Rob and Denise at the Africa Mercy!

Rob and Denise at the Africa Mercy!, originally uploaded by MercyWatch.

This photo was taken just outside the portacabin that Denise and 12 other crewmembers work in. You can see the ship behind us. Rob works on the ship preparing the engineering stores for sailing (all the parts-big and little)with lots of help of the engineers!

Denise in the Reception area of the Africa Mercy!

December 2005 059, originally uploaded by MercyWatch.

This is the Reception Area as you walk on the ship. Where I am standing will be the reception counter and I will continue to take pictures as the area is completed. My job on the ship is Head Receptionist and we will be working in this area as the ship gets completed. Currently, I'm working as Accounting Assistant in the Business Centre just down the way from the ship in a "Portacabin". This picture was taken on 15Dec05.

Don't ask for grits here in the UK!

December 2005 082, originally uploaded by MercyWatch.

This is a grit box alongside of the road. The Grit here is used to melt the ice and snow, basically like rock salt!

Rob on the gangway of the Africa Mercy

December 2005 047, originally uploaded by MercyWatch.

As you can now see... the Africa Mercy is quite a bit larger than the Caribbean Mercy! When you enter the ship through the gangway you are on Deck 5 at Reception. That's where I'll be working on the ship!

A blessing for us in the City of Newcastle!

We went into Newcastle with some friends to see a Christmas program at their church on December 18th. The program was mostly Christmas songs, beautiful songs! After the program, we went into the Chinatown part (including a huge Tori Gate) and had Chinese food for dinner. It was very good! Then we walked through the town to go down to the river to see the Gateshead Millinneum Bridge which is lighted with blue light at night. And we had an added blessing...the city was celebrating the Winter Festival and we were there just at the right time to wait for the fireworks which began just about a half hour after we reached the river! It was great! You can check out the beautiful bridge and other pictures of the city by clicking on the Slideshow of the pictures of Newcastle, including the fireworks!

We are in Northeast England and crew of the Africa Mercy!

Greetings from Northeast England! We arrived on 29Nov2005 and were greeted at the Newcastle Airport by our friends and crewmates, Mark Biddell and Yvonne Riddick! It's great to be here and we are settling in, however the internet connection is only at the office! We will have a phone at the flat on 22Dec and are looking forward to be able to communicate more through the internet on the blog and website. We enjoyed our time with friends and family, the week of Thanksgiving and loved seeing everyone! It was too short a time...but when we got to the Africa Mercy...we found out why they needed us here so quickly! The crew is still small in numbers and lots of work to do! In the next few days and weeks, I'll try to get the pictures of the ship out on the blog. I took several pictures of the ship this past week and I'll try to keep you updated on the progress.

I'm having trouble getting to the website to update it...so I'll keep going on the blog. Today, we took a ride on the Metro up to Tynemouth. It's a beautiful seaside town with an old abbey on the shore. We took some pictures, so we'll get them out this coming week. The sea is the North Sea...so it was very cold and windy! Big waves and beautiful scenery! Wow...a photograph can just not capture the beauty! This town is at the mouth of the Tyne River and the ship is docked up the river in Hebburn at the A&P shipyard.

Rob with the SpaceSaver in the Pharmacy on the Africa Mercy

December 2005 054, originally uploaded by MercyWatch.

The SpaceSaver was installed in the Pharmacy on Deck 3 just this past Wednesday and Thursday. This will make it easy to store all the medications needed for the patients in Africa!

The New SpaceSaver!

December 2005 052, originally uploaded by MercyWatch.

Another view of the SpaceSaver in the Pharmacy on Deck 3.

We're in Northeast England!

We have arrived in England and are now a part of the Africa Mercy Crew! We are privileged to be here as a part of the pre-deployment team working on the Africa Mercy project and then will also be a part of the post-deployment crew longterm on the Africa Mercy!!!

We are settling in and are enjoying getting to know our crew mates and feel very blessed by this wonderful community! Lots of work is happening on the ship and in the New Year...even more will be happening! Many more of the contracted workers (about 100) will be working around the clock seven days a week and another 70 will be working 2 shifts daily to get the ship ready to go the first part of April 2006! It's exciting to see the level of activity increase and imagine that all the hard work for so many for so long is coming together to be able to go to Africa!

We know that many of you have questions...please email us and we will be glad to answer any questions for you that we can. We loved seeing those of you that we could while we were in Jacksonville, St. Augustine, High Point, Rockville and Baltimore before coming to England! We miss you!

May God bless you abundantly as you seek Him more and more throughout the New Year!

God's abundant blessings,
Rob and Denise