Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Have mercy. Mercy is what this episode of Love Someone
is all about. Mercy Ships, to be more precise, giant
floating hospitals that travel to the furthest reaches of the
globe to bring medical care to some of the poorest
communities and to those most in need. For over forty years,
(00:27):
Mercy Ships has been changing lives, healing lives, saving lives,
serving as a beacon of hope. They provide free medical
procedures over one hundred thousand to date to those with
no other access to medical care, aided by volunteers in
the medical field and countless other professions who support the
(00:50):
ship's operations the galley crew, housekeeping, hospitality, administration, education, and
many many more areas. And what's really amazing is that
it is all sustained by the generosity of volunteers and donors.
Today we're going to take a deep dive into how, why,
and where these high seas adventures take place. And to
(01:14):
help me tell this tale, I'm being joined today by
Carrie Peterson, vice president of Advancement at Mercy Ships. You
have served with the organization, Kerry for how many years, well,
on and off for probably thirty three years. I took
a tenure break and I've been back for the last
twenty two years. Wow, you have been helping to bring
(01:37):
about some amazingly successful fundraising efforts by the organization. You've
held several management positions during your time there, uh in finance,
the on ship general manager. So you understand the ends
and the outs of this beautiful, beautiful organization. But before
(01:58):
we get to the adventures of our swashbuckling surgeons in
the ship's crew, we're gonna send a ship to shore
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dot com. Use the promo code Hope. Back with me
is Carrie Peterson, who has been with Mercy Ships almost
as long as Mercy Ships has been around, because they've
been around like forty years right a little, and you've
(03:51):
been on board and off board the ship, off and
on for thirty two. So you got to come on
board Mercy Ships when they were an infant, right as
they were getting started. Tell us who our Mercy Ships.
Give us the backstory and a little general overview of
this amazing, amazing ministry that I want to shout from
(04:12):
the rooftops. How proud. I am of the work carry
that you guys do. It's changed so much over the years. Um.
You know, basically we've been called to help people, and
I think the original vision came from our founder Don
Stevens when he was just a teenager having served in
(04:33):
the Caribbean after a hurricane and seeing the devastation and
getting the vision for having a ship that could come
and provide aid and deliver relief supplies. And that was
really where the dream started. It was many years later
when it actually became a reality with our first ship,
(04:55):
the Anaestosis. That would have been in seven the eight
So just as I was graduating high school, the first
ship was taking to the seas to go to the
poorest of the poor. Well it didn't start that glamorously
and actually and we graduated high school about the same time.
(05:16):
But anyways, um, now in the first ship was bought.
It was an old ocean liner that served in the
Mediterranean and it was purchased for the price of one
million dollars and converted that It took several years to
convert it and make it into something that was usable.
Back in the old days, we would have one hour
(05:40):
of power a day, where we would go and buy
a fifty gallon drum of fuel so that we could
have power for one day. And we had volunteers chipping,
rust and standing and trying to get the ship back
in shape to be of service. And that ship was
joined later by a couple of other ships, smaller ships,
(06:03):
and it served, I believe, up until when it was
replaced with the Africa Mercy, the ship that's now currently
in service one hour a day to do all the work. Yeah,
and if we had more time. There are so many
other stories of having no heat or having no air
(06:23):
conditioning in Africa and all the wonderful hardships that we
had um and I really say that fondly because it
was so many challenges, but it was a community of
people that were we're called to be there to serve others,
and we met the challenges together and it was it
(06:46):
was just a wonderful time of community while we were
able to serve so many other people. And now tell
me what Mercy ships looks like. So Africa Mercy replaced
the Anastosis back into only twelve and it has been
serving in Africa. We have a crew of about four
(07:07):
hundred and fifty people that's people from all walks of life,
over forty different nations of crew that come and give
themselves to volunteers. Some of them come for years, some
of them come for months. We have teachers and engineers,
and doctors and nurses and cooks, um We have an
(07:27):
onboard academy for the families, for the children of the
families so that they can go to school and the
