It has been an absurdly crazy month for the Stewart clan. At times you could almost forget about the whole Covid thing. So here is a much delayed and rather long update on general life stuff as well as the goings on from the ship.

Life Update

• Early in September my hometown of Portland, OR exceeded 100 consecutive days of civil unrest which was complicated by wildfires across the area.
• On September 6^th my sister gave birth via impromptu c-section to completely objectively, 100% certified, the cutest baby ever, my nephew Graham.
• The wildfire situation got out of hand causing my sister and her husband to not bring their new baby home but rather to move in with my parents as their house was in a stage 3 full evacuation zone. A couple weeks later the wildfires ended and their home was safe.
• I am happy to announce I have purchased my flight home for early December.  I am currently unsure of what the future holds for me beyond that, but what I do know for sure it that I will be spending Christmas with my family, assuming Christmas is not cancelled on account of a meteor strike, acid rain crisis, or whatever new nonsense 2020 can throw at us.

I am so excited to come home and spend some much awaited time with family after two weeks of quarantine of course (Intl airports be sketchy for sure).

Ship Update:

• 59 of out the 139 crew onboard have surpassed 200 consecutive days in quarantine onboard the ship.
• Malta, the nation we sail under, has expedited the processing for a large portion of our crew to receive official seafarer documentation, known as a “seaman’s book”. Since I took basic training last summer, I was eligible. This means crew can be designated as official “sailors”. This is a big deal since we have not been processed by immigration to enter Spain, effectively making us “at sea” since the end of March and for many of our crew having that gap in their passport is a significant issue. Having the seaman’s book should aid in travel to and from the ship as well as serve as documentation to aid in future visa applications where a gap in your passport could mean disqualification.  In these times where governing bodies are stricter and far less likely to stretch the rules, Malta putting in an express lane for our crew is a tremendous blessing.

• Some crew have started returning to the ship which has been good for the community.  Eventually we will have about 6-7 families onboard and the academy will start running in early October (though at a much lower capacity). The overall crew will most likely hover around 150 people for the near future.
• We have had some changes in our supply team. A couple weeks ago John returned home to Liberia and we welcomed new crew members Miryam & Rik. For a few weeks we had a team of two (Owen and I) holding down the fort, so some additional help is very exciting.

Major News Items: There are currently two big news items on the ship

The first news item is that two weeks ago we were notified that one of our Spanish contractors performing maintenance on the ship tested positive for Covid. The next day, after learning of this Covid case, one of our crew onboard tested positive, however this crewmember was a new arrival who had remained in isolation since arrival (per our new crew protocols) so it was speculated that they contracted the virus during their international travel to the ship and due to immediate isolation had not transmitted the virus onboard. We eventually learned the contractor who tested positive had not been onboard for 10 days prior to their positive test so it is assumed no Covid was brought to the ship.  As result of these two “near misses” we have implemented “social preventative measures” on the ship (most notably wearing masks 24/7 and social distancing).

The second big news item is the official announcement of our new ship the Global Mercy.  This ship is currently finishing production in China. This ship is the first of its kind and will be a tremendous tool in bringing hope and healing to the world’s forgotten poor, strengthening the medical infrastructure of Africa, and above all expanding the Kingdom of God (including all the joy, peace, and love it brings) to some of the most broken places in our world. Here is the announcement video.

Covid Restrictions Reactions

With the introduction of the “social preventative measures” it has really brought home how much of a blessing it has been to have this community onboard during these last 6+ months.  Though many of us have been in quarantine and gone more than 200 days without stepping foot on something that was not concrete, carpet, or steel, we have been fairly comfortable. Our biggest issues have been stepping off the ship/port and travel for people to leave/return to the ship but during this entire season our day to day lives onboard have remained somewhat unaffected by Covid.  As a result, I think some people have grown complacent onboard in thinking the way we have been living is sustainable when it clearly was not.  The Covid “social preventative measures” have been a wake-up call for many of the crew and we are handling these changes with a range of reactions. For quite some time the leadership onboard has tried to hint that these measures were inevitable but some crew simply never wanted to believe it.  For myself it has only made sense that we would need to make changes just like the rest of the world, particularly since we are working in the medical field.

This is not to say the Covid limitations the rest of the world have been living with (masks and social distance) will affect us in the same way or to the same degree. 

Impact of restrictions onboard

In speaking with some people from back home I think there is a poor conception of what life is like onboard and how these changes will affect us.  Even within the organization, the idea of adding masks and social distancing seems like a mere inconvenience to some but to the crew it is a fundamental change to our way of life. 

