THE LONG JOURNEY OF A MISSION PILOT

Eivind Lindtjørn is a typical Mission Aviation fellowship pilot flying in Africa, in that he combines a higher calling with a passion for flying.

- ODD ARILD NESSA

EIVIND IS DRIVEN by a deep desire to see sick people living in remote areas be healed, and to see hearts changed by God´s love.

“Africa is in my blood. My grandparents travelled out as missionaries in 1948 – they were some of the first Norwegian missionaries in Ethiopia. My father was educated as a doctor, and my mother was a nurse. I was only five months old when they followed in their parents´ footsteps to Ethiopia,” he says.

During his childhood in Ethiopia, his dad, Bernt Lindtjørn, used to take the children down to the local airstrip. It was there that Eivind first met MAF. “I remember MAF very well. We also took a tour over the mission station in Helimission´s helicopter – that made a huge impression on me! It was unbelievably exciting. I remember that even then, I had the thought ´When I´m grown up, I´ll go to Africa and be a MAF pilot!”

After eight years in Ethiopia, divided into three separate periods, Eivind came home to Norway as a sixteen-year-old. Adjusting from Africa to cold Norway was difficult for him. He couldn´t settle down, and he missed Africa. His first year at Danielsen High School in Bergen was one of the most difficult years.

“I felt that I didn´t fit in and hated it; I got really low. I sat on the school bench and dreamed myself back to Africa while I failed in several subjects.

Eivind took odd jobs and scraped together money to learn to fly. Attending aviation studies at Sagavoll Folk High School, he got as far as his sixth solo flight towards the end of the year.