Mercy Ships founders and CMU alumni help launch the world’s largest, private,
The phrase “when your ship comes in” can refer to wealth or success. For Don and Deyon Stephen it’s the latter. Their ship came in Sunday, September 12 when the hospital ship Global Mercy® arrived in Antwerp, Belgium.“It was very emotional to see this big ship dock,” said Don. Although he couldn’t attend in person, Stephens watched the fanfare virtually in real-time from western Colorado.
Don, who grew up in Olathe, Colorado, and his wife Deyon, from Grand Junction, met while attending CMU. After working with Youth With A Mission, a nondenominational Christian ministry, and visiting 100-plus countries as missionaries, the couple founded Mercy Ships in 1978.
Providing free healthcare services from its hospital ships, Mercy Ships has worked in more than 70 developing nations delivering services valued at more than $1 billion while treating more than 2.5 million people.
No longer involved in daily operations, Don is a permanent member of Mercy Ships’ board of directors.
Measuring approximately 570 feet in length, weighing 37,000 tons, with six operating rooms, 200 beds, a laboratory, general outpatient, eye and dental clinics, Global Mercy is the largest, private, hospital ship in the world. It is the first of the organization’s ships to be purposely built as a hospital ship. Four previous ships, three now retired, were purchased, used and converted.
While in Belgium, Global Mercy will be equipped and stocked. Forty-two 40-foot containers of medical, surgical, pharmacy and IT equipment will be hoisted on board and unpacked in preparation for its maiden mission to Senegal scheduled for early 2022, Don said.Global Mercy is receiving free berth and support in the port of Antwerp. The Senegalese and Egyptian governments also arranged for free passage through the Suez Canal on its journey from the Chinese shipyard where it was built to Europe.While in African ports providing needed surgical services to area residents, Mercy Ships partners with local healthcare professionals and communities.
“Every head of state I’ve ever met with has had the identical question,” Don said. “They ask ‘can you help train our doctors?’”
Many doctors in the African nations that Mercy Ships visits lack the opportunity to specialize and build surgical skills once they complete their medical degrees. Mercy Ships provides hands-on training similar to a surgical residency in the U.S.
Inspired to his life’s work by his mother’s kindness to Colorado families in need and charity he witnessed while serving as a missionary, Don has this advice for today’s students: “Dream big. Focus on your purpose. It doesn’t matter if you start in a cornfield in Olathe. What matters is where you finish.”