OAK HARBOR — For much of the past 17 years, Kris and Roger Nowicki have been on a mission of mercy, but not in the way most people would think.
The Oak Harbor couple has been working on hospital ships operated by Mercy Ships, a Texas-based charitable
organization. Over the years, the group has operated ships in poverty-stricken parts of the world and provide medical treatment, surgery, dental work, training, development projects and more.
The Nowickis are not doctors, dentists or even nurses. They work behind the scenes, keeping the ships running so that others may provide direct services to people in need.
Roger Nowicki, 64, and Kris, 59, returned here late last month, having worked aboard the Africa Mercy while it was docked in Durban, South Africa, for maintenance. They’d been on the ship since early September.
Roger Nowicki, who runs a small construction business in Oak Harbor, recruits and matches up volunteers such as electricians, pipefitters or welders with jobs that need to be done on the ships.
“That saves a lot of money from having to pay shipyard personnel to do it,” he said.
Kris Nowicki works in various departments such as human resources, reception or the ship’s café.
The nations they’ve visited include Nicaragua, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic in the western hemisphere; Gambia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Benin in west Africa; and the Philippines in Asia. They’ve been on ships both while patients were being helped and during maintenance phases.
“It’s exciting and it’s a lot of plain hard work,” Roger Nowicki said.
When the couple first heard about the ships, the work sounded appealing, he said.
“We wanted to serve, we wanted to do something,” Nowicki said.
The couple, who then lived in Lindale, Texas, first worked for Mercy Ships in 1994. Their children, 9, 11 and 13 at the time, went with them. Children of the volunteers are able to attend school on board the ships.
With the travel and exposure to other cultures, “they don’t just study geography, they live it,” Nowicki said.
On a ship in the Philippines, the Nowickis’ son, Brian, met the woman who would become his wife.
She was a native of Oak Harbor, and seven years ago Kris and Roger Nowicki moved here to be near their son and daughter-in-law.
“They’re just one of about 400 marriages that have resulted from these ships,” Kris Nowicki said.
The couple’s Christian faith has been a big motivator for their service on the ships, but some have questioned whether their work is true “ministering” because they’re not working directly with patients, Roger Nowicki said.
“It’s ministering to the people who come to work,” he said.
Volunteers come from many professions from all over the globe, he said.
“To see the camaraderie that takes place, the team spirit, they pull together and say, ‘Wow, I’ve never worked like this before,’ ” Nowicki said.
The relationships are big for Kris Nowicki as well.
“I’m all about people,” she said. “Rekindling relationships from around the world each time we go, and meeting new people.”
When the volunteering stints are over, Roger Nowicki said he stands on the gangway and bids other workers farewell as they leave.
“I just look at them straight in the eye and say, ‘We can’t thank you enough for coming to be part of our team.’ You actually see tears in their eyes.”
One man, a welder, told him, ” ‘I don’t want to leave,’ ” Nowicki said. ” ‘I don’t want to go back to the way the world does things.’ “
As many as 450 people volunteer on board the Africa Mercy when it’s treating patients. During this last maintenance phase, the ship had about 150 people on board, Nowicki said.
“They’re not coming for the money, they’re coming to serve,” he said.
The same has been said of the Nowickis. It’s not financially easy for the family to spend that much time volunteering, but they manage, Nowicki said.
The pastor of their Oak Harbor church, Living Word, has said that service is in the Nowickis’ DNA, according to Roger.
As long as they’re healthy and capable of making the trips, they’ll keep going.
“We can’t not go,” he said.
Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439; sheets@heraldnet.com.
About Mercy Ships
Founder: Don Stephens
Established: 1978
Based: Garden Valley, Texas (east of Dallas)
Staff: 134 paid; more than 1,200 volunteers from 40 countries
Past ships: Anastasis, Good Samaritan, Caribbean Mercy
Current ship: African Mercy (16,500-tons)
Estimated value of services: More than $834 million
People treated: 520,000 patients in village medical and dental clinics
Operations performed: 56,000, such as cleft lip and palate repair, cataract removal, straightening of crossed eyes, orthopedic and facial reconstruction.
For more information, go to www.mercyships.org.
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