February 14th, 2008:Getting Ready To Head Back To Africa

Hi,

well I am headed back to Africa to perform our first assessment trip in West Africa. I am really excited that we will be able to bring Mercy Ships into a new era where we operate much like the other professional Christian NGO's. We will finally be able to measure what impact our programs have on our target communities to be better stewards of the gifts that God has given us. Please pray for me as I will be spending a majority of my time in these communities. As usual I will depend on the Holy Spirit to protect me from all the parasites that eagerly await my arrival. As usual, I am abandoning my girls while I go on this great adventure please continue to pray for my girls as they deal with the struggles of being without dad. I will try and keep you guys updated on the adventure. I will also need to finish my first thesis paper to close my first semester at grad school.

January 4th, 2008: Mark Begins His Masters of Diplomacy Program

Hi well I have started my Masters Program in Diplomacy and International Conflict Resolution from Norwich University.

I am excited that God is giving me a new skill set to serve Him by better serving the poor of this world.

Please keep Zana and me in prayer as this will challenge my already stressed time management capabilities as I travel to Africa 3 times each year for a month.

Christmas, 2007: Christmas & Gingerbread Houses With The Dickinsons

It has been awesome to have Christmas in our new home! Zana made sure the girls got to do all the things that we missed while we traveled the word the last 4 years. She is a great mom and wanted to make sure the girls had memories of our first Christmas in this house.

Both girls were in Christmas pageants and Jessie got a solo. The girls made gingerbread houses and helped cook our Christmas dinner. It was a great time and a Christmas we will remember for a long time. The Dickinson's came down for Noah's graduation from Teen Mania's Honor Academy and it was awesome to celebrate with friends who have prayed and supported us from the beginning.

November 12th, 2007: Trip to Baltimore & New England

Zana and I are in home town of Plymouth for my birthday as we finish up a professional road trip. I attended a week of training at the American Evaluation Association conference in Baltimore, while Zana represented Mercy Ships at a medical conference in Louisville, Kentucky. We were able to spend a night with our good friends, the Ranfts, from my former company Inktomi. I drove our truck with a trailer north to Plymouth and collected as much of our stuff as we could. We ended up looking like the Grinch's sleigh. Except getting caught in violent thunderstorm with tornadoes in Tennessee we made it back safe!

Cailin continues to WOW us as she learns to play the violin, we are so proud of her!!!!!

September 2nd, 2007 Assessment Trip to Liberia and Sierra Leone

Hi Everyone,

It is Sunday night, the 2nd of September. It has been a busy week on Monday I visited another village where we have done some Community Health (CHE) work and some sanitation and well work. It is amazing to see the difference between villages where we have done just one type of work compared to where we have done the combination of CHE, Sanitation/Water and Birthing training. This one village had received all of the training and the English mid-wife (Elizabeth Hunter) had also built a birthing house consisting of one room with a bed, a birthing table and another small wash room for mothers to clean themselves up in. In this village over the last year they reported 12 children being born including twins. No deaths to children or mothers from labor nor children deaths to waterborne diseases. Praise God!!!!! What an impact we can have by simply providing some simple training and tools. This is the type of model I hope we can replicate over and over again. Unfortunately the birthing training can be politically charged depending on what country you are in. On Tuesday I was headed off on a grand adventure south of Monrovia, to Buchanan to meet with 25 major church leaders in the area, who had attended a pastoral conference on church unity in May. What was supposed to be a 2 1/2 hour ride took nearly 6 hours because of the terrible road conditions due to lack of maintenance and the effects of the rainy season. About half way to our destination we stopped for lunch and a bathroom break. The leader for this trip is Winston, a South African man in charge of Church Empowerment, who needed to use the bush bathroom(s). So here we are stopped at a random spot on this road, he picks a random bush to do his business in and he manages to find the local latrine by stepping into it with his dress shoes. I mean these things were covered and wreaked of nastiness. We paid some local boys to clean them in the river and when they brought them back we sprayed them with some air freshener. We all assumed this was a good omen and continued on our way. The trip itself was beautiful with bamboo and rubber tree forests on each side of the road. The bamboo went 40-60 ft up in the air and in some places formed these natural arches that seemed to welcome us to explore, but after Winston’s exciting "find" none of us were too keen to go exploring in the bush. I will definitely post some pictures on the web when I get back. We also saw some locals selling "grass cutters" on the road. These are basically a large beaver or groundhog. Now we have been teaching the locals to raise rabbits, but they just don’t like to eat them. But they just love these giant rodents, especially barbequed! I tried it myself and its not bad…..for a giant rat! Next month the Chinese government will be starting to build a new 4 lane road to Buchanan. The Chinese Ambassador convinced the Liberian President that Monrovia’s port is so bad and corrupt they were better off starting a new port to the South to ship the major resources out of. This was especially true since an iron ore company, Mattell is building a new facility in Buchanan and Firestone could ship there rubber from there once the road was done. To give you an ideal of how corrupt the Monrovian port is, they just replaced the 4th Port Commissioner in 3 years and each one has left their job with a better car and house than when they started their short term there.

