Event-city!

Life has been a mad scramble from one event to the next this year, but as a great friend says ”growth problems are good problems,” and we are really excited to see Mercy Ships NZ growing – in fact we have seen the charity’s income triple since our roles began here in 2008. That’s a whole lot more lives in desperate need impacted by the services Mercy Ships is able to provide. 

Here's a bit of a run-down of the past few months.

Mercy By Moonlight  was a special event we ran in May- an evening cruise around Auckland harbour, with drinks and nibbles and silent auctions. 

The fundraiser was a double whammy as it also served as my (Sharon’s) project with two other uni students for the Event Management paper I was doing.

We had a fabulous evening with 272 people on board the Fullers ferry (donated for the cruise) and they all seemed to enjoy the lovely harbour lights and moonlit water,jazz music, great food and wine and an opportunity to hang out with their friends doing something a little different for a great cause. We were blown away that $14,000 was raised to pay for surgeries aboard the Africa Mercy (and that we got an A+ for the project). A great number of people new to Mercy Ships were involved, which is just fabulous.

World Press Photo Exhibition is the world’s most prestigious showcase of photography, and this year the winner of the ‘Staged Portraits” section, Stephan Vanflateren, took his photos of our patients during the last field service in Guinea. 

“People of Mercy” are hauntingly beautiful images that really underline the dignity and courage of these wonderful people. It is incredible exposure at an unprecedented level in a rather new audience – all of which has to be good, right?!

©Stephan Vanflateren

Graeme and I gave a series of short presentations of “People of Mercy – the story behind the lens” on a couple of days at the Auckland exhibit, as well as for the event organisers. We shared the photographer’s heart to capture the person behind the disability, and the bigger story around the challenges facing people in developing nations. 

People were particularly interested to see and hear the before and after story of Mamadou, the young man with an entrepreneurial passion and an incredible determination to overcome. You can read his story here https://www.mercyships.org/mamadous-many-abilities

Goodbye Guinea, hello Congo-Brazzaville! After providing 2,400+ surgeries and 57,500+ other medical and dental services to Guinea wonderful people over the last 10 month field service, June saw the Africa Mercy in transition again – dry-docking, maintenance, restocking- then upping anchor to make the 12 day sail to the next port of call. 

Yesterday the ship arrived into our 11^th west coast port - Pointe Noir, Congo-Brazzaville - also known as the Republic of Congo. It’s the first time Mercy Ships has worked in the Central African region, and we are very excited about what the Lord has in store. We will have a strong emphasis on mentoring and training local medical professionals, as well as all the usual surgical and dental work.

Your prayers are appreciated for the Africa Mercy crew as they set up and begin screening patients, and for the patients to have courage, strength and hope as they wait for help.

NOTE: This is not the infamous Democratic Republic of Congo (or, as our kids call it, DR Congo)

Another Mercy Ship? We received the incredible news this week of a dedicated couple who gifted US$20 million towards the next Mercy Ship. The plans are already on the drawing board for the ocean-liner sized hospital ship, and tenders are being sought. Exciting, and intimidating as we can appreciate more than most after 5 ½ years in shipyard with the Africa Mercy, what a huge project this is! We need to rely on the Lord more than ever to see the new ship released in the next few years to minister to the vast health care needs of the poor in this region. Please pray with us to see the Lord's plans established.

You can visit the website for more information http://www.mercyships.org.nz