and Kevin Swanson and beyond. Like the preceding subseries, it includes a record of various operations in the Latin American portion of MAF’s work, such as operation of airplanes, surveys, ordering of equipment, arranging logistics, budget and finance-related matters, training, personnel issues, aircraft safety evaluation, interaction with affiliated service ministries, and coordinating aeronautic operations by other mission or Christian agencies. The time plan covered in the documents reveals the fluctuating circumstances across a large geographical region due to politics, change of personnel, natural disasters, etc., and MAF’s cooperation with national affiliates, other mission agencies, national church bodies and government agencies; the documents also track the impact of the evolution of mission practice and philosophy in light of the growing role of Latin American nationals in church and mission roles.

    Exceptional items: Folder 171-12 includes a “Working Agreement Between South America Mission and Mission Aviation Fellowship,” accompanying correspondence, including consideration of a merger of SAM’s SAMAIR into MAF. Folder 171-14 contains an agreement between MAF-US and the Brazilian Asas de Socorro on the loan of personnel, and discussion of expansion of ADS’s operation in Brazil. The Costa Rica file (Folder 172-2) deals primarily through correspondence with Bill Syring, Dan Rogers and Dave McCleery about maintaining an MAF liaison at the Spanish Language Institute in San Jose. The documents in Folder 172-3 explore opportunities for ministry in Cuba, including being coordinated from Mexico. The Ecuador files (Folders 172-4,5,6) include a statement of agreement between Alas de Socorro and Gospel Missionary Union, correspondence with Rachel Saint, two of Gene Jordan’s “Ecuador Report” for 1994, memos to MAF staff about the funeral service for pilots Dan Osterhaus and Job Orellana after the deaths in a plane crash, the 1995-1998 strategic plan, and the 1996-1997 “Ecuador Business Plan.” The Haiti file (Folder 172-7 contains a report on the hijacking of a plane leaving Haiti. The Guatemala file (Folder 172-8) contains a one-page summary of the Guatemala field history and the 1996-1999 strategic plan for the Guatemalan Aviation Association for Edification (or AGAPE). The Haiti files (Folder 172-10,11 and 173-1) include MAF-South America by-laws, the 1992 “So You’ve Been Assigned to MAF Haiti / Here’s Some Information....”, the 1991 version of the Haiti contingency plan, memos about the safety of missionaries in Haiti in 1994, a report analyzing the results of a telephone survey about MAF’s “Potential Involvement in Domestic Air Service in Haiti,” and the 1995-1998 business plan for Haiti. The Honduras file (Folder 173-3) documents the Flying Doctor Service. Among the Mexico documents (Folders 173-4,5 and 174-1) are several agreements of cooperation between MAF and the Mexican board of Alas de Socorro, the Marketing Audit Report by Management Development Associates, and two-page overview of MAF’s history and ministry in the country. The Nicaragua file (folder 174-3) includes 1982 statements from the board of directors and general assembly of CEPAD (Comite Evangelico Pro-Ayuda al Desarrollo (Evangelical Committee for Development, and later the Council of Evangelical Churches of Nicaragua) to Nicaragua’s Evangelical churches, general population, government and the Sandanistas, churches in the US and its people; Ron Sider’s and David Howard’s reports on a visit to Nicaragua in late-1982 with other American Evangelicals, and an article about MAF’s participation in CEPAD’s Wings of Mercy (Alas de Socorro). The Suriname files (Folders 174-4,5) include a letter from a Surinamese politician and government officer to Fellowship Foundation leader Doug Coe, and Gene Jordan’s trip reports to Suriname. The Venezuela file (Folder 174-4) includes a memo to field staff in the country about their difficult relationships with one another, and documents about MAF’s cooperative relationship with New Tribes Mission in Venezuela.

    Subseries: Latin America Region | Latin America Area or Country Director/Office

    Arrangement:
  • Guyana (John Gauntt)
  • Northern Mexico (Walt Jarrett)

    Date Range: 1957-1992

    Volume: 2.0 linear feet

    Boxes: 175-178, OS 15

    Notes: Files related to two MAF operations delineated by country their area managers

    Subseries: Latin America Area or Country Director/Office | Guyana Office (John Gauntt)

    Arrangement: Alphabetical

    Date Range: 1957-1971

    Volume: 1.5 linear feet

    Boxes: 175-177, OS 15

    Geographic coverage: Guyana, Suriname

    Type of documents: Correspondence, forms, business and legal communication, minutes, customs receipts and correspondence, bills for air services, completed personal tax forms for Guyana, sketches, inquiries about equipment, FAA certificates of airworthiness, licenses, an immigration form, invoices, airstrip blueprint, promotional material, technical notices to pilots, schematics, incorporation documents, bookkeeping account books

    Correspondents: Gauntt, Lin Entz, Herb Morgan, Joe McLennan, Eldon Larsen, Jim Lomheim (to whom Gauntt reported in an unstated capacity), Roy Parsons, Charles Patton, representatives of Guyana’s Department of Civil Aviation and Office of the Prime Minister, Federal Aviation Agency and the British Air Registration Board, representatives of the Pilgrim Holiness Mission

    Notes: Gauntt served as program manager for MAF in Guyana. The files of the Guyana office document flight operations out of several locations, including Boa Vista across the border in northern Brazil, Lethem along the Brazilian border, etc., rental of facilities. The correspondence provides a routine account of flight and delivery operations, travel plans, evaluations of operations, requests for equipment for remote locations, complying with flight regulations, aircraft maintenance and registration, operation of radio transmitters, the maintenance and operation of the Missavia transceiver, maintenance of facilities and compliance with local regulations, Gauntt’s regular reporting to his supervisors, incoming memos from the MAF home office, services provided to the Pilgrim Holiness Mission in Paramakatoi and Pipilipi in the Guyanan interior. The account books provide the financial record for the Guyana office and staff from 1967-1970. There are several files containing MAF materials, such as promotional brochures, membership information and requirements.

    Exceptional items: Folder 175-1 consists of correspondence from MAF staff (Charles Patton, Lin Entz, etc.) working out of Boa Vista in neighboring northern Brazil (just across the border from Guyana). Several files document the operation of churches in Guyana, including Baptist, Lutheran and Nazarene congregations. And Folder 175-4 holds the constitution, by-laws and several financial statements of a Baptist congregation in Guyana. Folder 175-11 contains bills sent to the district commissioner of Lethem for the delivery of medical supplies at the request of the Ministry of Health. Folder 175-21 contains Gauntt’s accounting of MAF’s history in Guyana. Folder 176-8 includes a memo from Bob Gordon outlining requirements and a schedule to feature MAF’s activities in its publication. Folder 176-18 tells some of the story of the closing of the Guyana operation in 1970, following legal proceedings against Gauntt for “failure to register as an alien (more background on this is recorded in Gauntt’s correspondence in Folder 176-24 with Hank Worthington, vice president of the Latin America region on the time). Folder 176-21 relates to neighboring Suriname.

    Subseries: Latin America Area or Country Director/Office | Northern Mexico (Walt Jarrett)

    Arrangement: Alphabetical

    Date Range: 1985-1992

    Volume: .5 linear feet

    Boxes: 178

    Geographic coverage: Mexico, Haiti, Brazil, Nicaragua, Kenya, Zaire

    Type of documents: Correspondence, memos, financial records, reports, minutes, sketches, contact lists, sanctuary blueprint, interview transcripts

    Correspondents: Jarrett, William Kastrinos (church construction project manager), representatives of Mexico Inland Mission

    Notes: This small compilation of Jarrett’s files is primarily on the short-lived MAF operation in northern Mexico with the intent to strengthen discipleship and leadership training; Jarrett was the program manager. Several files deal with the design and construction of a church building in Bahia Asuncion, and a short-term youth trip to assist the project. Also included are four other files unrelated to northern Mexico – it is unclear how Jarrett acquired the files or what his interest in them was.

    Exceptional items: Folder 178-3 (among several others) includes an overview of the Baja Project, along with photos and promotional material that further explains MAF’s role in the project, while Folder 178-4 includes MAF president Max Meyers’ letter announcing the conclusion of MAF in the project.

