PCM News: February 2004

15 February 2004

Empty nest syndrome

One of the first major changes in our life since arriving here was that ‘we three’ are now ‘we two’ as Matthew has successfully deployed himself at University.

We drove him down at the beginning of February, an almost 2000 mile round trip and about 30 hours on the road which roughly equates to driving from London to the very north of Scotland and back.

He is studying Journalism at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, a small historical town an hours drive from the south coast and half way along the bottom of Africa between Cape Town and Durban. It's a small uni of about 6000 students, who are known as Rhodents (many a true word....). He has a busy schedule – academically and socially, and has apparently managed to get all his assignments in on time and passed his end of term exams. He keeps busy with lots of uni activities including being a member of the climbing and squash clubs as well as the live music society and the student newspaper. We are looking forward to having him back at home with us during his term breaks.

So now the nest is empty, M's off becoming clever and we are left feeling old, but .... the house stands a chance of remaining tidy (ish).

P n' C

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.