Greater Things He Will Do

Well it has been roughly 8 years in the making, but the Africa Mercy has finally arrived in Liberia. In what was a very emotional day for everyone involved, the Anastasis crew welcomed the newest Mercy Ship into the Freeport to take over the remainder of the Liberia field service.

We were up and out on the dock at 6am for what we thought was a 7am arrival of the ship, however due to the tug boats schedule, the Africa Mercy was not able to be tugged into the harbour until around 10am. It was pretty cool to see her coming in from to the dock, having last time been on the ship as it arrived to the same location!

As she drew closer to her berth, we were able to sing some great west African praise songs, and slowly start to recognise people on board. My ward supervisor and old boss was one of the crew members, and many others who had left the Anastasis to go and set up the Africa Mercy. It was great to see so many faces of people we knew!

Once she had docked propperly and the gangway had been lowered, the Arfica Mercy let off her horn, and the Anastasis did in return. However the Ana's horn became stuck - so we got to listen to the noise of the ships horn for about 5 minutes before she ran out of compressed air. I think it was the Anastasis having her final say!

My favourite part of the day was running around the dock carrying the New Zealand flag! What fun. It was especially fitting as there were a few Kiwis on board the AFM, and they felt welcome hopefully as a result of my flag waving antics!

Well the view from my porthole is now a little different! Instead of a nice view accross the harbour, I have a large white Mercy Ship blocking it! It is not the most beautiful ship but with her projected surgical capacity of approximately 7,000 operations per year including cataract removal/lens implant, tumor removal, cleft lip and palate reconstruction, orthopaedics and obstetric fistula repair, The Africa Mercy effectively doubles Mercy Ships capacity to provide free health care and community development services.

Now for my final week and a half in west Africa, I will be carrying hundreds of boxes from one ship to the other and setting up the new ward. A lot of hard work, and a pity I do not get to live on board the AFM - I think I might just have to come back! Great things God has done through the Anastasis, and greater things he will do through the Africa Mercy!