    Also included in Jarrett’s files are several non-northern Mexico-related files. A ministry audit of Asas de Socorro (Brazil) by Management Development Associates is found in Folder 178-1. Transcribed interviews about Haiti with Dave Richardson and Barry Borror, especially addressing “the condition of the country, and the potential role of MAF there and in the operation of Miami as it relates to Haiti.” Topics in the wide-ranging interviews included economics, politics, religious, social and health conditions, the place of MAF among other mission agencies and NGOs, etc. The interviews may have been conducted in 1986, the year when Haitians overthrew the Duvalier regime in a popular uprising, making the country potentially more accessible to outside services. The interviews were primarily conducted by Norm Olsen and Ron [?], but also include Ross [Drown?], Sam, Donna, Steve and Larry. The second transcript appears to have been a follow-up phone interview to the first (conducted in person). Folder 178-9 records the start-up of MAF’s operation in Nicaragua, which Jarrett apparently had some role in. Folder 178-10 contains the recollection of pilot Don Roberson by his father after he was killed in a 1991 aircraft accident in Venezuela. Folder 178-11 consists of reports by Ruth Ewart on her visits to Zaire and Kenya. On the folder is written Jarrett's note, "MAF mentioned frequently. Not familiar to us. She apparently not MAF staff. Good material though on what's happening & MAF's contribution." Ewart's primary concerns seem to have been development and spiritual impact, especially as it related to children and families, health and disease, education, agriculture, and other development programs. Most of the reports consist of Ewarts’ recounting of visits to schools, hospitals or clinics, and other project sites, and interviews with various people who were teachers, church workers, development workers, etc., about their experience and conditions.
  • Subseries: International | Regional & Area Offices | Asia & Eurasia Region

    Arrangement:

  • Country files
  • Administrative files
  • Vice president’s files

    Date Range: 1969-2003

    Volume: 4.0 linear feet

    Boxes: 179-186

    Notes: This subseries records the oversight of MAF’s operation in Asia and Eurasia, primarily through its executive officers responsible for the region, but also in letters, reports and more on the details of MAF’s services. The region’s countries are not evenly represented, with more focus placed on the countries where MAF either had operations or was considering developing them, including Afghanistan, Albania, Burma, China, India, Indonesia (Kalimantan East, Central and West, Sulawesi, and Yayasan), Irian Jaya, Kazakhstan, Korea, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Vietnam, United States

    Subseries: Asia & Eurasia Region | Country files

    Arrangement: Alphabetical

    Date Range: 1969-2003

    Volume: 2.5 linear feet

    Boxes: 179-183

    Geographic coverage: Afghanistan, Albania, Burma, China, India, Indonesia ( Kalimantan East, Center and West, Sulawesi, and Yayasan), Irian Jaya, Kazakhstan, Korea, Philippines, Russia, Singapore

    Type of documents: Correspondence, memos, reports (especially trip reports), strategic and business plans, minutes, financial reports, job descriptions, personnel lists, program and grant proposals, manuals, country profiles, incorporation papers, organizational charts

    Correspondents: Directors Dave Swanson and Dave Jones, Stan Black (an attorney for MAF), Dave Bochman, Darmawan “Dar” Bone, Bob Breuker (West Indonesia area manager), Gene Congdon, Ken Frizzell, Bob Gordon, Donn Goss, Brad Hazlett, Skip Hubby, Rev. Yung Kim, Paul Lay, Hans Leutwyler (Albania program manager), Jon Lewis (Africa program manager), Petrus Octavianus, Bruce Smith, Dennis Stuessi, Philip Tsai, Dave Wunsch (East Indonesia area manager), MAF presidents Chuck Bennett, Max Meyers, and Gary Bishop, MAF administrators, representatives of other mission agencies and NGOs.

    Notes: These files, not of one director, include a record of various operations in the Eurasian portion of MAF’s work, including operation of airplanes, ordering of equipment, planning logistics, surveys, budget and finance-related matters, ongoing training and training of national staff, personnel issues, aircraft safety evaluation, evacuation of staff from war-affected areas, interaction with affiliated service ministries, and coordinating aeronautic and service operations by other mission or Christian agencies. These files record a great deal of MAF history, participation of many people and organization, and the development of new programs throughout the region. Among these agencies are IAM or International Assistance Mission, MAP International (formerly Medical Assistance Program), Albania Health Projects, Moody Aviation, RBMU International, affiliate agencies (especially MAF Canada), etc. The subseries features not only MAF’s well-established operations in various countries, but also those at their very beginnings (Afghanistan, Albania) Kazakhstan, Russia), and their exploration for arising need and assessment of the conditions for their entry. MAF’s work in Indonesia is the most extensively documented. A number of trip reports from 1969 throughout the subseries for various countries appear, including the one for Kalimantan (Folder 182-2). A common feature in many of the country files is a business plan or strategic plan, usually covering three years. The Kazakhstan and Russia files provide an inside glimpse into their development as independent states, formerly part of the Soviet Union, and afterward members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS); also documented in these is the exploration for opportunities by Christian agencies that had long been unable to serve in the Soviet Union.

    Exceptional items: The Afghanistan file (Folder 179-5) reflects MAF’s consideration of entering the country to provide services. Among the documents is a survey on Afghanistan (history, geography and weather, politics, religion, economy, transportation, NGO activity, assessment of needs, people and literature consulted, and accompanying source documents) and strategic plans once the program was launched in 1995. Folder 180-2 concludes with a document from September 2000 from MAF’s board closing its Albania program due to the transition to national leadership. Folder 180-3 includes prayer letters of a missionary, Sharon Porterfield, who worked among the Karen people along the border shared by Burma and Thailand. The China files (Folder 180-4) also records the initial steps of launching a new program. Folders 181-1,2 record the training of Indonesians for Yayasan MAF Indonesia, the national affiliate. Folder 181-4 includes an “Aircraft Charter Agreement Between the United Nations and MAF, especially for delivery of relief services and supplies in Irian Jaya, while Folder 181-5 documents the development of a base with hangar in Wamena, Irian Jaya. Folder 182-1 contains “Indonesia Evangelism Task: Central Kalimantan – Target 2000” by Indonesia Harvest Outreach. Folder 182-2 contains a IFR (instrument flight rules) operations manual for East Kalimantan, including navigational maps; also in the folder is a MAF promotional brochure in Chinese. The Korea files (folders 182-5,6) tell the story of MAF developing a program to provide service to South Korea’s southern islands that evolved into the development of affiliate Korea Mission Aviation Fellowship; also in Folder 182-5 is the 1988 report from the Yoido Full Gospel Church. Folder 182-8 contains “The Charter of the Local Religious Organization of Evangelical Christians ‘Mission Aviation Fellowship’” adopted in Moscow in 1992 and later amended in 1999. Also among the materials in the Russia files (Folder 182-8 and 183-1) are documents from the Peter Deyneka Russian Ministries. Folder 183-1 also includes a two-page list with biography paragraphs on the Board of Founders of MAF Russia, including eleven MAF veterans and six Russian Christian leaders; the biographical sketches of the MAF executives is especially helpful in giving overviews of their lives and careers (Max Meyers, Bruce Smith, Ken Frizzell, Dave Jones, Tim Maxwell, Dennis Fulton, Paul Lay, Jon Lewis, Robert Gordon, Hans Leutwyler, Dave Bochman). Minutes of affiliates of MAF are included, such as those of MAF Russia in Folder 183-1. Folders 183-4,5 consist of substantive files on the creation of the Indonesian MAF affiliate. Folder 183-4 includes the “Resolution Regarding Nationalization of MAF Operations” from 1981; a further elaboration on the policy is found in a February 16, 1984, memo to MAF’s board.; also found there is the incorporation document registering Yayasan MAF Indonesia. The value of these files in increased by their record of interaction about the problems in the nationalization of the Indonesia operation, particularly in this case in relation to the organization’s legal status and perception by the government, and the financial and operational implications of such a turn-over (P. Octavianus was the president of the Indonesia affiliate), including of choosing between “nationwide ‘integration’ and a ‘progressive operational hand-over.”

    Subseries: Asia & Eurasia Region | Administrative files

    Arrangement: Alphabetical

    Date Range: 1970-1981

    Volume: 2.0 linear feet

    Boxes: 183-186

    Geographic coverage: Asian region, Irian Jaya, Indonesia, Vietnam, United States

    Type of documents: Correspondence and memos, policy statements, budgets, reports, minutes, job descriptions, forms

    Correspondents: Dennis and Nancy Stuessi, Ken Simmelink, MAF president Chuck Bennett, Notes: These files appear to have been compiled by Dennis Stuessi or Ken Simmelink, region vice presidents during the period covered by the documents. A major portion of the subseries are the minutes, reports and accompanying files of MAF’s board, corporation and executive committee meetings (Folders 183-9 and most of box 184, April 19, 2008), gathered by Simmelink and Stuessi; these record the issues and direction being considered and decided on by these bodies. (J. Richard Chase, later president of Wheaton College, was a member of the MAF board.). The budget files (Folders 184-8,9) while covering MAF’s budget at its broadest level, focus primarily on the Asia region. The block of “personnel” files gathered by Simmmelink and Stuessi (Folders 185-4 through 12) consist of correspondence files from some of those the Asia regional directors reported to, worked alongside, or oversaw, including the regional directors for Africa and Latin America (Robert Gordon, Jack Walker). The subseries also includes planning meeting files at both international (Folders 186-1,2) and regional levels (Folders 186-3 through 9).

    Exceptional items: The board meeting files include planning documents, financial reports and handwritten notes, such as in Folder 183-9. Folder 184-1 includes the results of a 1976 survey of MAF staff about long range planning that was going on at the time (see Folder 184-2 for a copy of the plan for the years 1977-1985). Folder 184-3 includes a report from the Relocation Team convened by MAF president Bennett in 1977. Folder 184-7 includes MAF’s 1979-1980 annual report. Folder 185-1 contains information about MAF’s third international conference in 1979 in England, gathering representatives of MAF affiliates for fellowship, coordination and planning. Folder 185-3 relates to MAF part in bringing relief to Vietnamese boat people in 1979, while folder 186-11 relates to a USAID program to provide relief to several islands in Indonesia. Folder 185-4 contains a flyer from 1979 highlighting MAF’s thirty years of service on the African continent. MAF’s strategy statements can be found in Folder 186-13. Nancy Stuessi’s personal and MAF correspondence appears in Folder 186-14. Folder 186-15 includes a report from the Women’s Committee accompanied by recommendations and “The Role of Women in Mission.”

