Waiting in Line Changed His Life Forever
Abdul Cole grew up in Sierra Leone as one of seven children. When the Africa Mercy arrived in his home country, Abdul had no idea that his life was about to be impacted. While waiting in line for two days, holding a place for his cousin to be seen by the Mercy Ships screening nurses, the trajectory of Abdul’s life was forever changed. At 14 years old, he decided he wanted to become a sailor.
In this episode, Abdul shares the incredible story of his time in the port meeting Mercy Ships crew and the invitation to come aboard. Abdul tells of his determination to grow up and one day work on board the Africa Mercy and the journey that took him there.
You don’t want to miss this unbelievable story of the transformation of a teenager who was just waiting in line, but had his life completely changed forever.
Looking for a way to join our mission of bringing hope and healing? Partner with us through a gift, volunteering with us, or by joining us in prayer.
New Mercies Podcast Transcript
Welcome to the New Mercies, a podcast by Mercy Ships, where we’ll take you behind the scenes and on board our incredible hospital ships that are transforming lives all over the world. We invite you to join us each week as we sit down with our crew, patients, volunteers, and partners to hear their stories of life-changing hope and healing.
In Sierra Leone at the age of 14, Abdul Cole held a place in line for his cousin to be seen by Mercy Ships screening nurses. He had no idea that those two days waiting in line would change the trajectory of his life. You’re about to be blown away by his remarkable story. Here is my interview with Abdul Cole.
Raeanne Newquist:
Abdul welcome to New Mercies. I am so excited to have you on the podcast today, because we have a mutual friend in Martha who is currently onboard the Global Mercy. And you reached out to her and said, Hey, I want to be on the podcast. So I’m so excited to hear your story. Welcome.
Abdul Cole:
Yeah, thank you. Thank you for having me. I was scrolling, I forget, I think Spotify or something, and then all of a sudden I came across something that said New Mercy. I’m like, That’s Mercy Ships. And then I saw on Facebook someone posted that he was on the podcast saying, I’m a star now! I thought I gotta find a way to get on this podcast.
Raeanne:
Here we are. Well, I’m so excited to hear your story. So as we start, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself. Tell us about your background and where you’re from.
Abdul:
I’m from Sierra Leone, West Africa. And I was born and raised in Freetown, Sierra Leone, I come from a family with 6 brothers and sisters, my dad is a mechanic. My mom took care of their home. In Freetown there are 5 million people, it’s big. I mean, pretty much I want to say half the whole population in the country lives in Freetown. So it’s a very packed city. Very beautiful city a lot to see.
Raeanne:
Oh, that’s so cool. Now, the Global Mercy is actually going to Sierra Leone in a couple months. That’s exciting.
Abdul:
Yes, I was excited when they first announced it. The government of Sierra Leone posted it on their Facebook page, and I thought, Oh my God, this is so great. I hope I can go back to the ship, and hopefully be able to serve. That would just be amazing.
Raeanne:
Oh, my gosh, that would be really cool. Well, why don’t you tell us, how did you ever hear about Mercy Ships in the first place? And when did you get on board?
Abdul:
I heard about Mercy Ships sometime in 2011. Okay, I want to say I was 14 or 15 at the time, I believe so. And so I was living with my uncle on the east side of Freetown. And one of our family members actually had some sort of disease and they heard about the ship coming. So before the ship even comes, there’ll be a line of people just, you know, sleeping there and trying to save a place in line for people and things like that. So my uncle told me, hey, go out there and try to stand in the line, so that way, when your sister is ready to go there, you can just move and she can just go into line, save a spot for her. So I went over there and did that. And after, I believe I was there for two days. And they were people selling their spots and things like that. And so my sister, she was able to been seen by a doctor. But the disease she had at a time, Mercy Ships doesn’t deal with anything like that. So after that, I started hanging around the ports a lot. And then there was a gentleman called Akbar, who was also on the ship who was the security officer at the time. So I became good friends with him. And so I would sit at the gate with Akbar where people go in and out of the ship. And after school, I’d just go down to the ship. The chief security officer at the time, his name is Roger Queensberry, if I remember correctly, he gave me a badge saying that I’m allowed to come into the port. That was so special for me, like, at the time when I was 14, or 15, to be able to go to the port. And it was just so cool. And so I spent all my time down at the port. That’s the first time I actually heard about Mercy Ships. So I was somewhat not necessarily working for Mercy Ships, but just hanging out there a lot. And because I made a lot of friends and all of that, that’s how I actually learned.
