What's been happening? Good question, and as it happens almost too much to write down in a few lines.
The flying has been hectic of late. Mercy Air has often had all it's planes out at the same time and we haven't had a staff meeting with all present for ages. I myself have visited 14 international airports in four countries in the last few weeks. Some of the highlights include:
Last week I did a flight for Dorcas Aid. They are a Dutch Christian Aid organisation who have many projects around the world. We spent a week flying a group of business people, who were either sponsors or potential sponsors and visited various projects in Mozambique, SA and Lesotho. We went to many places and saw much poverty but also the hope that is provided by an organisation who base their ethos on biblical principals. To be honest what I saw revived my faith in Aid Organisations and I was pleased to be a small part of bringing more hope to people who seemingly had none.
It felt strange going back to Lesotho but I managed to see some old frinnds for the one night I was there.
Yesterday we were about to leave for church when we got a call from a missionary in Mozambique saying that their local pastor had been taken seriously ill with a burst appendix. He was at least 12 hours drive from a hospital where they could operate and it was critical that he got there the same day. Using one of our fast twin engine planes Cathy and I were able to reach him in less that two hours and transport him to Maputo an hour and a half later. He would almost certainly of died had we not been able to provide a prompt response, although his condition is still serious and we would ask you to pray for him.
On another occasion I was fortunate enough to get a flight down the coast all the way to Cape Town with a small team.
Last week I took a mission team up to Northern Zambia and helped with the construction of an orphanage. A bonus here was flying over Victoria Falls on the way up and again on the way down.
Right now I am stuck at home. Today I was supposed to fly a team up to eastern Zimbabwe but the weather played it's joker and fogged us in the whole day. As I type, we are swapping stories with the passengers in our lounge who are now staying the night and planning a death 'o' clock start tomorrow morning.
For most of the last month we have had all four Mercy Air planes out in Moz at the same time. Our 'big' plane spent two weeks with a group from Medical Ministry International doing eye and dental work in a Muslim village in the very north of Moz. During their time they saw over 900 patients. At the same time out smallest aircraft was shuttling missionaries in and out of a town in mid Moz and also flew a mission trip to Zimbabwe.
We had a camera crew with us recently doing a small article for national TV, they were so impressed that they suggested a full on documentary sometime in the future.
We have also been very busy with guests and have had an almost constant stream of people visiting 'Chez Middleton' for periods ranging from just a night to a month. We even had to carefully book Matthew in when he came home from Uni. At the mo we have Rob and Issy Ford with us and if things work out right we plan to get away next week and tour Swaziland and N Natal together. This will be our first proper holiday since we arrived at Mercy Air over two years ago. Two weeks after they leave we will host another friend for three months who is visiting to help out with various projects on the farm
Matthew's back down in Grahamstown after a 17 hour drive and is not due back for another month.
Thanks for reading this. Hopefully chat again soon.
pcm
