PCM News: December 2021

11 December 2021

Lesotho - 27 years on

Last week Paul got the chance to fly to Lesotho - 27 years after we first arrived there in 1994.


We went in our Cessna 310

The purpose of the trip was to talk to Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), the Lesotho Flying Doctor Service and the Ministry of Health about using one of our helicopters there in the future.

Parked outside the MAF hangar

The talks went very well and everyone is very keen to involve us as soon as possible. The first step will be to do a trial week early next year. After that we hope to do regular visits and long term this might lead to us basing a helicopter there permanently.

While there, Paul met up with a couple of the guys he trained when we first came to help start the youth work project all those years ago. It was great to see them again and catch up.

Paul, Max and Martin

Martin sitting in Paul's new office

Max bought along a few photos from the past including this one taken at the end of a canoeing session. Paul had forgotten that he even once had dark hair!

As part of the visit we went out with MAF to show Joel, our heli pilot, some of the areas he would be operating in. It might only take less than an hour to fly right across the whole of Lesotho by plane, but access by road is still very restricted. Most of the airstrips in the mountains serve clinics, but there are still plenty of areas and even entire valleys that do not have access to healthcare. In these places a 5km journey to a health post could take a whole day.

Joel in the front of the MAF C206

We landed at Thlahyaku, a strip only 550m long and 8000' elevation.

On the ground at Thlahyaku

We flew past southern Africa's highest waterfall just south of Semonkong in the center of the country.

Semonkong waterfall - 600' high

There's actually an airstrip in this photo - Kuebunyane

Lesotho gets more than its fair share of weather - and even plenty of snow in the winter.

So, a very successful trip for Mercy Air but for Paul it was like completing a 30 year circle. So many nostalgic good memories but also a little emotional, remembering some of the struggles and uncertainty of what was ahead. A bit like going back to your old primary school, except you now knew how things would work out eventually.

We wait to see how much we will be involved in the future.

Flying past the Drakensburg on the way back

Thank you

Paul and Cathy

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.