PCM News: March 2007

03 March 2007

A flood, a storm, a small helicopter and a very large Russian cargo plane

Gooten TargFirstly, thank you to all those who have written in response to the last few updates we have sent. We will try and write back personally when we have time.

Paul just got back this afternoon from another trip in Mozambique.

There are two centres of relief operation in Moz at the mo as the country is reeling from two natural disasters, the flooding along the Zambezi and Cyclone Favio which hit last week in the south.

He flew the helicopter crew back to Beira where they'd left it during the storms, and then helped reassemble it.

All the main aid organisations are involved, Oxfam, Red Cross, WFP etc, and while the heli was busy doing sling load food drops, Paul was shuttling incoming international workers between the main centres. The centre for the flooding is at Caia and the one for the cyclone is at Vilanculos. Both are only about 130 miles from Beira (in opposite directions), but each is also at least a days drive away. In the aircraft this is reduced to one hour, which obviously saves huge amounts of time, and means that the logistics of getting aid to the people who need it can be accomplished far quicker. It was also encouraging to see the number of Christian Relief organisations involved such as Food for the Hungry, Humedica and Operation Blessing whom we were partnering with.

There was a huge Russian cargo plane that bought in a Norwegian Red Cross mobile hospital and doctors for Vilanculos. He flew the advance team down whilst the shipment was being trucked down.

The Ilyushin 76 with one of the many trucks than transported the 25 tons of hospital to Vilanculos.

There were 6000 building in Vilanculos that lost their roofs including the hospital and the prison!

Thanks

Paul n' 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.