families can stay together as part of the community. And
currently we are preparing to go back after COVID into
Senegal starting in January of two and we are just
(07:48):
so excited about being back doing what God has called
us to do. So I know that you do amazing
things on the ship, but I did not know until
this past year when we started kind of working together
the amazing things you do off the ship, which blew
my mind because I think a lot of times when
(08:11):
people go into a community and do good and then leave,
sometimes it leaves a void. But what Mercy Ships does
is you go into the community wherever you dock, and
you set up clinics, and you teach the doctors and
the nurses, and you work with the local population so
that when your ship pulls out of port, the community
(08:34):
is not just got healthier people who had surgeries or
who had medical treatment, but the whole community is empowered. Yeah,
that's that's one of the amazing things about the model
that we have, and we've been doing that for years,
and honestly, for all of the bad that COVID has
brought us, they're one of the blessings that it's really
(08:57):
allowed us to focus in on finding new ways to
expand that. So as during the season where the ship
has not been able to serve in Africa, we still
are able to find new and innovative ways to continue
to help even more people on the ground. And I
think that model is going to continue in years to come,
(09:18):
so not only using the ship and all its resources
and the training facilities, but you know, finding new ways
to train even when the ship before the ship gets there,
after the ship leaves. And as you know, we have
a new ship, the Global Mercy, that we should be
taking delivery of in the next sixty days, and that
(09:39):
ship we got to design that from the ground up.
Our other ships have all been refit for other uses,
but this one we were able to design using all
the experience we've had for the last forty years. In
how to build a functioning hospital, but even more important,
this one is built for training. We have simulation labs
(10:02):
and training rooms, and that ours are designed so that
we can be training local physicians and surgeons, so that
long after we go, people are still receiving the help
that they so desperately need. Carrie, tell our listeners how you, personally,
more than thirty years ago, got involved with mercyships and
(10:27):
why you keep coming back. Well, that's a complicated story
because when I first joined, I was in the middle
of my college experience and kind of a workaholic and
was getting burned out between my work and going to school,
more work than going to school, and I needed to
(10:50):
take a break. And I had known Don Stevens, the founder,
from several years before, and I asked if I could
come and join, And I flew down to New Zealand
and joined the ship down there, served with them for
a little while. I think it was while I was single,
and then I met my wife back home and she
(11:12):
moved on board. We had our first son on board,
so we served for a couple of years and then
I left. I kind of finished my schooling and took
a job consulting for ten years, and why I came
back was simply because I knew that I knew that,
I knew that this is what God wanted me to do,
(11:32):
and that's why I'm still here today. And how many
surgeries I mean, I know because of COVID it changed,
But how many surgeries does the Mercy Ship typically do
in a ten month time in a country? Well, I
believe it's just over a thousand. So um I see,
(11:53):
before COVID we had mentored a hundred and fifty healthcare professionals.
There were a little over eighteen hundred surgical procedures, so
some people have more than one procedure, but so it's
probably about a thousand, little over a thousand patients. So
we also trained about a little over twelve people in
(12:14):
UM essential pain management, safe surgery, primary trauma care, anesthelia procedures,
things like that. So that's part of our overall commitment.
When we leave, we want the health care infrastructure to
be so much stronger than before we got there. I
think that's one of the things I love most, Carrie,
(12:34):
is that you're you're not just going into a community
or going into a country and doing good and leaving
you're going in and changing lives and changing the whole
healthcare paradigm. So even after you leave, you're still there.
You're still impacting lives. You're still changing lives. You're still
saving lives and blessing people and making communities stronger. Well,
(12:57):
that is what we're called to do, alright, Arry, Now
that we have a better understanding of what Mercy Ships
is all about and how you got started, I'm going
to share some incredible conversations here that I've had with
a few of your volunteers. Their stories are amazing. So
right now, let's listen to Rayanne. Rayanne share her story
(13:20):
of why she chose Mercy Ships, she and her family
and how that has changed the trajectory of their lives.
