The Irony

31 years doing something you really hate does seem ridiculous. Confession, they say, is good for the soul, so here goes.

Let me ease into it though. If you know us, you know the 'good' stuff ... the incredible privilege we have of serving the heath care needs of the forgotten poor over three decades. Over those years  we've worked with 4 Mercy Ships, in 7 major start-up or ministry transition phases, ministered in 32/ 54 countries (depending which of us you're speaking to). We've raised our kids across the world in our calling to serve Jesus by serving the most desperate. Each one of us is richer for it, what a life!

                                                                       

But we're not good about talking about the hard stuff, and the most consistent difficulty we have faced over those years has been raising personal sponsorship,

We are facing a major crunch as our long-term and largest supporter sends their last cheque in December. This church has had a change of regional focus and is no longer able to include us with their missionaries. Added to a dramatic increase in house rates in our region, our monthly deficit will be around $1,500.

So would you please pray for us. Pray for a release in finances, and please consider and pray about being part of the answer to our need for missions partners to help cover

• $1,500 in monthly support 
• $2,000 for upcoming dental and opthalmic bills
• for a desperately needed and long over-due first laptop/tablet for my work 

So, we do that stuff we hate - like fundraising -  because of what we love - following Jesus example in helping 'the least of these'.

If you want to make a gift towards our ongoing ministry with Mercy Ships, we would be hugely grateful. Please head to www.mercyships.org/international and select your nation of origin . By making a donation at the correct location you may be eligible for a tax receipt. Be sure and designate your gift for GRAEME & SHARON WALLS or it will go into the general fund for the ministry. Alternatively, please email us and we can provide the details you need.

As we watched this video recently it reminded us all over again of why we hang in there in order to do what we love. NOTE: this video comes with a mascara warning! Watch video>>  I know it will bless you too!

Phew! Thanks for 'bearing with'.

Many blessings,

Graeme and Sharon

Plans!

A red-carpet Premiere honouring some true unsung heroes. I am soo excited about this extraordinary event.I am soo excited about this extraordinary event a group of post-grad uni students is working with us to host on October 9^th. This totally impacting trailer is 4 minutes long and well worth the watch >>>

So, if you  are in Auckland on Thursday next week, you and your friends are invited to attend the FREE Premiere of The Surgery Ship. Medical people and uni students will be particularly interested in the angle taken in the documentary filmed on the ship in Guinea. The details and booking form are here>>>. We would love to see you there!

It is with immense heart-ache that we in Mercy Ships have been watching and praying as the Ebola virus had ravaged the nations we serve, and thrown the lives of many friends and their families into turmoil. Our hearts desperately want to be there to help, but prayerful risk assessment tells us that the presence of the hospital ship would be simply counterproductive in the situation where people flock to any hope of help. The Africa Mercy has very limited isolation facilities and the crew is not equipped to work in these kinds of conditions.

So what can we do? Mercy Ships is using our African channels of relationship to send desperately needed equipment and supplies into the affected areas. We’re praying, and we remain completely committed to serving the people of this region. But we are unable to make a return visit until the situation has stabilised. It is so very, very hard!

In a 12^th-hour contingency, a prayerful course correction has Mercy Ships returning to serve the people of Madagascar, 18 years after the Anastasis’ visit. In early November the Africa Mercy will begin a seven-month field service on one of the world’s largest islands,  off Africa’s east coast. Unlike the Disney depiction, this nation of 22 million suffers under extreme poverty with over 90% of the population surviving on less than $NZ 2.50 per day.

I often lean into this verse these days; “Man plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps.” Please pray with us for an end to the Ebola epidemic, and for the Lord to bless our work for the poorest of the Madagasky people.

On the home front, we are preparing to step into a new season as Daniel, our youngest, finished high school in a few weeks. Where did the years go? Chelsea’s nursing degree has been held up a little this semester as she has been gaining perspective from the other side of the hospital bed – she badly broke her ankle skateboarding. The empathy gained will certainly make her a better nurse, and she has been such a trooper ... but glad her cast will be off for the summer,

Graeme and I? Well, we have some VERY exciting plans for 2015, but that will have to wait for another time!

Thank you for your encouragement, financial support, and prayers as we serve the Kingdom through Mercy Ships.

Many blessings!

Graeme and Sharon

Making some noise

We had some "David and Goliath' type excitement recently. The Mercy by Moonlight  fundraising event we ran for Mercy Ships was awarded first in the Not-for-profit category of the Public Relations Institute of NZ's annual industry awards.

This was the only sector to have conjoint firsts, and we felt honoured to stand alongside Telecom Foundation's Give A Little campaign. Other sector winners included Fonterra, ANZ and Westpac Banks, NZ Police and Porter Novelli - so it certainly profiled Mercy Ships NZ on a professional platform! We had immediate opportunity to communicate WHY Mercy Ships does what we do and the foundation our faith plays in bringing hope and healing to the poor.

