By Adele Wickett

THE WORLD’S LARGEST charity hospital ship, the Africa Mercy,  sailed May 4 out of Blyth, England – following eight years of conversion work and global fundraising.

While the former Danish rail ferry underwent refit in the UK, many Canadians gave financially and volunteered their time and efforts to complete the project.

Vancouver Island has a special connection to the ministry.

Mercy Ships Canada recently announced the appointment of Marjorie Brown-Watts as executive director, based at the Canadian national office in Victoria.

Brown-Watts steps into the position with more than 30 years of experience in government and private sectors.

Since 1998, as founder and CEO of Globalinc International, Brown-Watts has helped build organizational capacity with public, private, international non-governmental (INGO) and philanthropic clients.

Her primary task has been to find matching non-venture funds and build sustaining partnerships between the donor and recipient organizations and their respective stakeholders.

With this wealth of vocational and personal experiences, Brown-Watts offers a creative and faith-based approach to delivering the message of Mercy Ships to Canadians.

Belief in Christ, she told BCCN, is a key component of her work. “As a life-long committed Christian,” she said, “I see the Mercy Ships mandate to ‘bring hope and healing to the world’s forgotten poor’ as an inspiring approach to undertaking God’s will on earth. I am honoured to take on this new challenge.”

The Africa Mercy is now a state-of-the-art hospital ship, costing some $70 million to convert. During her last week in the Blyth harbour, workers loaded more than $2 million worth of supplies and equipment onto the ship, transforming it from an empty shell into a floating hospital and small village.

In addition to the hospital supplies, such essential goods as 3,000 toilet rolls, 400 waste paper bins, 26.8 tons of frozen meat and fish, 420 kg of coffee courtesy of Starbucks and 4,000 kg of breakfast cereal swung aboard.

All that coffee will fuel more than 400 volunteers who will provide free medical care, surgeries, relief aid and community development help to people in war-torn Liberia.  

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All the crew on board the Africa Mercy  pay monthly room and board costs during their short-term or long-term stints onboard. Doctors, dentists, nurses, community developers, teachers, builders, cooks, seafarers and engineers donate their time and skills.

Lord Ian McColl, chair of Mercy Ships UK and vice chair of Mercy Ships International, said: “This is a truly momentous day for Mercy Ships. I have worked as a volunteer surgeon on many occasions with Mercy Ships and I am very much looking forward to working on this purposely converted state-of-the-art hospital ship.”

The Africa Mercy is the fourth vessel to be operated by the international charity, Mercy Ships, which has provided more than $600 million worth of services since its inception in 1978.

The projected surgical capacity onboard the Africa Mercy is approximately 7,000 operations per year including cataract removal/lens implant, tumour removal, cleft lip and palate reconstruction, orthopaedics and obstetric fistula repair.

A young man from the Island is serving on the ship’s maiden voyage.

At age 15, Tom Drinkwater – great-grandson of a sea captain – was wandering around the booths of Missions Fest in Vancouver. He encountered Mercy Ships, and that discovery channelled his life into preparation for serving the Lord on the high seas.

Over the past seven years, Drinkwater has followed his passion by earning a BTh at Taylor University in Edmonton, attending Discipleship Training School with Youth With A Mission (YWAM), and joining the Naval Reserves to qualify as a bosun’s mate.

As BCCN  went to press, all that preparation came together as Drinkwater landed in Liberia aboard the Africa Mercy.

“He wanted to go out and make a difference,” said his parents, Doug and Loraine Drinkwater.

“He went on a church mission trip to Romania, and he helped run summer camps and fix buildings in extremely remote northern areas with YWAM. These trips made him really feel that this was his calling.”

Going to Africa will test Drinkwater’s skills in all areas. He’s a deckhand at sea, but in port one  might find him running children’s programs or helping to dig a well or a septic system in a village. That’s when all his preparation will come in handy.

Contact: 250-381-2160 or mercyships.org.

June 2007