PCM News: Flying For Life - Eye Cataract Surgery

25 April 2018

Flying For Life - Eye Cataract Surgery

Paul was once again privileged to fly an eye cataract surgery team on behalf of Mission Aviation Fellowship and Flying For Life to Thoyohandou in the Limpopo province of South Africa.

This is a recurring trip which we do about every two months and which provides a much needed service for people in the the rural Venda district in the north of the country.

An early morning start was required to collect the team from Jhb

Some of the faces we knew from the last flight

The patients had been readied for our arrival but there were still a few checks and tests to be done before surgery.

Then the procedures took place, one after another for the whole morning and afternoon.

I'm not a doctor but I'll take a look!

Eish!

Waiting patiently for the 20 min operation to be finished

Another one complete

The sun set on out flight back to Johannesburg.

And after re-fueling there was the just the 1h30 journey back to Nelspruit for Paul.

Another very worth while exercise and again, the flight saved a three day round trip and allowed 16 people to receive live changing surgery.

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.