When the destination is inaccessible by road, MAF flights make it possible for Dr John Juedes to minister to churches and communities in hard-to-reach areas of Liberia.
Story by Kathy Burrows
Liberia’s road network is among the least developed in West Africa, making land travel a real challenge. During the rainy season many roads become completely impassible—one of the reasons why partner Dr John Juedes opts to fly with MAF.
“I have taken road trips during the rainy season which are absolutely miserable,” he said. “You wonder if you're going to make it in some places!”
Working with the organisation Hope and Care for Children, John visits Liberia several times a year to run church leadership training courses. Regularly travelling into the country’s remote interior, he explained how flying with MAF makes a difference.
“People back home say, ‘Oh, we have potholes too’ but here your entire truck goes all the way down into the pothole and you might see out of it, and you might not! So, it's a great blessing to be able to fly to these places.”
Several years ago, John felt prompted to respond to an appeal made by Hope and Care for Children, who were looking for someone to train the churches they were ministering to in Liberia. As a semi-retired Lutheran pastor in America, John felt he could use his skills to serve those who wouldn’t be able to access training otherwise.
“The pastors are too poor to travel someplace to be trained, so I have to go to them. Flying is so much easier,” he added.
During this recent trip John spent five weeks in Harper and Zwedru teaching, training and encouraging all those in leadership roles, including pastors, evangelists and Sunday school teachers.
One of the course attendees, Dennis Taye, shared his gratitude for John’s ministry.
“We, the trainees from Evangelical Lutheran Church Synod Garzon, wish to express our profound thanks first to the Almighty God and to Dr Juedes. God’s love and care for us is being implemented through his work for us year after year,” said Dennis.
Since answering the ‘call’ to Liberia several years ago, John has been faithfully returning three times a year and flying with MAF to churches in rural areas. As well as turning a nine-hour journey into an easy hour-long flight, John takes advantage of travelling by air to bring in much needed resources.
“There’s a lot of cargo I take with me and so that’s a blessing with MAF too. I can take a lot of Bibles and instructional materials, because you can't buy anything here,” he said.
“I bring easy reading Bibles in English, but I also bring chips that they can put in their radio players with either Liberian English or local dialects, and they listen to that.”
Alongside training, John looks for opportunities to improve the livelihoods of the communities he visits. Flying with MAF has allowed him to transport heavy items, such as sewing machines, and to bring additional educational resources to further the impact of their work.
“Something I'm also trying to incorporate in my classes now is to have a trainee teacher; an apprentice who is Liberian,” said John.
“I bring material for him to have a class in another group after I leave because I want to cultivate their own teachers to do that work.”
