News and updates from Paul and Cathy Middleton, serving in southern Africa.

15 November 2004

Mercy Air Helicopter

Last week I sent a quick update cos we were all excited about our new helicopter arriving. Matthias, our heli pilot, has been busy since then hammering and banging in the hanger till late at night and the results can be seen in the following pictures:

And the proof of the pudding is in the flying.


Now that it is flying Matthias will fly down to ZUMAT to do some promotional work with the clinics. After that we need to do a big service on the engine and when that is completed next year we will start to use it for God's work here in southern Africa.

Please pray for this new avenue to Mercy Air's service, more especially that these first flights will be a blessing to the people served through the clinics and that the helicopter will be richly used by God to build his kingdom.

Thanks

Paul & Cathy

03 October 2004

Dear World (UK branch particularly)

Thank you to all of you who responded to our 'we're coming home for Christmas' mailing a couple of weeks ago. It is good to know that many of you are keen to see us and have us share what we're doing with you.

The reason that we haven't responded sooner is that we have been away on a couple of trips.
The first (large doctor team) trip to Moz was cancelled at the last minute - well the night before anyway when the Mozambican National Health Director suddenly decided that they didn't need any medical help after all. This was however replaced by another three day trip at equally short notice.

The second trip was last week when we took another team in three planes to work at a hospital in Zambia, one hours drive north of Victoria Falls. Some of the group did medical work whilst others completed various construction and maintenance tasks. There were also a few pastors who attended to ministerial things. Cathy was able to come along and enjoyed working in the maternity unit as well as driving out to a couple of clinics. Here's a pic of her on baby weighing day. She also did almost 100 ante-natal checkups - sometimes on the floor or on a school desk - 2nd pic.


Paul was busy with practical things and one of the most satisfying jobs was building some swings for a church pre-school.


It is a long story of how we got it but Paul was able to fly this trip in Mercy Air's new Beech Baron.


So, we'll be writing to many of you personally this coming week to start arranging our itinerary and we look forward to hearing from many more of you soon.

pcm

14 September 2004

Anniversary in Moz

The last few weeks have been quite manic but to prove that work and play can co-habit nicely:

The 5th September was our wedding anniversary but there was a mission flight on. As there were only three passengers I phoned up and asked if they'd mind extra company. That didn't seem to be a prob so I can now boast to having flown Cathy to the Mozambican coast to celebrate the event. The guys we went with were a real hoot and we got to stay right on the beech - pretty much idyllic.

Here's a pic of us on the way there:


The next few weeks are set to be busy also.
We're taking a large doctor team (large number of doctors not a small number of large doctors) to Tete in northern Moz this w/e till next Thursday then we have two days at home before taking a different doctor team to west Zambia for a week. It would be nice to have a rest after that but I fear I will need to write another Mercy Air newsletter.

Paul

02 June 2004

Somewhere different in Moz

On this day in history… well exactly a year ago anyway, we arrived at Mercy Air after a 12 hour drive from Lesotho. We’ve done so much since then it feels more like three years.

First thing to say – thanks to all those who wrote back and to let you know that the result of my biopsy was negative.

The last few weeks have been no less busy so here’s a quick update on what we’ve been up to.

Firstly Paul flew a one day trip to northern Mozambique returning a group of trainees back to their home town. A total of 1300 miles which would get you well into Russia from London or from Florida to Maine.

Then we spent a weekend in Pretoria representing Mercy air at a Missions Conference.

Just over a week ago we picked a US church group up in Johannesburg and flew them to Manica in Mozambique where they helped local missionaries with a number of projects.

We had never been there before but found it to be a poor place, as is much of Mozambique, but the people were friendly, colourful and grateful for our involvement. A lot of the day was spent just living, collecting water and buying food from the market.


One day we cleared an area, dug the foundations and collected bricks for a pastor’s house.

On another we leveled an area for a new church building. This involved removing loads of old bricks and five minutes after we begun we were joined by the local women and children who were keen to help.

We had long tiring days usually starting at 7am and finishing most nights past 9pm by playing football and basketball with the local youth.

Best part of the trip for us was that Cathy could come along - her first trip to Moz.

We’d love to tell you about it all in detail but that would take far too many words and we like to keep this short and chatty (otherwise you’d likely not read it all). Please get in touch though if you would like to hear more.

Next week Paul will be working on a Mercy Air newsletter and doing some flight training for his instrument renewal.

By way of rest and relaxation this weekend Paul has a 95km orienteering mountain bike race. 50km will be during the day then the remaining 45km back through the forest at night.

Matthew has finished his term now but has exams over the next three weeks.

pcm

01 May 2004

Scary animals

Cathy and I remain busy at Mercy Air. During one period I spent three weeks ‘on the road’ with only one day at home.

I was initially away for a week in Mozambique taking a group of Dutch missionaries to visit their colleagues. A relatively straightforward trip apart from a battle getting in to Maputo to pick my passengers up due to the biggest downpour you've ever seen at the approach end of the runway.
At our destination strip the local kids were very curious as we were one of a handful of aircraft they see on the ground each year. They welcomed us by swarming the plane - a good reason to shut the engines down quickly!


After returning from that trip we had a day to sort ourselves out before Cathy and I went down to Natal to help another mission flying organisation for a couple of weeks. Zululand Mission Air Transport (ZUMAT) primarily operate as a flying doctor and air ambulance service to local hospitals and have been operating in the area for over 25 years but are short of pilots just now. They have four aircraft all with short takeoff and landing capability, which is necessary to get in and out of their 300m (984ft) long strip on the side of a mountain. Paul flew most days sometimes in fairly marginal weather to places ranging from international airports to short dirt strips with game animals on. Cathy was able to accompany him on many of the flights which was a bonus. Paul has since been back to Zumat for another two week stint but this time without Cathy. This required a box full of ‘heat this up in the oven for 10 minutes’ type meals!


Not all work and no play though as we have both entered a number of mountain bike races the last few months and Paul did his first triathlon recently and didn’t do too bad - for a veteran!

Cathy has started volunteering at Africa School of Missions which is a bible college preparing missionaries for overseas service. She teaches basic medical skills and is part of a team which visits a rural clinic once a week. She finally got her registration for both nursing and midwifery with the South African Nursing Council. The next hurdle is to apply for a work permit which will allow her to practice in a variety of areas.

Despite not looking too perturbed this bloke apparently had a 4" long 1/2" deep gash in his head.

One last pic of something we found playing with the cats in Matthew’s bedroom. Paul’s fingers are on the left at the same scale.
Anyone for a visit?!


Paul and Cathy

15 February 2004

Empty nest syndrome

One of the first major changes in our life since arriving here was that ‘we three’ are now ‘we two’ as Matthew has successfully deployed himself at University.

We drove him down at the beginning of February, an almost 2000 mile round trip and about 30 hours on the road which roughly equates to driving from London to the very north of Scotland and back.


He is studying Journalism at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, a small historical town an hours drive from the south coast and half way along the bottom of Africa between Cape Town and Durban. It's a small uni of about 6000 students, who are known as Rhodents (many a true word....). He has a busy schedule – academically and socially, and has apparently managed to get all his assignments in on time and passed his end of term exams. He keeps busy with lots of uni activities including being a member of the climbing and squash clubs as well as the live music society and the student newspaper. We are looking forward to having him back at home with us during his term breaks.

So now the nest is empty, M's off becoming clever and we are left feeling old, but .... the house stands a chance of remaining tidy (ish).

P n' C