CANADIAN SUB OFFICE

  

   MERCY SHIP CANADIAN STAFF

Tim Maloney
National Director

mercyshipcanada@mail2canada.com

Erica Eklund

Admin Assistant/Alumni Relations

Lynn Gray

Speaker Network Coordinator

Monika Josok

Donor Services Manager 

Dr Linda Packer 

Head of admin and public relationship

mercyship_admin@mail2world.com

Debbie Noble

(Chairman)

mscanadian_suboffice@mail2canada.com



Lorraine McDonald

Communications/
Grant-writing/Administration

Patty Todd

Accounts Manager

Mercy Ships Canada Board of Directors (2009/2010)

Jerry DeWit
Michael Kerr
John McLeod
Judy Polkinhorn (Sec/Treas)
Don Stephens


OFFICE LOCATION

#5 – 3318 Oak St., Victoria BC.


It began with a prayer and continues today because of prayer.

It began with the destructive forces of a hurricane and continues with the life-giving power of God’s love.

It began with a young man’s obedience and is sustained by thousands from around the world who answer, in whatever way they can, to the cries of the forgotten poor.

In 1964, Hurricane Cleo ravaged the Bahamas. There, on a summer outreach, led by Loren and Darlene Cunningham of Youth With A Mission (YWAM), Don Stephens and 145 other young men and women found themselves caught in the midst of the devastation. While the tempest pounded their shelter, they prayed for those caught in Cleo’s clutches.

“Wouldn’t it be wonderful,” voiced one young woman, “if we had a ship with doctors, nurses, engineers…a ship filled with cargo that could come in to help after a disaster like this?!”

Don agreed and envisioned ships like floating hospitals. Some 14 years later (1978), Don and Deyon Stephens and friends found themselves in Italy, purchasing for $1,000,000 a retired luxury passenger/cargo liner named Victoria. It took four years, representing thousands of hours of hard work and prayer before the vessel, renamed and resurrected as Anastasis, sailed forth as the first Mercy Ship.

After 29 years of service, the Anastasis retired, making way for the newly-refitted Africa Mercy to take on her mantle of hope and healing. Through the years, other ships have come and gone as part of the Mercy Ships fleet, joining a worldwide network of staff and supporting partners to provide medical care, relief aid and long-term sustainable change in developing nations – putting reality to that prayer of so long ago by bringing assistance to the impoverished and downtrodden.

Mercy Ships utilizes the capabilities of sea-going cargo and passenger carriers to link nations – bridging those who have an abundance with those who have little or nothing. This is all carried out each year by more than 850 career crew and some 1600 sort-term volunteers from over 40 nations.

Target Population

Mercy Ships serves those who are most in need of health are and relief aid in the world's poorest countries. The lack of clean water supplies is among the most urgent problems facing the developing world today. Thousands of children die annually from easily-correctable birth defects such as cleft palates and lips. Those who survive become outcasts from society, often rejected by their parents and communities and denied even basic schooling. Half of the world's estimated 40 million blind people could see following a one-hour operation.

Methods


• LIfe-changing Operations: Surgeons contribute their services without charge and perform free operations onboard, correcting cleft palates and crossed eyes, removing tumors and cataracts, straightening club feet, repairing fistulas.

• Village Clinics: Medical and dental teams establish local clinics in villages for the benefit of people who have no access to health care.

Agricultural Projects: Mercy Ships helps communities become self-sufficient in food production through provision of seeds, tools and training.

Community Health Education: Teaching primary health care to locals who have a desire to teach and benefit their community multiplies the efforts of Mercy Ships teams.

Water & Sanitation: Mercy Ships provides wells and water pumps, assists with latrine construction, and trains villagers in hygiene and sanitation.

Construction Projects: Mercy Ships partners with, and trains, local people on each project, empowering communities to help themselves.

But Mercy Ships is more than dates and facts and figures.

Mercy Ships is . . .

. . . the mother who hears her daughter say “mama” for the first time after having her cleft palate repaired.

… the father who watches the joy on his son’s face as he discovers the colors of the world following his cataract operation.

… the village that has to bury fewer children because they practice the simple community health teachings.

… the children who can now go to school without fear because their eyes no longer cross or their cleft lips no longer brand them as accursed.

… the young men and women who are learning a valuable trade in the newly-constructed training centre.

… the villagers who no longer have to walk for miles to find their daily water because they now have their own well.

…. the teenager who can smile again because her rotting teeth have been repaired.

… the man who can walk again with a custom-made prosthetic limb, after years of hobbling around on crutches because a rebel chopped his leg off with a machete.

… the woman who can have children again and come out of the dark room at the back of a hovel because she couldn’t control the leaking after the five-day labor when her baby died and tore her up inside.

… the grandmother who now sees her grandchildren clearly for the first time following her cataract removal and lens implant.

… the never-ending story of a God of compassion and faithfulness, who works through a people who follow His mandate to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with their God.

THIS IS MERCY SHIPS CANADA



 

 

 
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