The precious cargo that Mercy Air flies to remote parts of
Southern Africa comes in all shapes and sizes. Recently Azarja Groot, one of Mercy Air's pilots flew some
very specialised ophthalmology equipment to Blantyre, Malawi for setting up in
a mission clinic on the other side of the border in Mozambique.
Fitting it all into our twin Cessna 310 took considerable
effort. All the seats had to come out (except the essential one), and some of the boxes
were repacked.
One of the big prayer items on a trip such as this is getting
everything safely through Customs.
At the Kruger airport in South Africa there were no issues.
A customs form, itemised manifest and quick chat with the official were
sufficient.
The four hour flight was uneventful (as they should be), with sufficient
time for a selfie.
In Blantyre the Doctor and his medical mission team flew in frfom Johannesburg
on a commercial flight just prior to our arrival. The timing worked out perfect.
Together with the Malawian customs officials and the team,
we unloaded the aircraft directly into the mission vehicle. Again there
was no red tape.
It was a privilege to meet Dr Chris Blignaut and Dr Johan
Eloff, two men who had spent many years serving as missionary doctors at Nkoma
hospital
in Malawi (http://nkhomahospital.org.mw/dept/eye.php).
Before saying our goodbyes, we had a coke. God had answered
our prayers to safely bring everything through.
The team went on to Milange, a border town in Mozambique,
well equipped to restore vision to people who would otherwise never have access
to this type of care.
Azarja flew back the following day, thankful that Mercy Air was
able to play a part in making a positive difference.
Three days later we received word that the team had already seen
350 patients!
Thank you to all who play a part in bringing wings of love
to people in need.
Azarja for the Mercy Air team.