Mercy Ships is a nonprofit Christian organization that provides free health care, surgeries, community health and other programs for developing nations.
TRENDING: Dayton’s newest housing: 4 under-the-radar projects to know about
Donnelly most recently worked as the city engineer in Tipp City, where his last day will be at the end of May.
He has previous experience on Mercy Ships in the late 1990s, first as a marine engineer and then working with others teaching water sanitation skills in Gambia in West Africa. He also participated in Bible translation efforts in Indonesia before he married.
“Since that time, I thought I wasn’t going to get to go back because we had three kids,” Donnelly said of his previous Mercy Ships experiences.
In late 2016, though, he submitted an application on a lark for a ship engineering position. Although the position didn’t work out because there wasn’t room for children, another position as supply chain manager was suggested and taking children this time was possible.
TRENDING: Kroger CEO talks grocery industry, Target merger rumors
Donnelly said his wife looked at the organization and said she “loved it,” setting into motion a process that ended in his selection for the role.
The supply chain manager oversees all supplies that come and go on the ship and is part of the management team. His wife, Pam Donnelly, who has a background in education, will join him aboard with their children Jonathan, 7; Anna, 4; and Julia, 2. She also will volunteer at the ship school and in the surgery ward.
John Donnelly said the ship first will sail from the Canary Islands to a port in Cameroon, where it will spend 10 months. When the ship arrives at its destination, a stadium or large gathering place is used to assess those in need and schedule surgeries and other services.
Those serving on the ship are volunteers and fill more than 170 roles from the galley to nurses and surgeons, with their way paid, as with traditional missionary work, by friends, families and churches who support them.
TRENDING: Miamisburg police urge help with clues about missing woman
Those involved in their service don’t think about the money, he said.
“I have always had on my heart to go back to missions,” he said. “If there is something on our heart, it is clearly placed there by God and you need to seek that. When I am 85, the worst thing in world is to say, ‘I wish I would have tried that.’”
For more information on Mercy Ships, go to mercyships.org.
About the Author