Four of the seven members of the Moore family have headed off to Madagascar to be a part of the Africa Mercy where Ryan and Kara (middle) will work as volunteers and live alongside other volunteers from around the world to bring healing to one of the poorest ports in the world. Photo provided

By Megan Kelley
Editor
mkelley@mihomepaper.com
INDEPENDENCE TWP. — Earlier this summer, one Clarkston family made the move from suburban life to one of adventure, taking the leap to spend the next two years with Mercy Ships in Madagascar.
Mercy Ships is a charity organization that was founded in 1978 with the goal of providing hope and healing in Africa through free medical and surgical care.
“Their mission is to bring hope and healing to the world’s forgotten and poor and in the pattern of Jesus. They’ve been at this for 30-something years, where they do a lot of surgeries – they mostly do surgeries. So, each ship, they’ve got two ships in their fleet, and each ship holds several-hundred surgeons and doctors and engineers and whatnot. They literally pick the poorest ports in the world with the least access to medical care,” said Ryan Moore.
Ryan and Kara Moore have lived in Clarkston with their five children (Ezra, Levi, David, Evangeline and Selah) for over 20 years. While their three oldest have already graduated high school, their two girls and youngest children, Evangeline who is 16 and Selah who is 14, will be traveling with them to live on the ship and attend school at the private academy onboard.
While living in Clarkston, Ryan has also worked as a school counselor at Oxford Community Schools and has his degree in ministry and in both school administration and school counseling, something that will help in his role as Chaplin on the Africa Mercy.
“The position I’m taking will be Chaplain,” Ryan said. “Basically halfway between, I guess, the ship’s pastor and the ship’s counselor.”
Kara on the other hand is expecting to help out in whatever way she is needed.
“I’m gonna be the cosmetologist, the barber on board. I also might help out with the HR on-boarding role, depending on where the greater need is. So in my role, it’ll be kind of dual, I guess, but my main designation is primary caregiver for the girls,” Kara said.
For Ryan and Kara, this is a long awaited dream that they’re excited to finally experience along with their children.
“We got married in 2000 and when we first got married, we actually visited the Caribbean Mercy down in South Carolina, it was docked in Charleston at the time and we, as a young couple, with just the two of us, fell in love with the mission. We fell in love with what they do. And we were like, ‘we don’t know how we can help yet or what role we could play, but we want to sign on, we want to do this,’” Ryan said. “My faith and Kara’s faith, we kind of came to our faith independently around our late teenage years, and so when we got married, that was like a real huge shared component of who we are. And so we’re both just Christians and when we found Mercy Ships, we were like, ‘wow, this is the coolest ministry ever, and this is what we want to spend our time doing,’ we felt called to go into ministry.”
The Moores’ as a newly married couple, applied to join the mission but were unable to go when Kara became pregnant. Now, years later, they have come full circle back to the dream they once held together.
“We lived a suburban life, which was never something that we had intended to do, but we have roots in Clarkston and Waterford. Both of my parents live here and Kara’s parents live here. So, we moved back to this area, raised all of our kids in the Clarkson School District, which was wonderful because of their music program and their tech program. We seriously, we feel really blessed to be a part of Clarkson,” Ryan said.
Ryan, having recently completed his Masters of Divinity, was looking to transition into full time ministry work and when he considered what he would like to do, he was drawn right back into Mercy Ships.
“I feel like there’s things that I could pursue and hang on to that would have no value for eternity. You know, like I could pursue a better house, a better career, more money, more stuff, which ultimately has no gain. It feels like gain, but ultimately, it’s dust, it’s meaningless stuff. But when I feel like I’m working for people and can actually help change lives forever and then I see that my kids are with me and my wife; I see an eternal reward there,” Ryan said. “I feel like God is pleased with it and then I feel like my kids, I feel like it’s a good example for them to see what is of value on earth as well. And so for me, there’s a joy in being able to shift into full time ministry. There’s a joy in being able to see my kids hand in hand, working on this with me. And there’s a joy to know that lives are being changed forever, both on earth and in heaven.”
The Moore’s are enthusiastic to start this new journey with their two daughters and envision a lot of growth for their whole family.
“I think that I’m zealous for them to have a global perspective on their personalities as well. Evangeline is my 16-year-old, and Selah is 14-years-old. And Evie, she wants to be a teacher, and she wants to go into missions work, and so she’s always been interested. So, for her to live on a ship where ministry and where there’s an academy with teachers, and where all that’s happening in the real world, I think for her it’s, like, I don’t know, like career exposure,” Ryan said. “For Selah, we don’t really know what Selah is going to do, you know? She may be into getting into medical stuff. She’s very bright, and so it’ll be neat to see what she gets out of it.”
To keep in touch with the Moore’s and follow along with their journey, visit their family’s page on the Mercy Ship website at www.donate.mercyships.org/event/ms-cfp2p/account/1704060/ or https://secure.qgiv.com/event/ms-cfp2p/account/1704060/ to donate.