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From
Africa Mercy to Anastasis
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 Just a
quick note, as I prepare to fly to Benin for a 12-day assessment trip,
to let you know what I am up to these days.
My 6 months in Newcastle, England, with the Africa Mercy has come to an
end. I seem to be missing the snow all around...the snowfall melted in
New Hampshire before I arrived home for Christmas and now that I'm no
longer in Newcastle, they have a lingering snowfall! Of course, in
Newcastle, that means frozen pipes at the office.
It was a challenging time in Newcastle and not one I was anxious to
repeat, which makes it a bit harder to understand why I actually said
"Yes" when the executive director of the Africa Mercy asked me to return
full-time and see the ship through deployment and the first outreach or
two. I believe it's the right thing and trust God has something exciting
in store for me. My deciding moment came when our Chief Engineer related
that he had key people in each subdepartment and I realized that all
these men and women are laboring (I almost spelled that 'labouring',
I've been in England too long; I'm also struggling to remember which
side of the road is the right side for driving.) to build a ship
primarily for my department. Anything else we do doesn't require a ship
or a hospital, but the operations do. These people have a vision that I
sometimes struggle to keep in sight. I knew then I had to say yes.
Among other things, it means a commitment of another 2-3 years with
Mercy Ships. I am currently back on the Anastasis for 4 months, to help
with the second half of the outreach here in Sierra Leone and the first
few weeks in Liverpool in June. Norma, who filled my role in my absence,
will continue on in that role. This gives us a bit more transition time,
but is also difficult for me because I'm not quite sure where my
responsibilities begin and end.
In my new role, I will be the HealthCare Manager on the Africa Mercy,
overseeing the continued procurement, but also the development of
healthcare programs. At this point, the Africa Mercy is slated to be
completed in November/December of this year/ The first quarter of next
year will be set aside for technical staff training and team-building as
crew join, then there will be a public relations tour that may or may
not include the US, and finally we will head to Africa (country to be
determined) in October/November of 2005.
March 3rd at 7am a team of four of us will leave the Anastasis via
zodiac to cross the river to the Freetown airport for a 9am flight to
Guinea (see photos of interior and shadow during flight). After a 30 minutes flight, we will wait about 5 hours before
catching a flight to Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. Another long wait there and
it will be off to Cotonou, Benin. We should arrive at 0115am on Thursday
morning! The airlines are none I've ever heard of, so this could be
interesting: Royal Air Maroc, West Coast Airways, Air Senegal, and Air
Ivoire. I'm planning to take everything in a carry-on to make sure it
arrives with me. On the return, March 13-14, we have an overnight in
Conakry, Guinea. I'm already trying to figure out if any of my favorite
restaurants there will be open :) I think it's unlikely as we arrive
late Saturday night and leave early evening Sunday.
Would you please pray for clarity as we determine what projects the
Anastasis HealthCare, Community Development, and Outreach teams work on
when the ship returns to Benin in October? We'll probably be working
closely with Pastor Romain Zannou and some evangelists he mentors. Pray
that we'll be able to make necessary contacts. I'm hoping I'll be
able to use one of our former translators for the days that we split up
and head in different directions since I understand more French than I
speak and that isn't very much! |
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