September Update Part 1

A new month

Welcome to the third update on the current progress of my missions trip with Mercy Ships.

I would like to start this news letter with a thank you to all the people who have helped to make this possible and those of you who have offered to support me during this mission.

It’s the start of September which means I have not very long left in Newcastle.  I am due to leave on the morning of 12^th September at approximately 6:25am from Newcastle international airport. This flight will take me to Brussels where I have to transfer to another plane to head out to Sierra Leone. The total travel time will be about 11 hours in planes. Once I get to Lungi airport I have a 2 hour drive across to Freetown and then followed by a quick trip on a water Taxi.

The Aim

Over the next couple of weeks I have a couple aims I would like to complete.

The first and most important one that needs to be done is to sort the anti-malaria drugs out and to start to take them. Like all medication this will have some small side affects which could be interesting, but this is not a reason enough to stop taking it.

I need to check that I have all that I need as it will not be easy to get stuff sent to me once I’m in Africa. The information from Mercy Ships advised it can take up to 2 months for a single letter to arrive on board the Africa Mercy.

The reason for doing this missions trip is that I feel God has called me to serve another community for a season. I need to make sure that I’m keeping God in the centre of all I’m doing, where this be in pray, reading and communicating all that I do.

Worries and Fears
The other weekend I was talking with a friend who is doing something in Africa with medical stuff, we both looked at the countries we will be at and the only thought we could think off we don’t pick the safest of places to go.

As you know I will be travelling to Sierra Leone which has just celebrated 10 Years of peace, but this is a peace that is still fragile. My friend will be the other side of Africa which you can see in the news for how safe it is.

The point of this does not make any reasonable sense in the normal light of things, but we as Christians are each called to serve God in different ways.

I know how much each of the medical teams has to deal with as they literally have people lives in their hands when they are performing the medical stuff, I know I’m only doing the IT stuff but even this has a real impact on the medical mission.

Like all modem first world hospitals the Africa Mercy is just the same but it floats and serves the people of West Africa. The systems on board are very reliant on connection to a network and some parts even require a connection to the internet for diagnosis of patient data.

Under any normal day I would be concerned with the systems and the interaction between them and people, with this trip I am more concerned about making a very large mistake and just getting there.

This does not mean I don’t worry about having the financial support to complete this trip but it’s just not as important as doing what I’m told by God.

It does make you understand that when God tells you to do something that he does know what he is doing and that there will be the provision for the work. Even if it is the only thing I have learnt so far from this experience and that it is that I need to place my total trust in God.

Spending time with God has been great so far but with all that’s to come I’m excited to be used by God and be shown deeper things of him.

August 2011 Update

Welcome to the second update on the current progress of my missions trip with Mercy Ships.

I would like to start this news letter with a thank you to all the people who have helped to make this possible and those of you who have offered to support me during this mission.

Well it’s the start of August and that means in just under 6 weeks I’ll be leaving the UK, I have to admit it’s a bit scary to think of this but I trust in God to provide throughout all that I do.

To bring you up to date with what’s been happening; I received my final paperwork for going to Sierra Leone (visa forms and agreements) and I also booked the one way flight. For those who want to know I’ll be leaving Newcastle on 12^th September at about 6:30am and arriving in Sierra Leone at 5:50pm on the same day.

If you want to know more about the work of Mercy Ships then please visit www.mercyships.org

Ongoing Stuff to sort..

Ok I’m not much good coming up with titles for these things, but it seemed to fit.

Over the last weekend in July I have had a look at the finances involved with this mission’s trip and found that I will be short for this trip of approximately £1575, this is broken down into;

The African continent has an issue with malaria as a general rule so I must take anti-malarial drugs with me but the cost of these drugs is very high for the period of time that I will need to be taking them for.

I have been given a choice of 2 of these anti malaria drugs to take when I’m away with Mercy Ships; Malarone £50 per fortnight and Doxycycline £27 per fortnight (£351 for 6 months) as you can see there is a cost difference, also with Malarone I would have to take the entire supply for 6 months with me which would cost approx £650 as this cannot be refilled on the ship.

I have yet to think about purchasing the flight back as I have been advised it is best to leave that until I’m due to return as there may be a change in circumstances which force the Africa Mercy to leave the host country. The cost of the return flight to the UK is approximately £744.

The rest of the money is needed for crew support, which is the fees I have to pay for food and accommodation. I know that God will provide and I have no need to worry.

I only want to seek and follow after God, but it does come with a cost and I have to say there is nothing in this world that can compare or is even close to being worth it all.

 The one thing I have learnt over all this is that when you truly want to follow God, be prepared. As he may just send you away from what you know to grow you. ”For to this [end] we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is [the] Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.” _1Ti 4:10.

If you want to know more please contact me on Darrengoodson@thehousenewcastle.org

Prayer Points

Points of prayer for this upcoming trip;

·         Pray for a time of rest for the next few weeks.

·         Pray for God to provide wisdom and the finances for this mission’s trip.

·         Pray for the crew and staff of the Africa Mercy.

·         Pray for the people of Sierra Leone.