PCM News: Mercy Air Helicopter

15 November 2004

Mercy Air Helicopter

Last week I sent a quick update cos we were all excited about our new helicopter arriving. Matthias, our heli pilot, has been busy since then hammering and banging in the hanger till late at night and the results can be seen in the following pictures:

And the proof of the pudding is in the flying.

Now that it is flying Matthias will fly down to ZUMAT to do some promotional work with the clinics. After that we need to do a big service on the engine and when that is completed next year we will start to use it for God's work here in southern Africa.

Please pray for this new avenue to Mercy Air's service, more especially that these first flights will be a blessing to the people served through the clinics and that the helicopter will be richly used by God to build his kingdom.

Thanks

Paul & 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.