Bob and Sue have been married for 31 years and have three grown-up daughters; Shona, Linda and Fiona. They were saved whilst living and working in South Africa in the 1980s. Accepting their call to ministry, they returned to the UK in 1984 where Bob attended Bible School. They joined Carshalton Baptist Church in 1988 and saw considerable changes during their 19 years as pastors of the church.

In October 2007 they jumped out of the boat leaving everything in the UK to follow their calling to serve the widows and orphans in their spiritual homeland of South Africa. After being in South Africa for 2 years, and seeing the ministry established, they are returning to the UK full time as pastors of Fakenham Baptist Community Church.

Bob and Sue

Linda

I was born in Transkei, South Africa in 1983, returning to the UK with my parents in 1984. Despite not remembering it South Africa has always had an incredibly special place in my heart and I always knew I would return. It was only in summer 2006 that I travelled home to South Africa for the first time since leaving as a baby. And it certainly was a homecoming!

In 2005 I graduated from the University of Surrey with a BA Combined Languages. During that time I was able to spend a year living in Spain and Germany - something that only fuelled my desire to travel. In 2006 I graduated with an MA in Intercultural Communication with International Business. The course was about understanding cultural difference, with the main focus being on acknowledging cultural difference in international companies in order to increase profit. I decided to take a slightly different route though & did my dissertation on the importance of acknowledging culture in development... based on research I did in South Africa. (You can email me if you're interested in reading it!)

9 months later I moved home to follow God's call to work with the 'least of these' in South Africa alongside Iris Ministries with the vision of seeing underprivileged children empowered and their potential to change the nation unleashed. I believe every child should have access to the same opportunities I have been blessed with - physically, spiritually and educationally.

We believe our call to South Africa is four-fold:

1. To set up and run the children's centre & develop programmes to help empower the local community, particularly the orphans & widows.

2. To do whatever is required to support Pastor Surprise Sithole and the  local pastors to build the church in Backdoor, to help continue plant new churches & see them leading the way in supporting their communities.

3. To support & encourage the pastors attending the Bible School in their churches and families, and teaching whenever required to do so.

4. To be a bridge-builder between the black and white communities in our area and to see us working together. We believe the churches have to lead with  this.

Backdoor, South Africa

A place called home...

Bob, Sue & Linda McKay

working with Partners in Harvest in South Africa