Mercy by Moonlight was an evening ferry cruise on Auckland's Waitemata harbour. It was created to raise awareness, increase media exposure and fundraise for free surgeries provided onboard. Our 258 guests sailed for two jazz-filled hours while enjoying wine and canapes, silent auctions and inspirational storytelling by the local crew. A dynamic video tastefully focused the evening on the life-changing services Mercy Ships provides. The event raised more than NZ$13,000 for free surgeries onboard, and 20 different articles appeared in local and national media, including front page coverage.

Our wee Mercy Ships NZ team received a huge amount of help in running the event from Rhema Broadcasting's Laurel McCullock, and MIT students Christine and Shivani ... the event was also the application component of my (Sharon's) Communications studies at uni. Now that's what I call two birds with one stone!

PRINZ Judges' comment: Mercy by Moonlight was a one-off event with long term positive repercussions for the organisation. Mercy Ships had an almost non-existent budget, yet still managed to grow it's database and strengthen media relationships. This project obviously touched the hearts of those who could support Mercy Ships.

The other great family news is that Jason, who is completing his last year of his Business/Communications conjoint degree has just been offered a full-time job at the National Business Review - his first choice and one of the country's most prestigious business publications. We are thrilled. Chelsea is loving nursing and is working through her second year of studies, and is living life with enthusiasm. Daniel is contemplating what he will do after his last year of high school concludes in November. Graeme keeps us all on an even keel and chuckling at his puns and tricks - which is a mean feat given the amount of responsibility he caries. In addition to his directorship of Mercy Ships NZ, Graeme has been serving for a couple of years as the Chairperson of the local church we attend and really enjoys it. This year I have finally graduated with my Diploma in Communications.

After just 10 months in the Republic of Congo, more than 2,200 people received a free, life-transforming surgery onboard the Africa Mercy. People like 17-year-old Grace (above),  who now has a regular teenage's expectation for her  future, and young Jordis who can now play soccer with his mates after his foot's 'elephantitus' was corrected, and pint-sized Clare - the courageous woman barely topping four foot whose goitre comprised 35% of her body weight. Each of these amazing people were weighed down with not only terrible physical conditions, but were also the subjects of frequent torment and superstition.What a privilege to be a part of setting them free! 10,000 people in pain received dental care, and hundreds of others received eye and other treatments. Hundreds of other received training in agriculture, sanitation  and hygiene, and mentoring and further education in areas of health care and surgery.

Now it's transition time for the Africa Mercy. The vessel is in annual dry-dock in the Canary Islands and many of the long term crew are having some R&R. In August the ship will sail to Benin for the next 10 month field service in this desperately needy French-speaking nation.

Thank you for your encouragement, financial support and prayers as we serve Jesus and His heart for the broken and forgotten.

Many blessings!

Graeme, Sharon and family

Check out our website for more ship information, videos, and patient stories

Emmanoel's Tomorrow

An individual, a personal story, a life changed forever. Whenever anyone asks about what we do, the answer from me is always about transformational change.  As Mercy Ships approaches the final weeks of our 10 month field service in the Republic of Congo, the statistics are beginning to be complied. For many (those wired a little more like Graeme, maybe) it's vital to be able to measure our impact and hold us accountable logistically - not that I mind, just don’t ask me to crunch the numbers! (Do you want to see the stats?) Me? Well, I want to tell you all about Emmanoel.

As this precious wee man reached his second birthday, he struggled to breathe.  His parents were able to get him to a local doctor who diagnosed malaria, but instead of improving, Emmanoel's breathing became more restricted and laboured. Eventually the doctor informed them the cause was in fact a tumour growing rapidly in the toddler's palate - he would not live until his third birthday. The doctor knew what to do to treat the wee patient, but had no surgical skills to save his life.

Emmanoel and his parents were among the 7000 people who attended the Mercy Ships surgical screening day at the beginning of the field service. While they were waiting in line to be accessed for treatment, Emmanoel stopped breathing. His parent's distress altered the emergency medical team who were able to resuscitate him, and he was placed at the top of the surgical schedule.

Because of the tumour, Emmanoel's mother had never heard his voice. She didn't have long to wait ... his first word was Mother! His second word was Uncle (a bit to his father's concern!). The third word Emmanoel ever uttered was ... tomorrow!

