Skip to content Episode 30 with Dave and Donna Jacobsson Jan 26 · 51 min ...more
Episode 30 with Dave and Donna Jacobsson
January 26, 2026 · 51 min
On this episode, host Lemuel Malabuyo sits down with former pilot Dave Jacobsson and his wife, Donna. They discuss living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, hearing God's call.
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January 26, 2026 · 51 min · From the Hangar
On this episode, host Lemuel Malabuyo sits down with former pilot Dave Jacobsson and his wife, Donna. They discuss living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, hearing God's call. ...more Show the full description Show less On this episode, host Lemuel Malabuyo sits down with former pilot Dave Jacobsson and his wife, Donna. They discuss living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, hearing God's call.
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In this video 0:00 A Legacy of Faith: Family Roots and Divine Callings20:34 Raising a Family Amidst War and Wonder in Congo35:02 Transformations, Reconciliation, and Calling the Next Generation
A Legacy of Faith: Family Roots and Divine Callings 0:15 Hey. Before we begin this episode, I wanted to let you guys know that in December, we're gonna do a q and a session with David Holston. So if you guys had any questions about MAF or this podcast0:27 or an episode that we already released, that would be awesome. You should totally submit that to podcast at m a f dot org, or you can look us up on, like, social media platforms, like Facebook0:38 or Instagram. You can DM us over there too, your questions. Looking forward to that. But for now, let's begin the episode. Hey, everybody. Welcome to From the0:50 Hanger podcast. I am your host, Lem Malabuyo, and we are sitting in a hangar in front of Kodiak, which I regret having behind you 2, because that's not what you1:02 guys were flying in the program.1:04 This is true.1:05 But True. The you 2 of who I'm talking to is, Donna and Dave Jacobson, who are long time MAF missionaries and amazing people. But1:17 I'm gonna let them tell their story. So I'm just gonna lead off with, introduce yourselves and just tell us, where you served at MAF.1:26 We've been serving with MAF for 37 years, and most of it has been assigned to the eastern side of the Democratic Republic of Congo. We've served at 5 different bases in Congo,1:38 as as well as in Kampala, Uganda, and Nairobi
1:42 Oh, wow.
1:42 Kenya because of war Yeah. At different times. Yeah. They're all on behalf of Congo.
1:48 Okay. Very cool. And, Dave, I I think you have, like, generations of your of mission work in your family. Is that correct?
2:01 Yeah. We, actually, my grandfather and, grandmother, they were married. And the same month, 19 35 Oh my. They jumped on a
2:12 boat to head out to Congo. So they landed in, Uvira, DRC, which is in the eastern part of Congo. Mhmm. 19 35, 19 37, my father was
2:24 born.
2:25 Mhmm.
2:26 And, they ended up spending a total of 11 years out there due to the war. Mhmm. So that was a very long first term for missionaries, but they came back with 3 kids.
2:38 Wow. And, so those so the brothers, they all there were 5 brothers all in all that grew up there in Congo and some missions up close, if you will.
2:49 Mhmm. And in 19 71, my father had felt a call on his heart as well to become a missionary. So 19 71, we went
3:01 to Congo, Eastern DRC, and, that is where I pretty much grew up. All my teen years, I spent there in Congo.
3:10 What was what was the kind of ministry work that, your grandfather and your father were doing in Congo?
3:15 So my grandfather was a pioneer missionary. So then at those days, it was really a matter of establishing churches more than anything. Yeah. Churches, small bible schools, and and health care, of
3:27 course, as well. Yeah. But their expertise was not in healthcare for for them anyways. But he was instrumental in creating these churches and people
3:39 coming to the Lord through that. Just, really, really neat history actually, as as we go back and start looking at that and, established
3:51 the church that we see today. Oh, man. Really.
3:54 And as
3:55 a That's amazing. 1 thing, 1 of the they did work in Rwanda just a a bit as well. And, it was very difficult ground. Very, very difficult. Very few came to
4:06 Christ.
4:07 Mhmm.
4:07 But over the years, that particular church ended up being the largest church in Rwanda. Wow. And I do believe because of their faithfulness, the
4:19 faithfulness of other missionaries that just really stuck with it, even though there wasn't large numbers of converts, they found there was a faithful few that started and continued that
4:31 work. Yeah. Just really exciting stuff.
