The Wishing Well

This is an excerpt from The Sunday Post from Part II of the article: "Special Report into Charity's Amazing Work in African Danger Zone" by Euan Duguid. My uncle, William Martin (pictured below) is currently serving on one of the Mercy Ships right outside Monrovia, Liberia and made it into the article! This is a testament to the hell that ravishes the people over there and a call for compassion on all of God's people. And...he's my uncle so I have to gloat a little bit!

"Meanwhile, we all have to eat and mealtimes in the spacious canteen provide a chance for the crew to relax. Many of them have stories worthy of Hollywood. Bill Martin, from South Carolina, is the ship's hospital manager and newest recruit. He'd only been in charge a week but over a dinnertime chat I learned he was no stranger to pressure. He'd served as senior advisor to the Liberian health minister for three years and dealt regularly with Mercy Ships. A Vietnam veteran then health insurance professional, Bill arrived in Liberia in 1999 at the height of the civil war to serve as a hospital administrator in Phoebe Hospital in Bong County. In 1992 rebel forces came in and killed 192 patients and staff, said Bill. When I was there we evacuated twice when rebels came close. It was terrifying. Bill was also part of a team who headed into rebel-controlled regions to assess healthcare. We had a 'safe passage' letter from the secretary general of the LURD rebels, a chap called General Peanut Butter. Unfortunately there were only boy soldiers at the checkpoints. None of them could read so we had to persuade them what the letter said. The most tense time was getting into a region suffering a cholera outbreak. We had to supply test kits to a clinic but an eight-year-old boy, with a locked and loaded AK-47, was posted in front of the building with orders not to let anyone in. He'd been told he'd be shot if he disobeyed the orders but I needed to deliver the testing kits. This is the reality of war. After an hour pleading his case, stressing people could die if the kits weren't delivered, he was allowed in. He doesn't know what happened to the child soldier."