Perseverance! Stuart King: from RAF to MAF

Stuart King: from RAF to MAF

By Gary Clayton, Editor at MAF

November 2020

At the start of 2020, MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) had no idea that a celebration planned for its 75th year would have to be cancelled due to Covid-19. Nor did staff realise that Stuart King, its much-admired co-founder, would die the same year, at the age of 98.

But God knew and, despite challenges and adversity, He continues to bless MAF. As Paul encourages us in James 1:2, ‘Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds.’ Ironically, MAF – the world’s largest humanitarian airline – exists because of war, hardship and difficulty.

Although, in December 1903, the Wright brothers invented an aircraft that could fly, by November 1911, due to man’s fallen nature, an Italian monoplane was used to drop bombs on a Turkish camp in Libya. Less than eight years after their invention, planes were being used for war.

RAF Engineer Officer Stuart King

In 1944, RAF Engineer Officer Stuart King took part in the D-Day landings, ‘pinned down… shelled, strafed and occasionally sniped at’ on a Normandy beach. Later, praying about his future at the end of World War II, he found a fellow RAF Christian’s vision, to use planes to help rather than harm, a compelling one.

In 1945, like Abraham in Hebrews 11:8, Stuart stepped out in faith, ‘not knowing where he was going’, to join MAF, the brainchild of RAF Pilot Murray Kendon. Three years later, Stuart and missionary colleague Jack Hemmings left Croydon Airport for East Africa – pioneering new milestones in mission and aviation.

It was hardly an auspicious start. According to Stuart, ‘It was pouring with rain, and a 60-mile an hour gale was blowing!’ With only a map, a compass and their wartime experience, Stuart and Jack used the River Nile as a guide – the historic aerial survey ending dramatically when strong winds caused them to clip the top of a banana tree in Burundi. It was a miracle they both survived!

‘But God,’ Stuart said, ‘helped us not to waver.’ He and Jack continued on foot, connecting with missionaries who clearly needed MAF to overcome the dense, unending forests, treacherous dirt roads, precipitous mountain slopes and fast flowing rivers that kept them isolated and vulnerable.

Despite famines, coups and many other crises, Stuart saw MAF gradually expand across Africa. ‘As the number of MAF programmes increased over the years,’ Stuart noted, ‘so God provided – often miraculously. Our first aircraft crashed, the second was destroyed, but God always provided.’ By the early 1990s, MAF had 30 light aircraft.

Returning to the UK in 1973, Stuart served as MAF UK’s General Director – employing the same tenacity, humour and courage that saw him through the war. In 2003, his beloved wife Phyllis died suddenly, Stuart ‘missing her terribly’.

As President Emeritus, he continued serving MAF well into his nineties.

From its small, post-war beginnings to Stuart’s death in MAF’s 75th year, MAF’s ministry has been blessed in ways he could never imagine. Today, flying to more than 1,400 hard-to-reach areas, MAF’s 138 aircraft enable 2,000 partners to share the Gospel and transport medics, healthcare workers and emergency relief. ‘God,’ Stuart once reflected, ‘established MAF’s work far beyond our wildest dreams. People often asked if I realised how much MAF would grow. I always answered, “No, we were too busy getting on with what was going on then.”’ 

On 29 August 2020, Stuart King, engineer, pilot, missionary and visionary went to be with the Lord. He leaves three children, seven grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and countless numbers of remote and inaccessible people whose lives have been transformed thanks to Stuart’s godly vision for using light aircraft to take Christ’s love to the farthest corners of the earth.

About Gary
Gary Clayton is married to Julie and the father of Christopher and Emma. He is a member of Hayes Lane Baptist Church, Bromley, served for 15 years as Managing Editor of OMF, and is now Copywriter and Editor at Mission Aviation Fellowship. To learn more about how MAF aircraft overcome barriers to reach the world’s most isolated people, visit www.maf-uk.org