4:33 Yeah. Yeah. And it is a good reminder of, like, numbers aren't necessarily
4:39 No.
4:39 The indicator, right, of of, I guess, quote, unquote, success of a church. Right? Like, God's transforming lives, whether it's a few or it's very many, and
4:51 those and he will use those those people who begin to follow him to make changes in
4:56 Yeah. I mean, it comes down to it's we are not we are not the ones that are responsible for the results.
5:03 Yeah. Yeah.
5:04 What we're asked to do is just to be faithful in whatever that is, however big or however small that is. That's all he asks of us is to be faithful and to just keep plugging
5:15 away if you will in in whatever that is. Absolutely. And that's what these missionaries, you look back at the history, that's what they did. Yeah. That's what they did.
5:24 Awesome. And so okay. So then you then so you grew up in in the Congo as well.
5:30 Yes.
5:32 Yeah. I mean, just keep on going because I I Just
5:34 keep going. Yeah. Just keep going. I wanna hear it. So, you know, to to be honest with you, it was really cool. I really, you know, as a as a kid, you you love the the bad roads, the muddy
5:46 roads you get stuck in mud and this and that. And, and as I said earlier, I spent my teen years in Congo, all of them for the most part growing up there.
5:57 And, I saw missions up close what missions was all about and so forth. But I do remember 1 particular time I was only either 12 or 13 years old,
6:09 and I went with my father and another missionary, to Casa Bera, it was called, in Congo. And it was a youth seminar that weekend. And many
6:21 youth came to Christ. It was really, really cool. But as we drove out of there on us, it was, I think, Monday morning, we're driving away from the mission station and, you know, we had maybe
6:33 1 or 2 kilometers outside of town or out of the village. There was this kid that came running behind, 16, 17 years old, I would guess. Yeah. And, Chip
6:47 hey. Excuse me. He was so he he said, I I when you called for those who wanted to, receive Christ, I
6:59 was afraid of my friends. And to but I I want to be saved. And to so to
7:11 so what he did is he went down on his knees in the mud, used the land rover bumper basically as an altar if you will, and gave his life to Christ. So
7:24 to me that was just a very meaningful, encounter, if you will, to see of God's grace and his love and just what mission and missionaries is all
7:36 about. It's about the individual. And it was just such a powerful thing for me Though for me, I didn't want to become a missionary. I honestly didn't.
7:48 And my call came later on in life. Even though I had seen this this beautiful thing upfront and and how the Lord used missionaries, I still didn't really feel compelled
8:00 Yeah. That direction, if you will.
8:02 Well, I mean, it's I I don't wanna diminish that that feeling. Right? Because just because you see someone have an incredible transformation of of of
8:14 life, to give their life to Christ doesn't necessarily mean that there has to be in a mission, like an overseas mission context. Not. Right? And so I think that's I mean, I have a lot of friends who grew up
8:26 overseas as missionary kids who are not in missions, but are definitely devoted to following Jesus. And and what does that look like about what does evangelism look like Mhmm. In a in a different context.
8:36 You
8:37 know? And so Yep. And, yeah, and someone also asked me 1 time, like, hey. Would you ever go back to the Philippines as missionary? And I'm like, no. I was like, because
8:48 it it's it's it's a lot of work. It's hard. And I and I realized that these I mean, in my youth, I was like, yeah. That's it it was a lot of work. It was a lot of work for my parents to do that. It was great as a kid.
8:59 Yeah. But I don't I just haven't felt that calling from from God too, and I think that's a very important part of of mission work.
9:07 You have to have a call.
9:09 And I don't want to go to I just don't wanna go overseas in mission work just because my parents did. I wanna go there because God's calling me to do that. So, but, I mean, that's an incredible encounter that you got to
9:20 witness, with that
9:23 It really was. It really was. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
9:26 That's great. And so, I guess, how did this how did this become, not just, I wanna go overseas into missions, but,
9:38 like, aviation, you know, like, where did that play into this?
9:42 Well, so so for me, we were in we were living in the eastern part of Bukavo, a place called eastern part of Congo, place called Kavumu, which was very close to, an airfield.
