Gaining Wisdom and Cultural Knowledge On Board

Estevam Silva spent seven years growing up on the Africa Mercy, thousands of miles away from his home country of Brazil. His father is a mariner and whereas most jobs at

sea mean leaving your family behind for several months, with Mercy Ships, your family comes with you! As Chief Officer, Estevam’s father brought his family to serve with him and afforded his children an opportunity to meet people from all over the world and be agents of hope and healing.

In this episode, Estevam shares some highlight moments of growing up on board — getting to experience some “typical teenager” things while being in a most non-typical environment! He tells about growing in his faith, gaining wisdom through relationships with the adults on board and learning about different cultures.  

Wise beyond his years, Estevam will give you some deep things to ponder, while making you laugh. 

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.

Estevam Silva spent seven years growing up on the Africa Mercy, 1000s of miles away from his home country of Brazil. Estevam is here today to share with us his insights of what it’s like to be a teenager on board. Here’s my interview with Estevam Silva.

Raeanne Newquist:

Estevam, I am so excited to have you on the podcast today because we’ve had some people on the show that grew up on board whether that be Carys Parker, or we recently talked to Dr. Sandra Lako, both of them are in Sierra Leone right now serving, but we haven’t really talked to somebody who is still a kid who has lived on the ship for many years. And that would be you. So I know you recently turned 16 years old, Happy Birthday. And welcome to New Mercies.

Estevam Silva:

Thank you. I’d really like to thank you for inviting me to this podcast. You know, I’m a person that loves to talk, to share experiences, to share about God and what He has done in my life. So I will thank you for this opportunity.

Raeanne:

Oh, absolutely. Well, Estevam, I had the privilege of meeting you and your family, when we lived on board the Africa Mercy and my son was a friend of yours and your brothers and had so much fun with you guys. So this is fun for me. I have to say, my kids are a little bit jealous. I told them I get to talk to Estevam today. And they’re like, oh my gosh, tell them hi. So hello, from all my kiddos, who absolutely adore you. Estevam, as we mentioned you are 16 and when you were about nine years old, you got on board. Why don’t you tell us what caused your family to go serve with Mercy Ships.

Estevam:

A big aspect of like, why we went to the ship was because my dad, he works with ships. He’s the chief officer and his work makes him unable to stay with us for a long time. So like, he leaves for six months, and then comes back for a month. And that’s not really healthy for kids growing up, like I would hate to not have my dad with me if we miss like a birthday or miss a special moment. So Mercy Ships allowed us the opportunity to be with my dad while he did something he loved.

When my parents were younger they did YWAM. And my dad got involved with the Logos Hope for two years. And he met someone on board the Logos who knew about Mercy Ships. And they he did a trial for a few months, came back to Brazil, talked with my mom, they got married. And then they went and served for a little while then they came back.

Raeanne:

Your dad is a mariner and so he works on ships. And as you mentioned, Mercy Ships really offers this unique experience for mariners, they don’t have to leave their families for months and months at a time, but they get to bring their families with them. So I’m sure that was super fun for you and when your dad’s up in the bridge, you know, helping sail the ship, you can go up there and hang out with your dad, which is super special. I know you guys have recently returned to Brazil, so we will get into that maybe a little bit later. But Estevam, tell us what was it like for you to spend really almost seven years growing up on a ship? What did you love about it?

Estevam:

I love the fact that I got to meet so many people, not just the people like where they came from, like I have many friends from Belgium, Australia, New Zealand, Senegal, or so many places. And I just love the fact that they were all different. And I could see that God, He doesn’t make robots. He makes everyone special in their own way. That’s what I loved. I loved the different cultures, the people, the community that the ship had to offer. It was it was very nice.

Raeanne:

You know what’s so cool, that’s what most adults answer. They love the ship because they love the community. And here we have a 16-year-old young man, you’re saying the same thing. I think that’s just testimony to the incredible community on board. It’s for everyone, everyone experiences it. And yeah, the joy of meeting people from all over the world. I mean, your setup for life. You can go visit friends anywhere and have a free place to stay which is awesome.

Estevam:

My dad recently went to Florida for his work and he had some friends he wanted to visit too and most of his friends are Mercy Ships friend that he met a long time ago. So he got to visit them too.

Raeanne:

Well, you’ve lived in many countries in those seven years. What was maybe one of your favorite countries that you lived in and why?

