About Us

By Jacob


Jacob grew up in North Idaho and then attended Letourneau University in Longview, Texas, where he obtained his bachelor degree in Aeronautical Science. He has worked as a flight instructor, commercial pilot, and aircraft mechanic since then. 

Before meeting Jacob, Carmen spent over four years in the Philippines serving as a midwife and teaching at Newlife International School of Midwifery. After being married in 2010, We currently have four young children Silas, Jason, Esther, and Tivoli.

Our first missions experience as a family was in 2013 with Flying Mission Services in Botswana, Africa where Jacob severed as an aircraft mechanic for six months. This experience fueled our desire to serve God in Africa as long-term missionaries. 


We are currently serving as a family in Tanzania, East Africa with SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics) Bible translators. In Tanzania, most of the translators live in the city where there is reliable access to electricity and internet needed for translation work. As such, making regular trips to the villages to check on the translation is an essential part of the work.


Our role as an Aviation family is to utilise the aircraft as a tool for Bible translation through efficient and safe transportation.

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Recent Posts

Meet Our Girls

By Jacob
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Welcome to the world Esther Tianna Joy and Tivoli Moriah Rain! May God give us the strength and wisdom to raise you to love the Creator, God, who has brought you into this world.  Yes! I got my two little princesses! I am so proud of her. Five hours of incredible pain and eight months of carrying the girls through a move across the States and two weeks in Tanzania. I am so blessed by her. Right now I am so grateful for two healthy daughters and wife. God is so good! Born at 36 weeks Esther: Wt - 5 lbs 2 oz, born 8:02am Tivoli: Wt - 5 lbs 6 oz, born 8:20am  We were so grateful that my mom could be there to help out.  The boys were super excited to meet their new sisters...though before long they were more interested in the grapes brought to Carmen for lunch and all the light switches. Going through the pictures, Carmen and I are having lengthy debates as to who is who. I am convinced that Esther is on the left an...
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Haydom

By Jacob
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Tuesday last week I flew out with another MAF pilot, Kirstein, to Haydom. Our schedule was full with flights out to even more remote villages, and we would not return back to Arusha until Friday. On one of the afternoons we needed to haul to the maximum capacity of the aircraft, and so I was left on the ground.  As I waited to catch a few pictures of Kirstein taking off to the villages, these two girls kept begging me to take a picture of them so they could see themselves. They were quite pleased, and a little shy, when I showed them my camera screen. After he was off, I began my hike to the large hill beside the town of Haydom. Having grown up in the mountains of Idaho, I miss the tranquility and peace of being in the wild. Being away from busy city life gives me time to think and process. I began to contemplate how different Tanzania is from the world I grew up in. For instance, it took me multiple visits to the Haydom airstrip before noticing the ridicu...
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Saturday Medical Evacuation

By Jacob
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As you all know, I have been working towards transferring my USA commercial pilot license to Tanzania. The last thing I have left before submittal is to log six hours in a US registered aircraft. As it so happens, there is an organization which operates with US registered aircraft named FMS (Flying Medical Services). The plan is to log the hours during their medical evacuation flights. This Saturday morning, I received a call. There had been an accident near Loliondo and two men had been severely injured. The first sustained broken ribs, a bad fracture just below the knee and a broken foot while the second had broken his arm along with other injuries. They needed a transfer to Arusha as the injuries were beyond the hospital's capabilities. Upon arriving in Loliondo, we de-fueled the left wing in order to leave some fuel reserves at the airport. We had plenty of help. The man was in a lot of pain and received a synthetic morphine shot to ease the pain. Besides t...
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Of Boys and Rockets

By Jacob
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They got new gloves and were super excited to test them in the snow. Notice the absence of shoes. I guess when you are having fun... So, I decided to make some matchbox rockets for the boys. All you need is patience, and the above tools. ...and a few hours later you have a matchbox with the essentials. I did modify the rockets from the original design by adding aluminum tape to the top after wrapping the aluminum. It creates a better seal and a satisfying POP and noticeably more velocity. I got the idea from youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFyKgmnCF-8 We will see if the kids enjoy them as much as I did.
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