PCM News: Dental

16 April 2021

Dental - Limpopo

This last week Paul flew a dental team up to the Vhembe district in Limpopo in conjunction with MAF and Flying for Life. We went to an area just a few kilometres short of the Zimbabwe border.

As we had a long way to go, we set off just before the sun rose and got back well after dark.

Taxi up our airstrip...

..and take off

Due to Covid, this was the first time we'd been able to go there for 13 months, and this was reflected by the many people waiting for us in the shade of the trees when we arrived.

The dentists got to work straight away with patients of all ages.

You'll be comforted to know that Paul doesn't dabble much in the dark art of dentistry and as such, wasn't much help to the busy schedule of the day. In fact his greatest contribution was probably staying well out of the way! All that to say that the photo above is his only record of what turned out to be almost 50 patients seen.

One of the guys we took was a long standing character of the popular South African TV soapie, Muvhango, and apparently widely known and liked. In my day it might have been equivalent to taking Jason Donovan or Kylie Minogue with us. He was from the area we visited and came along to talk to and encourage some of the pupils at the schools and at a disability centre we work with.

Here he is resting, but not taking full medical advantage of the mobile dentist facilities.

After many hours and many patients, it was time for a quick photo call and then the one-hour back to the airstrip.

Fortunately the plane was still where we left it...

..although some other guys had heard who was with us and wanted their own selfie.

Eventually we got going on the two hour flight back to Jo'burg..

..but didn't quite make it before seeing the sun go down.

After dropping the dentists and celebrity off, we fueled and then still had the final hour and a bit flight back in the dark to Nelspruit.

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.