Boxing Day - our first in Botswana. We hurry through breakfast and drive to the Princess Marina Hospital Parking Lot where we watch with interest as a van filled with cardboard boxes is being unloaded. "Quite appropriate for Boxing Day," I muse. Eventually three heavily laden gurneys are pushed to a reception area where we're met by most of Flying Mission's (FM) personnel - career missionaries, short-termers, pilots, mechanics, administrative staff and office staff - they're all here.

Are you curious about the boxes?

With FMZ (Flying Mission Zambia) pilot family, the Smiths, now stationed permanently at Chitokoloki(Chit) to serve the Mission with a Cessna 206, resurfacing of the somewhat uneven grass airstrip had become urgent. The runway has now been gravelled. A big job, it cost an estimated 60,000 US Dollars. In a wonderful way, that expense has been covered for us.

I'm not privy to many days in the life of Mark Spicer, but I have a ringside seat at night. Mark took some vacation days during the holidays, and toward the end of his time off, it occurred to me how quiet our evenings had been. Usually our evenings are monopolized by his cell phone. Take yesterday as a case in point:

Mark got home from the hangar at 6:15 p.m., just as Kg and I were sitting down for supper. I served Mark a plate, too, but as so often happens, his cell phone rang shortly after he sat down. A doctor at the Ghanzi hospital was calling to request a mercy flight. The patient was an 11-year-old girl who had swallowed a 2-pula coin (larger than a quarter). The doctor said that it was lodged in her throat so tightly that saliva couldn't even get through; it was pooling in her mouth.

Tim Beer and his team of workers from Loloma Mission Station in NW Province have worked hard over several months to clear a strip of bush 1300 metres long adjacent to Loloma Mission Hospital (CMML).

Roger Green (Flying Mission Zambia Projects man) and UK volunteers Martin Hall and Stewart Foster joined Tim to finalise the strip for use as an airfield. Their first job was to help the Council grader driver to produce the right camber on the runway. Then they designed and built a roller from well pipes. This is now an excellent tool for levelling and maintaining the surface. They supervised the placement of concrete markers at the thresholds and at 100 metre points along the sides of the strip. Finally they made up a windsock pole and left directions for the name of the airfield to be formed from local stone so it could be clearly seen from the air by incoming planes. All that remained

We had prayed so much for rain, and it finally came. Puddles appeared!! We hadn't seen any for so many months! And last "rainy season" hadn't really been a rainy season at all. As the months of fall and winter went by, the livestock finished off all the vegetation available; many then died. Now there was hope once again!!

However, some of the rain fell hard and in great amounts. Though many people now have cement block houses,

Some time ago, a group of US supporters made a plan to send a container of goods to assist the fast-growing work of Flying Mission Zambia (FMZ). They advertised the scheme in the US and began to collect for it.

What happens to someone in Botswana who becomes critically ill or injured far from a Referral Hospital? There is a good chance that person will be transported by air ambulance to Gaborone or Francistown by Flying Mission Services.

FMS recently entered into an agreement with the Botswana Ministry of Health to provide air ambulance services, carrying on a 28-year tradition of transporting Batswana patients.

Don Amborski’s Good Friday actually began on Maundy Thursday. Leaving Chilongolo (FMZ base near Lusaka) early in the morning, he grappled with delays at Macha, a huge thunderstorm, then a severed power cable at a temporary refuelling station, as he flew his passengers to Livingstone. Consequently he was forced to stay at Livingstone overnight. He booked into a guesthouse but soon discovered that the power was off - until midnight, that is, when he awoke to find his room well and truly illuminated!

Children at Macha’s Innovative Christian School (MICS) are participating in twice weekly ballet lessons. With professional ballet dancer Lauren Brim serving in Macha, the children have been able to experience something completely new to them, and they are learning fast. From pliés to glissades they all give 100% effort and concentration, and even the older boys enjoy every minute of their lessons. It is these kinds of activities that enhance these children’s learning even further.

Today, Flying Mission United football team(s) gathered under the rondavel and I was privileged enough to be involved in the handing out of the new football equipment to them.

Football is an important ministry that is prospering and flourishing at the Chilongolo airstrip base for Flying Mission Zambia. Boys from about 7 years old gather weekly to learn soccer skills. Sally Green coaches the younger boys 7-9 and 10-15, and Leonard, our foreman at Chilongolo, coaches the older guys 16-23.