COMMISSIONG OF THE M/V AFRICA MERCY

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I'd like to take you on a tour of our ship through the eyes of those who cleaned the ship to get ready for our auspicious Commissioning event on April 6. Remember, this is still a construction zone and it looked like it when we first started. God sent me a cleaning angel. Her name is Sue and she works for the shipyard. What a dynamo this woman is and I was able to coordinate our efforts through her, supplied some staff and we just barely made it after a week of hard cleaning.

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Here I am inspecting the ICU. Our job was to clean the "Parade Route" or that part of the ship our guests would be shown. It included the gangway, reception, dining room, corridors down starboard through the cafe, 2 cabins, stairways, the CT scanner room, ICU ward and a regular ward.

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Here is how one of the rooms cleaned up. This is a family cabin on Deck 5. Robert and my cabin is not so spacious but lovely just the same.

FOR MORE PICTURES OF THIS EVENT SEE THE SIDE BAR ON OUR BLOG SITE http://useuslord.blogspot.com TO THE RIGHT AND CLICK ON LATEST PICURES - Then go to April 5 and April 6.

All that work for a 3 hour event but Praise the Lord during the event there was a $125,000 donation to our children's school as well a donation of mattress covers for every mattress from JC Penneys and an addition $2 Million raised. Our hospital is nearly completely stocked and funded and now the money coming in is being raised to fund the development projects in Ghana.

We had Good Friday off - - let me restate that - SUSAN had Good Friday off. The shipyard wanted to run engine tests at 3am on Good Friday so that's where Robert and all the other Engineering and Deck crew were. They fortified our ropes to the dock, put her in high gear and churned up a ton of water. There was always a danger of a) pulling the ballards out of the dock and setting sail down the river b) churning up all the mud from the bow of our ship and depositing them in front of the dry dock gate c) catching fire in the engine room d) burning out the bearings. Thank God none of that happened, the tests went very well. We were able to reach about 80% power. It showed us where Engineering still had some work to do but it was a good test.

Susan on the other hand went out with 12 other friends to Holy Island about 1 1/2 north of Newcastle on the Eastern coast. Holy Island is the point of entry into England for Christianity about 700 AD. The priory (monk house) there is where they translated, without the help of a computer mind you, and hand copied the scriptures. Part of the "Adventure" was a 2 hour walk across the ocean bottom at low tide to the island. It was a cold and blustery day. Winds of about 40 mph kept blowing us down in the mud. We had to hurry to beat the rising tides. It was a great day but here 2 days later my body still aches all over except my hair.

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FOR MORE PICTURES OF HOLY ISLAND SEE THE SIDE BAR ON OUR BLOG SITE http://useuslord.blogspot.com/ TO THE RIGHT AND CLICK ON LATEST PICURES AND CLICK ON APRIL 14.

AND FINALLY ....The news I promised you about 2 weeks ago. Are you ready? It's not a big secret but we've to hold EVERYTHING very lightly here as it changes almost on an hourly basis. But we are 80.5% sure that it won't change, at least for now anyway. Robert and I are going back to the Anastasis! Susan and most of the Operations Managers as well as the Programs Managers (Health care, Development and Evangelism) are being sent to the Anastasis in early June to take over the Anastasis from the existing crew. The Anastasis is being decommissioned and sold for scrap. We thought that would happen in July as soon as the Africa Mercy pulled along side her and we transferred resources and crew but now the Africa Mercy won't be ready till October we decided to start our outreach using the Anastasis as the tool. This is a HUGE paradygm shift in thinking for Mercy Ships. And those managers that are headed over as well as those that stay behind now have to operate 2 ships instead of 1. This was good news for Robert and I because we had come very close to the end of our rope here in England. The cost alone was more than we could bare much longer and the call back to Africa is so strong. We are praising God for this opportunity although we understand the shear amount of work that is going to be required of Susan for the next year.

Robert and I are wishing you and yours a very blessed and Happy Easter. It is truly a day to celebrate, the day our salvation was secured - - bought and paid for.