Practical Compassion
Today I want to talk about a great Christian ministry called the Mercy Ships. These hospital ships provide free live-changing surgeries and other important medical care to the most impoverished people on earth.
The Beginning
Don and Deyon Stephens founded the Mercy Ship ministry while working in Europe as missionaries with YWAM—Youth With A Mission. In 1978, the Stephens purchased an Italian cruise liner being sold for scrap. It took four years to make the ship seaworthy again. Converted into a floating hospital, she set sail under the new name Anastasis.
Anastasis means “resurrection” in Greek.
Don Stephens, his wife and four kids lived full-time on board this ship for the first 10 years.
In 2003 the Mercy Ships separated from YWAM and became a separate organization. After twenty-five years of service, Anastasis retired from service in 2007. She was sold and replaced by the Africa Mercy, which at this time is still in service.
Selling the old ships helps pay for the new ones.
The Volunteers
Everyone working on board a ship is a volunteer. They come from all over the world. So it’s truly an international ministry.
What kind of professionals do the Mercy Ships recruit? Here is a partial list;; translators, surgeons, nurses, physical therapists, electricians, mechanics, engineers, plumbers, accountants, administrative staff, cooks, cleaners, mariners, journalists, photographers, and teachers,
Every person living on the ship raises their own support and pays crew fees, which covers their room and board. The staff also pays for air travel to the ship, spending money and any required immunizations.
This means all cash donations go directly toward medical care.
Many of the Mercy Ship’s volunteer staff also function as blood donors.
Surgery and Post-Operative Care
The Mercy Ships don’t limit their care to children; adults are treated too.
But every pediatric patient must have an adult caregiver who stays aboard with their child during treatment.
Rehabilitation to help a child recover can take months. So after surgery, children remain on board the ship, receiving physical therapy, love and encouragement.
All medical treatment, such as surgery, physical therapy, vision repair, and dental. treatments are 100% free.
Other Services
The hospital ships provide a clean, safe environment for advanced surgical procedures. But the staff also provides other services to the host country,
During their time at port:
Teams travel to the villages to do medical clinics.- Some volunteers train local health care workers in improved patient care.
- They work with the host country’s government health organization.to provide new medical equipment and training for the medical professionals. The goal is to permanently improve the country’s health care.
- The Mercy Ship’s volunteers have also dug wells and built orphanages and schools.
Typically a Mercy Ship remains at one port for ten months. Afterwards it undergoes two months of maintenance and repair, before sailing to a new place.
My Spiritual Point:
This is a great ministry to invest in, whether as a volunteer or financially. They also receive donations of medical supplies from medical supply companies.
If you click on nothing else, please check out the patient and volunteer stories under Resources. The before and after patient images are inspiring.
All these images came from Pixabay.com.
Resources:
Stories of patients and volunteers on the Mercy Ships.
General Information and facts about volunteering on a Mercy Ship.
History of the Mercy Ships and what they accomplished.