Drane and her family joined Mercy Ships, I believe ran
in the summer of twenty nineteen. Yes, that's correct. And
how many of you went to live on the ship?
Was it just you or was it the whole family?
(13:42):
Our whole family went. We have three children, a son
who is twelve, and we have twin daughters who will
be fifteen in April. And your hobby went with what
was your role on the ship and what was his
so my husband was hired to be a chaplain on
the ship, and when I first arrived, my role is
(14:03):
the primary airgiver, so I had to make sure my
children were taking care of first, and after that I
worked in the communications department as the creative coordinator. But
really my passion was to also do chaplaincy work with
my husband, and come March of I was able to
(14:24):
transfer over into the chaplaincy department and that's where I
served for the rest of our time. And how long
were you on board the ship? Not even an entire
year because of the pandemic, So what what did you
have to go through? What did you and Roger and
the three kids go through in order to be a
part of Mercy Ships for that year. Well, it was
(14:46):
actually quite a long process. My husband started researching it
for quite some time and he applied for his position
and I want to say November of and then it
was just a long process of interviews, background checks, references,
(15:08):
and one of the hiccups was trying to find a
space on the ship for our whole family to live in.
What was how he doing that? He could just just say, oh,
by the way, I want to go live on a ship.
With my family. He was in law enforcement for almost
twenty years and decided that he wanted to retire and
(15:28):
perhaps go back into full time ministry, which he was
doing prior to being with the police department, and he did.
He tired from his job when we knew that we
hadn't offer for Mercy ships. Tell me how this impacted
your children. Our kids are incredible and they are total troopers.
They all were in we went. Definitely the first couple
(15:52):
of weeks, if not the first couple of months, there
were lots of tears at night. You know, we miss
our home, we miss our friends. It was difficult, but
I told them, isn't it ironic? One when we left
the ship, there was far more tears and they were
devastated that we had to leave. They did not want
(16:12):
to go, and they were radically impacted by this experience,
mostly because their worldview was blown up, and not just
because they were living in West Africa, but more so
because we were living in a global community on the ship,
where there's people from over forty different countries in the
(16:34):
world living on the ship together. So their eyes were opened.
So do you have a favorite story, something that just
blew your mind? Maybe with one of the patients, with
yourself or one of the kids, or or your hobby.
What an amazing opportunity to be a pastor to people
from over forty countries. Oh my goodness. I have so
(16:58):
many stories that I share with you, but I think
the one that really impacted me deeply was was March fourteenth,
twenty when the ship went into lockdown and we were
told that we were gonna conclude operations as soon as
possible to be able to leave sent Ugal quickly, and
(17:22):
Mercy Ships employees over two hundred of the local people
to work on the ship while we're in country. Whe
We call them day crew, and they are essential. There
are translators, They help in the engine room, in the galley,
in the hospital. They're very essential. But because we were
going into lockdown, we couldn't have those day crew going
(17:43):
home to their families at night and then coming back
to the ship and risking any infections. So we asked
over seventy of the day crew if they would stay
in isolation with us, not returned to their home, and
help us pack up until we were able to leave.
Surprisingly enough, all of them said yes, and a couple
(18:04):
of days later we were down on the docks saying
goodbye to some of the crew that were flying back
to their home countries. And I looked you up and
I saw this one Senegalese man. His name is Mamballa,
and he was one of our security guards who stood
at the gate of our dock leading into the port
to make sure we were safe. He monitored who came
(18:25):
in and who came out. My daughters had got to
know Mamballa a little bit because they would take the
trash out each week for the academy and they had
to go out into the court to do that, and
so Mamballa would open the gate for them. And when
we would leave to go into town to have dinner,
and we would speak with Mambala. And on this day
I saw him and I walked over to him and
(18:48):
I had tears in my eyes, and I said, Mamballa,
thank you so much for staying with us, thank you
for helping us and staying for lockdown. And he looked
at me and he said, oh, mom, you are my family.
