It's all happening here at Chilongolo! Men - and women - are dismantling, extending and re-assembling steel hangar frames. They are brick-laying and plastering with Hydraform blocks. Electrics are going in and stairways are being constructed. Little by little new workshops, maintenance bays, offices, storage bays, parts storage and hangar facilities are coming closer to being operational at Flying Mission Zambia base near to Lusaka.

When our Projects Co-ordinator finally hung up his hat last year, it seemed that building work at Flying Mission Zambia would slow down. But God had other plans! An Australian building team turned up for 3 weeks, followed soon after by a team of 14 people from a supporting Church in Tucson, Arizona.  Scott Bleecker, the builder/pilot who had earlier poured the hangar floor with his son Dan, returned from The States to do more work. Instead of slowing down, we were pretty busy here at Chilongolo, Flying Mission Zambia base.

Things don't always go to plan in rural Africa. Last year, a Flying Mission Zambia contingent went to NW Province to complete an airfield for a remote Mission Maternity Clinic. The job proved to be a challenge for a number of reasons. By Christmas the rains had set in and the work had to be shelved until the end of the 'green season' - April or May. It was very disappointing for the medical mission personnel, who have waited patiently for some years for this provision. The FMZ workers, who badly wanted to hand over another working airstrip to their partners there, were somewhat frustrated.

Recently in our daze of Home Assignment time I answered the telephone to hear an old friend say: "Nicole wants to do something different for her birthday. I thought of asking the girls to bring stuffed animals and then we would give them to an orphanage or something. Do you have any project or a place we could give stuff like that?"

"We are doing a 'container' project for FMZ!" I said. "Let me think about it for a bit and I’ll get back to you."

Back in the early days of Flying Mission Zambia, we told you about the donation of a diesel-powered hydraulic block-making machine which uses local soil and only small amounts of cement to make very strong, smart and relatively cheap building blocks.

Chilongolo, base for Flying Mission operations in Zambia, is growing in all directions. This new hangar, funded jointly by Beit Trust and a supporting church in USA, is the latest development. It will provide much-needed wind protection and hard standing for our aeroplanes. Indeed it may even enable us to apply for status as a maintenance base in the future.

Open for business! Connections Guest House is finally ready to welcome you!

After several years of effort by many helpers from around the world, the main house at Chilongolo (Flying Misson Zambia's base outside of Lusaka) is ready to receive guests.

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.