Al and Velma Corson - Missionaries to Mozambique

Al grew up in Casper, WY and was active in the Christian Church there. Velma grew up in Dekalb, MO where her father, Floyd Dietz was the minister of Dekalb Christian Church. We both attended Platt Valley Bible College (now Summit Christian College) and Dakota Bible College in the early 70s. At that time, Al and Velma had a great desire to work in the mission field in Africa. Many plans had been made and they had accepted a position in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) where Al would work on agricultural projects and Velma would use her nursing skills to help the people there. But, God had other plans. Civil War broke out in Rhodesia and their visas were cancelled. God redirected Al and Velma's mission efforts into new church work in Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota, in addition to raising their growing family. In 1983, Al went to work for a major Oil Company and was eventually transferred to Broken Arrow Oklahoma where they continued to be active in the Christian Churches there. In 2003, Al took early retirement and he and Velma moved back to Wyoming where they started their own business, A/V Wilderness Supply, which provided emergency and rescue equipment and supplies to law enforcement agencies, fire departments, US Armed Forces, and other companies in the Western United States.

During the next two years, Al continued to have a great desire to return to the ministry in some capacity due to his continued friendships with Dr. Stewart Cook (missionary in South Africa for 40 years), and Dale Mason (Professor at Summit Christian College and African missionary). In 2005, Dale urged Al to go to Mozambique and South Africa with him. While on that trip, God opened Al's eyes to a real need that seemed to be overlooked in the missions work there. He decided to return in the fall of 2006 to complete additional research on the problems he had noticed during the 2005 trip. Al presented his research findings to Dr. Cook and Dale who both agreed that Al's findings needed to be addressed if the understanding of God's word is to be advanced with the African peoples. That is how we came to form Safari Insight Mission. The name literally came from Als' journey (i.e. Safari) to Mozambique, his observations (i.e. Insight), and the mission work that has been developed out of those two things.

Al and Velma both returned to Mozambique in July of 2007 where Velma had the opportunity observe the Mozambique lifestyle and interview several African women firsthand. She determined that problems facing the women in Mozambique and South Africa were consistent with Al's previous observations of the African peoples and the mission work in that area. God has placed a burden on Al and Velma's hearts to begin a full-time effort in Mozambique. The target date is Spring of 2009. Currently, they are working to obtain financial support to begin language training in July of 2008 in Portugal where they hope to become immersed in the Portuguese language (the national language of Mozambique). Many people have asked Al and Velma why they want to go to Mozambique to begin this work. Their response is " Now that we know and understand what the problem is, we are accountable to God to do something about it. As Christ's disciples, we are command to go and make other disciples. We are His hands and feet and that's really what it boils down to. We have seen the need...so now we have to go."