Raeanne:
My gosh, now I have to ask, how is your sister?
Abdul:
She actually passed. She’s a cousin of mine, but we all grew up together, so I call my sister, she passed away. I believe I was actually in Spain when she passed away. I think it was 2018. So she passed away from that.
Raeanne:
Sorry to hear that. Well, it’s interesting, because it sounds like even her life impacted your life. Because if it weren’t for her, then you would have never gone and waited in line for days trying to be seen by a doctor. And then, you know, have this initiation into Mercy Ships, which I know is a big part of your life. So how did you end up then, you’re 14-15 years old, obviously, you’re not going to come work on board, because we have to have people who are at least 18 years old. When did Mercy Ships come back in your life again, that caused you to get on board?
Abdul:
Because of Mercy Ships, I chose the path of becoming a sailor. I remember saying, when I grew up, I want to become a sailor. So after the ship left, I went back to finish high school. And there was a company that has container vessels and things like that. And they have big vessels, and they were representing their school. So the deal was, they will send you to school in Ghana, and you will come work for them for two years. So you pay them back kind of thing. And so I was lucky to get into one of those. And I was sent to Ghana. I think I went to Ghana when I was 17. I got there and finished my program, came back and then I started working for a company. So what that company does is they have tugboats that transport the iron ore in Sierra Leone. So in Sierra Leone, we have a mineral called Iron Ore, where we will have a larger ship come in, take the mineral and then leave. So our tugboats help them. And we will bring supplies to pretty much whatever the bigger vessel needs. So I worked there for about two, I want to say two to three years when Ebola hit.
All the companies started leaving and the company I was working for — they asked us to go drop the vessel off in Dubai. So I sailed with the vessel to Dubai and then we got there and I was like, Well, I don’t want to go back home right now with Ebola and everything. What can I do to move forward? My goal was to become a captain. And so what I did was I was like, Okay, well, now I have all this money, what I could do is I could fly to Ghana, go back to school, and then start from there and just find a job. And so I flew to a state in Ghana, finished my rating certificate and all the necessary certificate that I needed. But it was so hard for me to get a job. I go to LinkedIn, a guy from college told me Hey, there’s this app called LinkedIn, people are posting jobs and you should get on there. So I actually downloaded the app, and got LinkedIn. And then surprisingly, the first thing that I saw was Mercy Ships, saying that they were going to Benin and they needed people to work. So at the time, I didn’t know that you have to pay to work on the ship. Like, I mean, I’m from Africa, like, you get paid to work. How does this work? So I contacted the lady who did the post and said, Hi, my name is Abdul. I am a Sailor, and I have this much experience. I would love to work with Mercy Ships, but how does that work? And she sent me all the links and all of that. And she said, well, for you to become crew, you have to pay and I said, I’m not going to be able to pay to live on the ship. I’m barely getting by here in Ghana. So I don’t think I’m going to be able to provide, but I’m willing to work it away. And she said, well you could become a day crew. And so I was like, how does that work? She explained it to me. So I knew some people from Sierra Leone who have worked in Mercy Ships as a day crew, so she recommended me to the HR team. And so I took a bus from Ghana to Togo, Togo to Benin.
Raeanne:
How long did that take?
