PCM News: Food Delivery

11 May 2020

Food Delivery

Cathy and I did a food delivery run this morning in a community about 25km away.

We asked Petunia, another one of Mercy Air's local staff, to identify the most needy people in her community and then set about obtaining, packing and delivering the supplies to them.

We have been working with Pick n' Pay, a national South African supermarket to obtain some of the supplies...

..and then combining what they bring with other essentials to make up 'food boxes' that should last a family up to two weeks.

As the Mercy Air vehicles were already out on other deliveries, Cathy and I loaded and drove our car to meet Petunia, and then into her community. We asked Petunia what the need was like and apparently one lady said that even if she 'only got a bag of salt, she would be grateful'!

It's amazing what you can get into a Nissan Qashqui...

..almost 400kg and three adults!

After some heartfelt words of thanks, the people left with their food box and bag of maize meal.

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.