Balus Bilong Mipela (Melanesian Pidgin for "our aeroplane"--the excited
cry of New Guinean villagers when MAF's little yellow-painted aircrafl
appeared in their skies), is the enthralling story, not previously told, of a
group of Australian and New Zealand airmen who, at the end of World War 2, caught a vision of using aviation to support and enable Christian work in remote areas. The author, Vic Ambrose, fresh at the time from war-time operations over Europe, was himself
one of that group. He unfolds the story from its beginnings in 1947 when a few men, with no money and no resources other than their Skills and unshakeable convictions, met together on a winter's night in Melbourne to form Australia's Missionary Aviation Fellowship

Australian MAF began its work in New Guinea, one of the most demanding aviation environments in the world...vast humid swamps and languia rivers...great craggy bush-covered ranges with their heads in the clouds at 12.000 and 14.000 feet, sealing off the great sweeping highland valleys...and there is flying, flying and more flying out of all manner of airstrips - some hacked from the jungle, some carved from hillsides, others drained from swamps - all of them the result of the dogged determination of men and women with an immense faith in the power and purpose of their Lord.

Vic Ambrose, who went on to become MAF's chief executive for 27 of its past 40 years, tells of its development from a little group of enthusiasts into the unique highly professional aviation organisation it is today. Just 40 years from its beginnings, MAF (Australiar and New Zealand) now encompasses a great company of skilled men and women of faith, with 42 aircraft, three flying training schools,
and a network of maintenance engineering workshops serving a wide range of mission and community development programs in Papua New Guinea, North and Central Australie and Bangladesh