Abdul:
I want to say two days. And I had $100 on me. That’s the only money I had, I don’t know if you’ve ever traveled to African borders, but I will tell you it doesn’t matter if you have the right paper, you still pay money to get one place to another. By the time that I got to Benin, I was left with about I want to say $10 or so. And now I’m in a country that I don’t speak French. I don’t speak the language. I don’t know anybody. They’re about to figure out how to even get started. So I got a hotel, for one night, and I tried to call the one number that I knew, and send a bunch of emails. And I was asking people do you know about any ships that are going to come here? So that way I can go to meet them and try to tell them that I’m here kind of thing. And nobody actually knew about the ship at the time. Someone told me that there’s a church where they actually do all the applications and all of that where people go to get the application. I was like, Hey, man, will you direct me to this church?
So he took me to this church and I ended up meeting a guy called Solomon. And he was one of the guys that worked with the advance team. I was like, Hey, man, my name is Abdul, I am from Sierra Leone, but I was living in Ghana, and I came here to work as a sailor. I literally have nothing right now. Can you help me for place to stay? And once I start working out, pay you back? And he goes, Okay! He didn’t know me. He just said, Okay. And he was like, Where is your bag, I was like, my bag is at the hotel, he picked my bag up, went to Benin. So we went to his place, he introduced me to his friends and all of that, and I stayed at his place. Luckily, I was able to start working before the ship actually get there. Because before the ship got to the port, there’s a bunch of stuff that has to happen. I don’t know if that’s the same thing with the Global Marcy, but you have to have all the tents, like all those things on the dock, making sure all the water connections, all those things are ready to go. And we were doing screening already, screening patients and all of that. So I was working with the security officer, her name is Penny. And she was the field security officer. And basically, at the time I worked for her, the job was making sure that we make sure we have people coming through to screen safely and have them exit safely as well. And things like that. And so we did that.
Raeanne:
This is crazy. But I keep thinking, you’re in Dubai, and you fly to Ghana, and you find out about Mercy Ships. But when you find out that you’re not going to get paid, but you have to pay to serve, what was it that caused you to say I have to do this? And then obviously, you still had to travel for a couple of days and get there with only $10? I mean, what was it that was compelling you to go serve with Mercy Ships? Because it seems like with all these obstacles, you could have easily been like, Ah, forget it, I’ll just get a job somewhere else, you know?
Abdul:
Yeah, I mean, I can’t easily do that. I think the one thing that I cannot even explain up to now, something in me was like, doesn’t matter what it takes, but you got to get to this ship. So I felt that. But then the other thing was for me was I knew what Mercy Ships was when I was 14. I was young when she came, but I saw the change, the smile that that she put on people’s face, the lives that she had changed, the people that get saved in different ways in different aspects of like, the things that happened when the ship was there. I still remember that vividly. You know? And so when I was in Ghana, for me, it was more like okay, now I actually do have a skill that I could actually give back to the continent that I’m firm. Why not do this?
First I was looking at it and thought, I’m not getting paid? Well, you actually are helping people in Africa where you’re from, you are helping this continent that you’re from. And so for me, it was more that this just feels right. Like it just feels right for me to do. And I didn’t know what I was getting into, what was going to happen, but I just felt like God was with me the whole time. He plans and when He wants you to do something, He will make you find a way, He will connect you with people. Because for me before I left I said a prayer saying that God if this is something that you want me to do, make it happen. I don’t know how but just figure something out. And then it happens because to me raising that money to travel, to me meeting Solomon, to me getting the job, to when I look at the big picture to where I am right now — God was trying to take me somewhere He wants me. So that was just the start. So yeah, I think for me, it was more like I have a skill, but I can help. Why not do it?
Raeanne:
Oh my gosh. Well, this is amazing. So you’re in Benin, and you’re working in the advanced team and getting stuff set up and then the ship arrives. What was that moment like for you to see the Africa Mercy pull into Benin?
