Once again, it is the season of Lent: the season for preparing our hearts and minds for Easter. For the 5th time, Mercy Ships has set aside these 40 days as a time of prayer and fasting beginning February 27th and ending at Easter.
SCRAP, RUBBISH, and DEBRIS REMOVALS
The ship’s crew were called upon to remove old items and equipment, debris from work and rubbish from the ship. The deck crew also removed scrap materials and other salvageable waste. In all, about 20 tons were handled by the deck department, much of it by hand.
Now it is time for them to return to their families in Nepal…..thank you Om, Pradip, Bharat & Tek for your faithful & diligent service & may God bless you as you return to the mountains of Nepal…you will be greatly missed!!Meanwhile we'd also like to say a big welcome to 4 new security guards, Lum, Ras, Shyam & Bablu. Please pray for them as they settle into life on the Africa Mercy, for their safety during their watches and that they will see and know the love Jesus in their lives.
O Lord, You have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. You hem me in-behind and before; You have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your Presence?
If I go to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. (taken from Psalm 139)
Hopefully you have all caught up on the news that we are expecting our first child in April. So far both mother and child are growing rapidly! And the father is coping well with the extra chores like carrying the shopping and putting up with the strange antics of a pregnant woman. As you can see by the picture even Aunty Sally spent some time introducing herself over Christmas. (click on the movie to hear what she had to say) 
Deck Leaders from L-R:
Lars (2nd Officer-Danish), Jurryan (Captain-Dutch), Lee (2nd Officer-S.African), Lawrence (Bosun-Ghanaian), Tim (Chief Officer-USA) & Rodrigo (3rd Officer-Brazilian)
Quite a mix of nationalities
The wives from L-R:
Gina (Ghanaian), Tatyana (Brazilian), Rahel (Swiss), Dana (S.African), Sharon (UK) & Lena (Swedish)
Due to the delays of the deployment of the Africa Mercy the outreach in Ghana has continued by using the Anastasis as it's platform. Many of you will remember the fun "christmas gift ideas" of last year that were available to purchase from the Africa Mercy to support projects in Ghana like beekeeping, mushrooms, rabbits and snails. The response from that plea was amazing and has enabled many projects to take place through our Construction & Development Services (CDS) who transferred down to Ghana in June.
The excitement started in Newcastle when a whole load of funky wellies / gumboots (...USA translation) & beekeeping clothes were donated.
Now - the training is well underway for the beekeeping side of things.
Currently 52 Ghanaian women are being trained in the art of beekeeping as part of a micro enterprise initiative for women.
They were given new bee hives and apiary tools to maintain them and of course the trendy beekeeping outfits.
The hives were placed in 13 locations throughout the region and were baited to attract the bees. We are praying that they will “bee” swarming before time! The initiative is being conducted in co-operation with the forestry commission of Ghana. They were asked to locate poor women who would benefit immediately from a source of income, who were farmers and who were willing to share with others what they had been taught. Among the trainees were 2 prison officials who will teach the skills to female inmates to provide an income on their release.
A second phase of training will be held to teach then how to harvest and market the honey and honey comb.
Yum yum, we just wish we were down there with our toast to try it out!
Each Wednesday night all the crew meet for our weekly community meeting. It’s a bit like our church with an opportunity to fellowship together. Since we’ve moved off the ship we’ve been hugely blessed by being able to use St John’s Church in Hebburn as a meeting place but we’ve looked forward to the day when we can hold our meetings on board again. We were able to have a one off test run last Wednesday.
The IT department has been busy fitting the sound equipment and what better excuse did we need than to hold a meeting to test it out. It seemed to work out well with just a few bugs to fix.
For Sharon, working with the worship teams has been such a blessing. In an ever changing community, the teams are constantly changing and putting together a team each week can get quite interesting. Sharon is currently working with Lawrence and the chaplain, Phil, to lead the worship and it has been great to work with Lawrence again after his move from the Anastasis. (Some of the church at Bethel Baptist, Llantwit Major may remember Lawrence when he came on a visit with the African Praise Band from the Anastasis). We are excited about how the teams are building and look forward to many more new crew joining them and also being re-united with those who transferred to the Anastasis.
It is strange how the rumble of long silent engines and the hum of long quiet machinery can change your feelings when you work on a project that has run far longer than anyone thought it might. Since last spring, various tests have been run on critical controls, systems and of course the main and auxiliary engines. Tim has been very involved in much of this work and is encouraged at each step. In late spring the main engines came to life and a while later the bow thrusters (propellers in the forward end of the ship that push the ship sideways). Steel became warm, pipes no longer empty, wires now energized. Wash swirled around the bow and stern of the ship, control lights glowed and the decks had that purposeful throb of the engines that will one day carry much hope, much relief, much healing to West Africa.
Since that time, tests, surveys, more tests and trials have continued. It is amazing to see what has been accomplished. In the coming weeks, the crew will now be preparing, finally, for the final stability tests and then long awaited Sea Trials where the entire ship will be put through its paces, all systems working for the first time as a coordinated whole. To achieve this next hurdle, many long hours of work are expected, but it is work that now seems to have more tangible or visible results in terms of completing the project and putting the ship finally into direct service for the Lord and His Kingdom.
At the beginning of June the outreach started off with a medical screening in Tema where by 8am at least 2000 were waiting in line to be seen by a doctor, with the hope of an appointment card, a miracle, a new life. 