We are together. Of course I'll stay. And I was
so impacted by this sentiment. And I learned that in Senegal,
(19:15):
in their native language of wool Off. There is a
phrase called Nokia book. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing
that correctly, but it means we are together. And this
is really a lifestyle for the Senegalese people, and I
learned later that it's not really just unique to Senegal,
but it's really the continent of Africa and the people.
They believe that the whole is more important than the individual,
(19:40):
and so it was really powerful for me to see
someone sacrifice being with their family, the comfort of their
own home and their bed and their food to lock
down with us. And definitely, I think being in a
culture that's very individualistic, like the one I grew up in,
it just really impacted me and convicted me. Made me
(20:00):
feel that I want to live my life considering other
people as more important than myself, and I want to
raise my children in such a way that they look
at looks at others as more important than themselves and
live their lives in a way that is self sacrificing
like this man did and several of the other son
Agal people did for us. I love that. It was
(20:22):
amazing because Mumballa told me, he said, I will be
here until you leave. And I have a video and
a picture when our ship pulled away from the dock.
The dock was completely empty and the only person that
was there was Mumballa waving goodbye to us. M h
and how soon before you go back? We'll go back
(20:43):
as soon as we can. So I was going to
say that I saw the project that you do. Is
that our Point Hope, Point Hope, And we're hoping that
we can team up with Mercy Ships because as you know,
not only do they you know, they poured at different
places in developing countries, but they teach the local doctors
and nurses so that the work they do is sustainable
(21:05):
and continues on after the ship pulls out of port.
And we are so hoping that Point Hope can team
up with Mercy Ships for some of that wonderful training
and that goodness that they impart on the not just
not just you know, the people that come on board
the ship, but they impart goodness on the whole community forever. Yeah. Absolutely,
(21:29):
Oh that would be wonderful, It would be great. So
that's what we're hoping for. But I just love what
Mercy Ships and what they do, what they've done for decades.
I I know several people who have been a part
of it and who have traveled with them and who
have made the two year commitment, and they all say,
I am such a much better person, a different person
because of what Mercy Ships in that community on board
(21:52):
the ship brought into my life. So so proud of
you guys. Well, thank you. It was it was such
a privilege and that And honestly say, for the last
ten months that we have been off the ship, my
husband and I have been grieving. There is not a
day that goes by that we don't more in that experience.
And they're so devastated that it ended short for us. Well,
(22:15):
God's got a plan, that is for sure. He wouldn't
have broached it back early if he didn't have a plan. So, um,
I've got your number and we're going to be in touch. Wonderful. Well,
thank you, I'll talk to you soon, honey, God bless you,
Thank you you too, Thank you, Rayanne. Now we're going
to spend a little bit of time getting to know
Marta and we're going to find out how Mercy Ships
(22:39):
has helped Marta and how Marta has helped Mercy Ships
and one very special special patient in particular, Hi, this
is Marta. Hi Marta, this is Delilah. Thank you for
agreeing to spend a little time talking about Mercy Ships
with us. Oh my goodness, it is such an honor.
(22:59):
I just I can't leave. I was even asked, so,
how old were you, Martha when you decided to be
a part of Mercy Ships. So when I was back
in high school and thinking about being a nurse, my
dad had kind of heard about Mercy Ships and he said,
you know, there are lots of opportunities for missions, and
so there's even a floating hospital out there. And I
was like, what, that sounds so cool. And so that's
(23:20):
when I first heard about Mercy Ships and kind of
kept it in the back of my head. Right around
after I had been working as a nurse for two years,
sixty Minutes did a special on the Mercy Ships, and um,
I remember watching that with my mom and just bawling,
and I just knew, like, this is something that I
need to do. So it was actually that night I
(23:42):
printed the application and started the process, and then it
was about a year from then when I actually landed
on the ship. How long was the stint that you did?
