m/v Africa Mercy update no. 8 - 30-11-05

m/v Africa Mercy update no. 8 - 30-11-05

This is a very quick update.

Today is a great day.

As of 11:00 this morning I found out I have been offered a place as a long term crew member on the Africa Mercy.

I will be a as a Water Projects Worker in the Community Development Services Department, which means I will be heading out with teams to the far off villages doing water pumps and sanitation – which is what I have always wanted to do on the ship.

As you can tell I am well happy – bouncing off the walls would be an adequate description.

I have been worried since joining that I would only be able to serve on the ship for 12 months, but they have extended this term.

The Official Letter is below, as I am meant to send this out to all the people that I keep updated, so this means you!

Right thanks for reading and I hope you are having as good a day as me.

Vaya Con Dios

Paul Waldron
Mercy Ships


-----------------------------------------

November 22, 2005

To the friends and family of Paul Waldron:

Millions in our world today are starving to death, both physically and spiritually. Mercy Ships seeks to become the face of love in action, bringing hope and healing to the world’s poor. To accomplish our goals and objectives, we need staff with great diversity. Skills, talents, gifts, and callings must come from various sources; working together we bring the _expression of a loving God to all nations, offering the two hands of the Gospel to the multitudes as Jesus did during His time on earth.

In this regard, it is with pleasure and gratitude that Mercy Ships has welcomed Paul as full-time crew onboard the Africa Mercy. Paul will be filling a vital role in our Community Development Services Department, as a Water Projects Worker. We are fortunate to have Paul in this role and pray that his life will be blessed as he serves God in Mercy Ships.

How can you get involved? As with many charitable organizations, Mercy Ships asks crew to develop a support team. This allows donations to Mercy Ships to be spent directly on programs and outreach. May I ask you to prayerfully consider partnering in the work of Paul? A partner serves in several ways…

Prayer support. Prayer is key to the success of his ministry and must be the cornerstone to your partnership. Please commit to praying for him daily.

Financial support. Give generously to support his financial needs.


God has certainly given us many talented and committed people over the past years, and Paul fits into that category. He needs a solid support base to continue forward. The enclosed information will outline that process. Please contact Paul should you have any questions.

Kind regards,



Don Stephens
Founder/President

PAC

m/v Africa Mercy update no. 7 - 21-11-05

Right first thing I have to do is apologise. It`s not bad. I am typing this on a French Keyboard. (Yes I am in France) and for some unknown reason the French have decided to really mess up the Keyboard by moving all the keys around on the keyboard! Silly French people. Anyway the reason I am telling you this is that my spelling maybe much worse today than it is normally!

Right now that that is outta the way, I can get on with letting you guys/gals know what episodes are going down in the life of the Waldron. Well it has been another 3 week period since I last wrote.

Well I haven't injured myself recently you'll be pleased to hear, I think the Shipyard Medic may be missing me!

The ship has actually moved twice since I last wrote. Well moved I use mildly! We got towed into the Dry Dock about 150m and then two weeks later moved back to the Tyne! Dry Dock is when the whole ship moves into a really large swimming pool, about 40 foot deep and 250m long, then all the water gets drained out and the ship is left sat on a few blocks of wood! A bit like getting all its wheels stolen! It's a bit weird to think that the ship is balancing on some wood, but thankfully it doesn't topple over, no matter how much you try and push it, I didn't try.
That week I was on night watch so at least I didn't have to check for water leaks coming onto the ship!

I managed to escape off the ship when it moved into Dry dock but when we left I offered my services as a Deckhand. So I got to help with the mooring lines which was a really great experience, even if very very scary. Thankfully none of the lines broke - which does often happen when moving ships, I've seen one break and it is not pretty. Basically you see a lot of people run like mad. A breaking line can easily slice someone in two! Also checkout the Blog on the link below to see a photo of my great leaning tower of mooring lines!

Then the rest of the time I have been completing the pressure testing of the Medical Gas. Yes I am still going and yes I am still not finished! To date I have got the three largest systems complete, so now it is just the two smaller systems to finish off. Thankfully.

General Shipyard updates/Answers to prayer.
Well after depressing two weeks of not seeing any work done on the ship as all the subcontractors were released due to contractual and shipyard finance reasons. We received news on Wednesday that there has been major positive progress made and they should all be starting work again this week. And they have kinda assured us that they should be finished by the end of March. Which will put all of our original plans back into action about the ship visiting London and then to Rotterdam in April before we go to Ghana and meet up with the Anastasis.

Having a few days out at the moment visiting Vicky in France. So spent Saturday in Paris and then the next few days in Orleans and back to Paris again on Wednesday to fly back to Newcastle. I love Easyjet!!! The French Architecture is amazing and they really know how to build Cathedrals.

Right keep safe my friends.

Keep in touch and incase you haven't recieved my txt already my mobile number has changed to: ********** I think! I'll still have the other one with me for another few months but will gradually use it less and less. The new mobile is on Vodafone but doesn't have any cross network minutes, so give us a ring as I won't be able to anymore!

Vaya Con Dios.

Paulus

The Leaning Mooring Line Tower

Me and my mooring line pile.

See the two piles of rope next to it, those were done by a Deckhand, my rope pile was a bit, well, less professional!

This was the day I became a Deckie and helped when the ship moved from Dry Dock back to the Tyne.

Oh yeah also note the 5 week beard. It helped keep me warm on the freezing day.

Keep safe y'all.
Paulus

Me at work

Hey, just thought i would quickly pop in and leave a rather pleased looking photo of myself stood next to some of our work in the hospital section.
I am srood next to some of the Medical gas trucking that we are currently installing. (just so you know that I am cheating, there isn't actually anything installed behind there yet, we are still getting round to it, but this is what it will look like when we have finished it!)

I became a Deckhand for the day helping move the ship from Dry Dock (where it has been for 2 weeks) to the usual wet dock of the Tyne river. I'll try and post some photos of the ship in dry dock later on.

Keep safe people, Vaya Con Dios.

Paulus - now floating again.

New Look to the Blog

Had a bit of a change with the whole Blog thing.
It was looking to Dark and Dreary so I brightened it up with a bit white finish and some fancy poppy-up boxes on the top left.
Sorry for the massive photo of me that pops up if you float around the title bar a bit. I'll have to find some way of reducing it down!!

Righty.

Keep safe people, I'm off to bed.

Paul