DIRECTOR'S DEPARTURE ENDS AN ERA FOR MERCY SHIP

THE ANASTASIS, FLAGSHIP of Youth With A Mission's Mercy Ships fleet, has marked the end of an era with the departure of chief executive officer Simonne Dyer.

One of the longest-serving crew on board the internationally renowned hospital ship, she had been responsible for the day-to-day running of the 11,700-ton former cruise liner - which twins practical care with evangelism - for almost ten years.

As CEO, Dyer oversaw the work of the 350-strong crew, which includes doctors and nurses as well as seamen and engineers, on medical outreaches to the developing world and goodwill tours of Europe and the United States. The nine-story ship has operating rooms, a small hospital ward, and its own school and post office.

Dyer and her husband, Bob, an eye surgeon on board for ten years, left the Anastasis late last year just before she set sail for her latest outreach, to Guinea. Currently visiting family in the United States, the couple plan to settle in her native New Zealand.

A former businesswoman, Dyer joined the Anastasis in 1983, soon after its maiden voyage, and was appointed CEO in 1989. She found that being a woman in a traditionally male environment was an advantage, even when the ship began to visit Islamic countries - with their male hierarchy - on outreaches to Africa.

"On our first visit someone told me that I would find it helpful being a woman, because the culture of extended families meant that as children grow up it is often their mothers who provide for and nurture them. I was surprised by that, but found it to be true," she said. "Also, because I wasn't a threat to them I was able to talk easily with men in leadership positions."

In 1995 during an outreach to Tema in Ghana, Dyer was honored with the title of Queen Mother of Development, and invited to speak to 100 other Queen Mothers from across the country.

Dyer's directorship of the Anastasis - whose name means "resurrection" in Greek - also saw two of the most dramatic events in Mercy Ships' history. In 1991 the ship sailed through a feared Soviet naval blockade when political tension flared as the ship ended her visit to Estonia. In January 1995 patients and crew had to be evacuated when fire broke out while the ship was in Ghana.

"It has been a privilege to serve with so many wonderful people all these years," she said. "It has been a tremendous experience to visit so many countries and be involved in the lives of people, and to see how compassion and the ministry of helping people physically can draw people to Christ."

Dyer's departure also ends a New Zealand "monopoly" of the Mercy Ships fleet - where fellow Kiwis David Cowie and Brett Curtis direct the Island Mercy and Caribbean Mercy. Her role on board the Anastasis is being filled by three-man leadership team.

Mercy Ships was founded in 1978, since when teams have completed relief projects in more than 50 port districts around the world.

(Photo available on request)

Return to: January 1999 News Index Page

Return to Main YWAM Page, or to YWAM Communications, or to Main News Digest Page