A young Swiss couple embraced a ‘beautiful opportunity’ when an unlikely conversation on their first night in a foreign land opened them up to new horizons…
Story by Vicky Powell
When Samuel and Marion Cusin married, they only knew the snow-topped mountains and French conversations of western Switzerland. Having grown up in Christian households, they found themselves at a ‘career crossroads’, not knowing that God had a purpose waiting for them, nearly 14,000 miles away.
Samuel was serving in the Swiss army, but when he found out his next mandatory training course was going to begin two days after the wedding, it posed a problem.
“The army didn’t want to move this repetition course,” Marion said. “So, he just quit and went to the civil service.”
As a lawful alternative to time in the military, the Swiss civil service gave Samuel an option to fulfil his obligations and serve the community at the same time.
Meanwhile, Samuel and Marion had attended a church nearby, where a pilot was sharing a presentation on his work flying for Mission Aviation Fellowship.
“MAF in Switzerland send IT guys as part of their civil service to Papua New Guinea,” Samuel said. “So that was the entry point for us.”
Soon Samuel and Marion were on a flight to PNG, where Samuel would serve in the IT team, leaving their home in Switzerland for 11 months.
“For us, it was a beautiful opportunity, we didn’t hesitate,” Samuel said, reflecting on their journey to PNG. “We had a lot of time together, which I think helped to build our relationship and just live in a simpler way.”
When Samuel and Marion landed thousands of miles away from home, they had no idea God was ready to give them fresh perspective and purpose—right there in PNG.
“We arrived in PNG, and had dinner with some MAF people on the first night,” Samuel said. “They had been there for 18 years or something. And they said to me, ‘Oh, we’re lacking pilots globally, especially here. Do you want to be a pilot, Samuel?’”
Samuel hadn’t yet seen much of MAF’s work, but what he had seen inspired him to dream big in that moment.
“I didn’t say anything really but, in my head, I was like, ‘Yeah sure, that would be nice.’”
Even with no flying experience, something stirred inside him.
“I could see that there was a need,” he said.
For us, it was a beautiful opportunity, we didn’t hesitate
While in PNG, Samuel worked with a local team, working to provide IT solutions for 14 locations spread across the country, offering his external perspective on how to improve systems. Marion took time to teach sports at a nearby school, helped in a local orphanage and worked on her master’s in psychology.
“It was great to see daily life as missionaries, and to imagine that for ourselves,” Marion said.
While serving, they began the application process to MAF.
“It was really a blessing because we knew the people, we knew MAF, we could just travel down to Australia to do the medical, interviews, trial instruction flights and visit the MAF Training Centre,” Samuel said.
“When we came back to Switzerland, we knew we would go back… that we would continue with MAF.”
Having arrived home with a new vision for their future, they began packing up their home ready to move to Bible college in Schladming, Austria, after which they plan for Samuel to begin flight training at MAF’s Training Centre in Mareeba, Australia.
But it’s not just their life that’s changing. Now parents, Samuel and Marion have been preparing their one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Anaïa, for the big move, as well as another baby that is on the way.
Leaving everything behind without a permanent destination may be daunting for most people, but for Samuel and Marion, it’s an exciting adventure they get to embrace.
“It feels natural,” Samuel said. “I guess it’s challenging to leave everything, and we don’t know yet for how long we’ll leave or where we’ll go. But I think it’s easy for us to sell everything and leave. We’re excited. So, it’s not a huge cost except for relationships, that’s the hardest thing.”