Once we got to Buchanan we checked into the "Guest House" For Africa it was what you expected, small dingy well used bed with a mosquito net (with holes in it). We sprayed our rooms with raid and headed into town to introduce ourselves to the Superintendent, Mayor, and Police chief. You are required to do this or you will bring dishonor on to these people of authority. Basically you need permission to be in their city and you definitely need permission to do anything in the city. So we went to the President’s Buchanan residence and we sat in these gilded chairs while we waited. The expensive chairs and sofas are there for the president to entertain people with. In walked the Mayor, a heavy set local man wearing a British pit helmet much like a British officer from World War II might do. He introduced himself, took off his helmet off and cradled it in his arm just like I’d seen officers do in the movies. This hat was obviously the symbol of his authority and he was quite proud of it. He was very cordial and welcomed us, he informed us the Superintendent was

away and he was going to give us the "key to the city." He then stood up raised his hands and said "I give you the key to the city" and that was it. He told us by simply telling people this we could visit any of the culturally sensitive areas of town like the prison or famous leader’s graves. We all thanked him and headed out on our tour of the city. Every where we went police officers would come up to us and we would simply say we had the key to the city and they would simply wave us on. Buchanan is a beautiful small city, it is right on the ocean and it is CLEAN, well in comparison with Monrovia. The streets are made of cement with no potholes and the buildings are painted and for the most part have no trash piled up in front of them. It was easy to see why companies like Mattell and Firestone were willing to invest in this part of the country. We went down to the fish market area and we found ourselves transported to a different time. We were surrounded by fishing canoes and men fixing their nets, it could have easily been 1907 as 2007. One of our team decided he was going to be like apostle Peter and began to preach right their amongst the fishermen. It was awesome!! We just started yelling the message of the Gospel and these men laid down their tools and listened to us. Except for one man who mocked us all of the fishermen said they believed in Christ and prayed with us. I was so impressed that this young man with us had the courage to openly preach with out being asked nor worried about his reception from this crowd. He said he was moved by these men performing their timeless work and there was no way he was going to miss a chance to follow the apostle’s example. I’m not sure I would have had the courage to do that, but now after seeing the result I can’t wait for my next chance to spontaneously preach like that.

That evening we had a traditional meal consisting of some jalaf rice (good stuff) and some fried fish that was great. Now most of you know I love spicy foods, and there were a lot of pepper gravies to go with the food that ranged from hot to "Oh my God don’t let me die." They also served an African pea, which is actually a small egg plant and was one of the most bitter thing I’ve had so far. Not only was it bitter but it had an after taste that I assume would be much like licking an ash tray. It got dark as we ate and we adjourned to our rooms. Mine was at the very back of the house and I was up most the night because there were people outside my window talking most of the night. At one point a small hand of either a woman or child came through a window looking to see if it could reach anything. I turned on my flash light and whoever it was ran away. So I didn’t get much sleep till dawn but at that point I slept for 2 good hours.

