FRIEND SHIPS ACTIVITIES REPORT MARCH 2007
FRIEND SHIPS at PORT MERCY, 1019 North First Avenue, Lake Charles, LA 70601
Tel: 337-433-5022 Fax: 337-433-3433 Email:
info@friendships.org 
PORT
MERCY, Lake Charles
March has been a great month of accomplishment! Here at Port Mercy, we have made wonderful strides in preparing and improving our infrastructure for the missions that lay ahead and in order to be ready for hurricane season. Much work has been done on the 18 Mobile Medical Super Clinics being fabricated. Many have had plumbing, electrical and cabinets installed. The next phase will be to receive their sparkling new white paint job.
We have made some repairs to Spirit, Spirit of Grace and the Port Mercy facility. We have created the structure that will house our beautiful outdoor café (pictured above) from the amazing tarp material that is donated to us on a regular basis. Our large bulldozer has been reactivated and is already at use at Port Mercy. One of our Kenworth semi trucks has been repainted and is systemically undergoing maintenance and repairs. To help with security, we have installed three electric gates and are in the process of putting in a camera security system. All of our relief supplies have been sorted, inventoried and catalogued into a new database to help with efficiency in putting it to use.
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We received new donations of medical equipment including wheelchairs and a pallet of glucometers, and supplies including gauze, syringes and needles. We also received Meals Ready to Eat, excellent for feeding in times of disaster. We distributed tarp to New Tribes Mission for use in Guinea, West Africa and made arrangements to load two, 40 foot sea containers of goods in Los Angeles to go to Haiti. Two visiting work teams have helped us tremendously by repairing roofs and building additions to some of our warehouses that had been damaged by storms.
The
office has seen much action too! We have been working with a local printing
company who is donating beautiful new color brochures. Some of our computer
programs have been revised and revamped. Manuals are being created for
various facets of our operations. Several new people have applied, been
interviewed and accepted as staff members. We have initiated a new program
for young adults called R.A.M.P.
(Relief Apprenticeship Missions Program). This will be an 11 month
program for students who have graduated high school and would like to have
an introduction to international missions, while learning work skills and
drawing closer to the Lord. There is more information available about this
program on our website, if you know of anyone who may be interested. We
were especially touched this month to receive a gift of $200 from a group of
Lake Charles Home Schoolers who collected these funds and were able to use
them any way they saw fit, including spending it on something for their own
enjoyment. Instead, they chose to give these funds to the Lord and to the
poor through Friend Ships!
THE VILLAGE, Roatán, Honduras
Princess Cruise Line is donating more than 400 mattresses off their ships directly to our facility in Roatán. This time, we don’t even have to transport them ourselves, as the Princess Cruise ships visit Roatán and will drop them off on their visits into port this month. These will be used to help medical facilities, poor families and to help sleep the church groups we host each weekend at The Village. Our good friends at Trinity Broadcasting Network have generously donated new equipment to the Roatán cable channels so that two new Christian channels can be seen by the islanders. Finally, on a fun note, a flock of about 50 wild parrots have taken up residence at Friend Ships Village and are a delight to all!
STOREHOUSE ONE, Los Angeles
The food ministry in Los Angeles continues to bless many people each week and prepares for the expansion which will begin in April.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP?
If you would like to be involved with
supporting Friend Ships programs,
we have ongoing needs for:
Prayer- Join “Special Forces”, our team of prayer warriors.
Crew- Long and short term individuals and teams.
Finances- To support general operations and help purchase the Port Mercy property.
Supplies- See website or request a brochure on how you can pack boxes of supplies to be shipped.
Port Mercy Campaign - If you would like to help us purchase our home base, Port Mercy, please mark your gift “Port Mercy”. We are collecting funds in order to meet a balloon payment of $450,000.00 we have coming up in early 2008. For about 50 cents a square foot we can permanently own this invaluable property in Lake Charles, LA where we house our ships and crew, have warehousing and administrative headquarters. Our current number of donors for this project stands at 62, with a total of $13,138.00 given.
Thank you friends for your awesome support!
Updated April 2007
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