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Dear Friends,

I write watching the sunrise on the beach in Durban. Even at this early hour the beach is alive with a diverse ethnic mix: local Africans praying on the beach, some in groups, others wading fully clothed into the sea as part of their prayers; walkers joggers and cyclists; burka and hijab covered women; trendy surfers and sleepy rough sleepers.

Durban beach

The delays to our schedule have been a blessing personally and there is a feeling that we are sailing to Madagascar in God’s slightly later timing. I have been blessed as I have had time to get to grips with the school, curriculum and pupils without the added challenge of a pitching and rolling vessel. Valuable supplies have been sourced which will make science teaching and personal life much better. And I’ve explored the contrasting beauty and challenges of South Africa – beautiful scenery, amazing wildlife, truly friendly and lovely people contrasted with an appalling rate of horrific crimes.

Just over 2 weeks ago I packed my bags and headed off into the unknown.

Ready to go!

Arriving to a warm welcome I soon made friends with my two lovely cabin mates – Mr Johnson (who calls me Mr Robert) and Jason, an electrician. We are very much crew, I am officially a ‘seaman’ and under the command of our captain. My fellow crew are from the four corners of the earth, an incredibly talented group of volunteers dedicated to the cause of MercyShips.

The ship has everything the crew requires – great food, a small gym and swimming pool, a school, a starbucks coffee shop, a shop, a staff health centre and dentist’s, a hairdresser, a ‘swap’ shop and lots more. Socially I’ve taken up running and we have had our first folk music session. I hear there is salsa dancing too!

MV Africa Mercy in dry dock

The delays have been to do with the removal of one of the propeller shafts for repairs. One would think it an easy job until you see the size of the propellers!

In dry dock

The propeller shaft

School started on Tuesday. We have around 40 students in an international school that stretches from Year 1 to Year 12. I’m teaching Science to students from Year 4 upwards. I’m excited about the challenge of teaching Year 4 and 5 students Science and Chemistry to Year 12s. It is great to be teaching more than Physics again. My classes are tiny and altogether I have less students than in one average class in Brighton College. However planning still takes time and I have landed a side job as the Science Technician so am kept pretty busy.

I teach in the ‘Big Room’, a room divided into 3 areas, a science area, a bank of computers and another area where teaching can take place. Once we get to Tamatave we will set up a Chemistry ‘lab’ on shore (probably just a bench where we can do practical work). I’m also looking forward to running an after school club that will contain monthly star gazing, dissection, ship science and anything else that seems fun that doesn’t fit into the curriculum!

The Big Room

It would be great to hear from you, drop me a line and let me know how you are doing!

Look out for my next blog from Madagascar in a few weeks!

If you like to pray, please pray for:

• A great sail to Madagascar.
• Continued growth in friendships on board.
• A quick and successful start to work in Madagascar.

Sunset from dry dock

I have always enjoyed adventures with my dad. Once we visited a bothy, a simple,remote hut you can stay in for free. Usually the bothy is squeaky clean on arrival, however sometimes it is full of mess from previous visitors.

Dad taught me the most important Bothy Rule: keave the bothy in a better state than you found it. If most people follow this rule Bothies function well.

Dibidil Bothy

I have often applied the bothy rule to everyday life and it can be the quiet, unmentioned motivation behind my choice of actions. As the world according to the media becomes darker I’ve become more motivated to leave things within my sphere of influence in a better state than I found them,  bringing a little bit of heaven to earth.

There are many wonderful churches in Brighton however one church stood out. Led by a pastor with a heart for social justice who leads his small church to make a huge difference in the community, One Church quickly became my church. It is full of people who have committed their lives to leave the world in a better place than they found it. I love their heart to build community and the wealth of projects they are involved with. Many work with charities or have been aid workers overseas.

I would have been involved in so many projects however I struggled to find time to be part of the community. As a result I was incredibly relieved by the decision to leave my post at Brighton College at the end of the academic year and look for some new direction.

Friends had told me of their dreadful experiences at boarding school chapel, a dull, lifeless monotony with little relevance to daily life which inoculated them against faith. So I was surprised to be looking forward to an inspirational and encouraging morning chapel. Father Robert always grabbed our attention with his intelligent, humorous and perceptive sermons on a huge range of topics.

