"Mercy has arrived in Monrovia" said Don Stephens, founder of Mercy Ships of Garden Valley on Tuesday. Stephens spoke to the Tyler Morning Telegraph by phone from his stateroom on the Africa Mercy, the world's largest non-governmental hospital ship that docked in Monrovia, Liberia, that morning."
For years we've said (of the hospital ship) that 'mercy is coming, mercy is coming,'" Stephens said. "The sense I have on this very exciting day is that mercy has now arrived in Monrovia. Our mission is to deliver free world-class health care to the forgotten poor."Liberia's president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, will officially welcome Mercy Ships in a ceremony.
Africa Mercy docks with 474-member crew at the ship on Monday. Crew members and volunteers cheered and many were in tears, Stephens said, as the Africa Mercy docked near its sister-ship the Anastasis, the flagship for the Texas faith-based charity's medical mission for 29 years,The 16,500-ton Africa Mercy is 499 feet long and has six operating theatres, a 78-bed ward, dental clinic, CT scanner, X-ray room, pharmacy and berths for a 474-member crew."
A Swiss board member, Francoise Andre, onboard the Africa Mercy told me this was the most memorable day of her life," Stephens said. "This was significant because her husband's firm did the feasibility study for the Anastasis nearly 30 years ago.
They've been with us from the beginning."The purchase and conversion of the Africa Mercy, the former rail ferry Droning Ingrid, into a $62 million state-of-the-art hospital ship was funded by donations and gifts-in-kind, including a $10 million matching grant by the Swiss-based Oak Foundation, said Mercy Ships.
The first field service of the Africa Mercy will be led by a crew of more than 400 volunteer professionals from 30 nations, including doctors, dentists, nurses, community developers, teachers, builders, cooks, seamen and engineers.
In addition to donating their time, volunteers pay their own board costs to work on the Africa Mercy.Advance teams have already prescreened patients for the Africa Mercy, Stephens said."Tomorrow the medical volunteers will go over the schedule minute by minute," he said.
"What I'm going to do is visit the crews of each ship and express my gratitude to as many as I can meet."Flying to Liberia for the arrival of the ship, Stephens said he and his wife Deyon were approached by a Liberian man who's seen a BBC report on the new ship."
He was so grateful and told us the ship's effect 'will bless Liberia for decades to come,'" Stephens siad. "Many people on the plane were headed to Liberia on mission trips of their own, and were talking about the ship."The 53-year-old Anastasis, which means "resurrection" in Greek, will be retired this fall. It has served more than 275 ports, performed about 450,000 medical treatments and 200,000 operations for the charity since 1980.
"Seeing this day come fills me with gratitude to God and the faithful partners and staff who brought this to pass," Stephens said. "It prompts me to worship and get on my knees when I look over the three decades that Mercy Ships has been operating."
By PATRICK BUTLERReligion Editor - Tyler Paperreligion@tylerpaper.com
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