How long did you volunteer for Yeah, it was about
seven months, so it was long enough that I had
to quit my job and I really wanted to be
on the ship from the start field service to the end.
(24:05):
And that year was the first year in Mada Gascar,
so it was a seven months spent. Was it transformative, Yeah, Delilah,
it absolutely was. I really wanted to make a difference
in love people. I was going to say, tell me
about some Bonni. Yeah, he is the one patient for
my time there that stands out the most. He arrived
(24:26):
with a I think it ended up being a sixteen
pound tumor on his base, and he was so weak
he actually had to be carried for the whole journey.
He lived. He loved way out in the boonies, like
there were no roads they had. His grandson carried him
for two days just to get to a road so
they could ride a bus to the ship. The surgery
(24:46):
was risky just because the tumor was so huge and
his body was so so weak. So you know that
doctor talks about, you know this this kind of a
life threatening surgery. Are you sure you want to do this?
And he said, like, I feel like I'm dead inside
already from this tumor. It's worth the risk for me
and I want to get this tumor removed. And so
(25:08):
he went in for surgery and I think it was
it was an all day surgery and he ended up
meeting ten or eleven units of blood. It was amazing.
I went out to dinner with some friends that night
while he was having a surgery. And when I came back,
I was walking up the steps into the ship and
somebody yelled down the ramp at me, Marta. Some bunnies
in surgery and he needs your blood. And I was like, what,
(25:31):
Like they had run out of the units that they
had stored for him, and so they were asking all
the other A positive people to go um, don't get
their blood. And so I went down into the lab
and they drew it right away, and I mean they
didn't even put it on a cooler. They took it
right into the O R and gave it to him.
And then this is the coolest part, Delilah. I went
(25:53):
to bed that night um praying for him and wasn't
I mean, I didn't know if he was going to
make it through surgery. And woke up in the morning
for my seven am shift and I walked in and
he was my patient for the day. I got to
take care of him. And um, when I went in
for my shift, he was still to date it and
on the ventilator, and I got to be the person
to hold the mirror for him to see his face
(26:15):
for the first time after that tumor was removed. And
I just remember him laughing, like he looked at himself
and he just laughed and he took his hand like
kind of trying to touch where the tumor used to be,
like not he wasn't used to having that face anymore.
And um, yeah, he was just so so excited, and
(26:35):
we were all crying, God, let you form this relationship
before the surgery with somebody. Then he let you donate
your own blood to save his life. And you got
to be the nurse on duty when the big reveal,
when he got to see himself afterwards. How cool is that?
(26:57):
It's just amazing. I would love to go back someday.
All right, God bless you Han, you too, Delilah. And
now we're going to talk to Nate, a young man
who is so excited. You can feel the excitement in
his voice in his stories and his love for Mercy Ships. Hi, Delilah,
(27:22):
tell me how you got started in this why Mercy Ships?
How old were you when did you first say, yeah,
I want to be a part of this. Well, it
actually goes back Oh gosh, if I think about it,
eighteen years ago, when I was eighteen years old. So
I first introduced to Merseyships during a gap here, so
(27:42):
at high school, not just not quite clear on where
I wanted to go, what direction I wanted ahead in
terms of a professional career. So I took a gap
here and most of that year I spent volunteering with
Mercy Ships. So I wasn't yet a medical professional, but
you know, a lot of opportunities for people outside of
the medical profession in Mercy Ships. So I volunteered at
(28:06):
that point that was in two thousand three, and really
just got my kind of not my first exposure to
healthcare in developing worlds, but it really was one of
the significant seeds that was planted in my mind about
healthcare being a tangible way to help people that are
suffering or that are in need. Okay, so you started
at eighteen. How long did you spend during your first stint?
(28:30):
I think it was about five and a half six
months something like that, and part of that was spent
on the ground in in Sierra Leone, which is a
country in West Africa. So the ship at that time
was sailed around a lot more than it does now.
