NAMPA, Idaho — Joyce Lin was a pilot for Mission Aviation Fellowship, a non-profit based out of Nampa.
The organization owns 45 aircrafts and actively works in ten countries. Mission Aviation Fellowships President, David Holsten says their work involved flying items, “like basic food supplies, medicines, construction supplies” to transporting, “government workers, children back-and-forth to school and sometimes missionaries.”
On Tuesday, Lin was on her way to deliver medical supplies when her plane crashed into an Indonesian lake. Search and rescue divers confirmed that Lin did not survive.
The sudden, unexpected tragedy prompted Holsten to temporarily pause operations out of Indonesia, also offering those stationed in other areas time to grieve the loss of a fellow member.
Before joining Mission Aviation Fellowship three years ago as a pilot, Joyce Lin spent time working as an I.T. Specialist for the United States Air Force. Coming from Taiwan to the states as a child, Lin also lived in many places. When she joined M.A.F. she briefly lived in Idaho, training as a pilot in the backcountry.
Friends and fellow M.A.F. members describe Lin as “loving”, “selfless”, “giving”. Joel and Christy Geaslen call Joyce “one of their people”.
The Geaslen’s lived in Indonesia alongside Joyce. Joel serving as a pilot and Christy supporting her husband. Christy says she admired how Joyce regularly “went out of her way to get to know people. Build relationships to find their needs and to meet those needs.”
Joel says, despite the “swift and abrupt end to such a precious friend’s life,” he chooses to “dwell on who she was as a person and the way she blessed other people.”
Details surrounding Joyce Lin’s crash are unknown at this time. An investigation is still pending. Memorial details have yet to be released.
