Mark Elliott

Yes, a small plane on an African runway can only mean one thing, Mark is in Africa performing quality control testing of some aeronautic engineers work.

YEAH!!!!! Today is May Day in the former Communist nation of Congo. Yes May Day; that communist holiday where people who have no incentive to work because ambition is frowned on take a day of vacation to celebrate the 364 other days of laziness.......i.e. there is nothing happening today unless you are at the union halls or the bars. I think I know why bartenders aren't unionized...there would be no one to serve the beer. That Marx character what a brilliant man..............not!

I left for the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) last Friday and traveled from Dallas to Atlanta. Atlanta to Paris and finally arrived in Brazzaville on Sunday. I will be here for 3 weeks assessing the governments desire and ability to host the M/V African Mercy sometime over the next 3 years. I am staying with the Congo Missions Global Outreach (GO) group they are led by Joseph Harvey who runs the organization here and their hospital in Impfondo. They have been AWESOME! They want to help our ship come and have provided me with lodging in their guest house and a vehicle and driver. I can't tell you what a blessing this is! They are charging me just US$10 a night where a hotel would cost me $300 a night and a vehicle would be $150 a day. Their sacrifice to help us bring the ship here is one of the greatest sacrifices I have seen by another ministry to Mercy Ships. The reason I know this is a God thing is that we have never met and he has not even seen our ship. I an honored to work with people such as this.

For those of you wondering I am taking bucket showers, wash my clothes in a bucket and filtering any water I drink. There is no A/C but the fan helps to sleep at night with the heat and humidity. It would appear a Tumba fly may have laid a larvae on my head. For those of you who are not familiar with this little bundle of joy, the Tumba or mango fly lays its eggs on the Mango leaves. When it rains, like it did the other night the eggs wash off and fall on an unsuspecting host and then boroughs into the flesh and begin to grow and Grow and GRow and GROw and GROW until the wound resembles a volcano. I know what you are thinking why not simply squeeze it out like a pimple, well it seems my future offspring can make me sick if they die inside me. Soooooooooooooo, I will wait a few days and if it contimues to grow, I will have someone shave that area of my head and apply a thick dollop of Vaseline or lard. Now again I know what you are thinking, isn't there enough lard already up there? Well yes there is a lot up there but there is not enough to suffocate the blighter as he breathes through my skin. The application of lard or petroleum suffocates the grub like worm so he climbs out seeking air and goes upon his merry way. I know this may sound gross but it is not the worse part. The worse part is that my head will soon feel like I have a 12-gauge shotgun wound to my head. If the lard treatment is necessary I will take pictures of the whole process and post them here. Otherwise, I'm going to declare a fumigation on my head in the name of the Lord and pray this is all for naught.

I am traveling with Rene a crew member from Guinea. We have quickly become great friends and brothers. It would appear I will be attending his wedding in Africa in sometime in the future if he and his girlfriend decide to take the next step. He is a good Godly African man, and we complement each other well. I hope we can be partnered again on all my future assessment trips.

The capital city, Brazzaville, is actually 450 miles East from the port city of Pointe Noire where the ship would tie up and Impfondo is another 350 miles Northeast from Brazzaville. I leave tomorrow to visit their hospital and that will put me 800 miles inland. This is by far the deepest I have ever been in to Africa. I am told there are many things out here that would find me quite delicious or a suitable nesting place for their larvae so I plan to keep my wits about me, since I believe one and have proof of the other

I have two knives but neither are as long as a hippos tooth or a lions claw so I think they are pretty much for decoration or at worse might give some animal indigestion.

My trip to Impfondo is to network with Christian missionaries in the bush to see if they can help us find patients and then figure out how we can transport them to the port. This is made more difficult by the fact that there are no roads or or rail service in these regions. The only way here is by plane or by a 2 week canoe ride up the Congo/Ubangi river.

I would like to thank everyone who has been praying for me already on this trip. Your prayers have been received and I have been blessed. The government has welcomed me warmly and appear to desire that we help their people. I will know for sure next week when I meet with the President and his Chief Counsels.

At the end of next week I am headed to the port of Pointe Noire to do a port assessment and ensure that the regional leaders will support the national leaders to host our ship and provide us the water we need to come here.

Last night I met a wonderful man from the World Health Organization who offered to let me come over his house to take a shower and wash my clothes. I will definitely take him up on his offer, but I am now wondering if my odor was such that he feels getting rid of my funk is part of his job..............Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

As I begin to assess another war torn African country I am constantly amazed by the smiles of the children here as they face hardships, disease and death in ways we will never know nor be able to even begin to comprehend. We as adults are the ones that start wars but it is these innocent children who must live or die with the consequences. I think that as we all deal with the economy and the troubles in our lives, we should look at these children and ask what do they know? How can they smile when their daily life is filled with hunger, pain, violence and abandonment? I think the answer for them and us is what Jesus did when his disciples tried to rebuke the children from coming to Him. Jesus instead rebuked the disciples and told them to let the children come to him and that we should all come to him like children. So as we face the crises that surround us these days lets remember the troubles of these children and how their smiles show the belief and hope that there is a God who stands along side us during our times of troubles. Smile my friends and let the world know you have the same belief as these children.

We just sent out news letters for the New Years, if anyone want it they can find it from the News Letter page accessible from the previous page.

Happy New Year!! We are having a quiet New Years, the girls and I sat outside our house and watched some farmers fireworks across the fields next to our house.. They were pretty cool for a low budget display. Guinea continues to unravel, please pray for the people of Guinea.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are having a quiet Christmas as I recover from my surgery. The girls are so excited we got a second hand fish tank and goldfish for them for Christmas.

I'm headed in for surgical repair of my abdominal hernia, today. I f any of you haven't seen it, it is the size of the a football sticking out right below my rib cage and my kids called it "Experiment 626" a.k.a. Stitch. The kids have written messages on my body for the doctors. They include "Warning: Contents Under Pressure!" and "Danger Blast Zone" and so on. The surgeon expected me to be in great pain and need to spend the night in the hospital due to the size and complexity of the surgery, but I felt nothing and didn't even take any of my pain meds, my total meds for the first week was 8 ibuprofen. PRAISE GOD!

Over the last 6 months I have been warning our leadership that we should look for another country other than Guinea for the 2010 Field Service because of the Junta regime and the fragility of its leader Mr. Conteh. He did die today and a young Captain in the Army has launched a coup. He has threatened to kill anyone involved in corruption, which is just about every government leader and members of Mr. Conteh's family and friends. Please pray for the people of Guinea as they struggle to live through this uncertain military action. Please also pray for my team as we scramble to set up protocol negotiations with Angola and Congo, two countries that we have never been to before.

I just found out that I passed the FSO exam! Zana and I are blown away! Normally people can take this multiple times to pass, God must have seen favor on me this day. I am probably one of the oldest people and certainly probably one of the least academically strong individuals applying! The next step will be a review of my experience. Between my global management experience and missionary/humanitarian work I should pass this review and move on to the Oral Exam in DC sometime in June, right around my Masters defense in Vermont.

I am heading to Shreveport, LA. to sit for my Foreign Service Officer exam. This test is the first step in along process to see if we can work for the State Department sometime in the future. This process can take over 2 years

and is a long shot but it is something that we have been praying about as a Plan "B" should Mercy Ships no longer need our services some time in the future.

I am once again in West Africa performing an assessment for Benin and negotiating protocols with the government. Just to make sure this trip won’t be boring, I will be traveling alone without a team mate and the city I am traveling too has just had a cholera outbreak where several hundred have gotten sick and several have died. I could use your prayers on this as if I get sick there is no one to cover for me, so I simply cant afford to get sick. Please keep my health in your prayers.

I arrived on the evening of October 10^th and proceeded to spend the next 2 hours waiting for my luggage to come out on the conveyor belt. The heat was stifling with high humidity and as I waited the first 15 minutes for the belt to start, I realized I was back. The smell of several hundred Africans crammed into a tight space with the humidity and heat hit you like a sledge hammer. As I was try to think cool thoughts, I started singing a worship song in my head to stay calm and try to enjoy this first moment in Africa.

But then the belt started and what occurred next could only be described as a combination of a rugby scrum and roller derby. People immediately began pushing people over to get bags, that in the end were not even theirs. Everyone owns a black bag in Africa and they all look alike. People would scratch and punch to get a bag and then hurl it back on to the belt. One of the first pieces out was a dog carrier with a little dog that would not stop barking. As this African version of a wrestling cage match went on for 2 hours, that dog continued to go by me every 2.2 minutes (yes I timed, it I had nothing better to do). In the beginning I was sympathetic to the dog; but after 2 hours of his barking to remind me my luggage was still missing, I was starting to wonder how bad dog could really taste.

Eventually my luggage arrived unscathed and I finally found our former Executive Director Daslin (Small) Oueounou waiting for me. She had actually tried to call Zana to see if I had missed the flight.

I have kidnapped 2 of my daughters stuffed animals and I am journaling their exploits, so my daughters can feel like they are a part of this. Here is a picture of my captives being tortured by an African Grey parrot that can whistle “the pirates who don’t do anything song”:

My task here is to be very difficult. The port officials only want us to stay 6 months, while our new programs model calls for a 10 month stay. The difference in time represents 2,000 less surgeries, 4,000 less dental procedures and up to $5 million less money spent on medical training and infrastructure.

I am also charged with assessing 8-10 community clinics to find 2 that will receive our Strategic health programs and tie up a series of medical question left unfinished by the last team due to a 6 week medical worker strike.

I went to one clinic on my 2^nd day and under a wood pile I could hear all this rustling. Now I know what your thinking, I should step back from it and leave it alone. Well your obviously not me I got a big stick and from a distance lifted up a piece of plywood and about 50 lizards jumped out running on their back legs and came right for me. Ok I’m told by my interpreter that 1. for a big man I’m very fast 2. for a big man I can sound like a little girl. Before you judge me, you should have seen these things. It was my Jurassic park moment of my life.

At the end of my first week, I met with the US Ambassador, Madame Gayleetha Brown. She is a wonderful diplomat, in the Teddy Roosevelt straight talk, big stick approach. She offered to sit next to me in meetings with the different ministries to assure them that it was in their best interests to facilitate our ships needs.

After several meetings with senior ministers, the President of Benin has decided to call a special meeting of all his ministers and I am to address this joint session and present our argument as to why we should be allowed to stay for 10 months.

I NEED YOUR PRAYERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This Thursday at 11am EST and 10 CST I will be addressing this special Presidential conference with the US Ambassador at my side. I need to convince these ministers that the benefit we offer to this community outweighs the costs of our staying on the harbor an additional 4 months. They have compelling reasons to not do this so I need the Lord to perform this miracle and that it is Him that they hear and not me.

If you could stop what your doing at that time for just a moment and pray for me I would greatly appreciate it.

If you could pray for my girls while I’m away that would be great. I am constantly reminded what an awesome wife I have, that would allow me to have these adventures without her. When in my heart I know she has the greatest calling to go. I think Jessie is second and Cailin and me tie for 3^rd. It is hard when I’m doing what they love to do without them. I am greatly blessed as a husband and father.

Thank you for your prayers!

On a more funny or sad note, I can’t decide. Its probably best described as an African moment. I was touring a hospital, where in order to impress me they were having me look at every single room and closet in the facility. We suddenly found ourselves in an operating room. They gave me a scrub shirt and a mask that smelled like the last person who wore it had some bad fish for lunch. They then handed me a pair of flip flops so small my daughter couldn’t have worn them. As I tried to put them on they just turned sideways so I was just walking on the balls of my feet and then we enter the OR. As I enter all the doctors and nurses stop what they are doing to come over and talk to me and have pictures taken with me. Unfortunately they all abandon the patient they were working on. After 5 minutes, I ask if they need to finish with their patient. They just kind of shrug and turn back to the patient as if they were disappointed the fun was over. Please if I get hurt…..FLY me out of here!!!!! If necessary freeze me and send me home to be thawed and worked on.

Seriously, we really need to help these people their medical infrastructure is almost non-existent for their small capital let alone their entire country.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. We could not do this without you being in our lives.

May we be successful and that God gets all the glory!

Love you all.

In His service and yours,

Mark

a.k.a, Big-Big, or Big Belly Bossman

I realize Yesterday's posting was a little dark so I wanted to remind everyone why I am here, it is for the children and mothers of this world that my family and I feel called to missions and specifically West Africa. The children live amongst the ever present darkness with smiles that could melt any mans heart. Most times they seek just the comfort of your hand or that you would want to know their name. A picture of them in my digital camera that they can see for themselves always brings laughter and surprise. The wedding of the Cokers that I attended was an amazing experience and I feel blessed to have been a part of it. The other couple from Mercy Ships Festus & Jessica met us there and we had a great time. The service was so loud I felt like I'd been to a rock concert but it was beautiful. The groom was dancing to the Lord during the wedding service and soon the bride was dancing before the Lord as well. Below are some pictures of my trip:

WFP Flight Better Than Any Roller Coaster Liberians Love President Bush For His Help Teaching Sewing at Our Orphanage Peter Mulbah and Family Run Our Orphanage

Our Work Had Us Far Into The Bush Tribal Huts Where We Held Council Mercy Ship Newly Weds Paul & Nora Mercy Ship Newly Weds Festus & Jessica

The Hot, Sweet & Jumpy Relaxation Guest House Our Blow Out In The Bush Yes! Children Still Walk Over An Hour Barefoot To School

Well I’m closing in on my second week back in Africa. I spent the first week in Liberia and then on following Sunday I flew on a small single engine plane run by the World Food Program to Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Liberia has not changed much since I left it 5 months ago. The power promised to the city runs less than a mile and the water system only shows the improvements that Mercy Ship had done by the end of last outreach. These people are still in great need.

On a positive note, I got to visit our orphanage 3 times during my stay and I am so proud to see what has happened there. The work of our family and many other families from the ship and you our supporters have made such a huge difference in these children’s lives. When we first cam they slept on the mud floor with a roof that did little to keep them dry. There was no school, no church for them to worship, no means to cook and feed during rainy system. Now that has all changed. They have roofs that keep them dry, they have cement floors so they don’t catch parasites from the dirt floors, they have a church where they here the word of God twice a week, they have a place to cook and eat during the worst weather. The boys are learning masonry and the girls are learning sewing as possible jobs later in their lives. But most of all they know that there are brothers and sisters in Christ from around the world that love them and desire to have God do all that His will has for them. I can not tell you what a great feeling that is to be a part of this. For those of you supporting us, part of your donations has gone to build this haven for these children. I hope take great joy in knowing what the Lord has done with your offering. I am glad to say the girls who suffered the longest, now have the best accommodations and truly feel special in their living quarters.

We are in the last stages of building the last building to house the new orphan boys that the government has entrusted us with. As usual, the boys we have trained made over 500 mud bricks while we were gone and now only seek concrete to lay them and plaster over them so the rain does not dissolve their hard work. Amongst our families, we are trying to raise 8 thousand dollars to finish this building. That would include cement, roof, doors, mosquito screens, and beds with mattresses. If any of you feel like you would want to become a part of this, please let me know. I guarantee that the money will only go to the building and we will make sure to update all of you on its construction progress.

New Boys Dorm Started Orphanage School in Session Orphans Getting Ride in Truck Bricks Baking Waiting for Cement

Well back to the work at hand; we are concentrating our efforts in an area North West of Monrovia just past the orphanage you all helped us build. The first community is Royesville, it is comprised of 53 micro-villages having populations between 50 and 600 people. A horrible road and a bamboo bridge, which yes could hold me as I crossed it, link these communities. The people are the poorest of the poor. If someone gets sick, they must carry that person up to 11km in wheelbarrow to see a health tech. If they have cholera they would have to go to redemption hospital up to 20km away. Most can not afford the trip or the treatment (roughly 2-3 dollars)so they go home and call a traditional medicine man who will use leaves and spirits to cure the disease. You can guess how that story usually ends.

Yes, This Was My Indiana Jones Moment And Yes, I Do Hear The Movie Music In My Head When I Do These Things...Is That Wrong?

The second community we are working in is Tenegar, a predominantly Muslim community. The president requested we work in this are to ensure that the Muslims know that this Christian President is concerned for them as well. We actually found that there was more to this then we were told but I can discuss that in private at another time. For now we will use this opportunity to show these people what the love of Christ can do for them as people from around the world come to their village to build a clinic and wells and teach them better health, water, sanitation and agriculture practices. People who came simply because God asked “who will I send?” and they replied “send me!” We found a Muslim school that was using the bible as their reading curriculum, never doubt the way that the Lord may reach these people, they may do it themselves.

In these communities our 12 man team would sit down with the village chief, elders and imam to meet and discuss the needs of the community. We would sit under trees or in huts and hold council. It was a learning experience to say the least, I can feel my diplomacy training already kicking in.

Our 12-Person Assessment Team Holding Council With Chief and Imam Community meeting Under the Village Tree

Their water situation is dire. January through March most of their wells dry up and become useless. They are forced to seek alternate water sources such as creeks and rivers, which are also for bathing and their goats and chickens. Contamination of the water is guaranteed and huge outbreaks of cholera and typhoid persists during these times. I know you may be thinking, why we do not just teach them to boil the water. The problem is that they cannot afford the charcoal or wood to “burn” the water, so the drink it “raw.” In their mind, it is cheaper overall to risk cholera and seek treatment then to pay to boil their drinking water every day and even if they did boil it the men working in the swamp would still scoop water from where they are standing as they try and work the rice crops.

Wells are the only hope for these people to change their morbidity rates and allow them to become productive people. We also have to defeat the enemy here. As in most African countries, even the Christians hold on to demonic customs such as scarring and talismans and will quickly resort to witch doctors as a cheaper alternative or when modern medicine does not appear to act quickly enough. We as Christians must be in these villages every day to make a statement that there is a better way and it is only through the love of Christ that will break the bondage of the witch doctor and the evil that empowers them. We must be realistic. In the year that we are here, we may only truly change the habits and beliefs of a few people in each villages. But they will become voices of truth long after we have left and hopefully be the spark that brings the light of Jesus in to these people’s lives.

As you know, my job is to find how we can measure whether we are doing any good for these people in transforming their lives so that they may rise up and pursue God’s will for them and their people. It is hard for them to just live at this point. We have found that the rural clinics, which are funded by the ministry of health, keep awesome records each month of the type of diseases they are treating. It will be these historic records that we will measure the success of our programs against. We will come back a year after our programs are complete and see if we had any impact on the morbidity rates from malaria, cholera, typhoid, STD’s, HIV, TB and the whole cast of other diseases and parasites. I praise God that he allowed us to find these.

As usual, there have been many “cultural” moments on this trip. Mark Wright who is my partner on this trip is quite skinny, since our names are both Mark and somewhat confusing, I am now BIG-BIG and he is small-small. My two skinny travel companions are amazed to see how many African women find me quite attractive with offers of marriage almost on a daily basis, they say I look “fine!” You will be happy to know, that these proposals are not going to my head as the appeal of my size is simply that they believe there will be enough food left over for them as well. We visited a village that built a track in the middle of the bush, to entertain and train the youth. Jeff King, one of our team members, decided to bless the new course with the sweat of some old out of shape white missionaries. He raced three boys around the 400-meter track and lost badly. Mark Wright raced an accomplished runner who easily won against him. But me I won my race. How you may ask, well the fact is I raced a woman. I was quite proud of this, until I found she was pregnant. Man just when I thought I was doing good, God reached down and offered me a little more humble pie ;-) I beat a pregnant woman, yeah that is simply hard to boast about. Oh well, it was fun and the children and pastor seemed to enjoy our pitiful display immensely, and we did not die from heat stroke.

Our time in Sierra Leone has been different than what I expected. Since there war has been over for the last 11+ years, secret cults and organized crime has risen up amongst even the poorest community. In comparison to Liberia, it is a much darker place with evil acts

One community has only 3 out of 16 wells working. We found the 3 working wells under control of sub-chiefs who were extorting money from families to use the well under the notion that money recovered would be used to maintain those wells. As usual I am very suspect of these things so while my team was talking to some previous Mercy Ships employees I went on my own walkabout to see what I could find. I’m not sure if it was the Holy Spirit or God simply using my previous lifestyle as a tool, but I quickly found a palm wine party going on. The party was in the house of one of these sub chiefs. They were suspicious of me at first, but they offered me a drink of palm wine and I took it (faked drinking it). They invited me into their party which included the thugs who guard the wells and a couple of ladies-of-the-night who seemed to be plying their trade in the day as well.

Local "Poro" Mob Chief and his Entourage Locked Well This Boy had A Potion From A Witch Doctor Along With Talismans

It was here I found that these chiefs were members of a male secret society called a “poro”, the women’s societies are called a “sandi.” These societies are based on witchcraft and organized crime and are responsible for the demonic hold on these people of west Africa. It is the “sandi” societies that force girls to have circumcisions in tents where many die from infection; they even force the girls to eat their own body parts.

The traditional medicine men are brutal witch doctors. They use spirits to heal or curse people and are rich and important due to the fear they bring. One man, Numu, even showed me papers from the government saying he was licensed to cast evil spirits. We have heard from western health workers that these people have repeatedly killed any child with a deformity. What they tell the mothers is that their child is not “mortal” but in fact an evil spirit. They walk into the bush with the child and come back later with a viper, saying here is your child’s true form. Unfortunately, the child is never seen again.

The devil does not walk here, he dances! This country is held more in the demonic reigns, in my opinion, than even the home of voodoo, Benin.

I cannot emphasize the need for Christians to pray for the workers here, we are facing extremely dark powers as we try and help these people. At times I wonder why God has brought me here but when I see Him use my old lifestyle as a tool to find out what is going on under the surface I realize he has been leading me up to this my whole life. The chief had former military guys working as thugs fro him, they respected that I was ex-military with “powerful” tattoos on my arm to show what a great warrior I was. It was through this strange bonding that allowed me to win their confidence and learned what was really going on in the community. My role as Security Officer has honed these skills to allow me to approach them as a peer and find out what is going on so that we can effectively counter the works of the enemy.

My suspicions were confirmed when the sub-chiefs told me that they drink their profits from the wells every day instead of trying to maintain them. We must be sure to build wells only in safe places where the wells are controlled by religious schools or churches. This won’t guarantee they won’t be taken over by the “poro” but at least we will have a better chance at keeping them open to the public.

My meetings with the government officials have gone well and the Minister of Health for Sierra Leone is a former US doctor so we could really sit down and honestly address the scope of the problems here. I do not wish his job for anything. They are able to get the important supplies to clinic HIV and TB test as well as treatment, especially for pregnant mothers because the World Health Organization gives it to them.. But they can not get them basic antibiotics or ibuprofen. Most child deaths that we saw recorded was from respiratory infections because they had no way to treat it. We must see what we can do to assist this. If we build any clinic, it must be in cooperation with another NGO, because we have shown that the government s alone cannot support these clinics appropriately.

We have been eating sardine sandwiches while in the bush. On hot days it take a lot to choke one of these down along with our water that is the temperature of tea. The roads here are really rough as we have to travel through the mountains everyday. We have found a lot of cataract and max-facial candidates. The boy below has berket's lymphoma and will require chemotherapy. It is awesome we found him, this tumor has been noticeable for 2 months and is growing rapidly.

Sardine Sandwiches Are Tough To Choke Down In Heat Sierra Leone Is Very Mountainous, Not Like Liberia Praise God! We Probably Found This Boy Just In Time

I have been blessed with meeting two former African crew members who are married and now living here as they try and start ministries here to bring light to such a dark place. I am actually going to a wedding today for one couple. The wedding was planned for last week, but they postponed it because it was clean up day. A day where all the roads are closed and each family must clean the area in front of their house. Well after all that the government also postponed the clean up day to today, so the weeding is on and we will need to take a 2-hour journey in the bush to get around the city to get to the weeding. It is guarantied to be a long hot day, especially for a big white guy like me. I will update tonight after I have returned from wedding.

The second married couple is Festus and Jessica. Jessica is a Mennonite woman from Pennsylvania who fell in love with Paul and the desire to reach his countrymen with the Gospel while on the ship. I have a great deal of respect and love for these two and the difficult task God has laid before them. I hope to continue to update you on their progress as they seek to engage the enemy on his home turf.

May Christ meet each of you every morning with a sense of purpose and joy of being in His will. Thank you all for being a part of our ministry, we could not do it without you.

Hi well I am headed back to Africa to perform our first assessment trip in West Africa. I am really excited that we will be able to bring Mercy Ships into a new era where we operate much like the other professional Christian NGO's. We will finally be able to measure what impact our programs have on our target communities to be better stewards of the gifts that God has given us. Please pray for me as I will be spending a majority of my time in these communities. As usual I will depend on the Holy Spirit to protect me from all the parasites that eagerly await my arrival. As usual, I am abandoning my girls while I go on this great adventure please continue to pray for my girls as they deal with the struggles of being without dad. I will try and keep you guys updated on the adventure. I will also need to finish my first thesis paper to close my first semester at grad school.

Hi well I have started my Masters Program in Diplomacy and International Conflict Resolution from Norwich University. I am excited that God is giving me a new skill set to serve Him by better serving the poor of this world. Please keep Zana and me in prayer as this will challenge my already stressed time management capabilities as I travel to Africa 3 times each year for a month.

It has been awesome to have Christmas in our new home! Zana made sure the girls go to do all the things that missed while we traveled the word the last 4 years. She is a great mom and wanted to make sure the girls had memories of our first Christmas in this house. Both girls were in Christmas pageants and Jessie got a solo. The girls made gingerbread houses and helped cook our Christmas dinner. It was a great time and a Christmas we will remember for a long time. The Dickinson's came down for Noah's graduation from Teen Mania's Honor Academy and it was awesome to celebrate with friends who have prayed and supported us from the beginning.

Zana and I are in home town of Plymouth for my birthday as we finish up a professional road trip. I attended a week of training at the American Evaluation Association conference in Baltimore, while Zana represented Mercy Ships at a medical conference in Louisville, Kentucky. We were able to spend a night with our good friends, the Ranfts, from my former company Inktomi. I drove our truck with a trailer north to Plymouth and collected as much of our stuff as we could. We ended up looking like the Grinch's sleigh. Except getting caught in violent thunderstorm with tornadoes in Tennessee we made it back safe! Cailin continues to WOW us as she learns to play the violin, we are so proud of her!!!!!

Hi Everyone,

It is Sunday night, the 26th of August, and I have been in country 9 days now. I arrived last Friday to find that my luggage is on some around the world tour and I may never see it again. I have been living off of 1 pair of pants, 1 pair of underwear, 1 pair of socks 1 casual shirt. Since the average African waist is around a 28 inch, my chance to find some alternate clothing has been hopeless. The Gallingers, our missionary friends here, are in mourning because I had 53 movies they had just bought and sent to us for delivery in my bag. I had another family’s new shoes for all their children in my bag as well so this lost baggage is hurting more than just me.

The day I arrived, our good friends the Osborne’s picked me up at the airport. It was weird to travel for over 90 minutes and see that little has changed over the last 14 months. No water or power for a majority of the city only the small area around the capital building has power. The roads are horrible with large stretches of road that even our Land Rovers had trouble negotiating. The only thing that appeared improved was the National Stadium which had been repainted by the Chinese government.

When I arrived on the dock a large contingent of port police ran towards me, I was a little nervous; these guys would normally barely move and if so it was like they were in slow motion. The running joke last year was that I could out run all of them. As they rushed me I began to wonder what I had just done, when all of a sudden they started chanting, "Big Belly, Big Belly Mark, Mark, Mark!" They all began hugging me and fighting to shake my hand and give me the traditional finger snap. They claimed to have missed me. They said I was very tough on them but I had trained them to do a better job and when it was hot or when they had no food I was the only one who would bring them food and drink.

The Captain was on the dock and he looked and me and smiled, it was good to know that even though I was tough on these guys they had also seen the love of the Lord in me as well and they knew that I took care of them while we served together. Within 10 minutes of my arriving on the dock, a body of a local man floated along side the ship. Captain Djurian looked at me, smiled and said, "I can’t help but think you have something to do with this, you been here 10 minutes and we already have a security issue. It seems he believes that excitement and adventure follows me where ever I go. Maybe he’s right. God has definitely blessed me with great adventures since my family gave up everything and chose to serve him in the mission field.

As I boarded one of my former Ghurka guards, Lum, who is back as the lead Ghurka had his men stand to attention and salute me. He told them I was the finest man he ever served under and that I should be shown the respect of a senior officer. I was so humbled by this gesture I started to get teary eyed, I saluted and then shook each of their hands and thanked them for keeping the crew safe. They all seemed to appreciate that someone was recognizing their efforts; the crew should do it more often, we lost a Ghurka to malaria last year. Their sacrifice to serve with us, instead of serving on a nice cruise ship is just as noble of a gesture and it gives us a chance to share the Gospel with words and actions to show them who Jesus is.

I have been buried in a whirlwind of meetings as I try to collect information from other world class NGO’s on how they measure their program’s successes and failures here in country that is really a 4th world nation striving to be a 3rd world nation.

I will be meeting with the Minister of Finance and Health this Thursday in their offices. In our first meeting they got the impression that I am some SUPER-GEEK who can solve their IT and healthcare training problems. Mind you they have no reliable or clean power for the computers and satellites. The newest computers they have are Pentium II’s that we gave them off our old ship. They want me to help spear head a Telemedicine initiative to use satellite communication to allow U.S. doctors to help train their new healthcare workers, they have few medical teachers here and most have not had any refresher training in the last 15 years.

Dr Glenn Strauss, the V.P. of programs and I have had many meetings with managers and staff concerning this new shift to bring more accountability and professionalism to our programs and how we select and evaluate them.

I have managed to visit several villages out in the bush that we have done projects for in the past to evaluate them and see if they are still using what we gave them. On Tuesday I will be traveling to the southern part of the country to evaluate some work we have done in Buchanan area. PLEASE PRAY for me and my team as this is the rainy season and the roads have been terrible. We have had 2 crew members hurt when their vehicles have rolled down some muddy embankments here in the Monrovia area. The roads to Buchanan are much worse, we are projecting the normally 2 hour trip will take 4-5 hours.

I have managed to visit our orphanage 3 times this last week. It has been awesome to see what the boys have built since I’ve been away and all the kids look healthy and well clothed. Each time I have brought dozens of loaves of bread with me to give the kids some carbohydrates. The rainy season has been long and hard and the orphanage has had trouble with their rice getting moldy and ruined.

I want to thank all of you who have helped fund us and this orphanage over the last 3 years. The change in these children’s lives is immeasurable. They go to sleep each night in a dry bed, not a muddy floor. They have roofs over their heads during the rainy season that don’t leak. Their quarters have mosquito netting to help reduce the risk of malaria. They have water that won’t kill them and they are going to school and learning so that they might have a future other than street orphan, prostitute or criminal rogue.

In this first week I have managed to get the 5 boys who we sent to masonry training and are now too old to live at the orphanage a place to live and a paying job with a ministry who is building 200 homes for war widows near the airport. So they can still come visit their brothers and sisters at the orphanage. A job is a HUGE thing here and the fact that God has granted this boon to these boys is simply a miracle! I’m just glad I had a small part to play in it because it really brings to fruition what Zana and I feel is our calling here; to not only to provide safe orphanages but to provide a future for those children that turn 18 and must leave the safety we have created for them and enter the often cruel, uncaring and dangerous world that is Liberia.

On Friday we lost a VVF patient to a blood infection that she had when she came on board. Unfortunately we didn’t know she had it and after the surgery she went into septic shock. Please pray for her family and our crew. Everyone is taking this news to heart, it is always difficult to loose someone when we have all come here to help.

On Sunday I got to preach at the orphanage and to be honest it was one of the weirdest preaching I have ever done. As I began my sermon the skies opened up with a torrential rain that lasted till long past church was done. The beating of that rain on the tin roof was so loud that I was screaming at the kids so they could hear me. I recorded the audio of it hoping to capture some of the praise songs the orphans were singing to put on the website. Hopefully I will get to put a small bit of audio so you can hear me trying and failing to out shout the rain. Our friends the Osborne’s and Cook’s came to hear me preach as well as Lloyd Lambert, the man who will hire those 5 boys to do masonry work.

Tomorrow I head to the airport to see if my luggage might be there and also meet with the US Embassy’s security detail to get their view on the rampant armed crime that has started to explode here. Just last Wednesday our good friends at Monrovian Christian Fellowship were broken into and had their staff roughed up by 4-5 armed intruders. One of these criminals was so strong he reached up to the top of the locked Nissan pathfinder’s door and bent the top of the door enough that he could reach his hand in and unlock the door. The criminal have finally figured out that it is only the missionaries and expats here who have anything worth stealing. Please pray for all the missionaries here that are in danger each night of being a victim to this crime wave.

Well I got to go get some sleep tomorrow starts another busy week. Thank you for being a part of this we couldn’t do it without you. There are sometimes in your life where words are not enough. The words are poor shadows of the feelings you need to express, this is one of those times. Thank you for believing in what we as a family are trying to do, we could not do this with out your prayers and support. We will always be in your debt for allowing us to make a difference here in West Africa. May God bless you and honor all of that you place on His alter.

September 2nd, 2007

WEEK 2:

Hi Everyone,

It is Sunday night, the 2nd of September.

It has been a busy week on Monday I visited another village where we have done some Community Health (CHE) work and some sanitation and well work. It is amazing to see the difference between villages where we have done just one type of work compared to where we have done the combination of CHE, Sanitation/Water and Birthing training. This one village had received all of the training and the English mid-wife (Elizabeth Hunter) had also built a birthing house consisting of one room with a bed, a birthing table and another small wash room for mothers to clean themselves up in. In this village over the last year they reported 12 children being born including twins. No deaths to children or mothers from labor nor children deaths to waterborne diseases. Praise God!!!!! What an impact we can have by simply providing some simple training and tools. This is the type of model I hope we can replicate over and over again. Unfortunately the birthing training can be politically charged depending on what country you are in.

On Tuesday I was headed off on a grand adventure south of Monrovia, to Buchanan to meet with 25 major church leaders in the area, who had attended a pastoral conference on church unity in May. What was supposed to be a 2 1/2 hour ride took nearly 6 hours because of the terrible road conditions due to lack of maintenance and the effects of the rainy season. About half way to our destination we stopped for lunch and a bathroom break. The leader for this trip is Winston, a South African man in charge of Church Empowerment, who needed to use the bush bathroom(s). So here we are stopped at a random spot on this road, he picks a random bush to do his business in and he manages to find the local latrine by stepping into it with his dress shoes. I mean these things were covered and wreaked of nastiness. We paid some local boys to clean them in the river and when they brought them back we sprayed them with some air freshener. We all assumed this was a good omen and continued on our way.

The trip itself was beautiful with bamboo and rubber tree forests on each side of the road. The bamboo went 40-60 ft up in the air and in some places formed these natural arches that seemed to welcome us to explore, but after Winston’s exciting "find" none of us were too keen to go exploring in the bush. I will definitely post some pictures on the web when I get back. We also saw some locals selling "grass cutters" on the road. These are basically a large beaver or groundhog. Now we have been teaching the locals to raise rabbits, but they just don’t like to eat them. But they just love these giant rodents, especially barbequed! I tried it myself and its not bad…..for a giant rat!

Next month the Chinese government will be starting to build a new 4 lane road to Buchanan. The Chinese Ambassador convinced the Liberian President that Monrovia’s port is so bad and corrupt they were better off starting a new port to the South to ship the major resources out of. This was especially true since an iron ore company, Mattell is building a new facility in Buchanan and Firestone could ship there rubber from there once the road was done. To give you an ideal of how corrupt the Monrovian port is, they just replaced the 4th Port Commissioner in 3 years and each one has left their job with a better car and house than when they started their short term there.

Once we got to Buchanan we checked into the "Guest House" For Africa it was what you expected, small dingy well used bed with a mosquito net (with holes in it). We sprayed our rooms with raid and headed into town to introduce ourselves to the Superintendent, Mayor, and Police chief. You are required to do this or you will bring dishonor on to these people of authority. Basically you need permission to be in their city and you definitely need permission to do anything in the city. So we went to the President’s Buchanan residence and we sat in these gilded chairs while we waited. The expensive chairs and sofas are there for the president to entertain people with. In walked the Mayor, a heavy set local man wearing a British pit helmet much like a British officer from World War II might do. He introduced himself, took off his helmet off and cradled it in his arm just like I’d seen officers do in the movies. This hat was obviously the symbol of his authority and he was quite proud of it. He was very cordial and welcomed us, he informed us the Superintendent was away and he was going to give us the "key to the city." He then stood up raised his hands and said "I give you the key to the city" and that was it. He told us by simply telling people this we could visit any of the culturally sensitive areas of town like the prison or famous leader’s graves. We all thanked him and headed out on our tour of the city. Every where we went police officers would come up to us and we would simply say we had the key to the city and they would simply wave us on.

Buchanan is a beautiful small city, it is right on the ocean and it is CLEAN, well in comparison with Monrovia. The streets are made of cement with no potholes and the buildings are painted and for the most part have no trash piled up in front of them. It was easy to see why companies like Mattell and Firestone were willing to invest in this part of the country. We went down to the fish market area and we found ourselves transported to a different time. We were surrounded by fishing canoes and men fixing their nets, it could have easily been 1907 as 2007. One of our team decided he was going to be like apostle Peter and began to preach right their amongst the fishermen. It was awesome!! We just started yelling the message of the Gospel and these men laid down their tools and listened to us. Except for one man who mocked us all of the fishermen said they believed in Christ and prayed with us. I was so impressed that this young man with us had the courage to openly preach with out being asked nor worried about his reception from this crowd. He said he was moved by these men performing their timeless work and there was no way he was going to miss a chance to follow the apostle’s example. I’m not sure I would have had the courage to do that, but now after seeing the result I can’t wait for my next chance to spontaneously preach like that.

That evening we had a traditional meal consisting of some jalaf rice (good stuff) and some fried fish that was great. Now most of you know I love spicy foods, and there were a lot of pepper gravies to go with the food that ranged from hot to "Oh my God don’t let me die." They also served an African pea, which is actually a small egg plant and was one of the most bitter thing I’ve had so far. Not only was it bitter but it had an after taste that I assume would be much like licking an ash tray. It got dark as we ate and we adjourned to our rooms. Mine was at the very back of the house and I was up most the night because there were people outside my window talking most of the night. At one point a small hand of either a woman or child came through a window looking to see if it could reach anything. I turned on my flash light and whoever it was ran away. So I didn’t get much sleep till dawn but at that point I slept for 2 good hours.

The next morning saw the 25 pastors arrive on time, a great sign of their commitment to this program. We began our discussions on what they got out of the course and how they were beginning to work together. They all decided they needed a biblical library, all of their study books and concordances were lost in the war. They were asking who they needed to ask, when Vincent one of our team said that Mark Elliott was the man who would be the face of Mercy Ships for the next 10 years and that I would be the one to ask. Never has a man complicated my life so quickly! I quickly corrected him that I was not the "face of Mercy Ships" and that I was not committing to be here for 10 more years. But I would be glad to look into finding people who would be willing to donate books, if they were willing to work together and either buy or build a building to act as a study library, that all of them and their subordinate pastors could use. They assured me they would, and I informed them it would be good for me to see that when I return in a year to do the assessment for our return to Liberia. Needless to say I have already received multiple emails from these pastors thanking me and offering suggestions on how I can help them. Vincent is a dead man ;-) We enjoyed a thank you lunch that even had some of our local staff looking at a little hesitantly. There were several types of mystery fish and some I wasn’t sure how it was cooked but it appeared be only part done and the fish was still a little slimy. I wasn’t even sure what part of the fish it was, the only thing recognizable was some boiled plantain and yam root (the stuff that fufu is made from) Ship food was starting to look really really really good.

Our trip back was uneventful and we shared each others salvation stories and what led us into missions. That vehicle contained 5 people, a Zimbabwian, South African, Sierra Leonian, Canadian, and American. We all came from different backgrounds, economic status and denominations but yet God was able to take what we had in common, a love for the Lord and His children. He brought us together wove our lives, skills, and giftings around each other to make this wonderful tool for His purpose. When you stand in that moment recognizing that you are part of the Master’s much bigger work, it takes your breath away and you realize that you are a piece of the Master’s plan. It is a truly humbling moment.

On Thursday I was notified that my luggage was on the way from Nigeria. Now you may ask why Nigeria, but then again you could ask why it had visited Ivory Coast and Senegal as well. My luggage was definitely well traveled! The funny thing was each tag had "RUSH" on it starting 2 days after I left the states till 2 weeks later. When I finally got it I found my laptop and a pair of shoes had been stolen. The funny thing was that the air line worker was trying to convince me that the crooked Nigerians must have stolen it, I mean no Liberian would ever steal something from my luggage……….yeah right. I just had to laugh as he said it. I’m told SN Brussels may offer me $50 for my loss, welcome to traveling in Africa. The only reason I had the pc in my luggage was that I was already carrying 2 new laptops for our land base and ship in my carry-on. Oh well in the big picture it’s a small thing. At least I have some underwear…it was getting a little difficult to wash and dry my one pair every night.

Saturday saw me back at the orphanage. This time a German film crew came out with us to document what Mercy Ship’s families have been able to do for these 53 children over the last 3 years. The transformation that you have helped to make is amazing; each child is not only doing well but has a future thanks to your gifts to us that we have in turn used on this orphanage. I will be updating the web site when I get back so you can see the difference you have made in these kids lives. The film crew wanted me to lay tiles with our trained boys to show that we help on these projects. Needless to say the guy laying tile had to redo my tiles after the filming was done, I hate to think I was documented laying such uneven tile. You get what you pay for I guess with us old white guys. J

Sunday saw me staying with our missionary friends the Gallingers. I had 53 of their movies in my luggage and they were celebrating their safe return with my luggage. They are awesome people when you think they have been here 11 years it blows my mind. They make the rest of us look like amateurs.

Well its bed time; tomorrow starts a week of dozens of meeting with other NGO’s.

Please continue to pray for me, I will be flying into Sierra Leone the day after their election and it has been a little violent lately, 20 people were beaten and stabbed on Saturday. So I need to be reviewing my travel plans daily to make sure I’m playing it safe and not "challenging the Lord, my God" with any foolishness.

July 31, 2007

As Zana has told most of you, I have been offered and accepted a new role here at Mercy Ships. I will be in charge of building a programs assessment team, where we will attempt to better serve the people and countries we visit. We have to recognize what our core strengths are and use them and our donated funds wisely to better deliver God’s love for these people. I can’t tell you how excited I am that God is going to use me this way.

Once again I am so surprised how God is using pieces of my skills in ways I never thought of! Now I will be using my mathematics degree, my realistic perception of African people and governments and the ability to act as a liaison to other Non Governmental Agencies (NGO’s) and the UN Military (UNMIL) that I developed as a security officer and the networking skills I developed as an IT Sales Engineer. I thank Jesus every day for the opportunity and honor it is to serve him by serving His poorest people. I’m reminded of the lyrics of the Saleh’s song, “You Raise Me Up”

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up—to more than I can be

As the Ship Security Officer, I had to turn away 50+ people a day who were desperate for our surgeries and services, because we were booked to capacity. I pray God will empower me so that future Security Officers won’t have to look people in the eyes and offer only prayer as they leave devastated to know that they wouldn’t be operated on by a doctor that day. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do. People would plead with me and throw themselves at my feet wailing to just let them have a chance to heal themselves or their children. Each day I would console them, offer my prayers and then escort them off the dock. As I walked them out I would remind them of our loving God and that there is always hope. On my way back to the ship, I would struggle with my tears and I would pray that God would somehow allow us to serve these women and children. Now, I have a chance to do just that. Praise God for his faithfulness and his willingness to use a common man like me to make a difference in this ministry and in the lives of people in West Africa.

In the past Mercy Ships has always done projects on its own; whether that was surgeries, AIDS awareness, construction of orphanages, schools, and hospitals or church empowerment and pastor training. Going forward, we hope to team with other Christian NGO’s, who will have a longer presence than our 10 month stay in that country, so we can build facilities that other NGO’s will then fund and oversee after we have left. I have just started doing a report on the projects we have done over the last few years and not many are still up and running. The birthing clinic we built in Benin was abandoned and torn down a few months after we left. The goal is to make a lasting change (development over Aid). For medical this will mean to train more local physicians to perform the difficult procedures that we specialize in, VVF and MaxFacial. For our construction teams this will mean that any project we build will be partnered with another Christian NGO who will hopefully be run and funded for years to come.

As you are aware we have started to build a home here in Texas. The girls have said they want to return to Africa but they want a place to call home. They want to know that when things are rough in Africa they can have some place to look forward to coming home to. We are from New England, but we can not afford to keep a house there because the cost of living is so much higher there than Texas. How can we deny them this? God has laid such a caring heart for the orphans of Africa on these 2 girl’s hearts and they are willing to walk away from all the cool aspects of America to help them and be the hands and feet of Jesus. As parents we are truly blessed!!!!

I want to give everyone a medical update, Cailin has been doing much better with only occasional stomach problems. Thank you for all your prayers it has been a rough year for Cailin since our return. As for me I still have a massive hernia that our insurance won’t cover to fix, but it is something I can live with. My real problem has been my right shoulder. I dislocated it 4 months ago and I have yet to have a day without pain or a night of restful sleep. Thank God we found a doctor who ordered a special MRI and they found I have a broken bone spur sitting in my shoulder joint causing me all the pain. I’m scheduled to have surgery on August 1^st (Tomorrow), two weeks before I head to Africa. So your prayers would be definitely appreciated that the surgery goes well and I heal quickly.

We are in definite need of your prayer for wisdom and finances this summer. My new position will have me leaving my family for 7 weeks in August as we begin to develop our assessment team in West Africa. This is an inconvenient time as we are building the house. This means that Zana has to once again shoulder the entire burden of caring for the girls on vacation and starting school, perform her job here at Mercy Ships and oversee the house. Zana has another ministry at Teen Mania where she provides medical care for several hundred teens in their discipleship program. I am truly blessed with a strong wife, but she will definitely need your prayers while I am away.

Our financial support has taken a major hit over the last 3 months where we have lost almost a third of our support. We are so thankful for what these supporters have blessed us with over the last 3 years and understand that changing circumstances makes it impossible for them to support us financially at this time. Our prayers are that God will honor all of your sacrifices and bless your families for your faithfulness in helping the poor and sick of the war torn West Africa through us. We are now praying that God will show us how to raise our support, especially now that we will incur the additional costs of me spending up to 3-4 months a year away from my family as I start this new position.

But even when life gets complicated and the world is banging on our door, we have to remember why we are here…we are here to serve first. So as we grapple with these issues and finances we ask for your prayers that we will see God’s will for us during these hectic times.

To add a little more on my plate the orphanages and schools we helped to build in Liberia and Ghana are asking us to continue to help with their projects and to network with other NGO’s to see if we can get them assistance. I am working with Living Water to get the orphanage in Kenya their water pump so that they don’t have to pay to haul water up to their site.

It seems at times that we are running on empty, but when we look at the condition of those we want to serve, how dare we complain. So tonight as we go to sleep, our family will long for the time when we will return to Africa. We can close our eyes and see the children’s bright smiles, unconditional love and their songs of praise as they dance before the Lord to thank Him for another day, another day where the bellies will not be empty, another day when the water they drink won’t kill them and another day where AIDS and malaria isn’t waiting to take them. Lets all pray that God gives them many more days, years and decades to sing and dance in praise to Him.

From Zana: This morning in church the message was about being comfortable, this is something that Mark and I talk about often. One of my fears is getting to comfortable because I know that the Lord will continue to call us to come and go to serve the world for him. It has been interesting to watch how the Lord keeps bringing us through changing times and my faith just continues to grow stronger. My faith is really made the strongest by Mark’s unwavering knowledge that this is where the Lord has called us. I look back at where we came from, the nurse practitioner and IT executive who had everything (house, cars, money), to having our taxable income 1/20^th what it was 5 years ago, but the Lord still provides all that we need. The girls are happy; our marriage is great, better than ever. We have enjoyed this journey together. I am happy and I love where the Lord has placed us and can’t wait to see where we go next.

First of all I need to apologize for not updating for the last 6 months. There is no real excuse except that life gets busy and transitioning back to the real world from the ship has made time fly. I have also struggled with the existing IT leadership and that has been a big distraction hindering the work I know God has for me.

I continue to struggle with the IT department. A week ago I offered to resign from IT. The CIO declined my resignation and has asked me to give him a little longer to change people's attitudes. I told him that I think he over estimates the power of his British charm, but I would be willing to wait several months before I make my decision.

Most of my life I have jumped out of bed every morning ready to take on the world. Lately I find myself dependent on the alarm clock to wake me. I know this is based on my frustrations. But I miss waking to the calling the Lord has laid on me; I don't want to wake to an alarm. Excuse the pun but the thought is ...well....ALARMING. I need to feel that hunger again, I want to thrive in His will not simply survive. Zana looked at me one day and said, "I don't like this mark, I want the man back that would attack every day as if it was his last chance to get the world for God." I agreed, I miss that man too. A wife can be such a great blessing! She simply confirmed in my heart what I already knew.

My prayer is that if it is God's will that I stay here that He fill me once again with burning desire to not simply survive here but thrive. However, if it is His will for me Zana and I to bless another ministry that he gives us the wisdom to know the path He has for us. Unfortunately we have many options in front of us to serve the poor in Africa and Asia, we must find out what God would have us do and not simply what is the easiest or coolest opportunity.

We finally got to watch the movie "End of the Spear", which came out while we were in country. The girls were fascinated by the story and its message that like Christ we are to give our lives for the poorest people not simply have it taken. The fact that the movie portrayed Jim Elliott as a little bit of a goof ball making monkey noises in a kitchen scene, made them think that Jim and I were a lot closer than name alone. There have been many times I have goofed with them by acting as an ape. I told them I only hope that I can have the strength of faith that those men and more importantly their wives had.

We traveled to Dallas for Jessie to compete in a Destination Imagination competition. Its a competition where kids have to find solutions by thinking out of the box. Their challenge this year was drama emphasizing difference in cultures. Zana was the coach. They were able to place 5th out of 18 teams. Not bad for their very first time. I'm so proud of both of them! Cailin even got a medal for being their mascot.

Christmas in Texas, OK so there is no snow only rain; much like West Africa. Except......THERE IS WALMART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The girls had wanted electric scooters that they saw in movies on the ship, so we got them some mini electric motorcycles for their Christmas present. We decided to get a palm tree for a Christmas tree, well just because were strange.

We drove to San Antonio for Zana to attend a medical Pri-Med conference. Zana needs to attend several of these to catch up on her CEU's since we were away for 2 years. The kids and I got to do the tourist thing, we visited the Alamo and the Ripley's Museum. We even did our best Nacho Libra impersonation.

The International Board met this week and decided to choose a Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) solution and no longer develop internal software. I feel vindicated that my view for the future of IT here is shared by the board. I hope the IT management will now be in submission to the board and follow their marching orders without delaying or sabotaging the new software selection. My fear is that they will delay the selection process to convince others that we should go back to their own solution.

We flew to Maryland this Weekend to visit Ted Stephanie Ranft. Ted is a former Inktomi Co-Worker who supports our efforts with the orphanages in Africa. We were also able to attend Eric Williams' wedding in Virginia. Eric was a good friend onboard the Anastasis and it was really exciting to see him start this new chapter in his life. We were also able to hook up with 2 dozen friends from the ship who also made their way to the wedding. We finished the weekend by meeting with our supporting church in Waldorf, Maryland. Ann from the Kenyan orphanage was there and I was able to present my findings from the trip we took. The church was extremely generous and raised over $4,000 for the kids. I am hoping that we will be able to get Living waters to finish their well project.

It has been an amazing time the orphanage sits at 8,000ft on a series of rolling hills and valleys. This is one of the richest agricultural areas in Africa and they grow everything here including plums, bananas, corn, kale,
cabbage, red beans, potatoes and carrots. The orphanage is amazing the girls wake at 5 am to do their chores of cleaning the orphanage and cooking breakfast. They have 4 cows and 10 goats for milk and chickens for eggs.
They have 2 donkeys to haul water up the steep hills to reach the orphanage. They presently have to buy water from down below. Living waters had drilled a bore hole but it requires a electric pump to draw the water up
the 300ft. They charged them $15,000 to drill the well 2 years ago but ever gave them a pump. I will definitely see if we can leverage some sort of solution, this is insane they are buying drinking water to make
concrete and clean the floors.

The children are amazing!!!!!!!!!! 90 girls acting as the best behaved children you have ever seen. They start the morning at 5 am and do their chores till they get dressed at 6:15. Then they line the halls and sing praise songs in English and the native tongue for 15 minute and conclude with 5 minutes of prayer. They do this in the evening as well before lights out. You have to understand the temperature stays between 50 and 60 degrees and the weather is always damp with mist, these girls are running around in flip flops and open shoes for the most part,
wearing multiple items of clothes, the little girls wearing pants under their skirts. They always wanted to hold my hand, and theirs were always like ice. They never complained!!!! They have a joy of the Lord in them
that is unimaginable they are so thankful that God has brought them to this home where they have 90 sisters and 15 brothers to call their family.

Most of these girls have become orphans because of AIDS, though praise God none are infected. They have had to take in boys this last year because there is no where else for them to go, they have built a boys quarters next to the stable and chicken area. Several of the boys have severe retardation or epilepsy that their families have abandoned them. They have also taken in babies that have been severely malnourished and left for dead. There is a 3 year old there right now who weighs 12 pounds and looks like a 6 month old infant. They showed me pictures of him when they got him 3 months ago his boney legs had been curled under and could not be straightened. It looked like there was nothing but skin and bone. You could see his whole pelvis through his bum. He has now fattened up a little an looks like a thin 6 month old.

The woman who runs this place is Mama Ann, she would give Mother Teresa a run for her money. She not only clothes and feeds these kids but she takes care of all the deserted old woman who live on the margins in cardboard or tin shacks near railroad tracks. She feeds them and gives them blankets and clothes. These grandma's come to the orphanage twice a week and pray on their knees for hours as they thank God that this place is taking care of the children where they can't. To hear these women crying to God in thanks
is an experience that shook me, they were thanking God that these children might know the love of God and family. That they would go to bed tonight with a full belly and knowing that these girls had a chance for a future beyond what they have know.

This orphanage stresses school, they have financed 4 of their oldest students to go to University in Uganda and 20 are attending boarding schools to attend the British version of high school. All of this and the clothing and feeding of 100 children and another 30 old ladies and orphans who refuse to leave the bush and the medical bills to help bring their new arrivals back to health or to try and treat the epilepsy and other neurological disorders these children have. They do this on less than $24,000 a year that they raise through
donations. I have never seen so much done with so little. Truly I am witnessing the hand of God in action. What started as a retired couple having dozens of orphans camped on their floors has become a work of God.

I want to be a part of this!!!!! No Christian could walk away from this and not be changed. To hear children helping each other do their home work while others are scrubbing floors, tending the fields or livestock, boiling water for food or tea all the while singing or humming praise songs and truly thanking God that He brought them here. At night a generator is run for 3 hours to allow their homework to be done and after as the lights are out you could hear spontaneous laughter like some giant pajama party and then a small voice would break into praise and the rest would follow. It is easy to feel that your own praise pales in comparison. If they can do
this while living in conditions similar to the early 1900's, how loud and often should my songs of praise be heard.

Well we have finished our great sojourn to return home. We left Ghana and flew to London then flew on to Singapore. For 2 weeks we met with our missionary friends and rested before we headed back to the states. We then spent the next month traveling across the states visiting our family, friends and supporters. We thank God for the chance to reconnect with those who have supported us over the last 3 years.

I will be assuming the role of IT Manager for our International Head Quarters and Zana will be in charge of medical reviews for the HR department. We plan on living on base instead of buying a house in the area because we are unsure as to what God will have for us long term.

I am assuming this role as Mercy Ships is at a critical point in its history. IT has been more of a hindrance to Mercy Ships than an asset. I firmly believe that we are too small of an organization to continue to develop our own applications and software. I believe it would be more prudent to purchase world class software from dominant vendors in the market place like Oracle or Microsoft and possibly outsource our email systems to a global provider like AT&T or some other global telecom. This goes directly against the old boy mentality here at Mercy Ships where they control everything. IT is literally the tail that wags the dog here. It will be interesting to see if I can make any difference here. Hopefully God will keep my tongue and ego in check as I work in this situation.

The sail to Ghana was awesome. The seas were calm and we had dolphins escorting us here. We had to refuel on our way here. The way this "bunkering" works is that a large tanker meets us at sea and we tie up next to each other while we transfer fuel. We usually are going several knots to keep the ships more stable during this evolution. My security team is placed on the rails to ensure that none of their crew tries to jump over to our ship. While I was talking to our founder, Don Stephens, a man started shouting pastor, pastor!!! We all started looking around to see who he was talking to when he yelled, "Big Pastor Mark" It turned out that I had preached to this man's church nearly a year ago in South Africa and he had remembered me. I was able to give him a few bibles to pass along to his crew mates. I am always amazed at how small God's world is, nearly a year later, in the middle of the ocean and 1,500 miles from where we met I meet a man who remembered me and what God had me share that day. You know it has to be a God thing, I know that I'm not that good of a preacher.

We had another God moment when out of the blue we got an email from a Benin pastor, Samuel, who's church was in a voodoo village that I had preached at. After we left we found out that the pastor's wife, Louis, had a baby girl and had named her ZANA. They came to visit us and show us the new addition to their family. We were blessed by their visit and their sharing what God was doing through them in all of West Africa.

We have spent a week here in Ghana as we prepared to head home. Ghana is a highly developed country that really doesn't need our services so I'm not sure of the decision to come here. I think it would have been better if the ship had stayed in Liberia where there is a real need for our services. It was hoped that the Africa Mercy would have had its first outreach here to give it a chance to work out the bugs and finish all the construction of the operating rooms that are not completed. However, now it seems doubtful that the Africa mercy will make it to Ghana. One of the major vendors outfitting our ship has gone bankrupt. The impact on the final timeline for the ship's deployment is unknown at this time but it could be a major delay.

As we were about to leave the ship to take our bags to the airport a majority of the crew came to say goodbye. It was awesome for the girls to see how our family had impacted not only our patients but also our fellow brothers and sisters serving on this ship. We are honored to have been considered an asset to our ship family and we pray that God honors each of their sacrifices as they follow His calling for their lives. We are proud to be called a part of the Anastasis crew! We will miss our cramp quarters and living in community. It is said that it is always fun to talk about the "old times" but not necessarily living through them. I have no regrets for our time onboard, it was an awesome experience. As we leave we know we need a time of rest but we can't wait to see what great adventure God has waiting for us next!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Below is a description of what has happened in our last month in Liberia. It was an extremely challenging time as far as security was concerned, but it was also a sad time as we found ourselves wrapping up our family ministry at the orphanage, not knowing if we will ever be able to return to West Africa and the people we have come to love. We sail today for Ghana where we will hand off the ship to the African Mercy crew as they await the arrival of their ship in Ghana in October sometime. To be honest I doubt that the ship will even make the Ghana outreach, more than likely it will be ready in time for the return to Liberia some time in April. It is my hope that the new crew will get to see the Anastasis in her best light, as an old lady still serving the Lord after 53 years; still strong enough to get the job done that God has called her to for at least one more outreach.

In the first week of May our Captain took a 10 day vacation and a new Captain, Tony Perez, replaced him. Tony is an experienced Captain who quickly earned my respect. I have been extremely blessed to have worked with 2 great Captains during my tour here and the crew will never know how much effort was made by these 2 individuals to keep them safe. In the first week we had a civil unrest that left 1 dead and 2 critical in downtown Monrovia. The UNMIL units were fighting the Marketers who had just had their stalls torn down that were blocking road traffic, the former Liberian Army were protesting their units being dissolved, the widows of the armed forces were protesting over death benefits and some of Taylor's bad boys were looking to make as much trouble as they could to show their dissatisfaction with their former boss's predicament. We were once again forced to recall our teams and keep them away from the trouble spots. The rogues have begun to get desperate in their attempts to get on board, this week we had one man jump our security fence and ran up the gangway. Several of our crew were able to tackle him as he made it to reception. The man began to act crazy and had to be carried off the ship when we escorted him off the dock he threw himself into a puddle and started screaming as if he was on fire. Several of the crew prayed for him as we watched him closely, specially our Transportation Officer, Olly Peet, who had experience working with psychotic patients.

At the same time we had a young man pick up a bucket of paint and joined a work detail carrying paint into the ship. He quickly discarded his can of paint and headed down to our lowest deck and began to search rooms for anything to steal. He walked into one room where 2 girls were on their beds and another was in the bathroom. He began to search their purses. The girls saw him and confronted him and he told them he was working on the ship. It made me proud that these girls had been in my security training and recognized what was going on and took steps to get the man subdued and notified me. I have to admit that as I was having this man arrested I found myself extremely mad that this man had got past my security and put the lives of "my girls" in jeopardy. As we arrested him we found out that he was armed and had both AIDS and Gonorrhea and liked our "pretty white girls!" All of these things were challenging me to forgo my usual protection of our prisoners to ensure that the UNMIL or Liberian police wouldn't beat them. In my heart for the first time I wanted to help beat this guy. I had to step back and remember that this man was just as guilty of sin as I am, no more and no less, and that I needed to praise God that nothing bad had happened. As I took this man to the local police station to be booked, I was giving the officers the information and evidence when a large man in the holding cell came to the cell door and told the rogue that Mercy Ships helps babies and old women and that he would beat him as soon as he got in the cell. The rogue threw himself to my feet and begged me to let him go. He said that if I would let him go he would give himself to Christ. I picked him up and told him that is not how it works; but where he was going only Jesus could help him and it might be a good time to start a conversation with Him. The next morning I came to escort him to the magistrate to have him sent to the real prison while he awaited trial. When I got there I found that the police had let him go! At first I was furious, but then they explained how all the other prisoners were beating this man for what he did to Mercy Ships and that if he went to prison he would surely die. So they let him go.....there was little I could do so I thanked them for their rare compassion for this individual and assured them that I would not file a formal complaint for their actions. I'd like to end this story on a high note but this is Africa and lessons are learned hard. 2 weeks later he was arrested with 8 other individuals trying to get on to our dock.

On the afternoon that Captain Jurrian returned from his vacation, we were notified that one of our patients had walked off the ship only to collapse at the gate by the road and had died. I put together a team of Zana, myself and a crewmember who worked as a mortician. When we got out there we found that an old Muslim man who had come to the ship for laser surgery had asked a woman selling water if he could sit next to her because he wasn't feeling good, he then collapsed and died. Zana pronounced him dead and the we then placed him in a body bag to protect him from flies and the throng of people gathering around. I was then to stay with the body till the family could be notified. I quickly became aware as I was surrounded by curious Muslims that this could quickly turn into incident since this Muslim man died after visiting a Christian ship. To make matters worse, when I was placing the body into the body bag and collecting his valuables I found a Christian tract in His pocket. I struggled as to whether I should remove it or leave it in his pocket. His family could be dishonored if there was some thought that this man might have turned to the "infidels false Messiah" on the other hand maybe this was God's way of sowing into his word into this family. I felt it best to leave it, the old man had taken it of his free will and maybe in his last moments its word became true to him and maybe it could have the same effect on his family. The next day the Executive Counsel asked me to use my contacts to find the family so that we could visit the family and inform them of this man's last hours and how happy he was to be able to see again as he left our ship. It took me 3 hours and 5 dollars to travel down a myriad of back roads and creeks to eventually find the house of his family. I was asked to lead the delegation of 3 nurses who had spent time with the man while on our ship. We met the family, mourners and the clerics of his mosque. The meeting was respectful and went well. The family thanked me for staying with the body to ensure that no one robbed him or dishonored him as he laid there in the heat and flies. We gave the family a 50lb bag of rice to help feed the mourners that would continue to show up for the next week. It was a very surreal experience as we talked about the "One True God" each of us speaking to a different entity. There view of Allah as a judgmental god who had chosen for the old man to be taken and would now judge his life at a later date. While we talked of a loving God, who wanted to reconcile and forgive them. As we began to leave one of the man's nieces came to me and showed me the tract and asked if I wanted it back. I told her it was hers to do as she pleased, I said that obviously her uncle thought it important enough to take it with him. I'm glad I didn't react and remove the tract, maybe God had a plan for it after all.

I worked along with our Senior Chaplain, Lynne Westman, to purchase and distribute 600+ bibles for all the UNMIL soldiers, Liberian Seaport Police and dock workers. It was awesome to give the Lord's word to these people. Don't get me wrong, I know that some of these will end up in the markets for sale. But I know that God will use them no matter where they end up. Cailin helped to distribute them, she really liked giving them away.

We went to our orphanage the last Sunday to say goodbye. They held a ceremony to honor our efforts on their behalf and gowned each of the girls as a way to say thank you and that they will always be a part of their family. The ceremony was sponsored by the boys who I had managed to get trained as masons. They had a future now, they had a skill making them stand out against the other Liberians comprising the 85% unemployment. There is a bright future for them now, where in the past they had no hope of ever finding a job. We are so grateful that God gave us this chance to help these kids. As we got ready to leave our orphanage for the last time, we placed our hands in a small square of concrete to thank God for allowing us to be His loving hands to these children. I hope one day my children will return and show their own children where they had spent a year of their life serving others.

Jessie was glad to see they hadn't eaten her puppy Our Hands in concrete thanking God for this opportunity to serve The kids watching and singing to us as we placed out hands in the concrete

The last 2 weeks have been a nightmare the rogues are more determined than ever to get onboard. We had one climb up the mooring lines and get on our ship. Our teams spotted him but were unable to stop him before he jumped off the ship with a bicycle from our bike rack. We then had to perform a search of the ship at 4:30 am to ensure no other rogues were onboard. All my stow away watches were armed with axe handles and charged fire hoses to try and repel any rogues or stow aways trying to make their way onto our ship. We launched our small boat 3 times to pursue rogues trying to get onto our ship and either arrested them or at the least foiled their attempts. The day before we sailed, our deck team was too efficient and removed all our dock lights and razor wire we used to keep the dock secure. |I was hoping to take them down the morning of our sail. Usually a single blown bulb is enough to attract attention and bring a wave of swimming rogues hoping to make the best of the opportunity. I knew I would have trouble our last night from stow aways; but now, we would be attracting every rogue in the harbor area so I made some calls and had a tank park itself at the end of the pier to protect the dock and discourage any unwanted visitors. To be honest the vehicle is actually an "armored 105mm gun" and not a tank, but for most of the crew it was a tank! The crew had a blast taking pictures on it and the tank crew were very generous to us and even allowed people to climb on it to take pictures. Cailin of course wanted a picture of her being squashed by the tank, what a joker!

On the last day as we started to single up our lines as we readied to depart I went to the end of the dock said a prayer of praise and then lit a Cuban cigar to enjoy this fleeting moment. My praise is from a grateful man who has been challenged more than he ever thought possible and through out all of my short comings and faults God was still able to use me and the Captain to ensure the safety of over 1,000 individuals who had served on the Anastasis over the Liberian outreach. An outreach that saw the first free elections since 14 years of civil war, the installment of Africa's first democratically elected female leader, and endless civil unrest as this country took its first steps toward stability from chaos.

I will always be grateful for and humbled by this season of my life. I had left my career, my home, my cars, my toys and all the things the world judges a man by to follow a calling from God. As I stepped out of my comfort zone and embraced this new career and lifestyle in the 3rd world God met me and took care of every need and concern I had. I had no idea that I would be able to preach in dozens of churches, help the orphans of this war torn country and more importantly show my family how lucky we are to live in the US and that in the course of our lives there must be something more important than ourselves and our own needs. I hope my daughters will always look back and remember this time as when we got to be the hands and feet of Jesus for a short time in a place that needed Him badly.

Below is a description of what happened this last week. At one point I became aware of how surreal this all was; there I was with 2 soldiers with M16's laying in the bushes with the rain just pouring down. We watched as the rogues we were tracking swam with our stolen barrels, they were eerily lit up by the constant lightning flashes. I kept thinking why am I here, what is God doing with me. I know that my job is to ensure the security of the ship and crew but that didn't answer my question. Then I realized that as we catch and incarcerate these rogues, I have the opportunity to show them God's love even as we are handing them over for punishment. I explain to each of them why we have arrested them and that they are putting women and children in danger. I tell them that even though I caught them I still love them and will look out after them. I ensure that the UNMIL soldiers don't beat them and I ensure that they get fed while they wait several days in a holding cell (a broom closet). Once they have been sent to the Central Prison, I have our prison ministry team reach out to them and ensure that they are taken care of.

As all of these thoughts are going through my head, it hits me! I'm here because this is where Jesus would be. Jesus didn't live His life in the temples, he didn't spend it with the holy Pharisees, he spent it living and preaching to the thieves, liars and whores of the world. He even chose to die along side two thieves. So often we see churches here in Africa fighting over the saved souls to build their congregations, instead of reaching out to the unsaved and poor. Even as believers, as we walk closer with Jesus, its impossible not to see how much sin is in our own lives. So who am I to turn away from a thief. I stand just as guilty of sin as the next man, and it is my role to show these rogues that Jesus died for them because He loved them and wanted to offer them the opportunity for redemption. I can only do this by holding them responsible for their actions but ensuring they know that their Lord and Savior will forgive them, if they ask and turn to Him.

On early Sunday morning, I was made aware that 5-6 individuals had swum to the barge off of our pier and could be seen tearing pipes and cables from the dredging barge. In the past, rogues have used this platform to stage raids on our dock and ship as well as other vessels in the port. On March 26 the Ghanaian detachment and I was able to arrest 5 individuals engaged in similar illegal activities.

At 04:50 during a torrential downpour these rogues assaulted our dock with 5-6 swimmers. Our night watch notified the Duty Officer and me that the dock was under attack. By the time we could get on the dock the rogues had taken 6 x 55 gallon drums worth $150, 1 bicycle worth $100, 10 plastic chairs worth $100 and attempted to steal 3 motorcycle batteries. We believe the bike and chairs were lost when the rogues threw them in the water but were unable to recover them before they sank. We will send divers down to search for them when conditions allow. The chairs probably have drifted far in the tidal current and there is little hope in their recovery. The security guards witnessed the bikes and chairs being thrown into the water. The motorcycles all had been tampered with as the rogues attempted to remove their batteries. The Ghanaian detachment was notified and as we could see the rogues swimming away with the barrels as they were lit by the lightning storm.

The senior sergeant and I decided to try and catch the rogues as they made their way back to the bong mine pier area. The sergeant sent one of his men to wait at the pier while we waited in the brush on the beach as we tracked their progress.

They eventually made their way to the pier and that is where we caught one of the individuals, Junior Morris. Mr. Morris informed us that his 4 colleagues worked on the Bong Mine Pier. Junior Morris admitted to the thefts of the barrels and their work of theft in the harbor and on the barge. We were able to recover all 6 drums, 2 of which were found on the barge and were to be used to float off the metal and piping that they were stealing from the barge. We also found their tools that they were using and destroyed them. The bike if it is recovered will be ruined. The chairs are unlikely to be found. The workers at the Bong Mine Pier who assisted us came back later in the day and said they were threatened by the other rogues for assisting us. We have asked the LSP (Seaport Police) and Ghanaian detachment to arrest these 2 leaders of the rogues. I went to the LSP/UNMIL HQ and demanded that the LSP/LNP (National Police) take steps to stop these actions by arresting the ring leaders. I emphasized that Mr. Morris is a young man who was obviously a young follower and not the leader. As long as these 2 rogue leaders are allowed to go free, there will continue to be frequent thefts and attacks on individuals in this port. Mr. Morris has given their names freely and they in turn have threatened Liberians attempting to assist us. Mercy Ships requested that these individuals be made to be held accountable for their ongoing unlawful actions in the Freeport area. Monday, 24 April I was notified that the LSP made a raid on the Bong Mine Pier and was able to arrest Jones Rogers. I was called into court to give evidence to the Magistrate as to why they should be held. The court agreed and raised their charges from robbery to armed robbery because they carried machetes onto the dock. Junior Morris also informed us how they climbed past the razor wire, we have strengthened these areas.

This is what justice looks like in Liberia, oh yeah the judge asked me for $40 to transport the prisoners to prison. So I threw them and the sheriff into the back of my Land rover and drove them myself.

As I was dealing with this a woman walked onto the dock with a baby stuck in her after 36 hours of labor, now it was Zana's turn. I have never felt more certain that God has us right where he wants us. Everyday is a new adventure, where we get to show the love of God and in turn God shows us His love for us.

Monday started with a bang literally. The new government and more importantly the new police chief (formerly of New Jersey) decided it was time to tear down and burn all the market stalls that were crowding the roads and making traffic a living nightmare here in Monrovia. Unfortunately, they didn't coordinate this action with the UNMIL troops. So as soon as the market stall owners saw what they had done violent riots broke out throughout the city. The local Taxi owners were also frustrated by the stalls and decided to help the police to tear stalls down and start fights with the stall owners. I have been working to keep our people out of the trouble spots for the last 3 days. This morning we awoke to more riots and beaten bodies in the streets. Just another day in Monrovia!!

Of course this also started on the day that Zana had 70 women coming for screening. A lot of these woman had trouble getting transportation because of the riots. Their lives have been destroyed by the violence here and once again the day there is hope for treatment, violence springs up and makes a difficult transport into something impossible.

2. 4 of our vehicles had possession stolen out of the vehicles while they were moving in slow city traffic (Jessie and I were one of these)

3. Had numerous crew members life threatened by the growing number of violent beggars

10. Tensions are still high as Charles Taylor supporters are still upset that "Their President" was in jail facing war tribunal charges.

10. The opposition candidate George Weah was removed from a leaving flight and had his passport taken, causing huge tension amongst the opposition party which is about 40% of the total population and 99% of some outlying counties.

Please pray for the safety of our crew over the next 6 weeks and my ability to keep them safe from their own foolishness, which at times can be mind blowing.

It is Easter weekend here on the ship. On Friday night we held a Passover dinner where we celebrated the Jewish tradition and the second covenant. I have been preaching at a church conference as the key speaker the last 2 days. The theme has been "Pressing on Toward the Goal." My first sermon was on the Lord's tempering the people of Liberia through the hardship of 14 years of war to ready them to return their country back to the Lord. My second was finding God's will in their lives, they need to be sure that the goals they set for themselves are God's goals. My third sermon will deal with believers seeking God as the great counselor, that they must not only talk to God, but they must stop and listen for God to answer them. I have taken 3 nurses visiting as short term crew from Massachusetts around with me as we went to our orphanage, the markets and as I preached this last week. We will miss Marie, Karen and John they have made us a little home sick.

I have been asked by the leadership of Mercy Ships to return to the International Head Quarters (IOC) in Van, TX. They are praying about making serious changes to their IT infrastructure and they want me to lead their team. It had been our desire to stay on the Anastasis till the winter when the African Mercy was to relieve us in Ghana, but we have decided it would be best if we submit to the ministry's request and to also give our kids a chance to start school in the fall in the US. So we are coming home, by mid-June I will be waking around Wal-Mart and Home Depot with my mouth open in culture shock. I can't wait to see all of you and find out how God has moved in your lives over the last 2 years.

It has been quite the week!!!! Late Monday night, I was woken to respond to a fire on the barge at the end of our pier. Rogue thieves have been using the barge to stage their raids on the port and our ship and pier. The fire eventually went out on its own but it was a huge concern since the barge is just 20 feet from the ship.

Tuesday morning I was contacted by UNMIL that a worker had collapsed at the top of a well. UNMIL had attempted to lower a rescue person but he became overcome by some sort of gas. Our ship was the only source of a breathing apparatus in Liberia. When we got there it became obvious that we were now working to recover a body and not a rescue.

It became obvious that the well's 3 ft diameter would not allow us to have the rescuer to wear the air pack. So we were forced to lower the air tank directly above the rescue person and ensure that we didn't pull the mask or hose from him. What made the situation a little more complicated was that a fire team arrived with an explosive meter and we found that the well was full of methane. This meant that if we caused a spark we could have launched the rescue guy out of the well like the guy in a circus canon. In the end the recovery process was successful, the body was recovered and returned to his family and a critical public well was not contaminated by a dead body.

On Thursday we saw 5 swimmers return top the barge in the afternoon. My Ghurka's and I used our wrist rocket slingshots and .38 ball bearings to keep their heads down but we could not dislodge them, eventually they swam away.

On Friday afternoon, I was notified by the ships security team that once again we had 5 individuals climbing aboard the barge. We again yelled at the rogues that they were trespassing and used slingshots to harass them. The rogues took cover under the barges structure and refused to leave. I informed the Captain of the Anastasis, Captain Jurryan Shutte, of the situation and requested permission to plan an operation utilizing our ship’s small boat and the local Ghanaian detachment to arrest the rogues. The Captain concerned with the ongoing safety of the ship and crew agreed with the need to resolve this issue and approved the operation.

My team and the Ghanaian soldier boarded the barge and began to search the forward part of the ship and tanks. As we began to search aft, we found a storage compartment aft which contained some sort of air tanks and fire extinguishers. We requested 2 additional Ghanaian soldiers to assist in the search of this confined space. We searched for 30 minutes and did not find the remaining 2 rogues. We removed all of the tanks in the hold and recovered a broken lock, meat cleaver, and small hammer as evidence of their efforts in breaking into the barge and stripping the copper wire from it. We also found cable junction boxes that had been cut out and removed. We also found evidence where they had used the fire earlier in the week to burn through thick cable and its insulation.

As we returned to the M/V Anastasis and recovered the small boat, we were informed by the security staff that 2 individuals had swam from the barge. We reassembled the team and interdicted the 2 rogues at the railroad bridge. We escorted them to the Nepalese base where Ghanaian soldiers were waiting to place them in custody. The 2 individuals were claiming to not be rogues but workers in the port. As we returned the 2 rogues to the Ghanaian Battalion HQ, the 3 previously caught rogues identified the last 2 as their compatriots; removing any validity to the last 2 rogue’s claims of innocence.

The 5 individuals refused to comply with multiple requests for their names and contact information. I tried to convince the 5 rogues that it was in their best interest to comply with the UNMIL and LSP (Liberian Seaport Police) officers. They refused to do so and continued to give false information to the officers, the Nigerian officer questioning started to beat one of the suspects who was mocking him. I had to intervene on their behalf to stop the beating . We handed the 5 suspects over to the LSP with 2 of Mercy Ship’s handcuffs used to restrain 4 of the individuals.

Saturday morning the LSP officers returned with one of the suspect to our ship. The suspect had damaged the handcuffs by trying to pick the lock. We told the LSP that we would not be able to cut off the handcuff till Monday morning. The LSP officer in charge requested that we provide food for the 5 suspects because they would have to hold them till Monday morning. On Sunday the officers came to the ship and they informed me that the rocket scientist that broke the handcuffs was banging it against the wall and forced it to tighten around his wrist. As I drove to the holding cell to assist I saw the officers holding down the suspect as they used a machete and a rock to break open the handcuff. I immediately turned my vehicle around and waited for 15 minutes before returning to make sure that I didn't witness an amputation. In the end the skilled locksmith with the rock and machete successfully removed the handcuffs. I have to admit it felt cool to play the "Coastie" again. It wasn't until I had to climb the 8ft up to the top of the barge did I realize how old and "big" I am right now. In the end we got the bad guys in jail and secured the port area.

For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had ratherbe a door keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

It has been a while since I have written the newsletter. My new role as Security Officer has kept me extremely busy the last 5 months and I decided it was time to fill you in on what the Lord has been doing in me and with me since my last communication. This letter is intended as a praise report on the faithfulness of our God during the times that I have found myself on my knees asking God for the wisdom and grace to help me protect my family, ship and crew of 350 brothers and sisters in Christ. I want to make sure that God gets all the glory for this good report, it is a testimony of what an extremely average man can do when an unbelievably awesome God guides his actions and words. I know many of you have been lifting us up in prayer as Zana has sent out our prayer needs and we are so grateful for you timely response to our prayer needs.

In June, I took on my new role as we sailed from Monrovia to East London in South Africa. During our first week in East London I was sent to Cape Town for security training, the University was so impressed with what we do that they gave me the training for free and asked me to come back and instruct their students on a 3 day course on crisis management. During our 3 months in East London, our young crew who didn’t seem to understand the dangers of South Africa kept me busy. There is a prevailing myth that sleeping with a virgin will cure AIDS here. This is so rampant that last year in South Africa 1400 children under the age of 3 were raped by people trying to cure their disease. Because of who we are, there is the view that all of the women on our ship are pure and possibly a source of a cure. Keeping our women safe had to be at the forefront of all that we did. East London is also in an economic down turn where the dock area was an area of prostitution, drugs and violent crimes. We give thanks to God, that even though we had some close calls and a few thefts none of our crew were hurt.

In August we sailed to Cape Town, which brought a whole new set of challenges for us. This was our 3 weeks of PR tours and meant that I had to prepare for thousands of people coming on board our ship while still meeting all the international security requirements. To make matters worse was that Cape Town has a huge Muslim population that engaged in a bombing campaign a few yeas back against any business with a US name (Planet Hollywood, New York Bagel…) even though they were South African owned. For those 3 weeks I had to manage security for tours and special event with a constantly changing staff. We actually had over ¼ of our visitors who were obvious Muslims and some of them were so radical that they were wearing burka’s, covering the women from head to toe with only their eyes visible through their veils. To meet the security requirements each handbag and backpack had to be searched and each male was checked for any firearms. In the end we broke all records in the 3 weeks we had over 17,500 people tour the ship and had 11 special events on board. We searched over 10,000 bags and found 10 undeclared weapons. During this time we lost only one purse, one cell phone, and one child……I’m glad to report all were found and returned to their owners. We also hosted Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu for a commissioning ceremony. He was a very cute old man who charmed everyone on board.

The funniest moment during this time had to be when one the many Islamic schools came to the ship. The kids were obviously moved by what they saw and as they were leaving one of them asked what he could do to grow up and join our ship. I immediately saw the schools cleric staring at me with his long beard and robes and hat; I could tell this could instantly be a political blunder or an opportunity to share the gospel or possibly both. Thinking quickly to defuse the situation, I smiled at the child and told him that he could check out the ships web site or my site to get more information. The cleric was not happy but at least he didn’t yell or hit the child while he was there on the pier.

Before we left Cape Town a Liberian man working at the local aquarium donated the opportunity for the Captain and I to dive with the sharks at their aquarium it was a lot of fun. The sharks were jagged tooth sharks that were 9 ft long and about 650lbs. Just to make things interesting I accidentally cut my hand going into the tank and got the sharks a little agitated before we went in.

We had a beautiful 10 day sail to Monrovia. The seas were relatively calm and Zana and the girls soon got their sea legs. I can’t express the joy I have sharing my love of the sea with my wife and girls. It is amazing to watch their faces as we see the dolphins, whales, sharks, new constellations, the milky way and falling stars. The last night we laid in hammocks on the bow listened to people singing praise songs and watched a distant lightning storm. As I watched the girls get excited by the huge lightning displays, I took the time to thank God for calling us here and allowing us to share this experience together as a family.

Once we arrived in Liberia I found my self knee deep in setting up our security protocols with the port officials, UN Military and the US Embassy. We have been able to keep our crew safe during the violent elections and the subsequent civil unrest. I have had to recall our crew 5 times and redirect them back to our ship or to safe points. I have had to deal with attacks on our pier by groups of armed swimmers hoping to rob or hurt our crew. These rogues were able to board another ship and threaten the crew with machetes. I can’t afford to have armed intruders on our boat with over 200 women and children on board, so I have to take proactive and yet non-lethal measures. I have outfitted my dock with over 15 1000W halogen lights and armed my Gurkha guards with wrist rocket slingshots using 38 caliber ball bearings.

The Anastasis has the only water asset, our small boat, in Liberia. I have been called upon to use it to assist a sinking vessel and help recovering the bodies of drowning victims. I guess old Coasties never die they just get used in another part of the world. I have also had to deal with the dead bodies of thieves who had been killed by vigilante mobs and left to rot on our front gate over our Christmas break.

Zana, on the other hand, was quickly drawn into her new role as head of the ward. She will be working with the plastics and VVF patients. I can’t tell you how proud I am of her she seems to be able to do anything they ask of her. Her outcomes for the last 4 months have been nothing short of amazing. Historically they have average 50-60% success rate. Under her watch both plastics and VVF have had a 100% success rate! God is really using her here and it is amazing to watch the patients cry with her as they realize they’ll be going home cured.

Sometimes I find himself living a life I only read about in my Tom Clancy novels, with pirates, intelligence operatives, military response teams, extraction points, safe houses, APC’s, tanks, and gun ships. Then there the other times when the mantle of trying to protect 350 men, women and children in war torn 3^rd world country seems too much of a burden for me. But I know I am not alone. God called me to this position and he will use whatever skills and energy I have to fulfill this task. He has also greatly blessed me with great friends who lift us up in their prayers.

The hardest aspect of my job is that most days I have to go to our front gate and turn away 30-100 people who have showed up in the hopes of getting surgery. Occasionally I find a candidate for surgery, that we still have a slot open for. The look on their faces when they realize that they are going to be seen by a doctor is amazing. I offer to pray with those I turn away, but it is hard. We were their only hope and I can only offer them prayer that God will find another way to heal them.

So today, I have given up my job, house and cars to be a door keeper in this part of God’s kingdom. I stand at our gate with my Gurkhas and allow patients to come through and guard the ship against rogues. It is the greatest job I have ever known and I have no regrets. When I felt God calling me I had no idea I would end up here in this role, but He did. He built my life for just this purpose and He has built you too. He has great plans for all of us, are you listening for His call? Don’t be afraid He has an awesome adventure waiting for you! He will not disappoint you. His burden is light and His joy is unimaginable.