Mercy Ships - Interview with Raeanne Newquist

welcome back to another episode of

Christian Natural Health today I'm very

pleased to have Ryan newquist with us

ryanne her husband and three children

joined Mercy Ships In 2019 after leaving

everything behind in Southern California

they boarded the Africa Mercy in Los

Palmas and made their way to darar Sagal

for their first field service on board

Rayanne volunteered in Communications

Department and later the chapy currently

Rayanne works in the Mercy Ships us

marketing department ryanne is the host

of the new Mercy's podcast and is The

Voice of the mercy minute daily radio

broadcast and serves as a staff writer

welcome Ryan thanks so much for joining

us oh thanks for having me yeah so first

for listeners who maybe aren't familiar

with Mercy Ships can you give us some of

the background of like when it started

why it started all of that yeah so we've

been around for about 45 years and it

all began with a young man in rural col

Colorado our founder Don Stevens um God

gave him a vision for Hospital ships

when he was a young boy which is kind of

because living in Colorado there's no

oceans or ships in sight but it was very

specific and then his life just kind of

um took him to different experiences and

meeting different people that led him to

the point of of starting Mercy Ships and

acquiring his first ship um I believe in

Greece and you know with partners and

donors and so forth and then for the

last 45 years the ministry has just been

growing and evolving currently we have

two Hospital ships and one is in

Madagascar at this moment and the other

one is in Sierra Leon and we have the

world's largest non-governmental

Hospital ships and we perform free

life-changing and in many cases

life-saving surgeries for impoverished

people in subsaharan Africa and we've

got crew that volunteer on board our

ships from all over the world it's you

know quite an incredible community that

come and and give their time and their

resources to volunteer to impact others

so um yeah it's it's an incredible

incredible mission to be a part of

that's amazing so the founder then was

an entrepreneur not a surgeon right it

sounds like yes he's not MediCal at all

okay wow and so yeah made it all happen

and then just went out there and

recruited and advertise this is what I'm

doing and the people came essentially

well well kind of I mean it's it's a

much bigger story he probably would tell

it oh he will tell it much better than I

ever could but yeah you know he was

working um alongside a different

missions organization and it just kind

of birthed out of that there were a lot

of people um you know he he is an

entrepreneur and a businessman very

connected and a bridge builder connects

people all the time and so just his

personality was such that he yeah got a

group together and just you know started

this Mission my goodness so when you

acquire a ship I'm just curious like the

logistics of how do you turn it into a

hospital ship what was involved with all

of that right well in the beginning um

the vessels that they use they weren't

hospitals on board so the vessels would

sail to different places and maybe set

up clinics and help people off ship it

wasn't until later that we purchased um

what is now the Africa Mercy it was a

Danish rail fairy and then they took

that into Shipyard and had it converted

so it's almost like doing a house

Renault you know except you're doing it

with the ship they pull the ship out of

the water and we just yeah tear stuff

down and and rebuild and totally

converted it into a hospital ship wow

okay and so uh Africa concentration any

particular reason like why just Africa

or are there Visions to expand Beyond

there or or what was the reason for that

yeah you know initially um there were

things that they did in Central America

and in the Caribbean and you know

different places but you know 50% of the

population are located near a coastline

in our world and so the continent of

Africa is massive and the need is so

great you know just the lack of Medical

Care in these nations is is really

overwhelming and so rather than kind of

being everyone everywhere it's like you

know what we can really concentrate and

build relationships with several nations

in Africa along the coast and and really

have the biggest impact there so that's

currently our concentration with our two

vessels um and you know who knows what

God has in the future but definitely

right now we're we're focused in

subsaharan Africa that makes sense as

opposed to just diversifying and then

kind of not having nearly as big an

impact in a whole lot of different

places kind of yeah we build a lot of

relationships with the governments and

the ministries of Health where we serve

and so we return to these nations you

know um because we've built

relationships and so that takes a lot of

time to really lay the groundwork to

have our screening team

um understand the systems where we're

going and so if we can you know be

excellent by really focusing then I

think that's definitely one of our core

values and so that's what we've done

makes sense and what's your story how