The next morning saw the 25 pastors arrive on time, a great sign of their commitment to this program. We began our discussions on what they got out of the course and how they were beginning to work together. They all decided they needed a biblical library, all of their study books and concordances were lost in the war. They were asking who they needed to ask, when Vincent one of our team said that Mark Elliott was the man who would be the face of Mercy Ships for the next 10 years and that I would be the one to ask. Never has a man complicated my life so quickly! I quickly corrected him that I was not the "face of Mercy Ships" and that I was not committing to be here for 10 more years. But I would be glad to look into finding people who would be willing to donate books, if they were willing to work together and either buy or build a building to act as a study library, that all of them and their subordinate pastors could use. They assured me they would, and I informed them it would be good for me to see that when I return in a year to do the assessment for our return to Liberia. Needless to say I have already received multiple emails from these pastors thanking me and offering suggestions on how I can help them. Vincent is a dead man ;-) We enjoyed a thank you lunch that even had some of our local staff looking at a little hesitantly. There were several types of mystery fish and some I wasn’t sure how it was cooked but it appeared be only part done and the fish was still a little slimy. I wasn’t even sure what part of the fish it was, the only thing recognizable was some boiled plantain and yam root (the stuff that fufu is made from) Ship food was starting to look really really really good. Our trip back was uneventful and we shared each others salvation stories and what led us into missions. That vehicle contained 5 people, a Zimbabwian, South African, Sierra Leonian, Canadian, and American. We all came from different backgrounds, economic status and denominations but yet God was able to take what we had in common, a love for the Lord and His children. He brought us together wove our lives, skills, and giftings around each other to make this wonderful tool for His purpose. When you stand in that moment recognizing that you are part of the Master’s much bigger work, it takes your breath away and you realize that you are a piece of the Master’s plan. It is a truly humbling moment.

On Thursday I was notified that my luggage was on the way from Nigeria. Now you may ask why Nigeria, but then again you could ask why it had visited Ivory Coast and Senegal as well. My luggage was definitely well traveled! The funny thing was each tag had "RUSH" on it starting 2 days after I left the states till 2 weeks later. When I finally got it I found my laptop and a pair of shoes had been stolen. The funny thing was that the air line worker was trying to convince me that the crooked Nigerians must have stolen it, I mean no Liberian would ever steal something from my luggage……….yeah right. I just had to laugh as he said it. I’m told SN Brussels may offer me $50 for my loss, welcome to traveling in Africa. The only reason I had the pc in my luggage was that I was already carrying 2 new laptops for our land base and ship in my carry-on. Oh well in the big picture it’s a small thing. At least I have some underwear…it was getting a little difficult to wash and dry my one pair every night.

Saturday saw me back at the orphanage. This time a German film crew came out with us to document what Mercy Ship’s families have been able to do for these 53 children over the last 3 years. The transformation that you have helped to make is amazing; each child is not only doing well but has a future thanks to your gifts to us that we have in turn used on this orphanage. I will be updating the web site when I get back so you can see the difference you have made in these kids lives. The film crew wanted me to lay tiles with our trained boys to show that we help on these projects. Needless to say the guy laying tile had to redo my tiles after the filming was done, I hate to think I was documented laying such uneven tile. You get what you pay for I guess with us old white guys. J Sunday saw me staying with our missionary friends the Gallingers. I had 53 of their movies in my luggage and they were celebrating their safe return with my luggage. They are awesome people when you think they have been here 11 years it blows my mind. They make the rest of us look like amateurs.

Well its bed time; tomorrow starts a week of dozens of meeting with other NGO’s. Please continue to pray for me, I will be flying into Sierra Leone the day after their election and it has been a little violent lately, 20 people were beaten and stabbed on Saturday. So I need to be reviewing my travel plans daily to make sure I’m playing it safe and not "challenging the Lord, my God" with any foolishness.