We were in Sierra Leone, and so really good experience
for me to learn about about how our patients live essentially,
(28:53):
um and that would prove to be very valuable for
me in the future when I went on to work
on our patient selection team and as a nurse and
awards and other roles that I've had with the organization.
So you came back, he decided to go to school,
and what is your degree in? So, yeah, I've eventually
found my way into nursing. So I have a bachelor's
(29:14):
in science and nursing. And actually during nursing school, went
back to the ship and volunteered for a summer in
nursing school just to keep I guess my eyes on
the prize about what got me interested in nursing in
the first place. Um, And it did just that. And
then I finished nursing school and worked for several years,
(29:36):
almost five years in a burn intensive carrying it in
California before going back to the ship finally as a
nurse in two thousand and twelve, and I've mostly been
a full time with mercery ships ever since two thousand twelves.
Tell me, mate, one story, if you can can narrow
a town to one, one experience, one story that you've
(29:58):
had over the last eighteen years that was life changing,
Like when I first went to West Africa. I was
changed on a cellular level. My d n A was
changed after I went on my first trip to Ghana. Um,
tell me something that happened that you knew that you
knew that you knew that this was the path that
(30:21):
God wanted you on. Well, I think the one that
comes to mind for me was it happened? I think
it was two thousand and fifteen. Ship was docked in
a port and Madagascar, and we happened to be there
for two years in a row, which is unusual for us,
But that was because the Ebola crisis was happening in
West Africa, which we're just not quite well equipped for
(30:44):
on our ship. So we were in Madagascar and I
was on our Patients Selecting team at that time, which
is the team that comes up with the strategy and
then is responsible essentially to implement that strategy to recruit
the patients that we do surgery for on the ship.
And we raveled all around the country of Madagascar, which
is beautiful by the way, and we went to this
(31:05):
town about the highest bio diversity in the world by
the way, absolutely beautiful. Yeah. So we we took this
trip to this town kind of across the island actually,
and we were there for two days holding a big
pit and selection event which is just open to the public.
Usually we would hold them at a hospital and just
streams and streams that people would come to see us
(31:25):
to see if there was something that we could do
to help them. So, um, hundreds, if not thousands of
people kind of come to these events, and this is
the first time that they interact with Mercy Ships, and
we're essentially doing kind of some triage and figuring out
if there if we can help them on the ship.
And so we were there for two days. It was
a very busy two days. But on the second day
(31:47):
I was the one doing the pre screen, so doing
the very initial yes no, and the line had finally
wound down and it was sort of just people were
coming in in a trickle and um, I saw this
woman coming towards me down the home, and as she
got closer, I realized that she was holding a little
child in her arms. And they got closer and then
right in front of me, and this little child didn't
(32:10):
have a shirt on, and there was just something kind
of covering her neck and her upper torso and her
upper arm. And as she began to talk, she explained
that the child, who was about three years old, had
been burned in an accidental skull burn in the kitchen
about five months prior. So oddly enough, what I was
looking at was a burn, but I didn't quite recognize
(32:31):
it as such because it was had been untreated for
that long, and so all my years in a burning,
I had never really seen something quite like that, but
this was highly infected. She was obviously in pain. She
looked very frail, and to me it looked like she
had lost weight I had assumed. She just looked very
thin and very unhappy. And the mother explained what was
(32:53):
going on. They hadn't been able to find care for her.
And this is all happening in my heart sinking, because um,
we have certain inclusion and exclusion criteria and a certain
set of kind of a scope of practice that we
have on the ship, whereas you know, not like a
Level one trauma center in the in the States, because
we don't have all the specialists, we don't have all
(33:14):
the equipment needed for every kind of condition um and
and this type of burn is not something that's with
normally within our scope of practice. So my heart sank
and I was holding back tears and let out some
size because I was trying to figure out how to
convey to this woman that we weren't going to be
able to help her, which was going to be devastating
for all of us. And so I just kept pausing.
