Lunch with 600 - by Kevin

Picture yourself eating lunch in a small restaurant with metal walls, packed with people from around the world.  It is loud, busy, controlled chaos.  Out of the window you can see poverty so intense and gut-wrenching that it overwhelms you.  

Mercy Ships surgical screening day, Sierra Leone, 2011

This is lunch on the Africa Mercy, docked in West Africa.  

How did all these people get here? How are they getting along with each other and providing a million dollars worth of care, every month, free of charge? 

It is a mystery of God's grace, but there is a method in the madness of serving lunch to 600-700 crew members, translators and dayworkers.  Of this group, only 120-150 are long-term crew (serving 10 months +), and they are the pillars that help keep the community in alignment with the core values of Mercy Ships.

This is one of the reasons that the Yangas family is in East Texas in the summertime for 6 weeks.  Having served with Mercy Ships for 8 (Rachel) and 6 (Kevin) years in the past, we are now, along with our 31 classmates, being prepared to be grafted again into the core of long-term crew on the Africa Mercy.  

Our OnBoarding classroom here in Texas

We are a beautifully diverse group on board the ship, from 30-40 different countries, but we must function in unity.  So we are learning about ship life, the history of Mercy Ships and basic safety - and all this is held together by the core values of Mercy Ships:

1) Love God

2) Love and serve others

3) Be people of integrity

4) Be people of excellence in all we say and do

Mercy Ships is a community of faith, intentional in following the 2,000 year old model of Jesus Christ.  The focus is to bring hope and healing to the forgotten poor, using hospital ships.  It takes short-term crew, long-term crew, supporters and donors, and above all God's love and grace.  I don't know how it works, but somehow it does.

Sambany had a 16.5 lb tumour removed on the ship in Madagascar this year.

We have committed to serve as volunteers for 3 years on board the Africa Mercy as part of the chaplaincy team, overseeing the spiritual and emotional wellbeing of the international crew of 400.  When our training here in Texas is complete we will re-join the ship at the end of July in Durban, South Africa.

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