did you guys decide especially your

whole family in 2019 what happened what

what led you to that yeah well my

husband and I when we first met he was a

pastor at a church in Southern

California um but then he left pastoral

Ministry to go into law enforcement and

to minister to the law enforcement

Community by being one of them yeah and

after 20 years of that he felt like he

really wanted to get back into full-time

Ministry and retire but didn't know

exactly what he wanted to do um didn't

really want to go back into a church so

we're kind of looking around at

different opportunities and a couple

years before that a friend of ours came

to us and said hey would would you be

willing to support me financially I'm

going to be going to volunteer as a

kindergarten teacher with Mercy Ships

now you might you might be thinking

kindergarten teacher on a hospital ship

this makes no sense right but our ships

are really floating cities and when

families come on board to serve there's

kids on board and the kids need to go to

school so on our ships we have fully

accredited acms with teachers from all

over the world that teach the children

so our girlfriend was going to be a

kindergarten teacher volunteer we um all

our crew are volunteers and raise their

support to be there and anyway

um we said sure we've never heard of

Mercy Ships but we like you so we'll

support you but really through that

relationship we got to learn about Mercy

Ships because she would FaceTime us on

board and give us little tours and so my

husband looking at opportunities to

serve after retirement looked at Mercy

Ships and they were hiring a chaplain

for two years starting in 2019 and he's

like oh my gosh the timing is perfect

and anyways he um we you know brought it

up with the children and kind of thought

they're our number one priority so if

they're not in we're not doing this but

the kids were excited my son was 10

years old my twin daughters were 13 and

they said yeah we'll do this for a

couple years um and we thought it would

be longer than two years uh we expected

fully to extend our commitment into

three and four years but we got on board

in 2019 and we all know what happened

you know um not too long after that so

everything kind of came to a screeching

halul in 2020 but it was absolutely an

adventure of a lifetime I mean there's

not a week really not a couple days that

don't go by where we are referencing

life on the ship in some way shape or

form um it it left its mark on all of us

forever yeah that's amazing so what did

happen I mean obviously I know what

happened in the world but for you guys

in 2020 did you guys just did all the

surgeries stop for a period of Time how

long what what happened yeah you know it

was kind of funny because um we had some

friends from the United States that were

going to come visit us and they were due

to AR March 12th Thursday March 12th and

they were coming for two weeks to visit

um and so we had been in conversations

uh a week prior a couple weeks prior and

our my friend said okay so are you guys

still allowing people to get on the ship

you know and visitors and I said well

yeah what are you talking about you know

and she said well there's just this

stuff going on you know there's some

like virus and you know now it seems

like it's in Europe and uh you know I

just said no everything here's business

as usual we have crew that fly in from

all over the world every day there's

people coming on and off you know

according to their rotation some of our

surgeons will come for two weeks and so

they're flying in and someone else is

flying out I mean we're just constantly

making airport runs I said no

everything's business as usual here you

know um their flights were supposed to

go through Paris and they were going to

have a layover there before they came on

down to DAR and you know a week before

my girlfriend said you know I think

we're going to eliminate the Paris

aspect of our of our trip because it's

sounds like now this virus is in is in

France and again I was like oh okay I

don't know whatever sure yeah so they

get on board um March 12th of 2020 on

Thursday and everything was business as

usual we literally had not heard hardly

anything about covid-19 we did not know

what was going on we were isolated on

our ship there was no there was no covid

in Sagal there was no Co in West Africa

so we're like hey you know um and then

the next day you know by Saturday the

14th we had shut down everything and

obviously our you know our leadership

and Executives had been more informed

than some of us just general crew and

they had been working on stuff prior but

the issue for us was we are not

infectious disease so a lot of people

were like why would you leave why

wouldn't you stay and help well we don't

have you know um the ICU beds and the

ventilators and all that kind of stuff

we do surgery right so basically if

covid were to come on board our vessel

we would have to admit to local

hospitals and we would essentially

overrun the system that we came to

support and help so we knew we had to

get out as fast as we possibly could now