Abdul:
It was like, the big white ship. It’s like the word hope and healing. I don’t know if you’ve ever been in ports when that ship sails. But you could tell, you can feel the energy that hope and healing is actually here. Wow. And it’s just like, people cry when it leaves, people smile when it comes in. And it was just like, oh my god, I saw the ship when I was 15. Now I’m here, the ship is here, I’m actually old enough to work here. It was like, finally, this relief. The ship is here. I just knew that whatever I’m doing here is actually important. It’s actually going to change lives. It’s like, okay, I’m part of this now, I’m part of my ship. It was just amazing. I cannot explain that feeling.
Raeanne:
That is so great. So the ship is there, you’re overwhelmed, you get on board, then what did you do?
Abdul:
So I got on board, and I worked in deck. So I basically did maintenance and whatever the ship needed. I don’t know if you know a lot about deck, but we’re like all jack of all trades. If you need your grocery, you call deck. If you need anything moved around the counter deck, if you need that ship being wide, like just wipe down from top to bottom you call deck. If the hospital guys have things to move around, they call deck, if the nurses need patients lifted, you call deck. Like I tell a lot of people, deck is the heart of that ship. These guys are very selfless, they’ll drop everything they have going on, just to help you in a heartbeat. These are amazing guys. These are guys that are just there to just serve. And so yeah, I came in as a just a regular day crew, I think six months into it working as deck, I got promoted as the leader of the deck day crew. So basically, I supervised them in the work that we do. So we do a lot of staging where we will put the I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it on the ship where guys are hanging over the side of the ship, paint or washing. So basically, that was my job as a day crew. I did that. I supervised the guys that did that. When I walked down the gangway, I see somebody saying, Oh my God, this thing is so clean. Hi, my name is Abdul, my team did that just so you know! Yeah, we kept it clean. Like it was just so satisfying. It was like when we helped move food supply on board or when I was up on deck eight seeing patients coming up with club foot or all these other things, they’re coming in, kind of sad and leaving smiling. It’s like, okay, now I see why I’m here. Yeah, it’s like, when you see them leaving with that smile you think everything I do is worth it. Like it makes everything makes sense, you know? And so yeah, I was there for the whole 10 months. And I was like man, how can I become a crew — that was my next thing. I was like, I want to become a crew and live here permanently and work here. I mean, originally for me, it was just going to be for that time and then go find something else.
Raeanne:
Right and it got under your skin. So what happened then when the ship left Benin, then what?
Abdul:
I traveled back to Ghana went back to school. Okay, and I was figuring out how to get back on the ship. So at the time, I was figuring out how can I raise funds to come back on the ship? There was a chief officer, his name is Josh McGrath — amazing guy.
Raeanne:
Captain Josh?
Abdul:
Yes, Captain Josh. He’s just an amazing guy. We’ve become good friends. And while I was in Ghana, I was looking to come on the ship. He was the one who was like, Okay, if you’re going to go on the ship, I can pay for you to come on the ship. So I applied and everything was going well. And I finally got a date to come to the ship in Cameroon. So weeks before that I couldn’t sleep, the excitement, because being on the ship for that 10 months, I’ve created a lot of friendships. It’s like a family there. It’s like, okay, man, I got to go back. It’s that time again, like the feeling is just so amazing. So you just know you’re about to be part of the life changing. Like, it’s not only life changing for the people that come on the ship. It’s life changing for the people that also volunteer on the ship. And then I joined the ship October in 2017. That’s a crew member for the first time.
Raeanne:
That is awesome. Were you there for the whole year and Cameron?
Abdul:
Yeah. So I was in Cameroon, went to Spain. I was in Guinea, went back to Spain and I end up to Senegal. I left the ship in Senegal. I think it was three to four years in total.
Raeanne:
We must have just overlapped you because my family got onboard in Senegal. Okay. So when did you when did you leave the ship in Senegal?
