The freighter Spirit of Grace will bring relief supplies to hurricane victims in Central America before it wraps up preparations for its trip to help famine victims in North Korea, a director of the relief effort said.

The change was made to allow planners more time to seek donations of fertilizer for North Korea, said Bob Farr, a director of the Christian Alliance for Humanitarian Aid, Inc., which is mounting the relief drive in close cooperation with the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM). The Alliance, in Houston, Texas, sees the fertilizer as crucial to helping the North Koreans replenish the weather-ravaged soil and grow their own food.

While Alliance officials work to find fertilizer donors, the Grace meanwhile will take supplies to victims of Hurricane Mitch in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. Mitch, one of the strongest Atlantic storms on record, slammed into Central America last October 29th to November 3rd, and wrought the worst disaster in the modern history of the hemisphere. More than 20,000 were killed and more than 1 million left homeless throughout the region.

The Grace made a similar relief run to help Mitch victims last December, bringing food, water, clothing and a small quantity of medicines, to Honduras, Farr said.

Famine has stalked North Korea after severe floods and drought devastated the country for three years, beginning in 1995. United States officials have said the famine has killed between 900,000 and 2.4 million people in North Korea in the last three years. The United Methodist Committee On Relief (UMCOR) has been aiding North Korea since 1996.

For the North Korea phase of the trip, plans call for loading the Grace with about 4 million pounds of fertilizer, along with 80,000 zip-lock plastic bags of seed, each with ten packets. The seeds have already been donated. The North Koreans can use the items to grow vegetables on small, government-issued farm plots, Farr said.

"Because of the drastic natural disasters that have occurred in North Korea, the soil has been robbed of its natural nutrients," said Farr. " As a result of that, we basically have to go in and completely replenish the soil with nutrients."

The Alliance is seeking donations of urea, potash, and phosphate, in hopes of shipping fertilizer mixed to a 21-17-17 formula, Farr said.

"We need those three elements," said Farr, "and we can use them either individually or from a fertilizer company that has already mixed a fertilizer that is somewhat similar to these formulas.

"Therefore if there are people out there who have surplus fertilizer or who would like to make a donation to a very, very, worthy cause, we could certainly use whatever they've got," Farr said.

Also aboard for North Korea will be 20,000 boxes of food, each weighing 40 pounds. In addition, 13 steel containers will be lashed to the decks, each packed with medical supplies for North Korea's provincial orphanages.

And the ship will also transport supplies and equipment for a bakery to be set up in the city of Najin, also on the country's east coast. That cargo is from the Manna Project, coordinated through the Korean Central Presbyterian Church, in Houston, Farr said.

The Grace will leave Galveston, Texas on January 24th, and unload supplies on Guatamala's east coast. It'll then pass through the Panama Canal, sail up the west coast of Central America, and discharge cargo in El Salvador, and then in Nicaragua. At each of the three countries it will off-load about 140 tons or more of supplies, equal to about seven or eight truckloads, Farr said.

The Grace will then sail for Los Angeles, arriving there around February 25th. During a two-week layover it will take on the rest of its North Korea load, including the fertilizer the Alliance is working to procure.

Sometime around March 10th it will steam out of Los Angeles, setting course for Chongjin, a 30 day's run across the North Pacific to North Korea's east coast. Its expected arrival date at Chongjin is around April 10th, Farr said.

United Methodists within the Texas Annual Conference began the relief drive and have since been joined by other Christian denominations through the Alliance.