Estevam:

My favorite country that I visited was Cameroon. I would say, I just loved the environment. I loved the dock especially because I have so many memories there. The dock that they gave us was really big. We had so many soccer tournaments, we had rugby, we had volleyball tournaments, we had frisbee, Ultimate Frisbee, we had so many different things. And the town wasn’t actually that far from the dock. So we could go walking to the center of town. And there were so many people there that we met. Cameroon left a big mark on me.

Raeanne:

That’s something that is so important for kids to have space to run and play. And the incredible dock space in Cameroon allowed for all these sports to be played. That’s unique and I’m sure some of the ports that you guys pulled into, the dock space you had didn’t allow for as many sports to be played. So I think yeah, that would make an impression on a kid for sure. Good play space.

Estevam:

Now that also brings back the aspect of different cultures, because every sport really represents a different place. Because not many people know about rugby, I would say most of the Australians, English, New Zealand people, they love playing rugby. And so they got to teach people how to play. I got to share my love for soccer. I got to hear about the love for football, baseball, volleyball. I’m also a big fan of Ultimate Frisbee. I never heard of that until I got to the ship. But I love it and I still played today.

Raeanne:

That’s so fun. What was one of your favorite adventures that you took?

Estevam:

In Senegal, actually, we went on a youth trip to an ice cream place. But I just remember the youth leaders preparing everything and getting us hyped to go. Everyone got different flavors of ice cream, and everyone was like, oh, no, mine’s better, no mine is better. And we just talked the whole night about different things, we just shared a time together over something as simple as ice cream, which, for me was a big moment because it was my first time going out without my parents, with my friends, I got to enjoy that. I am really thankful for that.

Raeanne:

That’s so neat because I think just those simple moments are impactful for kids. You know, like you said, getting to go out on your own may be something that a lot of parents get nervous about sending their kids out in a different country with other friends, but how special that you were able to do that and have a typical experience and a very non typical environment. And that was important to you. And I love that those kinds of things happen all the time. I know that the academy on board does such a great job of really taking care of our students. And the teachers are so intentional to pour into the kids and they set you guys up to build relationships with one another in such special ways. And the kids are from all over the world as are the teachers. What was that like for you?

Estevam:

I loved the fact that I didn’t just get to talk to, I got to live with kids that were also developing their own way of doing things. So it’s like if I share my Brazilian energy, let’s say of like doing things or talking to people of being of just wanting to do stuff with people, and I got to meet Abel, Abel from the Netherlands, I would say he was a little more to the shy side. But we became really good friends even though I would say our cultures are a little different. I think that I got to learn a lot from kids on how to respect how others do things, and how others feel about certain things. Culture really impacts the way you think, so I mean, I got to learn a lot from kids, especially, I mean, we don’t just learn from adults.

Raeanne:

That’s right. And you know what, it goes both ways, as adults we learn a lot from you kids. Estevam, I know that there’s so many fantastic things that go on on the ship for kids, for families just for the crew in general. There’s ample opportunities for, as you mentioned, sports on the dock and adventures off ship. There’s so many wonderful things. But I also know that life can be difficult and challenging living on board a ship in a country that’s not your home with a ton of people from all different countries. What was something that was maybe a little bit difficult about ship life for you?

Estevam:

We were the only Brazilians on board. And there were a lot of Americans on board. There were a lot of Aussies on board, there were different people from New Zealand. So I mean, they all got a little bit of a taste from home, I would say. But as we were the only people from Brazil, I mean, I had to fit in somehow, with the way people did things, especially kids, because sometimes I would do something that I did with my cousins at home, but all my friends would look at me in a weird way. But it wasn’t like a mean weird, it was more like, whoa, that’s not like, well, I don’t want to do that. Like, I have to find where I fit in.

Raeanne:

And I think that’s something that a lot of us go through. Just as teenagers growing up, we have to kind of find our way and where we fit. But it poses a whole new challenge when you’re doing that in an environment like Mercy Ships, you know, it’s kind of hard to be a kid finding your way. And as you mentioned, to not have other people from your specific culture, to maybe even affirm your cravings, you know, like certain Brazilian food that you totally want and nobody else gets it. You know, I did see your mom in the galley quite a bit cooking. So I think that she did her best to give you guys a lot of Brazilian food.

Estevam:

It was very nice whenever we got some taste of home. I know I really liked the Thanksgiving. Yeah, no, I know, all the Americans are like crazy about oh, my goodness, Thanksgiving. And I remember the first time being like, what is that? And then I got, I mean, I never had an apple pie before. It’s not as common here in Brazil, I had apple pie. And I was like, Whoa, it’s apple in a pie. And then everyone’s like, Yeah, but it’s so good. And I’m like, Yes, it is good. Yes. I guess I just missed, I missed something like that. Like, like a Brazilian Thanksgiving.

Raeanne:

Well, now you are back in Brazil. And I’m sure that there are challenges with that transition back as well. But a lot of a lot of blessings for you. And a lot of homecoming celebrations. I’m sure. When you were hanging out with your friends, or you mentioned your cousins, what are some favorite stories of yours to share with them about your life on the ship?

Estevam:

If I was to share a story with them, or something I already did share, I talk a lot. So sometimes I just forget what I mentioned to people, which is something that I have to work on.

Raeanne:

No, we love you, we love you just the way you are.

Estevam:

Especially the kids from school, because you know from my school is like, Oh, I lived in a ship. And then they all look at me, it’s like lived on a ship? And I would say the stories of sailing, because not a lot of them have sailed before. Maybe even traveled on a boat or something. So I would say that the story is about sailing like the games we could play, how we did like a ninja course on deck one day. Let’s see, I would say we played nerf battles while the ship was sailing. And that was fun because we would try to aim at someone but then the ship was moving or just you would miss. It was very fun. But it was very annoying at some point. Yes, I will just say the stories of the ship activities during the sail like sock golf and the Nerf battles and the different types of foods that they would make at some point. There was a really nice a disco party, the talent show there was open mic nights, there was quiz night. I remember that they made the experience of sailing a lot more fun than it would have been for other people.

Raeanne:

Did you ever get seasick?

Estevam:

There’s different levels of seasickness. I mean, on my first sail, I got really sick to the point that I was laying on the floor, and I slept on the floor because I couldn’t take being on my own bed. But it was the roughest sail I had. We were sailing from South Africa to Benin. And usually the waters around South Africa are pretty bad. So I mean, on the other times, I tried to ignore it a little bit, going outside breathing fresh air, speaking to people who are just trying to do something else, then you focus on the ships movement.

Raeanne:

Estevam, did you spend much time with any patients while you were on board?

Estevam:

I would say yes, I got to spend a lot of time in Cameroon, actually, I spent time with some patients with my mom. Because I was too young to go anywhere by myself and Cameroon. I was 10. I could go on the ship by myself, but not to the hospital because it’s such a professional environment. I mean, I couldn’t go down there a lot by myself. So I mean, I will go down, sometimes they had a service, you know, like Sunday service for the patients. And I would go with my mom, and they would speak about the Bible to the patients. And I would just be amazed that how they would believe so faithfully, because they, most of them have a religion, but sharing the gospel made them like, whoa. So I got to spend time with not a specific patient, more like the patients in general, I got to dance with some of them. Yeah, I will say Sunday’s were like the days where I went out to the ward with my mom to see how they were doing.

Raeanne:

That is so neat. How was that for your family to be on board together? Do you feel like you got closer to your brother and your sister and your parents living in tight quarters? Or was that really hard?

Estevam:

Sometimes it was nice. Sometimes it got hard, you know, because teenagers are complicated. I mean, this is coming from a teenager. I will say I went through my hard stage back during COVID. And I did some things that I don’t think I should have done. But after that, my brother went through that phase. And because he did it, it’s different when you have a big brother, because I know what I know, some things that go through his head. So when I tried to talk to him about it, you know, he does it. And he’s like, no, go away. And so then that part was like, maybe one year of our lives where my relationship with my brother wasn’t very nice. But I mean, same to my parents, my parents loved the other shifts, they love their friends, especially my sister loved being able to walk five steps and knock on the door be like, Oh, can Michelle play? It was very nice.

Raeanne:

I know there’s a lot of opportunity for bonding moments for families and even the tough times, you know, you’re forced to work things through quickly, because you’re living together in such an intimate, close, small environment that you just got to work it out. And it’s a great opportunity to just grow closer together as a family. I know that there are a lot of opportunities for kids on board to go to youth group and to be involved with Sunday services, as you mentioned, whether they’re in the hospital at the Hope Center or on board the ship for you know, the main crew, Estevam, how do you feel like your faith has grown because of your time on board?

