FEATURED STORY

Training to Reach Southern Africa

Dr. Craig Oranmore-Brown, prepares for a “cross-country” training flight as part of his bush pilot training program with MAG.

MAG is moving into new territory, a whole new continent actually, as Dr. Craig Oranmore-Brown arrives in Massachusetts to receive flight training that will allow him to reach some of the most needy people in southern Africa.

Craig and his wife Rae are both doctors born in South Africa and trained in the UK who have been serving as full-time missionaries in Africa. Together they founded Mercy Flyers, a non-profit organization whose mission is to take specialist medical care to those who are geographically remote and living in poverty in southern African countries. The charity uses light aircraft to fly surgical outreach teams, from Africa and Europe, to rural hospitals around southern Africa where they often have the facilities to perform vital operations but no qualified staff to undertake them. Craig explains: “We visit hospitals who invite us to meet a specific need for physicians, pediatricians, surgeons or technicians to repair equipment for example. Road transport to deliver such medical care is almost impossible.”

Ministry partnerships (a modern term for the body of Christ working together to accomplish ministry) have been formed to extend their reach. Craig and Rae will work in Zambia under the umbrella of Health Helps International (HHI) and will be utilizing aircraft owned and operated by FlyingMission who contacted MAG to train Craig. Though already a pilot, he needed the specific training, experience, and commercial licenses required to fly their planes. MAG will train Craig for his single and multi-engine commercial and instrument licenses as well as provide his initial “bush pilot” training.