PCM News: Flying For Life

29 January 2019

Flying For Life - Limpopo

Last week we did another flight to Limpopo in support of the Mission Aviation Fellowship's 'Flying For Life' project.

Another, pre-dawn start to get to Johannesburg to pick up the rest of the team up at 06:30.

Quite green on the Highveld whilst flying up to Tshikondeni in Limpopo.

Circling overhead and then landing at Tshikondeni. The strip is quite remote - which is one of the reasons we go in a plane in the first place.

The team being met at Tsghikondeni.

After meeting the officials at the local Tribal Council Offices we continued with visits to a primary school we have worked with for a number of years now.

Greeting some of the kids who seemed excited to see us.

The school kitchen...

..and what's likely on the menu!

Then on to the Disability Centre.

Recently part of the roof over the kitchen had been blown off in a storm.

There were also visits to the local clinic and a number of informal meetings before it was time to return.

It had got quite toasty at the airstrip by the time we got back to the plane.

Because of the time of year and the longer daylight hours, we were able to just fly back in the light.

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.