How God used MAF helicopters to save lives in Indonesia—including an unexpected one.
In the 1970s through the 90s, MAF’s Indonesia program used helicopters to support missionaries who were bringing the gospel to unreached villages—rugged, primitive areas where airstrips had not yet been built. Mike Meeuwse was one of those pilots who served in Papua in the 80s.
“That was the main push for the helicopters,” said Mike. “Missionaries would get all their supplies flown in to the nearest airstrip, using airplanes, and then the helicopter would shuttle supplies to areas where they were doing outreach or building an airstrip. We did a lot of shuttle work.”
One of the mission posts that Mike served was Lolat, a helicopter-only base.
“Every evening, about 5:30, I stood by the HF radio for any helicopter request on the whole island,” said Mike.
One night he received a radio call from one of the missionaries based in Lolat. A young girl had just walked in from one of the outlying villages.
“She told them her mom had broken her leg,” explained Mike. “The missionary requested the helicopter to pick up the lady in her village.
Mike responded, “I’ll be there first thing tomorrow morning.”
When he arrived in the village the next day, he asked around for the woman with the broken leg. The people pointed to a hut. Mike walked around it but couldn’t find the door. There was a big pile of wood blocking one side of the hut.
“Where’s the door?” asked Mike.
“It’s behind the wood,” they replied.
“What’s the wood for?” he asked.
Turns out they were planning to burn the woman as soon as she died. And the wood was what they were going to burn her on.
Mike went on to explain: “The people had never seen a leg broken above the knee be able to heal. And a lady is useless over there if she can’t work in the garden. So they don’t feed her anymore and they just let her die.”
Of course, Mike was referring to earlier days and things are different now. But at the time, this woman knew what they were planning to do to her, so she sent her daughter to the missionary’s house. It took her a day to walk there. The woman had been boarded up in the house for two days before Mike arrived.
“I told the people to move the wood and carried her out to the helicopter, then flew her back to the mission station at Wamena,” said Mike. “There’s a hospital there, and a Dutch doctor was there who put her in traction. She had surgery and they put in a plate.”
About five months later she was ready to be flown back to her village.
What was unknown to Mike at the time he flew this woman out was that she was pregnant. It’s likely that the people in the village had no idea either. Mike says you should have seen their faces when he flew her back in and she stepped out of the helicopter with a baby!
That’s just one of thousands of MAF flights that God has used to save lives for almost 75 years now. And Mike will forever remember that particular helicopter flight when he unknowingly saved two lives instead of one.