that's a massive undertaking because

when we pull into a port um we will stay

docked for 10 months to do all of our

surgical rotations and it takes us at

least a month if not more to set up the

operation before we even open the

hospital on board you know there's tents

that are erected on the dock for

screening and for rehabilitation for

patients there's there's a whole city

that needs to be set up right so to all

of a sudden have to tear it down in two

weeks what took a couple months to set

up it was it was really crazy to say the

least I mean you're working 24 hours a

day on top of it there's you know the

Panic of what is happening oh my gosh

the world is shut the airport's going to

close what the heck you know and and a

lot of our people wanting to get out to

go back to their home countries

especially the medical professionals to

serve and help their own people and um

it was it was really it was a really um

difficult time to say the least I can

imagine yeah and how when did you guys

reopen again so we were we were down for

about two years um and when we as a

family got off the ship we stayed until

the end of May and when we returned to

the United States you know Mercy ship

said well we're going to go back in

October so we're like okay we'll just

wait know and then October comes and

we're going to go back in January and

you know nobody knew nobody knew and so

um it was it was almost I think about

two years that our ships were out of

service and and waiting until February

of 2023 we went back to Sagal where we

left and really got to go back and and

care for all the patients that were

waiting that we had promised surgery

dates to and then had to tell them I'm

sorry we can't do it but we will come

back we just don't know when and we made

we made good on all those promises oh

praise God that's awesome yeah how how

crazy my

goodness you mentioned like 10 months at

a time so when volunteers volunteer is

that the length of the contract how long

is the contract for each individual yeah

it it's very different according to what

role you're playing on board so as I

mentioned you know some of our specialty

surgeons will just come for two weeks

and they'll do as many surgeries as they

can in that in that rotation um some of

our nurses will come for a rotation so

they'll just come for Plastics or

they'll just come for Orthopedics and

that could be well Orthopedics usually

last a lot longer because those kids

have a lot of you know Rehabilitation

but you know nurses will come for maybe

four to six weeks usually about three

months is a typical um duration of

service for our nurses obviously they

can stay way longer than that than they

want if they want to but we have people

who come and serve in housekeeping who

come and serve in the galley and the

dining room a lot of those are like

three-month commitments our teachers

usually commit for two years but

sometimes they might just be able to

come for one school year it kind of

varies but um it it just depends on what

role you play on board so no people

aren't usually coming just for the 10

months and leaving right it's it's

depending on our needs on board and it's

also dependent upon the role that you're

playing of of the length of your service

yeah and you said these are like

floating cities how many people is this

like a cruise ship like that number of

people kind of a thing or um well maybe

a small cruise ship so one one of our

ships the Africa Mercy has eight decks

and then our Global Mercy I believe has

like 13 decks so the global Mercy on the

outside looks much more like a cruise

ship um the Africa Mercy might be like a

more small smaller cruise ship if you

will um but yeah there's hundreds and

hundreds of people that serve on board

so the Africa Mercy are smaller vessel

there's probably about 700 crew on board

um including

patients and also some um local people

we employ about 250 or so local people

when we pull into a port to come on

board they don't live on board but they

come on board to work each day as our

translators as our cultural translators

um and they help in every single

Department yeah so yeah upwards of 700

or so and then on the global Mercy I'd

say that pushes more like maybe 1,200 I

would say don't quote me on the numbers

here but um but yeah they're they're

they're large vessels not as massive as

you know like Carnival Cruise lies or

anything like that we don't have bowling

alleys and

go-karts right yeah there are swimming

pools however yeah okay yeah so tell us

about some of the kinds of surgeries

that you performed like maybe some of

your favorite stories yeah absolutely

there are so so many I'll tell you a

little overview of what we do um we do a

maxo facial surgery rotation where we

see patients with these large benign

tumors on their face their neck

sometimes their back back and those

tumors will grow to such a size that

they become deadly because they can

suffocate people a lot of times the

tumors are growing in their mouth it it

comes partially from poor hygiene you

know dental care that is lacking so we

do um max low Facial Surgery we do um

clef lip imp pallet we do cataract

