PCM News: This should be an interesting little trip

26 February 2013

This should be an interesting little trip

Those of you who know a bit about us and the work we do with Mercy Air will know that Mercy Air has been working towards getting a new aircraft ever since we sold our old Beech 18 a few years ago.

You will also know that we 'obtained' one a year ago and Paul went to do flight training on it in the US late last year (http://www.pcm-mercyair.blogspot.com/2012/11/thge-usa-which-is-in-america.html).

Another Mercy Air pilot, John, went to the US a few weeks ago to help Ron with the final tasks in preparation for it's ferry flight to South Africa.

They have now set off from Michigan making their way up through the US and on to the north east of Canada from where they will fly to Africa via the Azores. A more detailed account of the preparations can be found on Mercy Air's blog at www.mercyair-sa.blogspot.com.

What's quite interesting for us though is that Paul will fly up to Dakar, Senegal next week to meet them and fly it down through Africa.

Here's the whole route...

...and the African part...

The whole route is 8500 miles of which Paul will fly 4600 miles (7300 km) through Africa.

Thank you

Paul and Cathy

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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.