Karen Thorpe moved to the Cove with her husband Mike nearly two years ago and they love the village. Mike spends much of his time working as a volunteer for a world-wide organisation called YWAM which stands for Youth with a Mission.
Karen has long harboured a real desire to help people in developing countries gain access to healthcare. So she was really excited to see the YWAM PNG medical ship when it visited Newcastle last October, especially when she discovered the ship goes to Papua New Guinea. Not that far from home!
After making enquiries, Karen found out that volunteers are positively encouraged to join the ship and its crew to participate in the ship's maintenance, daily routines and the healthcare provisioning for PNG locals. There are so many tasks necessary to keep this large vessel running and volunteers are essential.
The ship is run as a charitable venture, so volunteers are required to make their own way to join it at Port Moresby. Each one pays a modest weekly charge for their own keep.
Karen applied for, and has been accepted, to go on board as a nurse for two weeks later this year. She says she must now begin the 'get fit' process as she will be required to walk to some villages from the ship with a 3kg backpack !!! She says she feels not quite ready yet (you wouldn't believe that if you saw her running around the tennis court every Friday).
So, if you see Karen striding through the Cove, possibly pushing a barrow of cement with a hod of bricks on her shoulder, you might say 'Hello' and congratulate her on her new mission
I hope we'll get a report from her on her adventures when she returns.
(The attached Word document provides more information about the MV YWAM PNG.)
Tony Hann