Abdul:
I was only there until 2019 August. That’s when I left.
Raeanne:
Oh, so you left right when we got on board?
Abdul:
Yeah. So I want to say the week we got there a week later than we left. So I was actually wasn’t sure. Because when I applied for school, a friend that I met told me about the college in Wisconsin.
Raeanne:
Well, yeah, this is this is exciting. We’ve got to pause for a second here because this is fun for our listeners to hear that after you served for almost four years on board, the Africa Mercy, then that radically impacted your life and led you to what you’re doing right now. Is that correct? So you have to tell us about this. This is so cool.
Abdul:
The one thing about Mercy Ships is that when you’re there, it doesn’t matter if you sign up for a week or two or whatever, you end up leaving with something — that might be a best friend, or somebody that you know, you can call on whenever you’re down or something is wrong. Because I met amazing people. And at the end I had a friend that helped me to actually come to the US. I met him when I was a day crew and Benin, and when he graduated high school, he didn’t want to go to college. So his mom used to serve with Mercy Ships a long time ago. And so she told him, well, since you don’t want to go to college, there’s this organization called Mercy Ships, it will be good for you to go there and see how things play out. So he came to the ship, and then all of a sudden we become best friend, and we hung out all the time, he would come stay at my place. Because I was staying off the ship at the time. He was staying at my place, we will do everything together, I’ll come to work with me. And then all of that, and we just become good buddies. And so he left the ship, we kept in contact.
My dad is a mechanic, so growing up, I grew up around engines, but he never wanted me to become a mechanic. He never wanted me to be around that. I’m always somebody who has always been curious about how engines work. Like why does this work the way it works. Like I’m the type of person that I’m walking down the street, and I see a piece of thing put together. And instead and I’m like how like, who did they come up with that? Like, what was the idea behind that? So I’m always curious about the people. It’s like, for example, like our founder, Don Stephens, it is like, how did he come up with this amazing organization, things like that, you know? So we became best friends and so he moved back to the States. We kept in touch. And I was like, Man, I’m looking to go to school to learn some sort of diesel engineering. And he goes, I think I know school called Western Technical College. And he goes, I know friend that went there, so let me talk to him and I’ll get back to you. It’s like, okay, cool. So a month later, he sent me an email going like, Yo, this is the name of the school. Look it up. That was the first program I saw. And I didn’t even look through the whole thing anymore. I just chose that right away. It was Diesel and Heavy Equipment Technician. That’s what I want to do. It was between that and welding. I’m like, No, I think I want to work with engines. And after that, me and him were talking to his mom. He was talking to his mom about me and his mom, which started like, my son was talking to me about you, and how you guys were best friend. And he told me you’re looking to come to school here. And I said, Yeah, and she goes, whatever you need, just let me know. I will help out. And I’m like, wait, what? It didn’t sound real to me. Because like, you don’t just have people just want to help you. Like, for me, I was just like, how? She said to me, I’ll never forget, she said, God told me to do it. It just felt right. And God wanted me to do this for you. It was just like, I couldn’t believe I’m like, No, something is not right. And then I applied and got accepted. While I was on the ship. I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen. Because it’s so hard to get a US visa to come here. We were in Guinea, when I applied. And I finally got an interview, I went to the interview, they asked for all the papers, but he was taking so long, I actually thought that it was not going to work out. So I was with the ship. In Spain, we were about to leave Spain to come back to Senegal, and we were actually sailing when I got a call from the embassy saying, is this Mr. Cole? I’m like, yeah. And the lady goes, your visa has been approved, will you please come to Sierra Leone. And I’m like, oh my goodness, okay, I’m on a ship in the middle of the ocean. But when I get to Senegal, I can come. I fly to Freetown and come for that. And then fast forward. We got to Senegal, not to brag, but I was the first person to step down in Senegal when the ship got there! And I got a ticket and flew to Sierra Leone to get my visa. Say goodbye to my parents, my family. Because school was starting a week later.