9:54 And there was a missionary pilot that flew in and out of that airstrip, not MAF. I actually didn't even know MAF existed at that time. So we would fly with this, missionary, pilot,
10:06 Jack Spurlock was his name. Jack Spurlock. Okay. And he did he had his own little 2 0 6. He was his own guy with maintenance and pilot and, you know, he did the whole operation, him and his wife.
10:18 And, it was cool. Yeah. But I I didn't really have any aspirations to be a pilot. I didn't have anything that direction. Honestly,
10:30 What what I had mapped out from my life is I'm gonna be an electrician, because I loved working with house wiring. I had been an apprentice, earlier on, a little bit in
10:42 between, on furloughs and stuff. And I thought, wow, this is really cool. I really like this. Yeah. So I actually started out in a trade school as an electrician. That's what I was
10:54 gonna be. Be my own boss, be my, you know, I'm gonna do it.
10:57 Yeah. Yeah.
10:59 And as a graduation gift, because I was actually, in this in Sweden at this time as I'm from Sweden originally, and finished off this trade school. And as
11:11 a graduation gift, I received received a ticket to Congo. My parents were in Africa. So I received this ticket and went out and spent 6 months with them.
11:23 And during that time, I was doing my first electrical job on a house there, which was really cool. But but what I do remember more than anything is as we were working on
11:35 this house, there was a missionary that, drove into our compound there and asked if we'd heard the news. And, of course, news didn't travel very fast back then. No phones or anything,
11:47 only radio. But, Jack had had an accident and was killed. Oh, man. And, I was 19 at that time. July 20 fifth 19 80
11:59 is when it happened. And, I remember going into my room and just asking the question why? Why Lord? He was the guy
12:11 that was keeping all of the missions afloat in the interior. There were no other pilots. There were no other options. And, it it's like the
12:23 Lord himself walked into that room. I did not see anything visually, but I audibly heard the question if I would go take Jack's place.
12:36 And I said yes. And the follow-up question was regardless of cost. And I said yes. From that day forward,
12:48 out with the electrical Mhmm. And I started with aviation. I did a 1 80 in my life at that point. Because 1 thing I did learn growing up on the mission field and seeing my
13:00 parents in action, true faith in action, not just the talk, true faith and obedience, true obedience. What God
13:13 lays on your heart, don't disobey. My my personal little motto is disobedience is not an option. It's not an option. If the Lord calls you to
13:25 do something, who who are you to say no? Yeah. So so from that day forward, aviation was in. I did not know
13:36 how it was gonna come about. How am I gonna buy an airplane? How am I gonna do this? How am
13:41 I gonna
13:41 do that? I have no idea. But I do know my father built over the years over 30 churches in Congo. Each church he built, he started out with no money.
13:54 Each church, when it was finished, had no debt on it. That's the kind of faith I grew up with. So again, didn't know how it's gonna work, but I knew it would work. So I
14:06 started with maintenance and in flight and so forth. And later is when I heard about MAF and ended up joining MAF. Yeah. Yeah. Wow.
14:16 That was powerful. Like, honestly, that was powerful. It's a Oh, man.
14:21 What It's it's it's it's a call that has sustained over difficult times.
14:28 Yeah. Well, I mean, Donna, you're gonna have to follow that up now. But, yeah, I wanna I wanna hear kind of the the story of how you
14:40 like, where did that that calling come from? When did that happen for you? And and how did you guys get together and all that stuff? So yeah.
14:48 Yeah. I was a pastor's kid, and so we had a lot of missionaries coming through for speaking at our church and having them in our home. I don't think I really had a missionary calling,
15:00 but I knew that was something I'd be open to if the Lord would call me.
15:03 Yeah.
15:04 I went into nursing, studied at Seattle Pacific University, and got my RN and started working in Seattle as a new nurse and had the opportunity, to go to
15:16 Haiti for a 2 week medical team.
15:18 Oh, wow.
15:19 And after that, I really got dissatisfied with doing nursing in in the city and in a big private hospital and
15:28 Oh, really?
15:28 Just had lost its well, I I love nursing,
15:31 but Yeah.
