Annual Activities Report 2004    PRINTABLE .PDF FILE

PORT MERCY   1019 North First Avenue, Lake Charles, LA  70601  E-mail: info@friendships.org

What an exciting year this has been!  With your help, we have been able to touch so many lives with the love of Jesus.

In May we sailed to Honduras with MV Hope and helicopter Angel of Hope  to offer medical services and ministry to more than 12,000 people.  The mission was very effective and prepared us for future missions of disaster relief and mobile medical outreach.  We worked in coordination with the Honduran government and fire department, local churches and our facility in Roatán, as we cared for the people on the island of Roatán and on the mainland in the cities of Tegucigalpa, Tela and Choloma.  We provided medical services, had prayer and children’s ministry by day and Pastor’s meetings and other outreaches by night.  Doctors, nurses and others flew in to join us for a week or two weeks at a time.  Thousands of people received prayer, medical care and food!

In September, we set sail for Pensacola, Florida with MV Hope to respond to Hurricane Ivan, the third of four hurricanes to devastate the region.  The Coast Guard opened the Pensacola port that had been closed because of damage just so Hope could deliver her supplies. These supplies included tons of heavy vinyl architectural fabric to be used for roofing, tarping and repairs, and many other needed items.  For a week we worked from our distribution site where we set up a food station and tent warehouse. Hundreds of people with needs came to receive tarp, clothes, food and water.  In addition, our military truck was able to take our crew into heavily damaged areas carrying rolls of tarp. We then measured and custom-cut the tarp for roofs while distributing cooked meals to homes without water or power.

In October we loaded three 40-foot shipping containers full of wonderful items including mattresses, bedding, food and clothes, for a ministry in Haiti that serves the poor. In addition, we were able to send two pallets of bedding supplies to a remote and impoverished region of mainland Honduras in time for Christmas. Medical supplies were given to a ministry who helps the very needy in Mozambique. Also in October, we  began preparations for a mission to Haiti, a nation tremendously in need.  The hurricanes that hit Florida passed first through Haiti causing massive flooding and loss of life. In addition, there is ongoing major political turmoil and this country is in desperate need of our help.  As this goes to print, we are completing the loading of Spirit of Grace. We are working in cooperation with Smile of a Child and TBN Broadcasting who have sponsored the mission with fuel, and medicine, six fire trucks and three ambulances, a freezer truck, an ice machine, twenty foot shipping containers and  medical equipment. Many tons of other wonderful items  have also been loaded to be  delivered to the people of Haiti. TBN viewers and others have sent hundreds of boxes of beautiful clothing and contributed funds to purchase 100 tons of rice, 50 tons of beans and all else needed for the voyage. We’ll set sail January 15^th, and offload the following: thousands of tons of emergency vehicles, hospital beds and other hospital furniture, medical equipment including wheelchairs, walkers, gurneys, an x-ray machine, baby cribs and warmers, over 130,000 pounds of beans and 200,000 pounds of rice, tons of raisins, drinking water, more than five semi truck loads of clothing, hundreds of student and teacher desks, personal care items, one hundred tons of architectural vinyl for shelters and disaster relief, mattresses, bedding and sanitation supplies.

Along with Grace International and Global Missions, we’ll host a conference for thousands of Haitian pastors while offering medical services, children’s outreach and meals for ten days in a very impoverished area of Haiti just outside of Port-au-Prince.

We are continuing to plan for a return mission to Israel and responding to the needs of the tsunami victims in Indonesia and Sri Lanka by providing materials to build long-term temporary shelters. What a great year!  Thank you friends for making it possible for Friend Ships to accomplish all these things and demonstrate to a people in need that our God is an awesome God who loves them and cares for them, especially when they are in trouble.

Roatán, Honduras

From February through May 2004, the Friend Ships team hosted a course for volunteer fire-fighting students from the community conducted by the Honduran government.  Instructors taught the basics of fire fighting, rescue and first aid, AIDS awareness, and handling hazardous material.  Our team was responsible for the spiritual input in these students’ lives as well as providing housing and meals.  Several of the young students decided to follow Jesus. In July, we hosted 87 young evangelists for three days from San Pedro Sula who through the power of prayer and personal invitation reached most of the island with the gospel message.  More than 2000 people recommitted or accepted Christ as their Savior. From late May to early July, the Roatán crew joined up with the Port Mercy Friend Ships crew, the M/V Hope and the Angel of Hope helicopter to minister during a 6 week Medical Outreach. In early August, the Village hosted over 300 people who attended Friend Ships’ 4^th Annual Women’s Conference.  Special guests from the United States ministered to the islanders and crew alike. In September, we began teaching a three-month long Arts and Crafts course while continuing the ministry to the Jonesville Point Elementary School Students, hospital visitations and carrying on with improvements at our facility. Over the course of the year, we fabricated and donated architectural fabric vinyl roofs for eight homes, seven churches and two  schools. We distributed eyeglasses, food and vitamins. Churches and city officials received Christmas gifts for their community’s children as the Village donated toys and clothes.

2005 Promises to be even more exciting than 2004!  Roatán plans to continue Art Classes to single mothers and hopefully will birth a Bible and Missions Training Center. Spirit of Grace will complete her voyage to Haiti, return to Port Mercy and load for a return trip to Israel.  MV Hope will stand ready for disaster relief in this hemisphere.  Other potential target nations being considered are Cuba, Kenya and Indonesia. We are believing God for a bigger, more powerful (jet) helicopter to work along with our ships in the southern hemisphere and elsewhere. The opportunities are endless! What an exciting time we live in with so much work to do in the name of Jesus.  Thank you again friends.

Together we are making a difference in thousands of lives!

If you would like to donate to Friend Ships and have questions about estate planning, residual interest of a charitable remainder trust, death proceeds or cash value life insurance, gift annuity, proceeds received at maturity of a bond or retirement funds designated for Friend Ships, we now work with a financial planner who can advise you concerning these issues. Call, write or email our office for more information.

Previous Annual Activities Report 2003

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Previous Annual Activities Report 2001

Updated April 2005