PCM News: June 2004

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

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.