Meet the Tretheways

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Tim has been serving with Mercy Ships since 1987, starting out as a deckhand and is now currently serving as the Captain on board the Africa Mercy. Life is very busy for Tim as he oversees 400+ crew. When he gets time, he likes to search for ruins or piles of rocks (any archeology), sailing, journaling and has a brain that seems to absorb a huge amount of data, he's the sort of guy you need on a quiz night!
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Sharon has been serving with Mercy Ships since 2001 starting out as the Deck Administrator and is now currently serving as an administrator and worship leader. Her passion is to worship through her guitar and piano and she just loves anything that is computerised, always trying hard to keep up with technology from afar!

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Nathanael is aged 3 and enjoys living on board a ship. 5 Mornings a week he goes to pre-school and has some great friends. He loves Cbeebies, Mickey Mouse, Bob the Builder, (to name just a few), books and painting. He likes to keep his Dad and Mum busy and has successfully graduated from terrible two's to trying three's! He is a tenderhearted boy and loves his cuddles.
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Mercy Ships

Mercy Ships is a global charity that has operated hospital ships in developing nations since 1978. Mercy Ships brings hope and healing to the forgotten poor by mobilizing people and resources worldwide, and serving all people without regard for race, gender, or religion. Around the world today, billions of people live in fear and desperation, with impure water, inadequate food, and little or no access to health care. Behind every statistic is a person waiting for hope and healing. Utilizing hospital ships, Mercy Ships delivers medical excellence with integrity and compassion to the world's forgotten poor by following the 2000-year-old example of Jesus. Click here to download a fact sheet on the Africa Mercy

What's it like living on board a ship?

If you haven't lived in a community situation we often use the analogy of imagine working, living, socializing, worshiping and praying, practically everything, with your church. For some, that would be wonderful, for others you might cringe at the thought. At the end of the day we are all working towards one common goal and that is touching the poor and needy with the love of Christ and it works!
We currently have 400 crew on board with approximately 1000 volunteers coming in and out of our doors each year so life has to be flexible, with many hello's and goodbyes thrown in. The ship is like a small town, it has everything you need, ship shop, cafe (even sponsored by Starbucks-a huge blessing!), hair salon, laundry room, crew kitchen to bake your cakes, doctor, dentist, hospital, prayer room, school, but it's not the facilities that make the ship, it's the crew. Serving from 35+ different nations we get to experience a variety of cultures and make many friends. The good thing is, we get to take it to whatever country we go to and share it with others. For us we have a family 4 berth cabin which includes a small living room, kitchen sink area and 2 bedrooms all in the space that many of you would have as a living room.