PCM News: Joint Planning

11 July 2016

Joint Planning

Recently Paul flew Mercy Air staff and a Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) team to investigate the possibilities of working together to provide social upliftment, education and medical care to isolated communities in a remote area of South Africa.

MAF has been running a 'Flying For Life' program in the Vhembe area of northern South Africa for over five years (www.flyingforlife.co.za). Mutual friends put people at a lodge in Maputaland, an area of South Africa just south of Mozambique, in touch with MAF to see if a similar work could be set up with the communities that they work with.

MAF's larger aircraft are currently serving in central Africa so they asked us to fly them to Maputaland to meet with hospital staff, teachers and other interested parties to ascertain the need and see if together, we could help provide a solution.

It doesn't look far on a map but this 1 hour flight saves about 8 hours driving by road.

Once there, access to the communities was often by way of dirt/sand roads that take you in the general direction of where you want to go.

We visited one project that was set up to provide education to local youth as well as promote community involvement and ownership.

Need hot water for a shower - just light the fire.

Interestingly many of the villages were quite dispersed...

..and consisted of huts or houses built of wood with a dry stone facing.

We visited a 'larger' hospital and a clinic...

..and spoke to some very motivated staff.

Africa might be known for its Big 5 but cows seemed to be the main obstacle on the rural tracks.

We also found time to visit Lake Sibhayi, the largest freshwater lake in South Africa.

Because of the remoteness the area hasn't been heavily affected by humans.

We let this crocodile bask in peace in the evening sun.

Access to a short airstrip in the area makes using aircraft feasible.

We look forward to returning to the area soon with medical and education specialists to bring hope, help and healing to the local communities.

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.