15:33 I I couldn't shake loose what the needs are in other parts of the world. Yeah. And so I started exploring opportunities, options, and ended up going with, my our church's denomination
15:45 missions program and went for was assigned to go 2 years to to Zaire at the time. Okay. And that was the
15:56 beginning. I landed in, Bukavu where I had language study first before I went off to the hospital, which was a 7 hour drive south of Bukavu. There was no
16:08 airstrip there at the hospital. Well, there was an airstrip, but it hadn't been open yet. But during the time that I was in language study, I met David, this cute pilot, and we
16:20 started dating and, ended up getting married the next year. I had worked at the hospital for a year, and during that time, Dave pushed to get the airstrip open so it was easier to
16:32 visit.
16:33 Yeah. How long so, Dave, how long were you a part of MAF as a pilot at when you met Donnie?
16:39 No. So at that point, I had just come out to, Congo in 88, and I had done language school in, Kinshasa, the capital there. And we met beginning of Okay. So it was only 7,
16:51 8 months into my first term.
16:53 Okay. 19 89.
16:55 Yeah. First 1 we officially met. Yeah. So I hadn't been in there long.
16:58 That's for sure. Yeah. Like, oh, man. Now you gotta go back and get married and Yeah. Go through the whole
17:03 Actually, we didn't go back and get married. We got married in Zaire.
17:06 Oh, you did? Yeah.
17:07 Oh, cool. It was much easier. Let me tell you.
17:09 His parents were coming out for a 50 year mission celebration, and my parents were running, the free Methodist guest house in Bukavo, so they were already there. Yeah. And we got married there with
17:20 our That's awesome. MAF and missionary family and our Congolese church friends. That's so cool.
17:26 Oh, man. I love it. I love it. Well, before we, like, go forward, I kinda wanna rewind just a little bit, and ask you, Donna, like, like, nursing overseas is is
17:37 very different. Like you said, like, going back to the states in the big city and they're saying, and it could be it's much more difficult, I imagine, doing it overseas. And so what what was it that really was,
17:51 I guess, an inspiration for you to want to do this do that long term over doing it, in the city and back in the states?
17:59 I think just the sheer need of, meeting desperate, tough situations. Yeah. Haiti didn't have a very good health care system
18:11 or there wasn't much accessible health care and it was very similar in Zaire, Congo and it was really cool to be a part. I was at a hospital, Mission Hospital, and
18:23 learning to do health care nursing in that kind of a setting was a cultural adjustment, culture shock too.
18:30 Yeah.
18:30 But, yeah, just very meaningful to be a part of a health care team with Congolese nurses and doctors as well. And
18:37 That's that's so great. Yeah. That's so cool. So then you guys met it was the western part of the DRC, but much of your time has been over
18:46 With the eastern side. Yeah. Yeah.
18:47 And that was largely because I may have assigned you to that spot, or did you guys oh, maybe I should just reframe this question again. And, so when once you guys joined MAF, what did assignment in
18:59 your time with MAF look like?
19:02 Well, we have always been assigned to the eastern part of Congo. It's always been that way except a couple of months we were over on the west Okay. Due to the unrest in the eastern portion.
19:15 But, yeah, that's, we knew the language, so it makes kinda sense to be on that side. And, what what is interesting is if I can back up a
19:26 bit Sure. Yeah.
19:26 Is I felt that the Lord had laid Bukavo on my heart to go serve. And this is where Jack was killed Yeah. Specifically in that area. And, when I
19:38 joined MAF, they said, you know, we typically don't send people back the first time, you know, first term or whatever at that time. You know, this is a long time ago. And we're gonna send you to Semenva, which was clear
19:49 on the west side of the country. And And I'm thinking to myself, well, now I gotta learn Lingala, you know, another language. And, I said, well, that's fine because, you know, you're my authority and that's fine.
20:00 Yeah.
20:01 But I still feel that the Lord's laid on my heart. And shortly before going out to Congo, I was reassigned to Bocaubo.
20:13 Mhmm.
20:14 So to me it was just another confirmation. Sure. Is that's in the end, that is where the needs ended up being. Yeah. In the eastern part.
20:21 Okay.
20:21 So we started in or I started as a single eastern part, and that is where we have continued this whole.
20:26 That's where we met. Yeah. Yeah.
20:28 Oh, that's so man. That's so great. Yeah. And then so then well, what was what was raising a family like out in the East ERC?Show more
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