Main YWAM Page, or to YWAM Communications, or to Main News Digest PageTHE CARIBBEAN MERCY, part of Youth With A Mission's Mercy Ships fleet, interrupted a goodwill tour of the United States to rush urgently need supplies to the Hurricane Mitch disaster area, last month.
The 265-foot ship cut short a stay in Coos Bay, Oregon and scrapped a planned visit to Los Angeles to ferry medical and relief supplies worth almost $2 million to the region - where crew members had been working only weeks before - as part of Operation Mercy.
Early reports were that two villages in which Mercy Ships workers had spent three months had been wiped out when torrential rains caused the collapse of a volcano, washing surrounding communities away in a giant mudslide.
But it was later learned that several families known personally to the crew had amazingly escaped the worst of the deluge when the mudslide parted and flowed around the two villages. Two wells drilled by Mercy Ships teams were also spared, providing the only fresh water for the area.
"We were stunned when we heard about the disaster. We have so many friends there. We knew that we wanted to do whatever we could to help," said ship's director Brett Curtis. Longshoremen in Los Angeles gave free time to help prepare the ship for her emergency delivery run. Crew spent two days unloading supplies gathered for the ship's upcoming outreach to El Salvador, then reloaded with the Nicaragua shipment.
The Caribbean Mercy's eight-day sail to Puerto Corinto, not far from the center of the disaster area, began on November 13. After three days' unloading, the ship was due to head back to the United States to resume her goodwill tour in San Diego, California.
A small Mercy Ships team who had remained in Nicaragua after the ship's visit have been busy coordinating relief deliveries to affected communities. By late last month they had fed 20,000 people. "We have a three-phase plan that takes us through next year, ranging from getting people fed and clothed through our ability to withdraw from the scene and see them with good health, safe water, new crops and rebuilt homes and lives," said leader Mark Thompson.
"It's going to be a big job, and there will be much work to do long after most of the interest drops off." Mercy Ships is also coordinating relief teams of doctors, nurses and paramedics responding to the call for emergency help.
Mercy Ships has already been committed to the region, with five outreaches to Nicaragua in the last three years. In addition the organization's Operation Sea Legs project - a mobile prosthetics unit providing free artificial limbs to landmine victims - is based in the country, at Leon.
Meanwhile Youth With A Mission workers in Honduras launched their own relief effort to help victims of Hurricane Mitch there, opening a relief fund and appealing for volunteers willing to assist with medical, relief and construction efforts.
Donations for Operation Mercy should be made payable to Mercy Ships and sent to: Operation Mercy, PO Box 2020, Lindale, TX 75771, USA. Donations for the Central American Relief Fund-Honduras should be made payable to Youth With A Mission and sent to: YWAM regional office, 4444 Edgar Park, El Paso, Texas 79904, USA.
Return to: December 1998 News Index Page
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