The News!

Dear friends,

It is with great joy that Lorah and I share with you the news of our decision to return to Mercy Ships long term! We will be committed for a period of at least two years and may stay for many more.

From now until mid January, Lorah and I will be focusing on raising awareness and support for our work of compassion. We have a budget of $4,000 per month to cover all of our expenses and responsibilities (taxes, health insurance, crew fees, travel expenses, etc.). Our priority is to establish a base of monthly partners that will be committed to alleviating some of the stress of raising our own funds.

In January, we will begin a Gateway training program. This will encompass a one-month classroom training phase that will focus on our personal spiritual development, understanding the structure and processes of Mercy Ships and where we fit into it and a two-and-a-half week outreach phase in the Dominican Republic.

After we finish our Gateway training, we will join the m/v Africa Mercy for a field service in Benin, West Africa. Lorah will be serving as Crew Services Manager. Her responsibilities will include managing and directing the salon, library, cleaning and laundry departments. I will be serving as an engineering officer. My responsibilities will include standing watches and operation and maintenance of the ship's machinery.

The field service in Benin will last for approximately ten months. During this time, doctors and nurses will be busy attending to the dire medical needs of people with no other hope for healing. Surgeons on board will fix cataracts, clubbed feet, cleft lips, remove tumors, and provide many other medical services that the people of Benin would else wise not have available.

At the end of this ten month period, we will likely sail for a shipyard and short port-stay outside of West Afirca to allow for repairs and a little down time for the crew. Then it will be off to another West African destination on our mission of mercy.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with Mercy Ships, it is an international non-denominational Christian medical missions organization that operates hospital ships in poor regions of the world with the mission of bringing hope and healing to the forgotten poor. Mercy Ships desires to serve the forgotten poor in a holistic manner, addressing the physical, mental and spiritual suffering that is so prevalent in under-developed regions of the world.

Thanks for stopping by, come back again soon, as we will be keeping you up to date with our support raising effort and impending move to Texas.

-Justin