Whenever new personnel join the Flying Mission Zambia Team, they are guided through a series of experiences that will help them adjust to life in a foreign country. Come with Nina and Timo now and see through their eyes how local people 'do' travel....

The goal: take the minibus and try to get to the National Museum in Lusaka. Then find your way home, with the minibus, of course. A minibus corresponds roughly to the public transportation you may know…that is, it takes you from point A to point B! It's the “how” that turns out to be slightly different!

'Mrs B' was involved in a nasty road traffic accident way out in Mongu in the Zambezi valley, not far from Angola. She sustained a neck injury which caused her right hand to be paralysed though there was no other paralysis.  The family and medical staff were concerned that if she took the 9 hour drive back to Lusaka, Zambia, she could well sustain further injury to her spine and become quadriplegic.

Flying Mission Zambia partners, Mercy Flyers, were requested to fly her back to Lusaka to get her urgently to the orthopaedic surgeon at the Zambian Italian Hospital.

Christian discipleship is a core part of the vision of Flying Mission Care Ministries. To this end we are involved in Bible distribution activities throughout the year at prisons, HIV and AIDS treatment clinics, and amongst children's ministry projects and Sunday Schools.

There are some sayings that are heard all over Africa, such as TIA (This is Africa) and 'the man with the key has gone' and Flying Mission pilot Jonathan Weaver got to experience both of those recently.

'I was doing an international flight for some of the Baptist Missionaries. I was excited about this flight because I had never been to Mozambique, but I was also a bit apprehensive because, with international flying in Africa, you never know what to expect.

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. ISAIAH 55:10-11

Pastor Chris Maphosa is a man of God who is passionate about serving the world’s forgotten children of Southern Africa

Helen Scarlett, a short-term missionary from New Zealand, came to serve with Flying Mission for 3 months from the start of May 2014. We have been greatly blessed by her servant heart, energy, skills and gifting. Here is what she had to say about her time with us …

“My 3 months with Flying Mission in Botswana has been a rewarding and fulfilling experience as I have made new friends and seen a good cross section of the work that the mission does.

I saw an advert, on the Serving in Mission (SIM) website, for a short term administrative assistant role with Flying Mission. I felt it was a role I could be useful in, and SIM facilitated my coming to Gaborone. Flying Mission’s motto, ‘We serve by facilitating the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through aviation, training and care ministries’, has reminded me of the three persons of the Godhead; I got to see all 3 in action.

On 27^th June 2014, a team from Flying Mission Care Ministries travelled to the remote settlement of Seherelela (130km from Gaborone) to donate winter clothing to children who attend the Rerotlhe Day Care Centre.

Flying Mission missionaries know the importance of keeping their supporters 'up to speed' with events, so they try to write bi-monthly reports. Sometimes their friends are so inspired by what they read that they come out and get their hands dirty alongside those they support. This happened to the Kradolfers recently. They wrote about it this month:

"Just recently we had a short term team from Longview Texas visit Chilongolo. The team was from Fellowship Bible Church, our home church from our LeTourneau University time. They came as a team of 11 to support us here at Flying Mission with their gifts, passions, and talents."

It was when they were attending the graduation of pilot Jonathan Weaver from the JAARS flight training programme, that John and Faith Solt first met Timo and Nina. Timo was undergoing Technical Evaluation.* 

They would meet them again when the couple came to Zambia for three weeks to find out what serving with Flying Mission Zambia (FMZ) would be like.  ‘They earned a very special place in our hearts as they asked many questions and participated in various ministries. We knew they would fit in well with the team' reports pilot John (now retired from FMZ).  

Then Jesus came to them and said,“ … go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you …” Matthew 28:18-20.

It is Jesus’ command to all believers that they should take the Gospel, through word and deed, to the whole world. At Flying Mission we are blessed to have an international team serving with us in fulfillment of this command. Part of this team is Sonia Sutton, a teacher from New Zealand, who is doing a short–term placement with us. We asked her a few questions about what brought her to Botswana and Flying Mission. Here’s what she had to say: