Madagascar

Just 36 hours ago we crossed over the equator sailing towards Madagascar after a short stay in South Africa. Mercy Ships announced this week that we accepted the invitation of the President of the Republic of Madagascar to bring the world’s largest civilian hospital ship to Madagascar for its next field service until middle of 2015. See full press release here.

It has been an interesting summer as we waited to see where the ship would be going. We were scheduled to sail for Benin in August but were delayed due to propeller issues as well as wanting to monitor the Ebola situation. Because our ship is not equipped to help those with Ebola, we have delayed our trip to Benin and are sailing to Madagascar sooner than expected. It is very difficult to sail past West Africa knowing that many are dying due to Ebola. Please continue to pray for West Africa. This is a very real and deadly virus. We have some West African crew on board who have already lost loved ones due to Ebola. It is heart breaking to see so many suffering.

We will arrive in Madagascar around the end of October after a short stay in South Africa for fuel and crew. Please pray for the crew as we enter into a very different phase. Normally our Advanced Team would have been sent in to county next 6 months before the ship arrives. They, however only arrived in Madagascar a week ago. We are already hearing praise reports about how quickly things are moving along and how much favor they have had there. We are thankful to see the Lord working already, as none of this was a surprise to Him.