And We're Off!!

As many of you know, Mercy Ships has FINALLY announced country next (version 3) . . . we are on the Atlantic Ocean on our way to Madagascar via South Africa.  We left the Canary Islands a week ago and have been chugging along ever since.  We will be stopping in Capetown South Africa for about 3 weeks to support our South Africa office and to allow a few more weeks for our advance team in Madagascar.  The advance team is working feverishly to complete pre-arrival work for the ship.  This team normally has at least 4 months to do this work, in Madagascar, they will have six weeks!  As a perspective of the length of this voyage (the longest ever for the Africa Mercy), we are travelling just over 4,400 nautical miles to Capetown . . . at 12-13 miles per hour!  When we arrive in Madagascar, we will be in the port of Toamasina on the east coast and will be serving a population that is mostly new to us.

Here is an Ebola update . . . as of August 26, there were 3,069 cases including 1,552 deaths . . . as of September 14 there were 5,335 cases including 2,622 deaths.  This impact of this disease is growing at a huge rate.  On top of that, people are getting desperate in the affected countries.  Just this week, there were 8 people including pastors and government officials killed by a mob in southeast Guinea.  These people were there simply to educate others as to how to avoid Ebola and died for their efforts.  We specifically ask for prayer for the family of Rev Moise Mamy.  Rev Mamy helped to run a hospital that had close affiliation with Mercy Ships during our time in Guinea.  There are many people hurting over this loss tonight.

Last update for this entry, Denise and I have made the decision to end our time with Mercy Ships just a little early.  We will be flying back to the US somewhere between Dec 20 and Christmas.  Last year we stayed in Africa for Christmas due to only having limited time off of work and high costs of travel.  This decision, while logical, wasn't right for our family.  We vowed that we would spend Christmas with our kids this year.  Accordingly we planned on them joining us in West Africa for a couple weeks during the holiday season.  However, with the change to Madagascar, travel has greatly increased in both time and cost and significantly decreased in reliability.  So, we have decided to end this period of service in December.  On a really good note, because we discussed our challenges with Mercy Ships senior staff, replacements have already been found for our positions.  They will both be filled without an interruption in service.  We are very thankful for that!!

Here are a couple pictures from our sail today. . . it has been mostly overcast this week but after we crossed the equator in the middle of the night, the skies have cleared . . . but the ocean swells have increased!