PCM News: All Change

02 December 2012

All Change

This is what we were expecting to be doing this last week end - except with more sweat and mud.

But a phone call at 16:00 on Friday afternoon put paid to all that. So instead the weekend ended up looking more like this...

Ten hours in the saddle in a day/night mountain bike race was swapped for a similar amount of time in a plane at 10,000 ft. Azarja, who is one of Mercy Air's new pilots, also came along to help.

The story was that this lady way up in Mozambique had been getting progressivly more ill over the previous two weeks and had got to the stage where she needed to be bought out for some urgent medical attention. It would be unprofessional of us to say what her problem was but let's just say that we were advised to take a large bucket and a lid with us!

We didn't actually get the permit and the go-ahead till 21:00 on Friday evening so it was a bit of a rush to get ready for 05:30 the next morning. Saturday dawned dull and foggy so we were a little late taking off from the farm and had to do an instrument approach into the internatiuonal airport only 8 miles away. On the way one of the engines ran a bit too rough for our liking and so we left the plane there and drove back to get the other one. To cut a long stoy short, we finally left 3 hours later that we had planned.

The weather in Moz was good and we flew over some interesting scenery near the coast on the way up.

After refueling in Beira we continued on to Mocuba...

...where the condition of the strip seems to have improved recently.

We were greeted with the usual pomp and ceremony from the local kids...

...before taking off with the patient.

Her mission organisation had arranged for a doctor to come out to the plane at our refueling stop in Beira on the way back.

The weather was still bad in Nelspruit so our only other option was another 2h45 flight to the capital Maputo where the patient went to hospital and we ended up spending the night.

All that was left then was to return later the next day in a big cloud, landing in low vis and heavy drizzle.

So, over 1600 miles (6400 km) and 10 hours of flying but not one bike wheel turned in anger.

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.