That one word sums up why we invest all our 'todays' in serving the poorest of the poor. What a privilege to be part of bringing 'tomorrows' to people in such need of both hope and healing.                                                                                                                                                      

On the big picture scale, we do have some exciting news - there's a new baby coming on the block! Well, the sea. Mercy Ships has started work on building a new hospital ship from the ground up. Already with a significant percentage of the costs specifically donated, the new ship at 37,000 gross tonnes will be larger than the Africa Mercy. With more than double the number of hospital beds and 200 more crew, this vessel with dramatically increase our capacity to provide desperately needed health care services to the West and Central Africa region. There will  be a strong focus on training and mentoring local medical professionals in the nations we serve. With deployment expected sometime in 2018, our task here in New Zealand to recruit crew and raise funds for surgeries and operational costs just became a lot bigger. Exciting, scary, wonderful!

Your support and prayers are hugely appreciated as we work to serve the Kingdom by serving 'the least of these.'

Our gift for you this Christmas

We are delighted to be able to share a special gift with you this year ..... as part of my finial uni project, I (Sharon) worked on a gift package of 2014 calender images for your desktop wallpaper (you know, the picture behind the icons on your computer screen). It's a funny story actually, as I have always just had the default picture my computer screen - so this was a real learning curve - but an exciting one.

So this is how it works. Head over to this page on our Mercy Ships NZ website, and you can see some of the African and nautical images that, along with inspiring quotes from across the ages, make up the different wallpapers  http://www.mercyships.org.nz/wallpaper.php  You sign up to download the January image, then at the beginning of each month Mercy Ships NZ will email you the next month's wallpaper. Nifty eh?

I had you in my heart in the midst of the design process - a small way to say thank you for all your support and encouragement and friendship over the years (Really, I absolutely did!)

Christmas blessings to you and yours from us all!

The Surgery Ship

“They” say you should never start a communication with an apology ... so I’m not sure how “they’ deal with the feeling rotten over being so overwhelmed with work, commitments, uni, and family events that there actually hasn't been time to communication significantly with people you care about, in a while? If you know “them”, please ask and let me know, OK?

Entering the Congo

Our Mercy Ships field service in the Republic of Congo – also known as Congo-Brazzaville - began with a huge event. The process to gather patients in a nation involves a Screening or Patient Selection Day. The ship medical staff set up in a local event centre where people were examined, medical histories recorded, blood samples taken, assessments done. The patients we are able to help are booked for appointments. More than 300 of our crew worked 12 hours that day to facilitate and process the more than 7,000 desperate people looking for help for their conditions. The last patients were examined by torchlight.

The French speaking nation has huge needs despite receiving much aide over many years. Still, 1 in 14 children die before their 1^st birthday! Pygmies are still held in indentured labour by other tribes, and the war in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (which ironically is neither Republican nor democratic) has roll-on effects for many even as far away as the coastal region where the Africa Mercy is docked in Point-Noir – with a bunch of Kiwis serving onboard, we’re delighted to say!

Our work in the New Zealand office under girds the transformation of the outcast and forgotten through the provision of surgeries, medical services and associated projects by recruiting volunteers and raising funds to carry out the work. From NZ we currently have an anaesthetist, ward and theatre nurses, an engineering store man, a second officer, a housekeeper, a dentist and administrators serving on-board the ship – with a surgeon arriving shortly. Each play an vital  yet diverse part of bringing hope and healing in Jesus' name to people who have no means of getting their needs met under normal circumstances.

Surgery Ship

... is a very real and raw piece of television (medical professionals will LOVE the surgery scene) which revealed something I have never heard before – the (translated) overheard conversations between patients about what they really think about Mercy Ships and the God they have glimpsed through the love and care they have received. It's an utterly astounding programme!   You can view the short trailer ;     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhHvquE8fNg 

Unfortunately The Surgery Ship doesn't want to link, but it is well worth copying and pasting into your browser to view!
 If you are in Australia, this really incredible documentary is to be aired 8;30pm on December 10^th on SBS.  (They  said if there is enough feedback, it could be aired in NZ too, so please make a comment!)                                                                                          

Milestones

One of us recently turned 50, and another of us turns 21 shortly (any guesses?!). We've been busy with planning various themed celebrations, having fun together, and enjoying the really special extended family visits that have/will happen as part of it all.

In the midst, I had the privilege of attending the Mercy Ships Global Leaders Workshop with Graeme in Texas this year. On the way we spent time in both California and Idaho with some amazing friends who have stood by us in prayer and financial support of our ministry for many years. It is wonderful how we can pick up mid-sentence after years of not hanging out, and still have such great fun together. On to the Mercy Ships International Operations Centre where it was hugely exciting to hear more of what the Lord is doing. The main take away for me (apart from fabulous time with fantastic friends from way back – and a surprize party!) was the focus on stopping a report to thank God for the particular blessing, or to pray for a desired outcome in the midst of challenging circumstances. The Lord is firmly in the driver’s seat of Mercy Ships and we’re excited about where we’re headed! More on a NEW SHIP next time!

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