We’ve got some big news around here.
I have just accepted a position with Mercy Ships, a Christian, non-profit organization that runs the largest non-governmental hospital ship in the world. Since 1978, Mercy Ships has provided more than $1 billion in medical services for more than 2.35 million people, through approximately 575 port visits in 54 developing and 18 developed nations.
While the MV Africa Mercy is currently docked in West Africa, the organization is headquartered in Garden Valley, Texas, 30 minutes from my house.
I will be working with the doctors, nurses and laypeople who travel from all over the world to volunteer on the ship. My job is to help prepare them. The team arrives in Texas next Saturday, and while there are shorter terms of service, this group has committed a minimum of ten months. All this may send me to West Africa for a few weeks, a couple of times a year.
Yah, I’m still absorbing all that too.
Mercy Ships was featured on 60 Minutes last month and if you’ve got 12 minutes, this segment is pretty inspiring. Former U.S. Press Secretary Dana Perino spent all last week on the Africa Mercy as well. You can read her thoughts here.
Going to the Sea 
I saw this on 60 Minutes. What an amazing service they provide–and through volunteers! As I watched, I thought it would be exciting to help, and to witness the people’s lives being healed. So glad you get to be a part of this. On TV, I don’t remember them saying anything about ministering spiritually to the patients. Do you know if they do? If so, that would be doubly awesome.
Yes they do! There was a part on the 60minutes seent where they prayed over one of the patients before surgery! Awesome folks. Very excited.