Power the Vision

I don't often get much time to communicate about some of the things I think are important for our supporters to know about. I find that to be a frustrating condition of my job from time to time. Right now, that frustration is somewhat relieved by Mercy Ships' new blog, powerthevision.blogspot.com. I wanted to put a plug in for that site on here, as it is very important to me that those of you who are interested are able to keep up to date with what we are doing on board as much as possible. Visiting the Power the Vision blog will be a great way to do that.

While I'm on right now I'd like to take a bit of time to share some of the highlights for me of this project:

1. First and foremost, the Africa Mercy is going to be much more aptly equipped to serve the forgotten poor of Western Africa when we are finished. The new generating sets will be able to sustain the load required to power the ship on just two generators. In the past it took three of the four Frichs generators to power the ship, making maintenance much more difficult and critical since there was no stand It's not often that an engineer gets the opportunity to work on a project and see it directly benefit so many people. I love that part of my job.

2. The air conditioning for the vessel, though it's not on right now, is going to be much improved by the end of this project. The old, outdated and inefficient reciprocating compressors are being replaced with new, state of the art and efficient screw compressors. This change will free up nearly 200 man-hours a month to be applied to more productive goals than maintenance of an inadequate service. This is an invaluable benefit to the vessel and the crew!

3. Working on board during a technical phase as opposed to an outreach phase is a unique time with unique opportunities. There are fewer people on board and they are working more closely and from common backgrounds, resulting in a really positive morale and commaradarie. It has been such and enjoyable time working and living with other 'technically minded' people in a close community. 

Thanks to all of you who support us, it's great to experience all of the blessings that go along with the difficult job we have working to spread the love of Christ through helping the marginalized.

Africa Mercy Crew, 2010 Durban Dry Docking