of returning to Bermuda. Back at last for a holiday with family friends, they talked to Living about their lives as missionaries.

Sarah, 23, has been working with Jackie Pullinger, well known for her work with Hong Kong's drug addicts, while Matthew, who just celebrated his 21st birthday, is working in Mozambique, rescuing street children, many of whom have been orphaned by the country's long and bitter civil war.

Working through the Christian-based but non-denominational Iris Ministries, volunteer Matthew has endured hardship and even danger during the past year.

Undeterred, he is so committed to the children that he is planning to return there on a one-way ticket.

We were so privileged to live in places like Bermuda, Hong Kong and England,'' he said. "There is poverty in Hong Kong -- but nothing like Africa. The main thing that has struck me, is that people here in Bermuda or the UK have so much -- and yet so little, while out there they have so little and yet so much! "In Mozambique, parents wake up each day wondering if they can feed their kids, if they can find water for them, wonder if the crops will fail. In other words, in Bermuda we can wake up without the constant threat of death -- which they really have to face almost on a daily basis. That's hard to take in until you live there. At Christmas, all we could give the kids was a paper bag that held two sweets and a pencil each -- but they were beside themselves with excitement.'' Explaining that their parents, Alastair and Maggie, were here for 12 years, Sarah said they had really loved Bermuda and never stopped talking about their happy times here.

"Dad was an engineer and my mother was a nurse. We left when I was four and when we went to live in Hong Kong, my parents adopted two more children. That was when they met Jackie Pullinger and we gradually all became involved in her work, my father becoming her administrator.'' Returning to Hong Kong for a year, Sarah has spent a year working in Jackie Pullinger's women's programme.

"Even before the handover to the Chinese, there were spies from the Chinese government as they were against her, especially the Christian aspect. So the programme gradually went `underground', organised into smaller groups and smaller areas,' she said.

"I worked in a `first stage' drug house, where addicts, many of them prostitutes, and just off the streets, were placed for ten days. During that time, they were never left on their own. For the first eight months I did this alone, working with nine girls -- many of them were sent to us instead of prison. I did have a knife held at my throat once by one girl because she wanted to leave and I wouldn't let her have her I.D. card which you have to carry at all times in Hong Kong. But these girls became like my family and I'm still in touch with them. When they first come in they look really terrible and it's wonderful to see them recover and, really, come to life again.'' Matthew originally went to Mozambique for six weeks through his church but said he fell in love with the place and people. "So I decided to stay for a year and now, I'm trying to raise funds to pay my way back. The work is voluntary, but we get our food and housing -- a tent! All the kids, about 140 of them, are in old tents that we managed to obtain in South Africa. Very few people,'' he explained, "were allowed to own land under the communist government in Mozambique. The system is dictatorial and very corrupt.'' Civil war has raged, on and off, ever since independence from Portugal, the once-thriving country now suffering from heavy unemployment and consequent crippling poverty. Three years ago, Iris Ministries were feeding between 600 and 750 street children in and around the capital of Maputo, "but it's far more now. We've just started another feeding site on a rubbish heap where they tend to congregate.'' Boys, he explained, were often abandoned because they were not useful for household chores, and many of the girls become pregnant by the age of 11.

"Rape and violence on the streets is commonplace. We give them soup and bread and they beg us to take them back to our camp. Often, mothers who have been widowed by the war or diseases such as AIDS and malaria, cry their eyes out as they beg us to take at least one child -- they know they will be fed and loved. Some of our children come to us as babies and some stay through to adulthood, but mostly they are between 12 and 15. Some of them having suffered the most terrible sexual and physical abuse.'' Alcohol and marijuana exact further tolls from the children who, said Matthew, are often found drunk and `high'. "Unfortunately, a lot of the police are corrupt and their method of dealing with these kids is to beat them up. Life is hard in Africa and these are not sentimental people.'' He recalled a recent occasion when he drove a woman who was in labour to hospital: "She gave birth to twins in the back of the car but one of them died. I started to tell the father how sorry I was but he told me not to worry -- he was just happy that one of them survived.'' After the government evicted them from their original camp site (for "illegal religious practices'') the mission's work of feeding and providing medicine for the children was seriously threatened. After a year on some land given to them by one of the cities (an hour away from the nearest water well) they have managed to buy some land owned by a Portuguese from before the war. Impressed with their mission, he offered it very cheaply. Now, with help from donations, they plan to build a camp centre to house the children, a church and school with a training centre for pastors and other visitors.

Although here strictly for a holiday, Sarah and Matthew are giving informal talks to various church groups.

"I did not come here looking for sponsorship but, of course, if anyone is inspired to help us with our work in Mozambique we would be overjoyed. Even the smallest donations make such a difference.'' Pointing out that the sum of approximately $1.60 feeds one child for one week, Matthew often goes over the border into South Africa to get "treats'' such as eggs, sweets, marbles and balloons. "Our kids love football so I formed a team and got a British school to sponsor their kits.'' Anyone who would like to help with the work of the Mozambique mission is asked to contact 236-5997 before September 8 or write to Matthew Barr, 27 Merton Road, Moseley, Birmingham BI3 9JW, UK, telephone (0121) 449-9211.