PCM News: May 2007

29 May 2007

Prison baptisms

Another quick update as we have been busy again.

Paul spent a week in Moz two weeks ago with a pastoral group from the US. They were there to help a mission team run three days of training and teaching sessions for local pastors, some of whom had travelled for over a day on a rickety bicycle to attend.

The missionaries there have also been working for a long time with the inmates of the town prison where 130 men share a 5m x 5m room. They are often in there 24 hours a day and only get one cup of corn meal and a cup of water per day. The inmates are imprisoned for anything from murder to stealing bread, and some can be detained for up to two years before their trial is even heard. Daily, the missionaries have given them medical and spiritual input but the highlight of this trip was when 20 men were baptised.

Last Saturday Paul flew a joint trip with Mission Aviation Fellowship and took another US team to the costal town on Inhambane. It was a long day (8 hrs flying and over 1000 miles) as we just dropped them off and Paul ended up flying back to SA at night. A year ago Cathy and Paul had taken a small exploratory team to various places in Moz as they were searching for somewhere to start an outreach (see 19th Mar 2006, 'Where to plant a church'). It was good therefore to be the first to fly a large team in to the location they had chosen.

Today (Tuesday) Paul was out again assisting Zumat with a couple of flights. He took some people down to Natal and then picked up some pastors and flew them to a mission station just north of Durban. Not in itself too spectacular, but the one hour flight would of taken them the best part of a day to complete by road. This was yet another day that ended well past sunset.

Cathy continues to teach every day at Africa School of Missions and also delivered a baby of a local lady recently. She has two more deliveries planned within the next three weeks.
She is applying for a work permit as her voluntary visa will expire at the end of June. This is a complicated process so please pray for success otherwise Paul will have to learn to cook real quick!

Matthew starts his mid year exams this week. Please pray that he'll do well in those.

Don't forget that we'll be in the UK from the end of Aug till the end-ish of Oct. Book us whilst there's still time!!!

Cheers

Paul and Cathy

15 May 2007

Bits and bobs

Just a quick update to let you know how things are down under-ish.

We have been very busy at Mercy Air lately.

Paul has been doing some flying for Zululand Mission Air Transport (ZUMAT) again in their 207. Most of these flights have been one day affairs so for him it’s actually nice to get out of the office and go flying, but still spend the night at home.

This Thursday he’s off to Moz for a week with a group of pastors who will be running teaching sessions for local pastors. Then he’ll have two days at home before collecting another group in Johannesburg and taking them to the Mozambican coastal town of Inhambane for their outreach.

We’ve changed the big radial engines on the Beech so that's thundering round the sky again.

The Cessna 310 is in a million bits (engines, wings, undercarriage off and ready for inspection), and the 210 is as busy as an agitated mosquito. The heli has done a couple of outreaches in Moz and will be off there again on the 23rd of this month.

He’s practically finished the next Mercy Air newsletter which is a weight off his mind but there are still loads of officy things to do.

Cathy delivered another baby a week ago and is fitting the post natal care in with a busy teaching schedule at Africa School of Missions.

Matthew is gearing up for his final half year at Uni. After that teaching English as a foreign language in Thailand for a year looks favourite. We will go and see him at the Grahamstown festival again this year as his bedroom floor amounts to free accommodation for us!

Other than that, we are busy with a few mountain bike races and trying to find enough time to get our heads round coming home.

We will return to the UK on 23rd Aug for two months. If you’d like to see us – or have us come and see you, then please let us know.

Thanks

P n' C

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.