PCM News: September 2004

14 September 2004

Anniversary in Moz

The last few weeks have been quite manic but to prove that work and play can co-habit nicely:

The 5th September was our wedding anniversary but there was a mission flight on. As there were only three passengers I phoned up and asked if they'd mind extra company. That didn't seem to be a prob so I can now boast to having flown Cathy to the Mozambican coast to celebrate the event. The guys we went with were a real hoot and we got to stay right on the beech - pretty much idyllic.

Here's a pic of us on the way there:

The next few weeks are set to be busy also.
We're taking a large doctor team (large number of doctors not a small number of large doctors) to Tete in northern Moz this w/e till next Thursday then we have two days at home before taking a different doctor team to west Zambia for a week. It would be nice to have a rest after that but I fear I will need to write another Mercy Air newsletter.

Paul

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.