All Eyes on Malawi

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.