    Subseries: Asia & Eurasia Region | Vice president’s files

    Arrangement: Alphabetical

    Date Range: 1976-1983, 1993-2001

    Volume: .25 linear feet

    Boxes: 183

    Geographic coverage: The Asian region covered by MAF’s operation and under the Africa Region Office’s oversight.

    Type of documents: Correspondence and memos, e-mails, invoices, expense proposals and reports, planning reports

    Correspondents: Melvin Isaac, Mel Richter, Dennis Stuessi, David Wunsch

    Notes: This small portion of vice president Dennis Stuessi’s files relate exclusively to aircraft being used in the Asia Region he oversaw. One additional folder of David Wunsch’s folder Asia Regional Director Office more broadly documents the operation and planning of the office.
  • Subseries: International | Regional & Area Offices | Africa Region

    Arrangement:

  • Director
  • Manager of East & Southern Africa
  • Country files
  • General files

    Date Range: 1961-1996

    Volume: 9.0 linear feet

    Boxes: 187-204

    Notes: These records reflect the oversight of the region by key regional administrators Bob Gordon, Terry Norr, Roy Parsons, Dave Swanson, Van Syverson and Jon Lewis. The files do not equally represent each of the directors, with Terry Norr and Bob Gordon being the predominant managers. Like the other regional offices, the Africa Region files cover both many details related to MAF’s operation on the African continent or collaboration with other agencies, and also MAF’s worldwide operation, including that in other parts of the world and its broadest implementation of policy and organizational development. The files were roughly organized, so the final arrangement was provided by the archivist.

    Subseries: Africa Region | Director (Jon Lewis)

    Arrangement: Alphabetical

    Date Range: 1961, 1985-1992

    Volume: 1.5 linear feet

    Boxes: 187-189

    Geographic coverage: Angola, Zaire

    Type of documents: Correspondence, handwritten notes, trip reports, message transcripts, statements of agreement with governments, MAF affiliate agreements, budgets, minutes, flight operation reports, funding proposals, faxes

    Correspondents: Lewis, Terry Allenbaugh (Program Manager for MAF Canada/Angola), Dave Blomberg, Brad Fretz, Ken Frizzell, Frank Gibbs, Max Gove, Bill Kilgore, Bob Klamser (of Contingency Preparation Consultants), Ernie Krenzin, Gerald Latimer, Terry Norr, Bill Nutting, Gene Parkins, Dick Paul, Rick Reynolds, Duer Smedley, Dave Swanson, Van Syverson, Rob Taylor, Gary Toews

    Notes: The files in this subseries consist of Jon Lewis’s files the Africa Region Director, including several personnel files of staff in Angola.

    Exceptional items: The Angola files (Folders 187-1 through 188-7) record the story of MAF’s activities (including those of MAF-Canada) in Angola during that country’s political unrest and famine. Folder 187-1 includes a report that assesses MAF Canada’s contribution to the famine relief effort). A report on impact of and contact by Contingency Preparation Consultants with representatives of UNITA forces (a political party in Angola that was involved in the country’s civil war from the mid-1970s to 2002) is found Folder 187-6. Folder 187-9 contains a press packet from UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi’s 1990 trip to the United States to appeal for support against the governing Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in the Angolan civil war. Folder 188-7 includes an agreement between MAF-Canada and the Angolan government; the agreement outlines the terms of MAF-Canada’s presence and commitment to abide by the government’s requirements.

    The Zaire files record the civil and military action in the country that necessitated MAF’s evacuation of its staff in 1991 – see especially Jon Lewis’s notebook (Folders 189-7,8) that outline all aspects of the situation and MAF deliberations on how to respond, as well as coordination of effort and resources among mission agencies and NGOs, recorded in a conference call among agency representatives. Also found in Folder 189-6 are statements by religious and governmental bodies about the deteriorating situation in Zaire and the need for the removal of President Mobutu Sese Seko from office, and documents from a Zaire consultation held in the Chicago area.

    Throughout the series, as elsewhere in the collection, assorted aircraft are identified by their use by MAF pilots or being purchased to join the MAF fleet, including the Cessna Caravan in Angola (see Folder 187-2).

    Subseries: Africa Region | Manager of East & Southern Africa (David Swanson)

    Arrangement: Alphabetical

    Date Range: 1964-1989

    Volume: 1.5 linear feet

    Boxes: 190-192

    Geographic coverage: Kenya, Lesotho, South Africa, Zaire, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Irian Jaya, Indonesia

    Type of documents: Correspondence, memos, reports, agreements between organizations, prayer letters, staff evaluations, aircraft maintenance records, technical or safety newsletters and memos, accident reports, staff manual, survey reports, procedure documents and manuals, flight operations analysis reports, etc.

    Correspondents: Swanson, John Blomberg, John Fairweather, Robert Gordon, John Hood, Van Syverson, Eleanor Swanson, MAF personnel; in some cases, Swanson is only receiving a copy of communication between other MAF staff

    Notes: Files primarily from Swanson’s oversight of the East & Southern Africa Region, but also his term as Assistant Vice President of the Asia Region. Primary concerns for these files are personnel, maintenance, safety and insurance, but also include financial information.

    Exceptional items: Folder 190-3 includes the “Working Agreement Between British MAF & US MAF for the Joint Management of MAF Operations in Kenya,” and an agreement between MAF and Africa Inland Mission. A small set of personnel files for missionaries assigned to Kenya, Lesotho or South Africa under Swanson’s oversight includes correspondence, evaluations, memos, prayer letters (see Folders 191-10 to 192-8). Those staff include: Bill and Susanne Angliss, Hugh and Norma Beck, Peter and Judy de Bourcier, Hal and Vickie Dipple, Bud and Doreen Isaacs, John and Shirley Kelly, Joe and Pam MacCabe, Steve and Sharon Nickells, Morrey and Sally Pickard, Bob and Bertie Schleicher, Bob and Dorothy Williams, Don and Marian Winter. Folder 191-2 contains a copy of the Asia Staff Manual. Also among his files, Swanson kept maintenance records on aircraft in his region, along with background information from other countries, such as Irian Jaya. Folder 192-16 contains documents outlining procedures for search and rescue operations. Folder 191-8 for 1984 International Conference contains the program folder with reports and agenda, similar to but also containing different contents from Folder 125-8.

    Subseries: Africa Region | Country files

    Arrangement: Alphabetical by country name

    Date Range: 1978-1996

    Volume: 3.0 linear feet

    Boxes: 193-198

    Geographic coverage: African continent, including Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, Zaire, Zimbabwe (there is a great deal of documentation for Mali and Zaire)

    Type of documents: Correspondence and memos, reports and trip reports, minutes, job descriptions, country surveys and information, strategic and business plans, maps, annual reports of other aviation agencies (such as Botswana Flying Mission), cooperative agreements with other agencies regarding projects and loaning of personnel, directories of agencies in a country

    Correspondents: Directors Dave Swanson, Jon Lewis, Robert Gordon, and Max Meyers, William Angliss, Dave Blomberg, Wayne Bremner, Charlie Briggs, John Fairweather, Alec Forman, Ken Frizzell, Max Gove, Skip and Karin Hubby, Bill Kilgore, Gerry Latimer, Phil Manning, Gordon Marshall, Terry Norr, Bill Nutting, Norm Olson, Skip Parrish, Jack Pienaar, Dave Richardson, Brent Ropp, Van Syverson, Jack Walker, Phil Wilkin, Charles Wilson, other MAF personnel (both in countries throughout the African continent and in the MAF home office in the United States), and representatives of other MAF affiliates.

    Notes: These files of the Africa Region Office cover the whole range of MAF’s activity and interests on the continent, and including information on the political, social and religious conditions in many of the countries of Africa.

    Exceptional items: Folder 193-1 contains matter related to personnel, including job descriptions, and gathers together a wealth of information, including staff lists for the continent from 1979, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1993, and 1994, as well as a 1983 series of personnel snapshot pages including Christian background, training, and current information. See Folder 193-3 consists of a compilation of survey results on Angola. The contents of folder 196-2 describes a water acquisition program and well-digging project that MAF contributed to. Folder 196-8 contains documents about the eruption of violent ethnic cleansing and genocide in Rwanda in 1994, and MAF plans for its response.

    Subseries: Africa Region | General files

    Arrangement: Alphabetical

    Date Range: 1965-1989

    Volume: 3.5 linear feet

    Boxes: 198-204

    Geographic coverage: Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Sudan, Zaire, Zimbabwe, and other countries that MAF either worked in or temporarily provided services in

    Type of documents: Correspondence, memos, reports, survey reports, minutes, newsletters and bulletins, incorporation documents, agreements with other organizations, legal documents, policy statements, sketches

    Correspondents: Charles Bennett, Ross Drown, Bob Gordon, Max Gove, Jon Lewis, Gordon Marshall, Terry Norr, Bill Nutting, Roy Parsons, Dave Swanson, other MAF executives and staff, representatives of other mission, relief and government agencies

    Notes: The files span the range of operations from the Africa Area Office, covering personnel, training, equipment, facilities and stations, relations with other aviation and mission agencies operating in the African continent, fund-raising, management at various levels, and relations with government offices.

