PCM News: October 2004

03 October 2004

Dear World (UK branch particularly)

Thank you to all of you who responded to our 'we're coming home for Christmas' mailing a couple of weeks ago. It is good to know that many of you are keen to see us and have us share what we're doing with you.

The reason that we haven't responded sooner is that we have been away on a couple of trips.
The first (large doctor team) trip to Moz was cancelled at the last minute - well the night before anyway when the Mozambican National Health Director suddenly decided that they didn't need any medical help after all. This was however replaced by another three day trip at equally short notice.

The second trip was last week when we took another team in three planes to work at a hospital in Zambia, one hours drive north of Victoria Falls. Some of the group did medical work whilst others completed various construction and maintenance tasks. There were also a few pastors who attended to ministerial things. Cathy was able to come along and enjoyed working in the maternity unit as well as driving out to a couple of clinics. Here's a pic of her on baby weighing day. She also did almost 100 ante-natal checkups - sometimes on the floor or on a school desk - 2nd pic.

Paul was busy with practical things and one of the most satisfying jobs was building some swings for a church pre-school.

It is a long story of how we got it but Paul was able to fly this trip in Mercy Air's new Beech Baron.

So, we'll be writing to many of you personally this coming week to start arranging our itinerary and we look forward to hearing from many more of you soon.

pcm

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.