London is On!

Friends - this has been a momentus week in the life of the M/V Africa Mercy. This project to prepare this ship for service into Ghana and Liberia this year is in "crunch time". That's why there is no more vacation days allowed for us (or any of the technical crew) through July. It was decided that we are "going for it" and sailing this ship down to London for its commissioning ceremonies on April 1. That is just around the corner. So much progress has been made but so much more to accomplish over the next 4 weeks. Almost an impossible task if it wasn't for the fact we know God is here to finish this ship. More carpets and vinyl being laid, more furniture aboard, the reception desk is starting to be buildt. The one major problem we have is there is no fire alarm system on the ship so all the people that were going to sail on the ship may not get to go. The technical crew will be the only ones allowed to sail her. This will probably include Robert but not Susan. About 50 people that need to work all the receptions will be bussed to London. We are to receive the ship one day and sail her the next day. Which leaves no time to clean the ship. We will arrive in London the day before the ceremonies begin and Susan gets 3 people to help clean 8 decks of a 500 foot ship. Please pray for her! These are crazy times but exciting. We can never complain that we are bored, just exhausted. Do you know Susan has 48,000 square foot of floor space to wax - and about 38,000 square foot to carpet clean. How would you like that job? That doesn't count the 38 public bathrooms and showers, the 1 million square feet of glass and chrome to clean, walls (bulkheads) and ceiling (deckheads) ....okay I'm even tired just talking about it so I think I'll stop. Here is Robert standing in our soon to be new home. And then a picture of one of my areas of responsibility, the crew laundry. We are just getting 9 washers and 9 dryers installed. The dryers sit on top of the washers. They are the European Wesco commercial equipment. These washers frustrate Americans because no matter what size load you put in them (and they don't hold as much as an American machine) it will take 1 hour to wash and 1 hour to dry. AND THAT IS THE FAST CYCLE! They on the other hand are very efficient on water using less than half the water our machines use but twice as much electricity because they cycle for so long. On the ship that is not a problem because our generators onboard generate over 5 megawatts - enough to power a small city. Hopefully, this massive generator will always insure air conditioning will stay on during our stay in Africa. It will be even more important our AC works well than on the Anastasis because our windows do not open and we would just be one boiling pot of missionaries on that ship.

This ship will hold 484 crew members, however, we only have approximately 120 working crew members from now until after we take possession of the ship. That is so our new crew will have some place to live (on the ship). We are spending way too much money being housed in the local communities and can't rent more houses at this point because there is a minimum of a 3 month lease.

PRAYER REQUESTS

• A good finish to the ship
• Favor with the people of London that they will catch the vision of our ship and help raise funds to support our efforts
• Safety for the ship and crew as it sails to London April 1 - 10
• Enough people to do all the jobs left to complete
• Cleaning supplies and equipment to be ordered and arrive in time for London and initial cleaning
• People are getting tired and on edge - for grace with each other
• Health for all crew and family
• Prayerful leadership
• For those crew that are to join us and yet have been delayed many times, for their funding, for the sale of their homes and vehicles. And for a sustained excitment to join us.
• For our Advance Team that leaves for Ghana to scope out all the projects on March 1
• For our family and friends at home that are missing us and for us as we miss our friends and family