    Among these are ACROSS (Africa Committee for Rehabilitation of Southern Sudan) in Folder 199-1, AERDO or Association of Evangelical Relief and Development Organization in Folder 199-2, Africa Inland Mission’s AIM-AIR in Folder 200-2. Also recorded are the special circumstances that require air service, such as providing relief services during a famine. There is a major section of files relating to specific aircraft used on the continent; these are grouped together (Folders 200-3 through 201-12), but are arranged according to files titles that include names of towns, manufacturers or aircraft model numbers.

    The files in this subseries also include documents at the MAF-wide level, more broad than the Africa Area Office concerns, but policies and information to be utilized or implement across the organization.

    Exceptional items: Folder 200-1 contains MAF’s 1987 version of its AIDS guidelines on AIDS with president Max Meyers’ cover memo express the seriousness of the situation. Folder 202-6 titled “Charter” contains documents, including many drafts, of changes in the constitutional documents of MAF Canada. Folders 202-8 to 11 relate to MAF-Canada appeals and reports to Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) on its needs for serving in Zaire. There are also two untitled files (Folders 202-1,2) of materials, apparently received by MAF president Charles Bennett; it is unclear how this came to be integrated into the Africa Area Offices files, except that it relates to the Africa operation.
  • Series: Development (also Partnership or Partnership Development or Partner Services)

    Arrangement:

  • Staff prayer letters
  • Operations
  • Publications

    Date Range: 1982-2006

    Volume: 21.5 linear feet

    Boxes: 94-103, 110-142

    Notes: The largest part of this series consists of prayer letters written to supporters; accompanying these are documents related to the prayer letter production. These letters express partnership with financial and prayer supporters and convey in an ongoing way the purpose of the mission. Wings of Praise and Prayer and Praise and Prayer Briefings, long-standing prayer publications from the mission expressed prayer needs at a mission-wide or country-wide level. Prayer letters from individuals and families are also spread throughout the collection, including in the D-2; beginning in the early 1980s, however, these letters from individuals were compiled by the mission in the way they appear here in this series.

    Also see the MAF Staff Prayer Cards photo file, compiled and sent by the Partner Services department.

    Subseries: Development | Staff [prayer] letters

    Arrangement: Chronologically in annual segments, alphabetical within a year (often from back to front)

    Date Range: 1982-2006

    Volume: 20.0 linear feet

    Boxes: 94-103, 110-114, 118-142

    Type of documents: Prayer letters and accompanying production information, mailing lists, pledge cards from prayer and financial supporters.

    Notes: The largest part of this series consists of prayer letters written by MAF missionaries and staff to their prayer and financial supporters; accompanying these are documents related to the prayer letter production. These letters express partnership with supporters and convey in an ongoing way the purpose of the mission and the details of the work of individual missionaries. Prayer letters from individuals and families are also spread throughout the collection, including in the D-2 portion of the Personnel series. The earliest documents in this subseries begin in 1982, but the 1972 and 1975 sections of the D-2 correspondence (boxes 74-78 and 104-109) appear to be the bridge to this subseries (those files contain very little interdepartmental or administrative correspondence, but are rather almost exclusively prayer letters with accompanying production information). Some of the folders include a photograph or photo prayer card of the corresponding person or family; these were transferred to the photo files and are described in the Photograph Location Record. Some of these files were received in very thin folders by family name; all files of a given alphabet letter were consolidated into one or several folders; others were received unfoldered and have been grouped by alphabet letter in one or several folders. Many of these folders also contain mailing lists of each MAF staff person or family. In some case duplicates and multiple prayer letter production versions were removed as noticed.

    Subseries: Development | General correspondence

    Arrangement: Alphabetical

    Date Range: 1982

    Volume: 1.5 linear feet

    Boxes: 115-117

    Type of documents: Correspondence and memos

    Correspondents: MAF senior administrators and other staff, MAF current or potential supporters (whether individuals, churches or foundations)

    Notes: This subseries provides a record of MAF communication with existing or potential supporters, expressing thanks for a gift or suggesting an additional gift, or answering questions.

    Subseries: Development | Publications

    Arrangement: Alphabetical by title

    Date Range: 1945-1971

    Volume: 2.0 linear feet

    Boxes: 53, 61, 62, 78

    Type of documents: Publications, newsletters

    Notes: MAF was involved in several publications, some for public consumption, others for internal communication. Missionary Aviation was a bi-monthly magazine (1945-1969). Another publication intended for wide circulation was Wings of Praise and Prayer, a newsletter appearing monthly that reported general news of MAF personnel and kept alive the public interest so vital to the MAF financial structure. Praise and Prayer Briefings was a mimeographed letter, usually appearing monthly. In-house newsletters were used to keep the far-flung members of the MAF network in touch with each other. Other technical mimeographed newsletters were those to Mission Aircraft Operators. Member Letters (1945-1967) were distributed to MAF members and associate members. D-2 and D-3 newsletters (see D2 subseries in the Personnel series for The Policy Page and MAF Staff) reported general information; the D-2 issues were of a chatty, human-interest type, while the D-3 issues were technical in scope.
  • Series: Research & Planning Office

    Arrangement: Alphabetical

    Date Range: 1945-2002

    Volume: 6.5 linear feet

    Boxes: 61, 123-134

    Type of documents: Reports, memos, policy statements, handbooks, presentation manuscripts, aircraft technical booklets, incorporation documents, financial reports, reference articles, meeting agendas and minutes, assessment questionnaires, lists, correspondence, incorporation documents, strategic plans

    Notes: The series consists of Bob Gordon’s files in his role as Director of Planning & Research. The files provide an extensive record of MAF’s policy and operational statements and background research on a wide variety of topics relevant to its operation, including other mission and aviation agencies. Topics range from safety and personnel to Marxism, AIDS and In some cases individual folders bring together documents on a particular topic showing MAF’s development or emphasis in a particular area or function over time; in others the contents reflect Gordon’s gathering background information to assist MAF in formulating its own position or plan of action in that area. (See an appended folder list consisting of an extensive folder list prepared by MAF staff of selected highlights of each file in the series.) Also included are several files attributed to Dave Swanson (during the period when he was manager for the East Africa, South Africa and Central Asia regions).

    Exceptional items: A few highlights include...

  • Folder 123-2 records MAF’s initial response to the AIDs epidemic by communicating information and recommended actions to its field staff throughout the world
  • MAF’s 1945 articles of incorporation appear in Folder 123-5
  • MAF’s risk assessment worldwide and contingency planning during the 1980s are documented in Folder 123-7; also see the emergency notification file in Folder 123-14 and forecasting in Folder 124-7.
  • Folder 123-10 contains an internal publication, Crossfeed: Ideas and Opinions By MAF Staff.
  • Folder 123-15 includes Executive Management Team (EMT) meeting agendas, minutes and supporting documents
  • Assorted internal evaluation tools, results and analysis in Folder 124-2
  • International conferences including MAF’s 1984 meeting in Canada (Folder 125-8; also see Folder 191-8)
  • “A Survey for SIM International on the State of Outreach to Muslims in Central African Republic, Cameroon, Chad, Ginea-Bissau and Gambia” and Odo Siahaya’s “Communicating in a Muslim Context” (Folder 125-9)
  • Folders 126-4,5,8 and 127-1 consist of files on MAF’s history and organizational development
  • Folder 127-3 consists of policy statements, while Folder 127-4 contains purpose statements and Folder 127-6 contains statements of the mission’s values. See Folder 128-10 for MAF strategic plan statements
  • Statistics compiled by the mission over five decades are found in folder F27-5
  • See Folder 128-3 for MAF’s Mexico earthquake relief project in 1985
  • Folder 131-7 documents MAF’s periodic self-assessment
  • Folder 132-4 documents the work of Southwest Missions Air Ministry in Arizona
  • Folder 133-8 contains selected pages from various editions of the MAF staff handbook
  • Folder 133-4 consists of several memos to MAF staff at the time of the transition from the presidency of Max Meyers to Gary Bishop in 1997-1998. Among these are Meyers’ introduction of Bishop to the staff, Meyer’s farewell memo on December 31, 1997, and Bishops’ first memo to the staff in early 1998
  • Folder 133-1 contains conference material from the International Association of Missionary Aviation’s annual meeting in 1999 hosted by MAF
  • A small section of files (Folders 61-19 through 28) includes major works on the topic of mission aviation, all written in the 1940s and 1950s, including theses or papers by MAFers Elizabeth Clarke (later Mrs. Jim Truxton), Charlie Mellis, Grady Parrott, Nate Saint and Jim Truxton, master's and doctoral theses by William Earl Martin, research notes by Russell T. Hitt for his Nate Saint biography, and Jungle Pilot (Folder 61-21).
  • Series: Technical

    Arrangement: Alphabetical

    Date Range: 1946-1969

    Volume: 1.0 linear feet

    Boxes: 1, 62

    Type of documents: Correspondence, bills of sale, schematics for modifications, purchase agreements, engine logs, inspection reports, weight and balance reports, legal papers and papers to and from the Civil Aeronautics Administration, the Federal Aviation Agency or their counterparts in countries where MAF was purchasing or flying aircraft

    Correspondents: Charles Mellis

    Notes: This brief series, most folders titled "Aircraft", concerns the technical aspects of the aircraft used by MAF. Some files concern wrecked planes, especially Folder 1-82; Folder 1-1 also concerns downed planes. The folders in Folders 62-27 through 29 are wholly 1969 correspondence. The writers are primarily MAF staff and D-2 personnel and the content of the letters concerns radio evangelism, amateur radio's value in missions, airplane data, commercial meat transport via MAF planes and other such matters. Of special interest is a letter by Jim Hurd in Folder 62-27 concerning MAF's future in Venezuela amid the trend for "Latinization" or nationalism, and a letter by Jean Hildebrandt (Folder 62-27) recommending a reorganization of the MAF office filing system.

