Hope to see you in Jacksonville

Dear Friends,

We are very much looking forward to seeing you while we are in Jacksonville! The plan is for the ship to come into downtown Jacksonville on the morning of Thursday, November 6th. There will be a Mayor’s Reception that evening and we will also be welcoming many new crew members. It will be an exciting and busy day! The ship schedules many receptions during the time of Public Relations Tours to share the vision and invite specific groups to learn about our mission and how to serve with us. We will be docked in Jacksonville until December 2nd.

We have arranged to have a private reception for our friends and family in Jacksonville. You are invited to join us at this reception on November 15th from 2:00 pm until 4:00 pm. Please let us know by November 9th if you’ll be able to come so we may plan for the refreshments and notify the ship tour staff of your attendance. We will be docked by the Adams Mark hotel downtown on the Riverwalk just north of The Landing. You will need to first register with the tour staff on the dock and then go on the tour. At the end of the tour they will bring you into the reception which will be held on the family side of the dining room on the Promenade Deck near the International Flag Landing. We will need to finish the reception promptly at 4:00 pm, because the dining room staff will need to prepare the family dining room for dinner which is served at 5:00 pm. We hope you’ll be able to come and be our honored guests.

We would also like to spend time with you individually during our stay. Since our time will be limited and we will also be working, we will need to plan our time so that we can be available to see all of you and be able to give a private tour of the ship, if you’d like. We hope you will understand and know that we are really looking forward to sharing our new home with you. You may join us onboard for meals such as lunch during the week or dinner. We also have a community night gathering on Thursday evenings at 7:00 pm. Unfortunately, the ship requires us to notify them of guests ahead of time, so please let us know if there is a time that you would like to join us. We are also limited in the number of guests that we may have onboard at one time for times other than the reception.

If any of you would like to stay onboard the ship overnight, please let us know as soon as possible. We have many guests from all over the US and world that visit the ship during this time. Our CEO and founder, Don Stephens, and his wife, Deyon, will be onboard for a few days near the end of November. We are having a change of CEOs, from Trevor Walker to Udo Kronester, on Nov. 20th. So as you can see this will be a busy time. Please contact us and we will do our best to meet your schedules.

You can reach us on the ship phone (504) 739-5139, this is a number in New Orleans (where our satellite switch is) and our email address is robert.miller@mercyships.org or denise.miller@mercyships.org. We look forward to seeing you in Jacksonville!

May God bless you abundantly today!

God’s blessings,
Denise and Rob
Mercy Ships, m/v Caribbean Mercy