David and Gae McDonald represent a new season for the Flynn Patrol (northern South Australia) of the Presbyterian Inland Mission, as well as pioneering a new model of service as patrol padres.
David and Gae McDonald meet David Jones (PCA Moderator-General)
Named for John Flynn, founder of the Australian Inland Mission, of which the Presbyterian Inland Mission is the successor in the Presbyterian Church of Australia, David and Gae will assume this historic field of work in the centenary year of the commencement of the AIM/PIM.
With the more constricted financial circumstances which the PIM have experienced due to the ongoing financial downturn, David and Gae have been approved subject to their being able to raise commitments for financial contributions sufficient to pay their basic living expenses. Their vehicle, on-road expenses, and accommodation will be provided through a partnership between the PIM and the Presbyterian Church of South Australia.
Having been appointed to the Flynn Patrol, David and Gae now have an intensive period of deputation to carry out, beginning from their home church, Southern Cross in Lismore, NSW, and spreading from that region to any Presbyterian Church in Australia which wants to enter into partnership in order that their fellow Australians who live in outback and remote regions will encounter this practical Gospel empowered expression of God’s love. It is anticipated that they will soon visit Whyalla in order to meet the church there and make preliminary preparations for securing a place to live.
David is a motor mechanic, who owned his own business in that trade, and Gae has a background in nursing, specialising in women’s and aboriginal health, with experience in nursing education. Both grew up in the Presbyterian church, where they met and were married in their family church at Lismore. Both were involved in the formation of Southern Cross Presbyterian in Lismore, where David has served as elder. They have three young adult children who will remain on the east coast as the McDonalds move and set up a home base in Whyalla and then commence their patrol activity in the second quarter of 2012.
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