Estevam:

It wasn’t like a specific time, it was during a period of time. Maybe in a few months, I would say that. I saw multiple patients be able to smile for the first time and then I saw the impact that had on their lives. Then I was like, wow, God uses people to do this. I mean, we’re not perfect, but look at that. The smile on that guy’s face. He couldn’t do that before. It’s amazing how I would say well today when people say simple surgery of like removing a small tumor or stuff, or getting rid of the cataract in your eye, be able to see for the first time, I mean, God created people to do different things. My dad runs a ship, my mom teaches kids, but there are people down in the hospital, changing people’s lives. And I just see God working and that impacted me. Because God told me that I could be part of something that could change not just one, not just two, but multiple people. I was part of a movement that that was changing countries.

Raeanne:

Wow. That’s awesome.

Estevam:

And I just saw how big God is. As it wasn’t just Mercy Ships. There were many people doing this type of stuff. They were missionaries in China and Turkey. And maybe Afghanistan. I don’t know, probably. But there are really, yeah, there are people impacting everyone’s lives in different places. And I’m part of a plan to save people. I mean, imagine, I walk by the street and I share a Bible verse. And because I did that, I brought a brother to heaven. Jesus works through me to say something that’s really incredible.

Raeanne:

Absolutely. Well you know Estevam, God has uniquely gifted you, you are such a warm, personable, young man. And you are very easy to talk to always, you always have a pleasant smile on your face, and you’re very welcoming and inviting. And I know that God is going to use you to do great things for His glory, to further his kingdom. And you’re right, God uses people, God uses people to do these surgeries or people to share the love of Jesus with others to make them smile, and to give the hope. And you being a kid on board, were totally a part of that. And now that you’re home, you get to continue to be a part of God’s work just in a different environment, which is so cool.

Estevam:

I think. When I look back, I see that God prepared me for this because I got to grow up in a Christian environment where I could share the gospel easily without being questioned. Because I know everyone there knows the Lord, and has had some experience with the Lord. But now that I’ve come here, I have multiple friends that are like, oh, yeah, why is that true? Or like, oh, yeah, so I have something to stand on. I’ve got my rock. I just need to bring people from the sand and put them on the rock. I think it’s a bit more solid than here, then to die in quicksand. You know, there you go. I have a lot more opportunities to share and to ask God questions, because sometimes I’m asked something that I don’t even know about the Bible. And then God tells me it’s like, oh, yeah, I read this passage. And then I read it, it’s like, oh, that’s how you answer that question. And then I go back, and then I answered their question. And then they’re like, oh, wow, I got to just not defend my faith, but strengthen other people’s.

Raeanne:

I love that. You are wise beyond your years, my friend. Estevam, as we wrap up our time together, you kind of already answered this in some ways, but how has your experience of living on board for about seven years, how has that shaped who you are today?

Estevam:

I think growing up with a tight community, I wasn’t just friends with kids, I got to spend a lot of time with the young adults, I would say the oldest teenagers, I would say, you know, like the 20 to 25. So I got to learn a lot about being older, like having a job having and responsibility. But I also got to learn from the older people. I got some wisdom from them. So today, sometimes I give an answer to my friends questions are like, how did you learn that? How did you get so wise? And I’m like, Oh, well, I don’t know. Sometimes I think the ship allows kids to learn a lot more than just school. You learn how to interact with adults who learn how to interact with people that are not like us and you get to take in a lot of wisdom from people that have lived a lot longer than you, you learn how to be respectful. And yeah, I guess I learned a lot.

Raeanne:

Absolutely. And, you know, I think that’s a great selling point for any parents out there considering taking their kids on board. Your kids are not only going to get a great academic education, but your kids are going to gain so much wisdom from the adults that they get to interact with all the time. And it helps shape and develop them into incredible adults themselves. So Estevam, perfect. I love it. Thank you so much for sharing with us today. Welcome back to Brazil. And many blessings to you and your family as you guys continue to further the kingdom of God by being used right now in your home country.

Estevam:

Thank you so much. I hope and I pray for you guys every day that the Lord may continue to bless you.

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.