PCM News: The Long and Short of it

18 November 2009

The Long and Short of it

Paul did a long short trip last week.
The flight only took two days but covered 1700 miles (2700 km).

He was up there last week to collect a family who had worked in Cuamba, N. Moz for the past eight years, but who were now returning to Australia.

Having Mercy Air pick them up saved them a 10 hr Land Rover trip, a border crossing, two nights in a 'hotel', and numerous internal domestic flights - all for about the same cost.

They also spent five nights staying with us on the farm and were able to go to Kruger Park for a day - during which they saw loads of stuff apparently.

We had both been to Cuamba in 2005 and, being a military airfield, were kept waiting over an hour after landing whilst officials 'checked' the paperwork. This time however, there were no such problems and the military didn't bother us at all - except for the payment of over inflated landing and parking fees as well as navigation fees, despite there not having been anyone in the tower for years.

The weather was good on the way up, and back down the next day, which was just as well as it's been really grim ever since.

Praying before leaving.

Well on our way.

Paul

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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.