    Series: Finance

    Arrangement: Alphabetical

    Date Range: 1945, 1955-1961

    Volume: .25 linear feet

    Boxes: 19

    Type of documents: Financial statements

    Notes: This very small compilation of early financial records are in Folders 19-39,40. Other financial data appears in the Operational and Financial Reports (Folders 53-15 through 53-27) and Shipping Bills (Folders 61-29 through 62-5).

    Series: Personnel

    Subseries: Personnel | D-2 Personnel correspondence

    Arrangement: Chronologically in annual segments (except initial 1944-1949 period in alphabetical order); alphabetical by author of correspondence

    Date Range: 1944-1973

    Volume: 30.5 linear feet

    Boxes: 1-19, 63-78, 94, 104-109

    Type of documents: Correspondence, memos

    Correspondents: MAF staff

    Notes: This series consists entirely D-2 files of correspondence with the mission's home office by all active MAF staff on a wide range of practical and policy issues. "D-2" stood for "Distribution-2" and indicated active member status. (D-1 referred to administrative staff and D-3 was for technical bulletins and memos.) The information in these files covers the entire spectrum of mission activity: finances (especially monthly financial reports from MAF's beginning), accidents, building projects, political situations, relations with other missions, adjustment of missionaries to the field, furloughs, the flow of supplies for personal use and for equipment maintenance, and missionaries' personal lives (births, etc.). Many files include mass-produced prayer letters prepared for supporters and constituents other than MAF workers (see also the extensive prayer letter files in the Development series for the years 1982-2006). These files include sketches of potential MAF personnel, and evaluations of staff and potential staff by MAF executives. The mission’s officers themselves are included in the D-2 series, both their inter-office correspondence and that to MAF workers and others in the outside world. The D-2 files constitute one of the most substantial sections of this collection, documenting all facets of MAF operations. The 1972 and 1975 subseries of the D-2 files are unlike all the preceding D-2 files in that they do not contain a record of personnel correspondence and memos with MAF administration but rather contain almost exclusively prayer letters and related production information. Although designated as D-2, these two final years in the subseries appear to be the beginning of the Partnership Development department’s staff prayer letter subseries. Several exceptions remain in this subseries, such as those of MAF administrators like Jean Hildebrandt (Folder 106-6), Norm Olson (Folders 107-26 and 108-1) and Jim Truxton (Folder 109-14). Many duplicate copies of prayer letters were removed from these files; only samples of returned pledge cards with donor information were retained.

    Exceptional items: The early D-2 files contain information about the embryonic MAF (then known as CAMF) and its early close relationship with Navigators, another Christian organization with roots in the U.S. military. See especially the James C. Truxton folders (Folders 2-11 through 2-16) that contain almost all of the earliest files of what later was designated by MAF as General correspondence; also see and the early files of correspondence between Truxton and Dawson Trotman (Folders 1-85 through 1-88). Truxton's membership card – #1 – is in Folder 2-11. The creation of CAMF amid attacks of other, doubting, Evangelical bodies, and defenses of CAMF are documented in Folder 2-12. The first contacts with men destined to lead MAF – Charlie Mellis and Grady Parrott – are located in Folders 1-92 and 2-2, respectively. Betty Greene's early correspondence file (Folder 1-92) gathers letters concerning original MAF personnel and general solidifying of policies, goals, and methods. A notice dated July 8, 1946 (Folder 1-101) documents the name change from CAMF to MAF. The D-2 series is extensively interwoven because the D-2 material is filed by writer with most letters being written to individuals who also had their own D-2 folders. Therefore, volleys of correspondence can be reconstructed by searching through more than one D-2 file, made easier since material within folders is arranged chronologically. Since the D-2 series is arranged year by year (with an individual’s files spread over many boxes, the best access to the D-2 files is by browsing through the box-folder list in this guide. As these files are listed only by staff member's name, the “Addedum: MAF Personnel” matches names of staff with the geographical areas they served in. Although gathered around individual staff, D-2 correspondence often reflects current political, cultural and religious situations in the countries where those individuals were serving.

    Folders 62-34 through 48 consist of the D-2 files of James Truxton, 1956-1966. Since Truxton was Vice President of the organization throughout this time, and since his correspondence in these D-2 files is wholly with other members of MAF, these folders are important documentation. Truxton’s 1956 correspondence (folder 62-34) concerns MAF's relations with Wycliffe Bible Translators (see also folder 62-36) and the Summer Institute of Linguistics' work among the Huaorani or Auca Indians in Ecuador, relations with the Ecuador government and the missionary murders by the Indians in January 1956. The murders and their aftermath are a major theme of the correspondence for the next three years (folders 6235 through 37) that includes material about the survivors, especially widow Betty Elliot and sister Rachel Saint. Folder 62-35 has letters about Mexico and British Guiana, while folder 62-37, about Brazil; folder 62-38, about Brazil and the Congo.

    The D-2 files of Nate Saint include a letter with advice on the young organization's business practices – advice that MAF took seriously (Folder 2-7; some letters in this same folder were used by Russell T. Hitt for his biography of Saint, Jungle Pilot). The 1947 Saint file (Folder 2-8) documents the opening of Ecuador to MAF service; Folders 2-14,15 concern these early days in Ecuador, as do many of the 1948-1949 D-2 files (see especially Folder 1-100 that has a letter about an earthquake there). The other original MAF field was Mexico, and many pre-1950 D-2 files concern this area (see especially folders 2-1 and 2-5). The D-2 files through 1948 contain letters annotated in a red felt-tip pen with underlining and cryptic notations in the margins. This seems to point to research done in these files prior to their coming to the BGC Archives. The annotations do not appear to be contemporary with the manuscripts, and are not to be confused with the red pencil or fountain pen notations made for original office use.

    A few other highlights from the series include ...

  • A typical example of a membership application (Folder 3-24)
  • The formation of the "bucket-drop" technique used to get supplies to mission stations where no airstrip existed (Folders 3-23 and 4-13)
  • A proposed book about MAF (Folder 4-25)
  • MAF's role in Billy Graham's 1960 African tour (Folder 6-34)
  • Missionary Engineering, Incorporated's merger into MAF in 1962 (Folder 6-103)
  • Political turmoil and missionary deportation in the Sudan (Folders 7-54, 7-124), and in the Congo's 1964 political upheaval (Folders 8-8,9,11,58, 9-32)
  • Evaluation of missionaries from the Congo in 1967 (Folder 14-12)
  • Nigerian politics (Folder 13-10)
  • A medical report on Brazil (Folder 8-11)
  • A fatal airplane crash in which MAF pilot Don Roberson was killed (Folder 13-14)
  • A history of MAF plane wrecks in the 1950s (Folder 13-22)
  • The general reorganization of MAF operation structure (Folder 14-59)
  • Information about the murder of five missionaries by the Huaorani or Auca Indians of Ecuador in January 1956 (Folders 4-43 through 5-7). This incident is discussed in greater detail below.
  • A 1969 brochure of D-2 staff, with pictures of each, is in Folder 43-65.
  • Series: Other Missions

    Arrangement: Alphabetical

    Date Range: 1938-1969

    Volume: 9.0 linear feet

    Boxes: 53-61

    Type of documents: Correspondence, aerial surveys, promotional material, reports, prayer letters, newsletters, pamphlets and magazines

    Correspondents: Charles Mellis, J. Grady Parrott, Elizabeth Greene, James Truxton, Gordon Sanders of Missionary Engineering, other MAF representatives, and executives and representatives of the other agencies represented

    Notes: This series records the interaction and cooperation between MAF and other mission agencies based in or working around the world. These agencies were primarily those served by MAF aircraft, requesting aerial survey or purchasing service. The correspondence discusses aircraft selection and purchase, parts orders, shipping arrangements, studies of technical development and adaptations to mission needs. It also includes import-export regulations, radio licensing in foreign countries, procuring of missionary visas and relations with foreign governments, adaptation to changing political systems and laws, and settling of insurance claims. Full explanations are made of MAF policies, especially in strict aeronautical training, careful screening of pilot candidates, rules for load limits and curtailment of flight hours per pilot. Mention is made of the development of the "bucket drop" for supplies and initial contact with indigenous peoples in unevangelized areas. Aerial survey reports give detailed information on terrain, weather conditions, assessment of necessary flight hours, projected mission needs, and suitable locations for mission bases. Many letters discuss the Missavia radio and its use in inter-mission communication, flight contracts and medical emergencies. Individual mission files may cover the full scope of a mission's operation (especially its use of aviation), as well as it relationship with MAF. The researcher is advised to make use of the box-folder listing in this guide that gives access to these files via mission names.