August 26th, 2007: Liberia & Sierra Leone Assessment Trip Week-1

It is Sunday night, the 26th of August, and I have been in country 9 days now. I arrived last Friday to find that my luggage is on some around the world tour and I may never see it again. I have been living off of 1 pair of pants, 1 pair of underwear, 1 pair of socks 1 casual shirt. Since the average African waist is around a 28 inch, my chance to find some alternate clothing has been hopeless. The Gallingers, our missionary friends here, are in mourning because I had 53 movies they had just bought and sent to us for delivery in my bag. I had another family’s new shoes for all their children in my bag as well so this lost baggage is hurting more than just me.

The day I arrived, our good friends the Osborne’s picked me up at the airport. It was weird to travel for over 90 minutes and see that little has changed over the last 14 months. No water or power for a majority of the city only the small area around the capital building has power. The roads are horrible with large stretches of road that even our Land Rovers had trouble negotiating. The only thing that appeared improved was the National Stadium which had been repainted by the Chinese government. When I arrived on the dock a large contingent of port police ran towards me, I was a little nervous; these guys would normally barely move and if so it was like they were in slow motion. The running joke last year was that I could out run all of them. As they rushed me I began to wonder what I had just done, when all of a sudden they started chanting, "Big Belly, Big Belly Mark, Mark, Mark!" They all began hugging me and fighting to shake my hand and give me the traditional finger snap. They claimed to have missed me. They said I was very tough on them but I had trained them to do a better job and when it was hot or when they had no food I was the only one who would bring them food and drink. The Captain was on the dock and he looked and me and smiled, it was good to know that even though I was tough on these guys they had also seen the love of the Lord in me as well and they knew that I took care of them while we served together.

Within 10 minutes of my arriving on the dock, a body of a local man floated along side the ship. Captain Djurian looked at me, smiled and said, "I can’t help but think you have something to do with this, you been here 10 minutes and we already have a security issue. It seems he believes that excitement and adventure follows me where ever I go. Maybe he’s right. God has definitely blessed me with great adventures since my family gave up everything and chose to serve him in the mission field. As I boarded one of my former Ghurka guards, Lum, who is back as the lead Ghurka had his men stand to attention and salute me. He told them I was the finest man he ever served under and that I should be shown the respect of a senior officer. I was so humbled by this gesture I started to get teary eyed, I saluted and then shook each of their hands and thanked them for keeping the crew safe. They all seemed to appreciate that someone was recognizing their efforts; the crew should do it more often, we lost a Ghurka to malaria last year. Their sacrifice to serve with us, instead of serving on a nice cruise ship is just as noble of a gesture and it gives us a chance to share the Gospel with words and actions to show them who Jesus is. I have been buried in a whirlwind of meetings as I try to collect information from other world class NGO’s on how they measure their program’s successes and failures here in country that is really a 4th world nation striving to be a 3rd world nation.

I will be meeting with the Minister of Finance and Health this Thursday in their offices. In our first meeting they got the impression that I am some SUPER-GEEK who can solve their IT and healthcare training problems. Mind you they have no reliable or clean power for the computers and satellites. The newest computers they have are Pentium II’s that we gave them off our old ship. They want me to help spear head a Telemedicine initiative to use satellite communication to allow U.S. doctors to help train their new healthcare workers, they have few medical teachers here and most have not had any refresher training in the last 15 years. Dr Glenn Strauss, the V.P. of programs and I have had many meetings with managers and staff concerning this new shift to bring more accountability and professionalism to our programs and how we select and evaluate them. I have managed to visit several villages out in the bush that we have done projects for in the past to evaluate them and see if they are still using what we gave them. On Tuesday I will be traveling to the southern part of the country to evaluate some work we have done in Buchanan area. PLEASE PRAY for me and my team as this is the rainy season and the roads have been terrible. We have had 2 crew members hurt when their vehicles have rolled down some muddy embankments here in the Monrovia area. The roads to Buchanan are much worse, we are projecting the normally 2 hour trip will take 4-5 hours.

