PCM News: May 2004

01 May 2004

Scary animals

Cathy and I remain busy at Mercy Air. During one period I spent three weeks ‘on the road’ with only one day at home.

I was initially away for a week in Mozambique taking a group of Dutch missionaries to visit their colleagues. A relatively straightforward trip apart from a battle getting in to Maputo to pick my passengers up due to the biggest downpour you've ever seen at the approach end of the runway.
At our destination strip the local kids were very curious as we were one of a handful of aircraft they see on the ground each year. They welcomed us by swarming the plane - a good reason to shut the engines down quickly!

After returning from that trip we had a day to sort ourselves out before Cathy and I went down to Natal to help another mission flying organisation for a couple of weeks. Zululand Mission Air Transport (ZUMAT) primarily operate as a flying doctor and air ambulance service to local hospitals and have been operating in the area for over 25 years but are short of pilots just now. They have four aircraft all with short takeoff and landing capability, which is necessary to get in and out of their 300m (984ft) long strip on the side of a mountain. Paul flew most days sometimes in fairly marginal weather to places ranging from international airports to short dirt strips with game animals on. Cathy was able to accompany him on many of the flights which was a bonus. Paul has since been back to Zumat for another two week stint but this time without Cathy. This required a box full of ‘heat this up in the oven for 10 minutes’ type meals!

Not all work and no play though as we have both entered a number of mountain bike races the last few months and Paul did his first triathlon recently and didn’t do too bad - for a veteran!

Cathy has started volunteering at Africa School of Missions which is a bible college preparing missionaries for overseas service. She teaches basic medical skills and is part of a team which visits a rural clinic once a week. She finally got her registration for both nursing and midwifery with the South African Nursing Council. The next hurdle is to apply for a work permit which will allow her to practice in a variety of areas.

Despite not looking too perturbed this bloke apparently had a 4" long 1/2" deep gash in his head.

One last pic of something we found playing with the cats in Matthew’s bedroom. Paul’s fingers are on the left at the same scale.
Anyone for a visit?!

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.