    Exceptional items: The files on the Evangelical Foreign Missions Association (Folders 55-20 through 55-27) and the Interdenominational Foreign Missions Association (Folders 56-3 through 56-24) are especially full:

  • The EFMA folders contain early records of that organization, including a letter from EFMA Executive Secretary Clyde W. Taylor to Christian Century magazine in response to a 1956 article published about the Auca incident involving Huaorani Indians (Folder 55-22). This same folder contains information about the Second Latin American Evangelical Conference, held in Lima, Peru in 1961
  • Latin America is one of the topics covered in the IFMA folders (especially Folders 56-8,9,10,11 that touches on ecumenism in the region)
  • Other topics in the IFMA material are Cuba (Folder 56-13), the 1966 Congress on the Church's World Wide Mission held in Wheaton, Illinois (Folder 56-15), and the Evangelical “Christ for All Campaign” in the Congo, under the controversial Pastor Makanzu (Folder 56-16)

    The correspondence for 1967 and 1969 is filed out of sequence, appearing in the General Files (Folders 25-59 and 48-84, respectively). The same is true for EFMA, 1965-1967 (Folder 23-26).

    The contents of the series reflect some of the raw edges of inter-mission relations, whether through doctrinal differences, territorial agreements, cooperation policies, personality problems or methods of arbitration:
  • Relations between the Seventh Day Adventists and other missions are shown in Folders 58-11 and 59-18. Letters in Folders 54-20 and 58-12 relate incidents when the Adventists were refused aid because of their doctrinal stands.
  • Relations between Evangelical missions and those operated by the Roman Catholic Church are described in documents in Folders 56-9, 57-1 (Costa Rica), 60-11, 60-27 and 60-29. Folder 60-27 illustrates an impasse in Catholic-Protestant relations in Ecuador (see also Folder 5-78) and discusses the use of the Catholic Bible. The Catholic-Protestant tensions often entered into government relations in countries predominantly Catholic (see Folders 58-6, 59-7,9).

    Folders 59-5 and 60-19 have material about relations between Evangelical missions:
  • Folder 56-1 contains information on the fundamentalist-modernist controversy
  • Bob Jones' general opposition to Wycliffe Bible Translators (and to Billy Graham) is seen in Folders 60-11 and 60-27). See also Folders 52-11,14,15,18,19 documenting the same problems in British MAF, and an interesting case study of MAF transportation and Catholic missions, Folders 51-43 and 5-78.

    In addition to inter-mission relations, these files contain records that explore mission-government relations in Brazil (Folder 54-24), in Borneo (Folder 55-7), and especially in the Congo, where political upheaval in the mid-1960s threatened the future of many missions (Folders 54-23, 55-17, 55-28 and 59-14). Missions in China are discussed in Folder 55-19; evangelism among Muslims is considered in Folders 57-23 and 59-18. A letter from Guatemala (Folder 54-31) tells how nationals expect all foreigners to be missionaries.

    MAF's own history is also seen in this series:
  • The file on Navigators (Folder 57-17) is especially rich in MAF early history, as is that of New Tribes Missions (Folder 57-20).
  • Folder 57-28 includes a description of a river trip by MAFers James Truxton and Hobert Lowrance in Venezuela.
  • Spanish and French versions of MAF's filmstrip Mid-Century Martyrs are discussed in Folder 60-11.
  • Other files with MAF history are Folders 59-37, 60-2,3,4 and 60-19,20.
  • MAF pilot Nate Saint's career is covered in Folders 57-36, 59-30,31,32; his sister Rachel, worker for Wycliffe Bible Translators, has documentation in Folders 57-36 and 60-27. A parachute device for MAF's "bucket-drop" is described in Folder 58-32.

    Aerial topographical surveys can be found in many folders: Central Africa (Folder 54-30), French West Africa (Folder 55-8), West Africa (Folder 59-27), Africa (Folder 55-31), Nigeria and the Philippines (Folder 57-2), Philippines and Laos (Folder 57-33), Guerrero (Yucatan) (Folder 58-4), Southern Rhodesia and Venezuela (Folder 58-34), Sinu River Valley (Colombia) (Folder 59-21), and Orinoco River (Venezuela) and Bolivia (Folders 60-19,20). Some miscellaneous items of note include:
  • A missionary description of a thick jungle in South America and a crash landing in a "grassy river" (Folder 54-26)
  • A search for underwater plane wreckage in the South Pacific, with searchers protected from crocodiles by lightweight cages (Folder 54-28)
  • A report on the use of pontoons for water landings (Folder 57-6)
  • An account of a search for five missing New Tribes Mission workers in South America (Folder 58-15)
  • Liberian mission radio station ELWA (Folder 58-22)
  • The translation of MAF book Through Gates of Splendor into Japanese (Folder 58-33)
  • An article about the famous nineteenth-century Baptist missionary Adoniram Judson (Folder 57-20)
  • A diary of an expedition to the Waica Indianas of South America in 1958 (Folder 59-5)

    The series also contains significant information on Evangelical figures:
  • Material on Billy Graham is in Folders 51-37, 56-25,26, 58-18 and 60-34
  • Navigators’ founder Dawson Trotman is described in documents in Folders 57-17, including his death and funeral); also included is an article by Trotman.
  • MAF Board Member W. Cameron Townsend's correspondence is in Folder 60-33.
  • Correspondence of radio mission executive Abe Van Der Puy is in Folders 59-31 and 60-12.

    Publications in Folders 61-5 through 17 are clippings from magazines that concern missionary aviation from other missions. Lutheran Missionary (Folder 61-13) contains the obituary of pilot Edwin B. Hartwig, a somewhat well-known figure in mission aviation, who was killed in a 1951 plane wreck at New Guinea. The Lutheran World Federation in Folder 16-14, has clippings of that organization's China News Letter concerning the "St. Paul", a mission plane flown into pre-Communist China by Daniel Nelson, who was associated with MAF. Nelson and his family died when his plane crashed in 1948. The file of New Tribes Mission (Folder 61-17) contains many issues of its magazine Brown Gold.
  • Series: General

    Arrangement:

  • Old Correspondence (alphabetical)
  • Other Correspondence (chronological)

    Date Range: 1944-1975

    Volume: 40.0 linear feet

    Boxes: 19-51, 78-93

    Notes: A very extensive and substantial series, the documents (much of it routine) record MAF’s interaction with the Christian public, its supporters, other mission agencies, and companies in some aspect of the aeronautics business.

    Subseries: General | “Old Correspondence” (first subseries)

    Arrangement: Alphabetical by correspondent

    Date Range: 1944-1967

    Volume: 14.5 linear feet

    Boxes: 19-32, 62

    Type of documents: Primarily letters and memos, materials accompanying correspondence, membership and renewal applications, forms, some newspaper clippings, radio script

    Correspondents: MAF executives Grady Parrott, James Truxton, Elizabeth Greene, Charles Mellis, Donald Qvarnstrom (MAF Export Manager), administrative assistants Norm Olson, John Strash, MAF office secretary Selma Bauman, individuals and representatives of churches, other mission agencies, and suppliers

    Notes: This correspondence is largely with individuals and churches interested in MAF – financial supporters, prayer friends, and promoters of MAF renown across America. Many of these files are the accumulated letters of associate members, often dealing with the mundane matters of membership application and renewals, but also reflecting the wide spectrum of what prompted these people to apply for MAF membership. Missionaries and other mission organizations are represented in the subseries, as is business correspondence with aircraft and equipment supply companies, insurance companies, and foreign government offices.

    Exceptional items: This subseries contains a substantial collection of newspaper and magazine articles concerning MAF, appearing in various stages of construction, editing, proofreading, revision, and completion:
  • Some of these are a copy of "Blood on the Sand" (Folder 27-28), a musical account of the 1956 Auca murder incident involving Huaorani Indians in Ecuador
  • Correspondence about an article, "Wings of Service" (folder 26-63)
  • An article by MAF Secretary-Treasurer Charles J. Mellis for Flying Magazine about the history of MAF (folder F3-73)
  • James Truxton's article "Aviation in Missions" (Folder 23-19)
  • General hivstorical accounts for publication in Christian Life (Folder 21-80) and the Cessna Pennant (Folder 21-63)
  • The murders of five missionaries by Huaorani Indians spawned a barrage of newspaper and magazine accounts (see especially Folders 20-12 and 20-30); Life magazine borrowed MAF photographs for its use (Folder 26-37)
  • A 1946 dramatized radio script of an incident where short wave radio and aviation "saved the day" in a Dutch New Guinea weather emergency is in Folder 25-74
  • While this collection contains no actual films produced by MAF, there is much correspondence concerning films about MAF missionary aviation and the companies that made them: Of Wings and Missions about Mexico (Folder 20-54); Conquering Jungle Barriers by Gospel Films, Inc. (Folder 24-35); Flight Plan about Honduras by Ken Anderson Films, including advertisements for the finished product (Folders 20-20,21); and Mid-Century Martyrs (Folders 26-59, 60). Many of the church files represented in the General Series are devoted to the scheduling of MAF films to be shown around the country.