To better illustrate how this is affecting the crew let me paint you a picture…

Pretend you are living in a 7-story apartment building or hotel of sorts, located in a foreign industrial park, in which you and the 120 or so other residents are both living and employed.  Yourself and the people there work as mechanics to keep the generators going, electricians to fix the lights/equipment, an IT team to keep the internet and computers running, a reception desk, housekeepers to maintain the common spaces, etc. Your home life and work life are the same thing, no division.

Now imagine you and your neighbors/co-workers have spent 6 months being confined to and working in this building during a pandemic. Due to limited international travel you have enjoyed an understaffed department, intermittent internet, and possibly no air conditioning. Every meal you eat comes from a cafeteria which provides good food but you have no control over what you eat on a daily basis and your personal quarters consists of a bed, a toilet, and if you are lucky, a small window. Your only options for “fresh air” are to walk laps on the roof or in the parking lot. Your only social connections come from the friends you have been able to make the last few months in this building of 120+ people from 40+ nations.

Even with the struggles, the uncertainty of the pandemic, and your entertainment/social options being limited, you have learned to enjoy life in this building.  In your freetime you play boardgames with your friends in the common spaces, have movie nights in a makeshift movie theatre from a converted meeting room, weekly group meetings for various hobbies, and late night conversations with your close friends in the dining room.

Then overnight you are told you must wear a mask at all times except for when you are eating/drinking or in your living space (aka in bed or on the toilet). You must maintain 6ft distance from all people and eliminate physical contact from everyone, except your one roommate, if you have one.  The movie theatre is taken down, community spaces now hold 1/3 of the people that they used to, and only some games can be played given you have enough space and sharing of game components is limited. It is reasonable to believe that these changes would be a disruptive blow to the community.

I do not bring all this up to evoke pity or concern. I simply want everyone to be on the same page. This is the reality, many of us saw these changes coming and were able to get our heads wrapped around this way of living.  I have honestly been surprised as things are not difficult as I would have thought, but then again part of that may have to do with my own positive attitude and you may want to ask me again in a few weeks.

Obstacles vs limitations and repercussions

My concern moving forward is how we respond to these restrictions and how we can make our community thrive. The sad fact of the matter is a small minority of crew onboard, much like people in the “real world”, see the restrictions as obstacles to work around (find loopholes) rather than limitations to live with. They need to realize there is far more at stake than crew comfort and even crew health. 

Neglecting the operational nightmare and inevitable spread, statistically if a dozen people were to get sick on the ship, given the risk factors of our crew make-up, it is very unlikely anyone would require serious medical attention.  It seems some of us on the ship know this fact and as a result they struggle with the impacts from the social preventative measures to their social lives/mental health with such a low perceived risk to their personal physical health.

The reality of our situation however is we are not living in a 7-story apartment building or hotel.  We are living in a hospital and we are not “employed”, we are volunteers who are here to serve the Kingdom of God through Mercy Ship’s medical mission. The restrictions are in place for more than our own health concerns. We want to be a functioning hospital again.

In the short term we need to keep these restrictions in place to prevent Covid onboard so that essential maintenance projects can be performed so we can return to serving the people of Africa more effectively. If Covid comes onboard that work cannot be performed and if that work cannot be performed we might as well send everyone home and put the ship in storage.

In the long term we need to figure out how to live with these restrictions as we are a medical mission.  If it is important to keep Covid off the ship during maintenance it will be all the more important when we have high risk patients onboard.

Flexibility and Adaptation moving forward

Covid has changed a lot in our world.  Everyone has needed to adapt. It is only natural that on top of the changes to the logistical and operational demands there will also be significant changes to crew life onboard. There has always been a cost associated with serving the Kingdom of God and volunteering with the Mercy Ships organization. Crew have always had to make sacrifices to be here. In these times it is reasonable for us to assume those costs and sacrifices may change as well. In economics, changes in costs/demands can result in changes to your customers/market. Similarly, the changes to crew demands onboard may change the crew makeup in this season (temperament and personality for example).

It is strange to think I was a part of the last “normal” field service (for the time being). I pray we can return to some form of “normalcy” in the future. In the meantime we need to see past the “obstacles” the restrictions present and tackle the challenge of building a thriving community with the restrictions in place.

The mission of the organization, our impact at helping others, and spreading the good news of Jesus is completely reliant on us being able to find a way to be effective with these restrictions.

The future is as uncertain as ever yet I am confident this will all work for the good. We simply need to take things a day at a time, making one right step after another, and keep our eyes fixed on the only thing we know for certain, the hope we have in Jesus Christ.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support!!!