Many patients come to our hospital ship for cataract surgery, and,  afterwards, it’s time to celebrate!

Martha’s small home in Cameroon had a leaky roof.  She worked hard just to grow enough food to feed her family.  She couldn’t afford another mouth to feed.

It was hot and crowded – standing room only – on a bus that serviced Washington State University in 2003.  The bus stopped, and one women slowly boarded.  She looked frazzled and was obviously in the late days of pregnancy.  She reached up to grasp a handhold.

Volunteers can gain a better understanding of a patient by imagining life in that patient’s shoes.

William Carey was an English shoemaker who went to India in 1793 as a missionary for 41 years.  He suffered disease and debt, waited seven years for his first convert!

Carmen Yirka studied in culinary school in Canada and volunteers onboard our hospital ship in the galley. 

Many of the patients who come to our hospital ships suffer from conditions that are easily treated in the United States.

Jimmy was severely burned as a child.  Now he was 28 and homeless.  His wounds were severely infected—life-threatening, in fact.

Sixteen-year-old Jamie and her best friend Hannah were riding around in Jamie’s convertible.  But, fun turned to tragedy. 

Señor Tellez had 12 children.  Four were blind from birth by cataracts.  One day he heard that doctors on a ship were giving free eye surgeries!  He quickly loaded four of his children into a little dugout canoe and travelled down one of Mexico’s rivers to the Mercy Ship Anastasis.