I did not know how cool Wisconsin is.
Raeanne:
Yes, for a young man from Sierra Leone, going to Wisconsin must have been a huge shock.
Abdul:
Oh, yeah. It’s like, I never actually thought anywhere in the world would be that cold. When I first moved, 40 degrees was cold for me. Everybody was with t shirt and all of that. And I was my jacket. And then now when I look back to that, and when that it’s like, wow, you hit a lot colder than 40 degrees in Wisconsin. Oh, yeah. We got negative 30. Yeah, it’s so brutal.
Raeanne:
So this is amazing. You end up in Wisconsin at school. And that was several years ago. So you have graduated just last year, you graduated with your degree, so now what are you doing? What are you doing today? You’re still in Wisconsin?
Abdul:
Yeah, I actually moved to Wisconsin, just because I’m sure you heard of the Mississippi and all that. So Wisconsin is landlocked, you don’t have a lot of like, navigation stuff. So in my head, I was like, well, there’s no way I’m going to be ever working on boats anymore. So that was like out of the picture. And so while I was in school, I was actually working for a company that does pretty much all of like most of the Midwest construction, because I don’t know if you notice about especially in the Midwest, you have winter, summer, spring, fall, and then construction season. So construction is a whole season by itself, because it gets so cold that every year they have to like redo the roads and all of that. So, I worked as an intern while I was in school. So I will do that after school. And so towards my final year in college, I heard about this company, they are the largest maritime company in the Midwest, like the company was based five minutes from where I live. I didn’t even know about that. And so a month before graduation, we have a bunch of people coming in to like recruit new students and all of that. So this company showed up, and I saw a dredge, I saw divers, I’m like, Oh, my God. I see water. I see boats, huh? So I skipped all the booths, and I just went over there. Because I’m also a diver as well. So when I was on the ship, I did that as well. Sounds like whatever way they want to go, I can either work under engine work, become a diver, whatever they want me to do. I walk up to the lady and I’m just telling my background. So now I work there as a boat mechanic. So basically what I do is, I travel around the country where I will go to places and help wherever the boats are, because people don’t live on the boats. So everybody works and goes home every day. So let’s say the boat is down in Tennessee, I’ll drive down there, do my inspection, do maintenance, or if it’s out of the Rhode Island or California wherever the boats are. So the company I worked for they actually in all 50 states I believe.
The Mississippi River runs all the way through the Gulf of Mexico. So you can literally have anything because they have a bunch of barges. So Wisconsin is called a dairy state to produce a lot of cheese and all of that stuff. So most of the farmers, they want to send things down south as they go through the barges. So we have barges that go down and transport all this stuff. So we have a bunch of tugboats that move up and down the Mississippi River.
Raeanne:
Do you plan on staying in Wisconsin and continuing to work? Or do you hope to get back to Sierra Leone?
Abdul:
When I first moved to Wisconsin, I really didn’t know what to expect. So I’ve always been the type of person that when I go somewhere, I go with my heart. Wherever I’m at, I’m there. So when I was on the ship, I was on the ship, when I came here, I did not have expectation, like what’s going to happen, I’m just going to go with my heart and figure it out. But I have made family here, I’ve just established myself here to a point where I kind of call Wisconsin home away from home. And I’m at a point here right now where my goal actually is to be able to go back to the ship and serve again, because I know now I’m in a position where I know technical crew is very, very hard to find, especially to skilled technical guys. And this is the reason why the guys on the deck department engine departments, all the technical guys, these are guys that they pour their heart in that place.
It’s like, I’ve never met any group of people that work like that. Just the unity and the camaraderie like we all have, it’s just something you don’t see in a normal workplace. A lot of places talking about workplace culture. Because, yes, it’s hard work. But you’re doing hard work smiling. So it’s like, I’ve never seen that before. And even in now living in the US, it’s something I’ve never seen before. And so right now, for me, it’s like, Wisconsin is always going to be home away from home, but I plan to be able to go back to the ship and volunteer, especially when the ship is in Sierra Leone.