removal we also do an Orthopedics

rotation with kids with very severe

Windswept legs um or very severely bowed

legs just

I mean it's amazing how twisted some of

these bones can be due to malnutrition

or maybe a misplaced vaccine that can

kind of kill a muscle um and so we go in

and straighten their legs and it's

pretty unbelievable what these surgeons

do but it's amazing so we've got the

ortho rotation we do a Plastics rotation

for burn contractures in developing

nations a lot of people cook over open

fires and it is caused for multiple

accidents in children and you know if

they're burned severely they don't have

somewhere to go to get wound care um in

a timely fashion and so their wounds

will heal oftentimes um fusing skin

together and fusing it in a way that

they lack mobility in their arms and

legs because maybe all their fingers you

know fused together and they just now

have like a fist or you know if if their

parents held them and wrapped them up

tightly because they were on fire and

they were scared well then they'll the

skin will fuse together you know so

anyways we go through and um remove

those contractures and free them and

then do um physical therapy to help

regain Mobility we also have a women's

health

rotation where the women come to us they

um are suffering from fistula which

basically means hole often a hole in

their bladder where they're leaking

urine and that really is caused by a

prol a prolonged labor so in these

developing nations where they don't have

access to Medical Care or hospitals you

go into labor

and all of a sudden something goes wrong

but you don't have anywhere to go so

some of these women will labor for days

the babies will pass away and when

they're finally able to pass the fetus

um these women are left with bodies that

are torn apart and in leaking urine um

they become outcasts in their society

because they smell and nobody wants them

around we had a woman on board named

rugie and this was her story she had um

labored for 5 days and then was left

with just you know a broken body and her

husband abandoned her her community

totally shunned her and she lived out in

the bush alone for 10 years and every

night she would take off her dress and

wash it and hang it to dry in the

morning she'd put on a dry dress for

maybe an hour or two before it would be

wet again and this is how she lived her

life a total outcast in society and we

found rugie our screening teams go out

months before our ships even arrive and

port and they are looking for patients

that we can help specifically and

they'll go out into rural Villages and

find people and rugie was found and

brought to the ship and you know her

healing began long before she ever went

into surgery because this woman was met

by a nurse on the dock from Australia a

friend of mine Kelly and Kelly reached

out to hold her hand and rugie held her

hand back so severely because she had

not been physically touched in over 10

years no one had even touched her and

she could not believe that someone was

touching her because there's this fear

that you are cursed and you are

contagious you know if I touch you I

will get your curse and so in these

communities you know if you have a tumor

nobody wants to be around you because

they don't want to get a tumor

themselves just the lack of education is

is heartbreaking but rugie came on board

and was so blessed by the touch of that

nurse and then the touch of many people

but also to be overwhelmed coming on

board and finding you know maybe 10 or

15 other women who had her exact same

condition whereas she thought she was

all alone for all these years and these

women bond together these patients and

they form their own community of healing

and of Hope of caring for one another

and sharing with one another it's it's

incredible but these women on board

after they received their free surgery

and they're dry for the first time in

years we throw a huge party for them

called the dress ceremony and in Africa

the African fabrics are absolutely fa

fabulous um if you're considering coming

and volunteering with us a little side

note is the shopping is great you know

you get to these fabulous Fabrics that

are so colorful and incredible patterns

and there's tailor that will make

clothes for you that's very inexpensive

but we have new dresses made for all the

women and headdresses and they get to

put on these beautiful clothes these new

beautiful clothes and we throw a big

party for them with drums and dancing

and music and a lot of the crew come and

celebrate with them and we just

celebrate the new life that they've been

given in so many ways it's just like

what Jesus does for us he takes the

broken parts of our lives and heals us

and restores us and makes All Things New

in us and kind of clothes us with a new

identity and says you might have been

told that you were an outcast but you

are wanted to me you might have been

told that you are good for nothing and

you are worthless but to me you are

valuable and it's just this beautiful

beautiful ceremony to watch New Life

Spring forth yeah Beauty for Ashes I

love it absolutely wow so and I imagine

that I mean you're not going to get that

in a lot of other settings you probably

make bonds for life with the other

volunteers there right oh my gosh

absolutely I mean it's it's really about

joining a family you know when you get

on board Mercy Ships you know our

patients lives are transformed right but

every single person who steps foot on

the vessel their life is forever changed

and really a big part of that is the

community on board you know we've got 50

to 60 Nations represented on board at

any given time because people come from

all over the world to serve so you're

living in this Multicultural community

of Highly accomplished Professionals in

their fields who have come with one

common purpose and that is to bring hope

and healing to the world's forgotten

poor and so there's no hierarchy on

board you know there's no no one's

getting paid everyone's volunteering you

know so there's no there's no status you

know to impress people with however

everyone is extremely impressive you

know if you start to hear people's

experience but you know just that

community that forms on board is so

powerful people you know from all walks

of life and from all different countries

all different Generations on board we

have kids on board as I mentioned my

kids were on board but we have people

who were retired who are coming back and

they're like I don't want to sit around

and play golf you know I want to give my

life away I want to go and serve

um but yeah you you bond for life and

then you've got friends all over the

world to go visit you know you got a

place to stay anywhere um but the

community is really what brings our

volunteers back year after year after

year is they say I just I loved my life

on board the community is is so

incredible a that's great so as far as

the volunteering opportunities obviously

medical professionals but sounds like

almost anybody you can find a place for

them right are they like 100% yeah

specific areas where this is a really

big need they really need this type of

volunteer you know there are always some

yes big needs and and oftentimes those

do fall in the medical realm and in the

maritime realm you know we are always

needing captains and Engineers um we

often need you know sterilization

technicians that's probably not the

proper terminology but you know people

that can help us do safe surgery the

biomed Engineers you know all those guys

that fix the equipment and stuff in the

hospitals those always urgent needs for

us and nurses gosh we always need nurses

um but yeah I mean if you can do it we

need it we need Carpenters on board

electricians you know Preschool teachers

I mean everything

Baristas um there's a place for everyone

on board right very cool so what have I

not asked you that you want to make sure

you leave with our

audience oh gosh you know I think it

would just be encouragement that if God

is stirring in your heart to do

something different with your life um

maybe maybe you are a medical

professional and you're kind of feeling

burn out a little bit I hear this from

nurses all the time you know that gosh I

just I just get moved from room to room

to room so quickly with a little window

of time I don't even get to care for the

patients that I that I got into this

profession for in the first place um

then maybe it's time to just take a

little break and come and serve and have

your tank filled up again you know um if

God is speaking to you in any way the

best place we can possibly live is is in

obedience to him and yes it is a lot of

work on board but my gosh the rewards

far outweigh um what you could possibly

give and it's just a great adventure I

mean to get to live in these countries

we get off ship all the time I learned

to surf in Africa even though I lived 10

minutes from the beach for 30 years in

Southern California but you know there's

so many great rest to explore and the

markets and the people the local people

it's it's a total Adventure but also to

be a part of something so much bigger

than yourself that's Eternal is

absolutely incredible so I would say if

anybody you know just even has some

curiosity just go to our website check

it out go to YouTube Type in Mercy Ships

the videos grab a box of Kleenex you

know and watch the videos of the patient

Transformations um some of them are only

five minutes long but my gosh you'll get

a real picture for what we do and how

everyone um really can be used to make

an impact to change someone's life

forever great that's awesome so speaking

of the website where can people go to

learn more and possibly find out if they

might want to volunteer yeah

mercyships.org

serve is the best place to go to get a

whole list of opportunities and just our

website in general mercyships.org you

can find ways to give to the Mission of

Mercy Ships um we invite everybody to

pray for our patients and for our crew

um and then absolutely come experience

it for yourself get on board awesome

very cool so I will include the link to

that in the show notes and thank you

rayan this has been really inspirational

oh thanks for having me

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