    The General files also contain correspondence with other mission organizations (also see the "Other Missions" series), illustrating how MAF worked with missions, whether in a partnership or advisory role.

    Some of these files are with other aviation concerns: Aerial Missions, Ltd. (Folder 19-44) concerning Missionary aviation in western Australia; a "Flying Doctor Service" proposal for Africa (Folder 19-45); Aero-Missionaries, Wings of Colombia (Folder 26-6); and Sky Pilots (Folder 30-53). See also Victory Sky Pilots, Inc. (Folder 25-13), and the India Mission (Folder 25-61) that includes Elrow LaRowe's report, "A Basis for the Consideration of Practical Missionary Aviation," written in the 1940s.
  • Correspondence with Missionary Engineering that MAF absorbed in 1962 is found in Folders 27-45 and 27-46.

    Medical missions are well represented in the General files:
  • Missionary Dentist (Folder 27-44)
  • Missions Medica Independiente (Folder 27-40)
  • Missions Medical Supplies (Folder 27-56) that has information of MAF overseas workers' health
  • Christian Dental Society (Folder 21-41)
  • Christian Medical Society (Folder 21-81)

    There are several Christian colleges represented in these files:
  • Biola (Folder 21-5)
  • Le Tourneau College (Folders 26-32,33) that includes information about that school's Aeronautical Technology Program, that trained some MAF personnel
  • Moody Bible Institute (Folders 28-6,7,8,9,10) whose folders contain detailed documentation of MAF and MBI's long and fruitful interaction
  • Bob Jones University (Folder 21-14) whose dissatisfaction with MAF's cooperation with Billy Graham led to a cut-off of prayer support

    The General files contain many folders concerning individuals, with correspondence often spanning more than two decades. Some of the better-known of these include:
  • Ken Anderson, whose film company produced some MAF movies (Folders 20-20,21 (see also Gospel Films, Folder 24-35, Sacred Cinema, Folder 30-21, and Westminster Films, Folder 32-29)
  • John and Elaine Beekman, Wycliff Bible translators who worked on the movie Of Wings and Missions in Mexico (Folder 20-54)
  • Walter F. Bennett, whose company prepared advertising material for MAF (Folder 20-58)
  • Wilson Dale Crane, who with MAF-er James H. Lomheim coauthored "A First Draft of the Proposed Missionary Aviation Fellowship Center" (Folder 22-36)
  • Jim and Elisabeth Elliot, immediately involved in the 1956 murders by Huaorani Indians (Folder 23-9)
  • George Fisk, missionary to Borneo shipwrecked in 1946 near Australia (Folder 23-68)
  • Paul Hartford, worker with Victory Sky Pilots (Folder 25-13)
  • Philip E. Howard, editor of The Sunday School Times and father-in-law of Jim Elliot (Folder 25-50)
  • Gleason H. Ledyard,of Eskimo Gospel Crusade (Folder 26-26)
  • Alistair MacDonald, British MAF executive (Folder 26-62)
  • Edward McCully (one of the Auca martyrs by the Huaorani Indians in Ecuador) and his wife Marilou and father T. E. McCully (Folders 26-59,60)
  • Robert C. McQuilkin, president of Columbia Bible College and on the MAF Advisory Board (Folder 26-70)
  • Daniel Nelson, China Field Director for the Lutheran World Convention in pre-Communist China (Folder 28-30)
  • Fred Passler, missionary pilot killed in the Yucatan (Folder 28-63)
  • Paul F. Robinson, Moody Bible Institute coordinator of its missionary technology program (Folders 30-1 through 30-4)
  • George Edward Roffe, CMA missionary to Laos who early experimented with mission aviation there (Folder 30-6)
  • Lawrence B. and Sam Saint, father and brother of Nate Saint, murdered by the Auca or Huaorani Indians in 1956 (Folders 30-22,24)
  • Harold B. Street, of Evangelical Literature Overseas (Folder 31-24)
  • Kenneth N. Taylor, editor of the photo magazine, Christian Life and Times (Folder 31-37)
  • Frederick George Tinley, early user of evangelistic aviation in Tabasco, Mexico (Folder 31-44)
  • V. Raymond Edman, president of Wheaton College (Folder 32-32)
  • George Wiggins, missionary to Japan who kept a lifelong close relationship with MAF (Folders 32-41 and 42)
  • The Fleming (Folder 23-71) and Youderain (Folder 32-62) families, survivors of Peter Fleming and Roger Youderain, other men killed by the Huaorani or Auca Indians

    Subseries: General | “Other Correspondence” (second subseries)

    Arrangement: By one to three-year time periods; with each period in alphabetical order

    Date Range: 1962-1973

    Volume: 27.0 linear feet

    Boxes: 33-51, 78-93

    Type of documents: Primarily correspondence, also forms, meeting minutes

    Correspondents: MAF executives Grady Parrott, James Truxton, Elizabeth Greene, Charles Mellis, Charles Bennett, Thomas Albright (Director of Electronics), Robert Gordon, and Donald Berry; MAF administrative assistants Norm Olson, John Strash, Robert Lehnhart, James Lomheim, John Lundgren, and Dorothy Mount (secretary); individuals and representatives of churches, other mission agencies, and suppliers

    Notes: This second subseries of General Files reflects the MAF office’s way of dealing with the host of correspondents whose interactions with MAF did not extend beyond a few letters. Subdivided into one to three-year time periods (i.e., 1964-1966, 1971, etc.), files within these sections were arranged alphabetically by author (individual or organization), many in catch-all folders with labels such as "Bi; 1962-1963" or "Pr; 1967". MAF's own inventory of this subseries states, "Evidently the general files earlier than '62 were not kept." While the files in the sections from 1962 through 1967 are strictly of this filing only by alphabetical letters, beginning in 1968 titled folders by individual name or organization resume as in the "Old Correspondence" subseries of the General Files, and like the "Old Correspondence," some of the documents date back to the 1940s. The files in boxes 78-93, added to extend the subseries coverage from 1970-1975, were sampled by the archivist rather than taken as a whole, including both a random sampling of each box plus files whose titles suggested significance for either the MAF organization, missions history or the Evangelical world. The majority of folders in this second subseries are the assembled products of many correspondents brought together by alphabetization (e.g., "Am; 1965" or "Ro; 1968"). The contents of these files are less substantive than the first subseries, being primarily letters enclosing gifts and MAF acknowledgments with thanks. They do reflect, however – with their official letterhead, scallop-edged and flowered stationery, or blue-lined school paper, and with their secretary-typescript, longhand or child's pencil – the broad base from which MAF drew financial and prayer support. In addition to this type of correspondence, files in this section fall generally into seven categories: applications for personnel status, with responses, counseling, etc.; requests for literature or use of MAF films; invitations to mission conferences; correspondence with businesses (equipment manufacturers, office suppliers, etc.) and with governments for visas, export licenses, etc.; requests for information from students and other researchers; prayer letters and newsletters from other missions; and requests for guidelines in establishing aviation training programs similar to MAF's. Most of these letters are variations on one of the eight themes listed above.

    Exceptional items: The following highlights some items of unique information throughout this extensive subseries for the years 1962-1967:
  • Folder 33-1: Uses of women doctors
  • Folder 33-5: Duties of the missionary wife
  • Folder 33-11: Questions about the possibility of women pilots; plans for an MAF medical division
  • Folder 33-13: Problems in the Sudan
  • Folder 33-14: Missionary Engineering's merger into MAF (see also Folders 6-103 and 104)
  • Folder 33-25: MAF policy - how shortages in pledges are covered; purchase of aircraft only by cash; refusal to use temporary flying personnel
  • Folder 33-27: Details of a slide presentation illustrating MAF ministry, providing good overall view of its unique problems
  • Folder 33-28: Rationale for division of MAF funds to its various departments – administration, technical, etc.; copy of Foreign Missionary Radio-TV newsletter
  • Folder 33-29: Letter explaining range of MAF aircraft, decision against trans-oceanic flights, and reason for MAF commercial flights
  • Folder 34-4: Letter with explanation of MAF entire operations, to Phil Gray, Oct. 21, 1963; magazine article, "Their Sanctuary in the Sky"
  • Folder 34-19: Tactful response to irate letter criticizing MAF's aid in searching for Michael Rockefeller, son of then-New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller (see also Folder 34-22).
  • Folder 34-20: Relations with Roman Catholic Church
  • Folder 34-24: Mission work in juvenile detention home
  • Folder 34-28: Lengthy letter about need for personnel's individual concentration on specific skills, rather than splintering capabilities
  • Folder 34-29: Letter examining difficulties of aircraft service about equipment, competition with national airlines, ground facilities, communications, scheduling, and economics
  • Folder 35-4: New Tribes Mission effectiveness; plans for TV interview
  • Folder 35-16: Newsletter from Vietnam
  • Folder 35-18: Defense of MAF's insistence on high standards in technical personnel
  • Folder 35-19: World Home Bible League twenty-five-year history pamphlet
  • Folder 35-26: Decision against hiring divorcees
  • Folder 35-31: Detailed letter about missionary allowance
  • Folder 36-10: College campus as preparation for the mission field
  • Folder 36-16: Political unrest in Congo 1964 (see also Folders 36-19,23,36, 37-17,18,30,31, 38-9,19,20, 39-1,28,33,40, 40-5,23)
  • Folder 39-24: Letter about paternalist and colonialist outlooks of missionaries; Congress on the Church's Worldwide Mission, Wheaton, Illinois
  • Folder 36-26: Refugee resettlement programs
  • Folder 36-37: MAF is offered a DC-3: pros and cons of accepting
  • Folder 37-7: Spanish Language School
  • Folder 37-29: Annotated (with corrections) draft of article about MAF
  • Folder 38-1: Conference on Christian Education in a Changing Africa
  • Folder 38-14,15: Religious persecution in West Iran
  • Folder 38-21: Description of conditions in Laos (see also Folders 39-3, 45-26)
  • Folder 38-27: Correspondence with Harold Lindsell about Christianity Today article
  • Folder 39-27: Explanation of and problems with bucket-drop system
  • Folder 39-14: Correspondence with a pilot inquiring about MAF
  • Folder 40-4: Article on political witness
  • Folder 40-13: Assessment of helicopters in mission work
  • Folder 40-15: Wycliffe experiences in Vietnam
  • Folder 40-24: Description of Orinoco River headwaters
  • Folder 43-14: Philippine/Indonesian MAF staff
  • Folder 43-28: Political conditions in New Guinea and mission relations with government
  • Folder 43-52: Christian Anti-Communism Crusade
  • Folder 44-19: Vicious letter from a detractor
  • Folder 45-13: Political unrest in Guatemala
  • Folder 45-18: Search for downed plane in Congo; correspondence with Bob Jones University
  • Folder 46-42: Ivory Coast newsletter
  • Folder 46-60: Data on Vietnam
  • Folder 47-26: Borneo Mission
  • Folder 47-60: Reply to letter of criticism

