The monthly Coffee Morning of Sarum U3A was held in our usual venue of St Francis Church Hall on Wednesday 19 July.

Members received confirmation of the study groups they had chosen to attend in the coming year.
Information was given about meetings of the joint U3A Health Care Group, a study day “Understanding the Three E’s – Economics, the Environment and Europe” and an exhibition of paintings by Robina Hattersley based on her trip to India.

The monthly Newsletter contained details of outings to Exeter and a performance by Welsh National Opera and a Mystery Tour and also notices of the Archaeology and Walkers groups.

The morning’s speaker was Richard Munro on “The Mission Aviation Fellowship”, a Christian organisation formed in 1945 by ex-RAF personnel.  MAF provides air transport taking disaster relief and personnel to needy people in remote areas – jungles, deserts, mountains and swamps.  He was a helicopter pilot who felt there must be something better to do with aircraft than make war.  MAF work in more than 39 countries, but mostly in Africa, with a multinational team, which includes much needed engineers for whom they give training scholarships.  Their work can be described as “helping people” and also “helping people to do what they do”.  So they fly personnel from organisations such as Oxfam, Médecin sans Frontières, Christian Mission Aid and others to disaster zones. They also fly in supplies for activities such as healthcare, refugee care, water engineering and medical emergencies.  A MAF aircraft takes off to help someone somewhere every 3 minutes and the benefits can be clearly seen in that a 40 minute air trip can replace a 7 hour road journey and a 4 ½ hour journey over a mountain ridge can be completed in 6 minutes by air.

This was a most informative talk about an organisation doing highly valuable work.  It was illustrated with some touching stories and pictures of individual people and specific situations.  The vote of thanks was given by Peter Tee.

The next meeting is on Wednesday 16 August at our usual venue when the speaker will be Geoffrey Brown on “A Glimpse into the lives of Henrietta and Hilary Bankes of Kingston Lacey”. 

New members are always given a warm welcome and information on membership can be obtained by phoning 01722 322570