I have managed to visit our orphanage 3 times this last week. It has been awesome to see what the boys have built since I’ve been away and all the kids look healthy and well clothed. Each time I have brought dozens of loaves of bread with me to give the kids some carbohydrates. The rainy season has been long and hard and the orphanage has had trouble with their rice getting moldy and ruined. I want to thank all of you who have helped fund us and this orphanage over the last 3 years. The change in these children’s lives is immeasurable. They go to sleep each night in a dry bed, not a muddy floor. They have roofs over their heads during the rainy season that don’t leak. Their quarters have mosquito netting to help reduce the risk of malaria. They have water that won’t kill them and they are going to school and learning so that they might have a future other than street orphan, prostitute or criminal rogue. In this first week I have managed to get the 5 boys who we sent to masonry training and are now too old to live at the orphanage a place to live and a paying job with a ministry who is building 200 homes for war widows near the airport. So they can still come visit their brothers and sisters at the orphanage. A job is a HUGE thing here and the fact that God has granted this boon to these boys is simply a miracle! I’m just glad I had a small part to play in it because it really brings to fruition what Zana and I feel is our calling here; to not only to provide safe orphanages but to provide a future for those children that turn 18 and must leave the safety we have created for them and enter the often cruel, uncaring and dangerous world that is Liberia.

On Friday we lost a VVF patient to a blood infection that she had when she came on board. Unfortunately we didn’t know she had it and after the surgery she went into septic shock. Please pray for her family and our crew. Everyone is taking this news to heart, it is always difficult to loose someone when we have all come here to help. On Sunday I got to preach at the orphanage and to be honest it was one of the weirdest preaching I have ever done. As I began my sermon the skies opened up with a torrential rain that lasted till long past church was done. The beating of that rain on the tin roof was so loud that I was screaming at the kids so they could hear me. I recorded the audio of it hoping to capture some of the praise songs the orphans were singing to put on the website. Hopefully I will get to put a small bit of audio so you can hear me trying and failing to out shout the rain. Our friends the Osborne’s and Cook’s came to hear me preach as well as Lloyd Lambert, the man who will hire those 5 boys to do masonry work. Tomorrow I head to the airport to see if my luggage might be there and also meet with the US Embassy’s security detail to get their view on the rampant armed crime that has started to explode here. Just last Wednesday our good friends at Monrovian Christian Fellowship were broken into and had their staff roughed up by 4-5 armed intruders. One of these criminals was so strong he reached up to the top of the locked Nissan pathfinder’s door and bent the top of the door enough that he could reach his hand in and unlock the door. The criminal have finally figured out that it is only the missionaries and expats here who have anything worth stealing. Please pray for all the missionaries here that are in danger each night of being a victim to this crime wave. Well I got to go get some sleep tomorrow starts another busy week. Thank you for being a part of this we couldn’t do it without you. There are sometimes in your life where words are not enough. The words are poor shadows of the feelings you need to express, this is one of those times. Thank you for believing in what we as a family are trying to do, we could not do this with out your prayers and support. We will always be in your debt for allowing us to make a difference here in West Africa. May God bless you and honor all of that you place on His alter.

August 1st, 2007: Zana's View on Where God Has Us

Hi, this is Zana

This morning in church the message was about being comfortable, this is something that Mark and I talk about often. One of my fears is getting to comfortable because I know that the Lord will continue to call us to come and go to serve the world for him. It has been interesting to watch how the Lord keeps bringing us through changing times and my faith just continues to grow stronger. My faith is really made the strongest by Mark’s unwavering knowledge that this is where the Lord has called us. I look back at where we came from, the nurse practitioner and IT executive who had everything (house, cars, money), to having our taxable income 1/20th what it was 5 years ago, but the Lord still provides all that we need. The girls are happy; our marriage is great, better than ever. We have enjoyed this journey together. I am happy and I love where the Lord has placed us and can’t wait to see where we go next.