PCM News: Flood survey

11 February 2013

Flood survey

Whilst the Mercy Air helicopter was busy in the south of Mozambique, a consortium of aid organisations asked us to survey a large area in the north of the country.

We had to wait a few days till a weather system passed but we finally made it up to Quelimane to pick members of the survey team up.

The loop we flew at the top of the map may not look like much but it was 500 miles (800 km) long and took three hours to complete. The flight up itself was about the length of the UK.

As a lot of the survey area was inaccessible and the situation was thought to be quite bad, the Governor of the Province also wanted to come along and see for himself the extent of the flooding.

The area to the north east of Quelimane was extensively affected.

Where as the Zambezi River, although full, wasn't an immediate threat.

On the way back we had to request left of track due to weather and landed at Beira just after a heavy shower.

There is more rain predicted this coming week so we might find ourselves up there again soon for another survey.

Thank you.

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.