Robin Newsam - Custodian of Information

Posted by Mercy Ships staff on Jan 20, 2012 at 11:57 am

Robin Newsam first encountered Mercy Ships in 2000 when he was traveling on a train in London, and the announcer pointed out the Anastasis moored in the docklands. The following day, Robin came back to tour the ship – and, after his tour, he decided to apply to serve onboard.

“A lot of different things had changed in my life quite suddenly,” says Robin. “My mother had died. I wasn’t coping in my job. I was leading too solitary a life. So I was at a point where I was trying to find a new direction, following God’s kingdom wherever it led me.”

Initially, Robin was asked to serve as Assistant Storeman in the galley. “The Chief Steward took one look at me when I arrived and decided that wasn’t going to work,” Robin laughs. Instead, Robin was posted to the cold food section, making salads.

“At one point early on I was busy peeling cukes when my manager asked if I wanted to work in the library,” Robin says. “I thought it was a casual conversation, so I didn’t respond. I was too new to the ship to recognize it as an attempt to find a place I would be more suited to.”

For the next four years, Robin moved between several roles in food services and briefly worked as Assistant Supply Coordinator in the hospital. In the meantime, the Anastasis was retired, and the Africa Mercy was brought into service.

In 2008, the conversation about the library came up again, but this time Robin was ready. After alternating between housekeeping, food services and the library for several more months, at the end of the year, Robin finally became the long-term librarian on the Africa Mercy.

Now in his third year in the job, Robin has become a quietly reassuring presence in a community that is constantly changing. “I like looking after the needs of the crew,” Robin says. “Getting out their videos, making suggestions of what they might like – just trying to make them happy, really.”

Thanks to donations from the crew, the library keeps growing, and new crew are often surprised at how extensive the collection has become. “It’s an expression of the grace of God how our library continues to grow,” Robin says. “You sort things over time, but you never get to the end of them. They always get out of order. Still, every time something goes missing, something else always shows up to replace it.”

Although some of the roles Robin has served in over the past seven years have been more challenging than others, it is the community life onboard that has continued to sustain him. “As a community we’ve been through a lot of things over the years, both good and bad,” Robin says. “These things have all been part of the story of my life. Living in this community, its stories have become part of my life story.”

Story by Catherine Cooper
Edited by Nancy Predaina
Photos by David Peterson

Comments: