USA (MNN) — While missionary aviation is an important part of reaching the inaccessible around the world, teachers are equally as important. While you may not realize it, having or not having qualified teachers can be the difference in attracting and keeping missionaries in fields of service all over the world.
Ron Hilbrands, manager of recruiting for Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), says MAF is recruiting for a lot of positions right now: "pilots/mechanics, maintenance specialists. But we also need school teachers– primarily elementary ed–and technology professionals, programmers, and app developers."
Hilbrands says teachers are very important to missionaries working abroad. "If they know that their kids are being taken care of educationally, they can do their work more effectively. They're not worried about having to come home. That's why we put such an emphasis on education at MAF."
You may be the perfect candidate for MAF. "We want a teacher who has graduated with a teaching degree, has state certification, and also has at least a year of experience."
The needs are immediate. "We actually have three needs in our programs: two in Central Asia, and one in Africa." Hilbrands says there are teaching needs every year with MAF.
MAF is also recruiting trainers to help national workers. "We actually have people that will come and do training of teachers so that they can develop their own curriculum, not where we're developing the curriculum for them."
Technology is also important for MAF. Estante is a mobile app that delivers Christian libraries to people in rural areas via cell phone. Hilbrands says, "We want to make it better and better. And that's why we need programmers, mobile app developers, and [people] like that. Programmer-type folks don't realize how they can be used on the mission field."
Hilbrands says if you're interested in any of the needs at MAF, the best place to start is their Web site. Click here for more.