    Some of the folders in the 1968 and 1969 files titled by individual or organization deserve special note as to their content:
  • Folder 43-13: Assembly of God leprosy mission in Liberia
  • Folder 43-21: David Baskett on the merits of helicopter vs. airplane in Vietnam
  • Folder 43-55: Correspondence with a Philadelphia church on the duties of a missionary wife
  • Folder 43-65: A copyrights file with the legal paperwork on copyrights for Missionary Aviation
  • Folder 44-2: John W. Davis writes on mission aviation in Brazil, as does Earl Adams of Flying Missionaries in Folder 44-42
  • Folder 44-7: Arrangements with Disneyland of tickets for furloughing families
  • Folder 44-11: A 1968 plane wreck in Ecuador
  • Folder 44-28: An example of a congregation whose support of MAF spanned two decades; see also Folders 44-33 through 44-38
  • Folder 44-40: Report on a missionary trip by laymen under the Volunteer Services program of the Commission on Ecumenical Missions and Relations
  • Folder 44-47: An article in the newspaper March Against Time Crusade concerns pagan life in Africa and how missionaries could explain Christianity in indigenous terms
  • Folder 44-63: Henry Guy's correspondence reflects the activities of a sort of free-lance evangelist in South America and the use of television evangelism with Christian Witness Productions
  • Folder 44-69: The file of Harcourt Brace World, Inc. includes an IQ test used by MAF
  • Folder 45-53: Art Melvin's long correspondence with MAF covers general use of mission aviation, principles of inter-mission cooperation, fund raising and stewardship
  • Folder 45-59: Problems with Missavia radio equipment in the Congo are reported
  • Folder 46-5: Mission work in Mexico
  • Folder 46-50: Elfrieda Toews' correspondence reports a confrontation in Indonesia with an axe-wielding native
  • Folder 46-55: Melvin Turner's letter describing Nate Saint's influence on Turner's decision to work for Wycliffe and also a letter from a Colombian national about Wycliffe's work there
  • Folder 47-12: Leonard Berry's account of an MAF fatal airplane accident, the third in the mission’s twenty-five year history up until that point
  • Folder 47-36: An argument for professional training and the need for qualified flight schools
  • Folder 47-55: A file labeled "Christian Times 1966-1969" mentions Billy Graham and an article by MAF staff Betty Greene addresses the role of women in MAF
  • Folder 47-69: The shift from career missionaries to short-term service and general evaluation of historical mission/missionary roles
  • Folder 48-4: The W.H. Farrises' letters spanning two decades are significant because the Farrises were Marj (Mrs. Nate) Saint's parents
  • Folder 48-85: The file titled "International Conference; 1969" concerns the first joint sessions ever held by independent MAF organizations in the US, Britain and Australia, including meeting minutes and news releases
  • Folder 49-40: A thick file of correspondence, etc., with the Lutheran World Federation contains much information about LWF's own missionary plane, the St. Paul, and its wreck in 1950, and also a 1947 copy of LWF's China News Letter published in Shanghai
  • Folder 49-59: The Missionary Information Bureau file contains a year's worth (1968-1969) of bulletins about Brazil
  • Folder 49-60: Mission aviation in the Congo
  • Folder 49-76: Radio evangelism in Bolivia in 1961
  • Folder 49-77: OMS's China mission plans
  • Folder 50-33: Newsletters from a Surinam mission
  • Folder 50-97: A 1946 article of Charles Mellis, Airborne Evangelism
  • Folder 50-85: Mexican and Costa Rican missions
  • Folder 50-89: Correspondence with J. Herbert Kane
  • Folder 51-25: Correspondence with Zondervan Publishing House primarily concerns books written about the famous Auca incident involving the Huaorani Indians in Ecuador
  • Folder 51-26,27,28,29: Information about the first years of MAF business can be found in general correspondence files for 1946 and 1949-1951
  • Folder 51-35: Information on candidates for the New Guinea field, Australian MAF, the "bucket drop" system, technical data and application forms/qualifications lists.

    A broad insight into MAF policies, training techniques, airplane adaptations, fiscal situations, accident analyses, etc., can be found examples in these folders of the subseries:
  • Folders 33-25,27,28,29
  • Folders 34-4,5,23,29
  • Folder 35-18
  • Folders 36-25,26,27,28,37
  • Folders 37-11,16,22,29
  • Folders 38-9,27,29
  • Folders 39-1,2,5,9,28,39,40,41
  • Folders 40-12,17,22
  • Folders 43-55,61
  • Folders 45-53,61
  • Folders 46-22,54
  • Folders 47-12,31,36,55,69,84
  • Folders 49-62,102 50-83
  • Folders 51-5,6,18
  • Series: Miscellaneous

    Arrangement: Alphabetical

    Date Range: 1944-1971, undated

    Volume: 4.5 linear feet

    Boxes: 1, 53, 61, 62, 78

    Type of documents: Bills, surveys

    Notes: This small portion of miscellaneous material is the residue from a previous alphabetical arrangement.

    Exceptional items:

    Folders 1-29 to 62-5: Shipping Bills (Folders 61-29 through 62-5) include export licenses and other paperwork necessary for MAF to carry on its international commerce.

    Folders 62-6 to 26: Surveys in Folders 62-6 through 26 are general territory surveys done from the air for the areas of Alaska, Ethiopia, South America, South Pacific and Southeast Asia (see folder level list for a complete listing of countries). Surveys (most documented here in the mid-1940s and mid-'50s) were conducted in consultation with missionaries to assess the need for aviation as a resource in a country or region. Gathered in consultation, the surveys were of the terrain, location of missionaries and populations in need of Christian witness. See Location Record: Oversize Materials for maps that were gathered as part of the survey process. (The purpose of these surveys was mirrored in Operation ACCESS in 2001, in which MAF again surveyed remote areas in sixty-four countries.)

    Provenance

    Created or gathered by Mission Aviation Fellowship and received by the Billy Graham Center Archives from MAF, 1980-2006.

    Accruals and Additions

    Accession: 80-80

  • April 13, 1981
  • Galen R. Wilson
  • Margaret Arnold
  • Fran Brocker
  • Mary Ann Buffington
  • Gerry Lynch
  • Andrene Peterson
  • Robert Shuster

    Accessions: 80-168, 81-57
  • Updated: July 20, 1981
  • Galen R. Wilson
  • Andrene Peterson

    May 28, 1992
  • Paul Ericksen
  • Lisa Ferguson
  • Debbie Tamte-Horan

    Accessions: 82-143, 85-92, 86-67, 88-76, 90-18, 90-78, 95-63, 96-30, 06-23
  • Updated: December 21, 2007
  • Paul Ericksen
  • Tim Gulsvig
  • Kirk Hayward

    Accessions: 95-63, 96-30, 03-09, 06-23
  • Updated: December 29, 2008
  • Paul Ericksen
  • Tim Gulsvig
  • Kirk Hayward

    Accesisons: 85-122, 95-63
  • Updated: January 28, 2010
  • Bob Shuster
  • Title
    Collection 136 Records of Mission Aviation Fellowship
    Description rules
    Describing Archives: A Content Standard
    Language of description
    Undetermined
    Script of description
    Code for undetermined script
    Language of description note
    English

    Repository Details

    Part of the Evangelism & Missions Archives Repository

    Contact:
    501 College Avenue
    Wheaton IL 60187 US
    630-752-5910