Ben Hopkinson

Born in St.Albans England, I went to The Kings School in Harpenden and then to Oaklands College in St.Albans. I studied media and IT for 3 years.After college I decided to do a year out. Since I am a Christian I wanted to do something for God. Not being sure of what to do I looked through the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) Go manual looking for different locations to do a DTS (Discipleship Training School). This didn't help as I was just overwhelmed at the different options. I then went to church and talked to a long term YWAMer. He recommended Mercy Ships (www.merchyships.org). This is a ship based ministry which runs a number of hospital ships. He said that it is one of the best DTS's since all the good speakers enjoy going to the ship. So on that note I looked into Mercy Ships further and decided to go for it.In October 1999 I boarded the Mercy Ship Anastasis which was in South Africa at the time. I then spent the next 3 months learning more about God. The last 2 months was outreach which we then went out and applied what we had learnt.I went to the DTS expecting God would show me what he wants me to do with my life. But came away realising that God had different things in store. This was especially evident in my outreach, I was on the Cape Town team. We went with the expectation that we would be doing dramas and puppets etc.. But ended up having a prayer meeting everyday from 9am till 12pm.The outcome from the DTS was that God wanted us to spend more time in prayer rather than going out and doing stuff. After my DTS I wanted to carry on what I had learnt, but didn't want to fall back in old patterns. I decided to join Mercy Ships full time.I went to The Mercy Ships headquarters in Texas and spent 2 1/2 months working in the media department on their intranet. That was the first time I met Anisha. She was doing her DTS while I was there working. I only saw her once and she had very short hair and I didn't think twice about her. Once I had joined the ship I worked in the IT Department and then part time in the Communications doing video. Anisha joined the ship not long after me and we began to get to know each other. This came to the point at Easter 2001 when we stared going out. I then proposed to her on Jan 4th 2002.Once our 2 year commitment to Mercy Ships was over we traveled to St. Albans to plan the England wedding/blessing ceremony. Then off to the states for the proper wedding in Chicago. We married on October 5th and were 'blessed' on November 2nd. We then worked and lived in St.Albans for 2 years to just 'be married'. I worked in an accountants providing IT support an Anisha worked as a foster kids to work program coordinator. We now live in Titusville, Florida. I am attending helicopter school in preparation for work in missions with helicopters as the tool with an organisation called Helimission. www.helimission.ch