(33:36):
I couldn't figure and figure out how to formulate the words,
and finally I went to one of my colleagues and said,
I know this is outside of our scope of practice,
but we need to call back to the ship and
ask for an exception. And she agreed, and we called
back and we got we fortunately got a positive answer,
and they said, yes, bring her to the ship and
we'll see if there's anything that we can do. So
(33:56):
I got to go back to the mom and relay
that to her and she was very excited, but they
wanted to chat it over with the family, which they did,
but at the end of the day they decided um,
they said yes, and we asked them to come back
with us the next day to the ship because she
really needed pretty urgent attention, and she met the medical
teams on the ship got the care that she needed.
(34:17):
She she really needed surgical debreement under general anesthesia for
this burn because it was so it was beyond just uh,
you know, cleaning up like you would have burned it
might happen at home. And we gave her all the
nutrition that she needed, got her all tuned up, and
then a couple of weeks later she got a skin
graft and soon enough she was kind of bouncing on
(34:38):
the halls of the hospital, a plump and healthy three
year old child again. And the story normally stops there
for for most of our experiences in merceryships because we
don't get to follow up long term with our patients
in a lot of instances. But as I mentioned, we
were in Madagascar two years in a row, and so
(34:59):
the occurred in the first year. The second year we
were there, we went back to this very same town.
We did a two day patient selection event very similar
to what we did the year before at a very
similar time of day. On the second day, I was
out pre screening and lo and behold, mom and daughter
came walking down the same corridor, but this time she
(35:20):
was not held in her mom's arms. She was almost
skipping along beside her. And they huge smiles on their
faces too, to basically say hi and to say thank
you for what you have done. I'm just sitting here
crying picturing this with you, and uh, we just had
(35:41):
hugs and smiles all around. And then they invited us
over to their their house to meet the family after
our work day was done, and we we had taken
orange soda and just celebrated. But yeah, it was one
of the most special experiences of my life that I'll
never forget. Oh my gosh, there's a there's a chance
she may have died if it was left untreated. She
(36:03):
was she was really that sick, um, and she could
have died from stepsis or something like that. But at
the very least without treatment, she would have been quite disabled,
um and limited in her range of motion and things
like that. So um, it's just an amazing privilege to
be part of her story and to get to share
(36:23):
that with her. I hang on to that story a
lot when I'm having down days where I'm discouraged about
things that we're working on and challenges that we're facing.
So uh, it's stories like that that that keep me
going and there, and there's just hundreds, if not thousands
more like that. Um. We're we're so lucky in this
organization because we get to see pretty quick results from
the work that we put in. So UM, I know
(36:45):
there's a lot of other development work out there that's
equally as important, but they don't get that quite as
immediate feedback as we do. So I feel I feel
spoiled in that regard. Well, thank you for taking time
Nate to talk with us, thank you for being with
c ships. Mostly thank you for having such a tender heart,
(37:06):
you know, such a such a beautiful heart, that that's
your priority is blessing and touching and healing and loving
because it's it's easy to talk about love as a concept,
It's easy to talk about love as an emotion or
a feeling. But what mercyships does is they truly show
love in a tangible, life changing way. Yeah, you're exactly right,
(37:30):
and that's that's one of the major things that I'm
drawn to about this work is how practical and tangible
it is. I mean that links back to really my
age and year old experiences. I saw that. I saw that,
and I was drawn to that. And again, I I
have nothing really other than just a posture of gratitude
that I get to be a part of this because
I'm I feel a part of a whole thing. It's
(37:53):
not it's certainly not a individual thing, but yeah, gratitude
is my overall response. Carry you know, I cried when
I really did. I cried when I talked to each
of these amazing volunteers when we connected and they shared
their heart, and I cry every time I listened to them.
These stories helped me to visualize how absolutely life changing,
(38:17):
not just for the patients, not just for the very
very poor people in the communities that you are empowering,
but for the volunteers that are on board the ships
and how their lives are impacted. Yeah. So, as I
told you, as we talked about before, we have some
amazing people who are called together to be a part
(38:41):
of this wonderful work that we're so privileged to be
a part of. I think that as I look back
on all these years and all the amazing transformations that
I've seen, and I have my own stories of of people, individuals,
pays that have really touched my heart and changed my life.
(39:06):
But when I really look back at it, and people
have asked me before about all these wonderful people that
we get to serve and things like that, and why
why I'm called here, And it would be great to
say it's so I could help all these people, but
I really believe it's because God wanted to change me
(39:29):
and do it work in my life. And I see
the impact of working with the volunteers, and that's what
they say over and over again as I talked to them,
and I know it's true in my own life as well,
that being able to serve and to help other people
has been more of a benefit to me than it
(39:49):
probably has been to them. As I just see all
of the good and form the relationships. I want to
get a little more information carried before I let you go,
but I need to star up here for a moment
and say a few words about one of our podcast sponsors,
this episode's podcast sponsor, without whom we wouldn't be able
to share this great news and the good works of
(40:11):
Mercy Ships. Want in on a secret of keeping your
kids busy with a fun project from Annie's Young Woodworkers
kit Club, the sponsor of this podcast. Now, what they
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kids creativity. They're able to build something they'll be proud of.
(40:33):
Every month, Annie sends you the supplies, the instructions, even
the tools. When you sit down and help your kids
put the project together, it's a fun time, a bonding time,
and the pride and sense of accomplishment that comes with
mastering real world building skills goes a long way. The
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Young Woodworkers Kit Club is designed for children seven to
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to pass on a love for woodworking. Visit young woodworkers
dot com slash love for off. That's Young Woodworkers dot
com slash love for off. Alright, Carrie, it's your turn again.
(41:19):
Before I let you go, please let our listeners have
all the information they need so that they can contact
you and get involved with Mercy Ships. It takes all kinds,
you know. We have teachers, we have cooks, engineers. We
need all kinds to join together to be part of
(41:39):
this global community. Of people with a heart to serve others.
And it's not hard. We've got a new ship coming.
We need volunteers, we need support, we need people to pray,
we need people to give, We need people to go.
And it's quite simple that can just go to Mercy
Ships dot org slash love and they're on the website.
(42:02):
They'll be able to see how they might want to
be a part. Pray, give, go first and foremost. We
need to be in prayer that God would just have
his hand upon the Mercy Ships and everybody involved. Give
if you can donate, you know it's not cheap running
a floating hospital. And go if you can volunteer, if
(42:24):
you're an electrician and engineer, a plumber, pastor a teacher,
somebody that can can wash sheets, whatever it is. I
know that there is a place for you to be
a blessing to others. Yea, and in the blessing will
be theirs and ours. Carrie, it was awesome for you
to join me. We're trying our best. I'm trying my
(42:46):
best every day on the show to get the word
out about Mercy Ships. The work they do, it is
almost incomprehensible until I went to West Africa. Myself, I
had no idea the disparity between what we have access
to and what a large part of the world's population
(43:06):
has no access to. The volunteers brought it to life
for us. Talked about how rewarding serving aboard one of
these floating hospitals can be. Um if you, my listener,
if you have some time and a skill that you
can share. As Carry said, they need volunteers of all kinds,
not just medical professionals. If you're inspired by the Mercy
(43:29):
Ships story, maybe you're a photographer, Maybe you want to
do videos, maybe I don't know, maybe you want to cook.
There are just so many ways you can help, and
of course donations are desperately needed, especially as this new
ship comes online. Your prayers, your blessings are the most important.
(43:50):
If you want information, as Carry said, visit Mercy Ships
dot org. Mercy Ships dot org. You'll find all the information.
You can fill out the forms, you can get involved
in any way you wish. Thank you for joining me
here on Love Someone. We have a new podcast the
second and fourth Tuesday of each month, and of course
(44:12):
join me on the air live every night. Carrie Lord,
bless you, Thank you, Jolilah, it's been wonderful talking to you.