PCM News: Bits and bobs

15 May 2007

Bits and bobs

Just a quick update to let you know how things are down under-ish.

We have been very busy at Mercy Air lately.

Paul has been doing some flying for Zululand Mission Air Transport (ZUMAT) again in their 207. Most of these flights have been one day affairs so for him it’s actually nice to get out of the office and go flying, but still spend the night at home.

This Thursday he’s off to Moz for a week with a group of pastors who will be running teaching sessions for local pastors. Then he’ll have two days at home before collecting another group in Johannesburg and taking them to the Mozambican coastal town of Inhambane for their outreach.

We’ve changed the big radial engines on the Beech so that's thundering round the sky again.

The Cessna 310 is in a million bits (engines, wings, undercarriage off and ready for inspection), and the 210 is as busy as an agitated mosquito. The heli has done a couple of outreaches in Moz and will be off there again on the 23rd of this month.

He’s practically finished the next Mercy Air newsletter which is a weight off his mind but there are still loads of officy things to do.

Cathy delivered another baby a week ago and is fitting the post natal care in with a busy teaching schedule at Africa School of Missions.

Matthew is gearing up for his final half year at Uni. After that teaching English as a foreign language in Thailand for a year looks favourite. We will go and see him at the Grahamstown festival again this year as his bedroom floor amounts to free accommodation for us!

Other than that, we are busy with a few mountain bike races and trying to find enough time to get our heads round coming home.

We will return to the UK on 23rd Aug for two months. If you’d like to see us – or have us come and see you, then please let us know.

Thanks

P n' C

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A short history of us

Not long after we were married we felt that God had some full time work for us overseas. This initially began with a move to Sheffield in 1992 to work for a Christian management training company. Three years later we felt the Lord's prompting that another change was imminent and this led to a move to Africa where we helped set up a youth program with the Lesotho-Durham link in the capital Maseru. An initial three year commitment turned into four after which the youth work was handed over to the nationals.

Then, after feeling God was moving us into mission flying Paul enrolled at a flying school and completed his South African commercial license with an instrument rating in December 1999.

We moved from Lesotho to White River in South Africa in June of 2003 where we now work with Mercy Air. Mercy Air was borne out of Youth with a Mission (YWAM) and is a sister, although smaller organisation to the more well known Mercy Ships. We are situated near Nelspruit and provide a service to missions and the development/aid community in the southern African region but mainly serve Mozambique.

We operate four aircraft at present - a Quest Kodiak, a Cessna 310 and two Airbus 350 helicopters which are often used for the relief flights.

When not flying Paul is responsible for flight operations and is Mercy Air's Safety Officer.

Cathy, who is a registered Nurse and Midwife works part time at Africa School of Missions which is a bible college preparing missionaries for overseas service. She teaches in their School of Health and is part of a team which visits a number of rural clinics during the week. She is also helps with the hospitality ministry that Mercy Air runs.

Matthew spent four years at Rhodes University in Grahamstown where he studied photo journalism. He has now flown the nest and is living with his wife in Durban. They have a young daughter named Isabella.