Hi everyone

I've been trying to find a spare half hour to write a quick update for ages and if I don't manage it now I can see it being at least another couple of weeks, otherwise you might all think we have fell off our side of the world.

The flying has been hectic of late. Mercy Air has often had all it's planes out at the same time and we haven't had a staff meeting with all present for ages. I myself have visited 14 international airports in four countries in the last few weeks. Some of the highlights include:

Cathy and I took a plane load of people up to N. Moz for a missions conference. Just getting there involved 1400 miles and over seven hours of flying. Cathy was part of a medical team we provided to help the missionaries up there. Other 'specialists we took included a dentist and a vet.

Cathy doing her nursery stuff for a missionary in Moz

A food distribution point in Lesotho

Almost straight after that we took a group from the Dutch organisation Dorcas Aid on a trip to Moz, SA and Lesotho. They were visiting some of their projects including a food distribution scheme, an orphanage and a community church. It felt strange going back to Lesotho but I managed to see some old friends for the one night I was there.

We also did a medical evacuation at very short notice of a local Pastor from a costal town in Moz.

Cathy with patient in the back of the plane

Putting a roof on a orphanage building.

On another occasion I was fortunate enough to get a flight down the coast all the way to Cape Town with a small team.

Last week I took a mission team up to Northern Zambia and helped with the construction of an orphanage. A bonus here was flying over Victoria Falls on the way up and again on the way down.

Right now I am stuck at home. Today I was supposed to fly a team up to eastern Zimbabwe but the weather played it's joker and fogged us in the whole day. As I type, we are swapping stories with the passengers in our lounge who are now staying the night and planning a death 'o' clock start tomorrow morning.

We have also been very busy with guests and have had an almost constant stream of people visiting 'Chez Middleton' for periods ranging from just a night to a month. We even had to carefully book Matthew in when he came home from Uni. At the mo we have Rob and Issy Ford with us and if things work out right we plan to get away next week and tour Swaziland and N Natal together. This will be our first proper holiday since we arrived at Mercy Air over two years ago. Two weeks after they leave we will host another friend for three months who is visiting to help out with various projects on the farm