PCM News: Noon 2 Moon

05 December 2014

Noon 2 Moon

Bizarre life we seem to live that in amongst the busyness, relaxation is often found by tearing round the forest over and over again, at night, in the rain and mud, on a mountain bike.

This has become somewhat a tradition and this year was our 7th or 8th hack at the Noon 2 Moon. The object of the race is cleverly disguised in the title, a 10 hour team lap race starting at 'noon' and finishing at 'moon' or for those with a watch '10:00 o'clock' at night.

The course is a 6.5 km lap consisting mostly of carefully manicured (!) almost endless single track twistier than a politicians excuse. The team to do the most laps in 10 hours gets a pat on their collective backs and a hearty hurrah from their fellow competitors - no really.

We didn't win. We didn't really come that close to be honest but we were 13th out of 81 teams I think which speaks more of our endurance in the face of adversity that of speed and skill.

Finishing another lap - in the dry.

First wet lap just as it was getting dark.

Good job I had a mudguard!

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.