PCM News: Rain Rain Everywhere

18 January 2012

Rain Rain Everywhere

We've been to help in other areas a number of times when they have been hit by flooding, but now we have our very own storm come to visit us.

It is called Cyclone Dando and developed last week between Madagascar and Mozambique. It is only a category one storm but it has been raining hard continuously here for three days now and we've had the same amount of rain in three days as we usually get in the whole of January - which in itself is one of the wettest months.

Here's a pic of one of the rivers in the nearby Kruger Park.

Mercy Air has had it's issues with the weather as two large trees on the farm fell down last night, one narrowly missing the Ziessler's house.

At least we'll be alright for fire wood this winter!

I think we're due to get one more day of rain before things start to clear up. It's just like Britain!

However, one article suggests that moisture from Dando could get sucked into another depression that is forming off the coast to the north of Mozambique and create a new cyclone. This would be particularly worrying as Paul is flying a team up there this coming Monday.

Paul and 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.