PCM News: Link 4 Life

13 August 2013

Link 4 Life - Durban

Recently we had our regular visit from the UK based Link 4 Life teams.

In their own words:
"The Link 4 Life Project was started in 2010 by local churches in Great Wyrley & Cheslyn Hay to bring together schools, churches and the wider community to support the work of three Christian charitable organisations in southern Africa. The Project aims to help young people in our local community to broaden their horizons and challenges them to help and support people in need in communities in the south of Africa. The Link 4 Life Project seeks to encourage people from our local neighbourhood to care for and learn from our global neighbours in need. We want to raise awareness and funds for our partner charities and also stay linked with the people they serve. We really do want it to be a Link 4 Life."

http://link4lifeproject.blogspot.com/

They stay at Mercy Air for a few days during which time some of them travel down to Durban to visit the Baby Bear project. The Baby Bear Project supports St Mary's Hospital in Durban, South Africa. Local people in UK communities make knitted clothes for needy newborn babies and they are sent to the hospital.

Will the person delaying the flight to Durban please sort his life out and get on the plane - oh wait, sorry, that's the pilot and he's taking the picture.

In flight entertainment as viewed from economy.

This is as full as the plane gets. At least everyone gets a window seat.

The bonus for us is that while the group visited the hospital, we got to spend some time with our son, Matthew.

The weather had built up a bit over Swaziland on the way back.

Thank you.

Paul and Cathy

1 comment:

Unknown said...: This is a fantastic website, could you be interested in going through an interview concerning just how you made it? You can visit my site.
non profit organization lists; 22 January, 2014

Post a Comment

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.