Once I get some few things taken care off here, I’m going to go home, I plan to be home when the ship is going to be there. And during that time, I’m going to be in Sierra Leone. So if everything lines up, if everything works out, I might come on the ship and maybe serve like a week or two before come back to work and then try to figure a bigger picture where I can go for maybe a month at a time. Mercy Ships has given me everything and it was not just because of Mercy Ships, it’s because of God and Mercy Ships. I don’t know where I would be right now without them. It’s just the people, the friends the thing that like it’s just the people I call my best friends are actually from Mercy Ships. Once a month shipper you’re always in my shipper. So once you go once, you will always go back.
Raeanne:
That would be so special to get to go and serve in your own country in Sierra Leone, that would be awesome. Abdul, I gotta tell you, you have a remarkable story from a 14-year-old boy waiting in line on the dock for his cousin to hopefully get a place on board to receive medical treatment to this young man who has graduated from college in the United States. And now working on boats and wanting to go back to serve again, what a remarkable story. Gosh, I am so grateful that you reached out and wanted to share your story. Thank you so much, we so appreciate you. And I hope you do get to go back and work on board in your own country, that would be incredible.
Abdul:
Yeah, that’s something I’m looking forward to. And I’ve always believed that one of the best opportunities you can have is a chance to serve. And that sense of service that I brought for Mercy Ships, it’s something I’ve always tried to keep. Here where I live, I’m a firefighter. I’m a rescue diver for the city that I live in. And there’s a bunch of stuff that I’m doing right now here in the city. And I give talks about Mercy Ships here. And the organizations that are volunteering, and I believe it was a couple of months ago where I was talking to the news station here local news about Mercy Ships, because for me at this point, it’s like any way I could get people to know about the good work that Mercy Ships does, because I know what Mercy Ships has done for me. And I know what Mercy Ships could do for a lot of people.
I just want to help other people see the things that I’ve seen being on that ship, because when I was a crew member, living on that ship, when I operated the crane from Deck seven on the Africa Mercy and I saw patients come in and go out smiling, my heart, keep telling me, this is why you’re doing this. Like, you just see it all right there in front of you. And for me, it’s like that was my highlight like every day when I was up on deck seven, lifting up foodstuff, and I’m seeing patient going in and out, seeing the changes, seeing the smiles, seeing the kids that people told them that they might not play soccer anymore. And now they’re running around playing soccer. Some kids that have cleft palette that a lot of people think they’re demonic kids. And now they’re having fun. And now they are find they’re going back to the community, like as a new person, it’s like, there’s nothing else that like, there’s no job where you can have that and be more satisfying than that. And so yeah, that’s why I commend all the volunteers, all the people that chose to volunteer, especially the guys in the technical departments, because when that ship is sailing, everybody’s having a good time. The deck guys are the ones sailing that boat, and they’re working 24 hours. So those guys, it’s just, they’re just different. And so I’m just very, very thankful for that team. They’re just amazing guys.
Raeanne:
And you’re one of them, you know, you’re one of those guys and it’s an honor to be counted as one of them I know and so we are so grateful for you. We are so grateful for all of our deck crew and all the hard work that they do. And I think as you’ve said, if there’s anybody listening who has the skills, and would like to go volunteer, we are always in need of deck crew. So go ahead and check out mercy ships.org/volunteer and you can find opportunities to serve. But Abdul, thank you so much for sharing your story today. It has been a huge blessing to me and I know it has been to those who are listening. So thank you so much.
Abdul:
Thank you so much for having me. I’m glad that I was able to get on the podcast and just share my story.
For more information about Mercy Ships, go to mercyships.org, and to keep up with the guests on New Mercies, follow us on Instagram at NewMerciesPodcast.