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Mercy Ships has now taken all three older ships out of service. Before the Anastasis was decommissioned, CT spent one week aboard ship to report on the ministry.

Worldwide, about 3 percent of children have a congenital deformity at birth, ranging from a cleft lip or palate to a life-threatening heart or brain defect. That means millions of newborns each year need delicate surgery of one form or another.

In addition to defects at birth, childhood diseases or injuries (broken bones or burns), if not treated properly, may also require extensive surgical repair. In the developing world, one of the worst diseases is noma (cancrum oris), a gangrenous infection that attacks facial skin and the jawbone. In the West, physicians last saw this condition after World War II in children in concentration camps; extreme poverty and malnutrition are breeding grounds for this disease. About 140,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. The survival rate is a grim 10 percent, with the survivor typically enduring severe disfigurement around the mouth.

Mercy Ships is one of the few organizations able to perform the reconstructive surgery near the home nations of the victims of noma. Surgeon Gary Parker told CT that he has operated on many noma survivors, some of whom do not receive surgery until adulthood.

"The hardest thing you deal with as a doctor is to see the human suffering in things that there are answers for. Noma is completely preventable." He described one of his recent cases, a youth named Ibrahim. The child had lost half his face to noma and his jaw had fused. The boy will require multiple surgeries to restore normal breathing and eating.

Parker said, "This [disease] continues and other places are full of people suffering when there are answers. Not expensive answers, not high-tech answers. We can vaccinate every child. We can provide clean water for every child."

The Anastasis's all-volunteer crew hails from more than 40 nations. These hundreds of volunteers serve anywhere from two weeks to many years.

The ship's career and short-term workers range from eye surgeons to hairdressers. During CT's visit, top surgeon Parker, outfitted in giraffe-print scrubs, talked about his ministry.

Parker said life aboard ship is a study in compact living. He and his wife, Susan, staff development director, have raised their son and daughter in a 275-square-foot cabin. The kitchen is 25 square feet. The room for their children is 100 square feet. The family has lived in this cabin for 11 years. Gary has been aboard for 20, except for a one-year sabbatical in 2003.

Susan told me, "We live in hardship locations. As women, our freedoms are greatly curtailed. It isn't always easy. The greatest benefit is 400 people [crew and volunteers] going in the same direction. We eat, recreate, worship, live, work together, experience hardships and joys together."

On-board medical personnel include many specialists, such as ophthalmologist Neil Murray, a gray-bearded New Zealander. There are about 60 million blind people worldwide. About half lose sight due to cataracts. Cataract surgery is rarely available in poor countries. Some patients wait years for this surgery. During CT's visit, Murray twice operated on patients over 100 years old.

The medical staff relies on Ghanaian interpreters to communicate with patients. These local Christian volunteers are fluent in English and many of Ghana's 70 tribal tongues. Among the interpreters is Peter Bonney, pastor of a United Church of God congregation in nearby Nungua. On Sundays, Pastor Bonney, versed in Tanti, Twi, Ga, and Ashanti, often finds the ship's personnel worshiping in his congregation.

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December 2007, Vol. 51, No. 12