PCM News: February 2012

27 February 2012

Marromeu Education and Health

This years cyclone season seems to be in full swing and we have had to rearrange and even cancel a few flights. It was with some relief, then, that that Paul went back up to Marromeu in Mozambique recently with an Education Ministry Team.

The team then drove up to the new YWAM base in Nensa whilst Paul stayed in Marromeu to help restore a 20 ft container currently being used as a fuel store by the helicopter.

The helicopter went up on the same day and whilst it was flying health and education teams in and out of the Delta, Paul and Philip, a Swiss volunteer, set about sanding and priming the container.

It was 36 deg. on top of the container and 45 deg. inside!

Mercy Air has obtained and fitted out four other containers in South Africa and they will be transported up to Marromeu in the coming weeks. There will be accommodation, kitchen, laundry and ablution facilities for work and mission teams that go up to the area.

Whilst there Paul was able to fly out to the Delta in the helicopter with the education team.

It took us 20 mins to get to this place called Luwawe but it would of taken three days by dug out canoe! You can not drive or walk there.

On the ground at Luwawe.

The end of another hot and tiring day.

Paul and Cathy

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.