Brighton College Chapel

This morning he was preaching about Extra Cover, something teachers dread when checking morning emails. Except this Cover was different…a charity providing essentials enabling the poorest children in Sri Lanka to receive an education. Something leapt inside me, I wanted to make a difference in people’s lives.

Cycling home, Extra Cover remained in my thoughts. When I got home I checked my email and received an email from MercyShips who were in need of a science teacher, I signed up!

Voluntourism is a word I hate. It brings up the image of a well meaning person paying an expensive package tour company charity thousands of pounds to take them to a far away land to build a build or do something that local people could do better for a fraction of the price.

I will pay MercyShips thousands of pounds to take me to a far away land. However we do something that the local people cannot do at any price. Being there I will enable many lives and communities to be transformed by freely healing the sick, and providing health education and training to many people. We are doing transformative work that local people cannot, and in doing so hoping to leave a legacy that lasts many years. In the last year we achieved so much, have a look at this link to see what we have done.

I’m in the final preparations to leave on Friday. I’ve enjoyed seeing many family and friends and have tied up many loose ends.

Cycling with Jackie and Aline

Watch this space for a post about my first impressions and classes on board.

Things to do now

1. Subscribe to this blog, or make a comment. It’s great to hear from you!

2. What do you do already that makes the world a better place? How can you bring a little more of heaven to the situation you are in?

3. If you have faith please pray for:

• A relaxing journey
• Quick settling in
• Me to find my niche on board – friends and activities to be involved in
• Good health in Madagascar.

4. Consider supporting someone (not me) who volunteers in a worthwhile situation.

5. Have a look at Mark 8:34-38, some further words from Jesus that inspired me.

At the end of July I’m flying out to Durban to begin a year volunteering with MercyShips. Landing on 1^st of August I’ll be joining MV Africa Mercy, on a 10 month African adventure. I will be teaching Science to Year 5-13 students from around the world in MercyShips Academy. The academy has 50-60 students from all over the world, the children’s parents all work on board the ship.

The MV Africa Mercy is a floating hospital that contains five operating theatres, an intensive care unit, and ophthalmic unit, two CT scanners, X-ray, laboratories and an 82 bed recovery ward. Most staff are volunteers who live aboard in in the 484 berths and make use of a day care center, a school for all ages up, a library, a launderette, a small supermarket, a restaurant, a gymnasium, shops and a donated Starbucks cafe. A fleet of vehicles travels with the ship.

The ship sails to the poorest nations in the earth to provide life transforming free medical care for people who could not otherwise afford it. An even more important role is training local staff in various healthcare roles, responsible leadership and agriculture. Their core mission is to:

…follow the 2000-year-old model of Jesus, bringing hope and healing to the world’s forgotten poor.

To give you an idea of what we do in a year, in the last 12 months, MercyShips has carried out:

Circumstances meant that in the last 12 months the statistics were lower than normal.

I will be supporting the ship’s staff with children by teaching science to their children. I’m looking forward to teaching younger students again as well as teaching Physics and Chemistry to older students. The school follows an American curriculum, which seems very similar to our system except there are no external examinations.

I’m looking forward to many things. Most of all I’m looking forward to doing something that transforms people’s lives, which arguably I’ve been doing since I started teaching. I love living in community and am especially looking forward to living on a boat with lots of nurses making new friends with people from many cultures around the world. MercyShips is a Christian ministry (although you don’t need to be Christian to volunteer), and I’m looking forward to growing in my faith. I love adventures and exploring Madagascar by bike, and seeing some of it’s incredible wildlife, photos to follow! To swimming with sharks without a cage.

In my next blog post in a couple of weeks I’ll tell you what happened that made me give up an excellent job and

Stop by in a couple of week’s time to find out what happened that made me give up an excellent job to volunteer abroad and what ‘luxury items’ I’ll be taking.

Things to do now

1. Read further (see below)
2. Comment or share this article. What do you think my blog should be called – the title is a working one…
3. Support MercyShips financially (I’m not yet raising any of my own support) – give to the UK branch by 30^th June and your gift will be doubled!
4. Consider volunteering on board, see their website.
5. Pray for a successful year for me and the ministry.

Further Reading:

1. MercyShips UK website: http://www.mercyships.org.uk/
2. The aims of the 2014-2015 mission to Madagascar: http://www.mercyships.org.au/field-mission-update.html
3. More information about MV Africa Mercy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Africa_Mercy