One of the reasons volunteers love Mercy Ships is the wonderful variety of patients we meet.  Even if your job doesn’t directly involve patients, there are opportunities to get to know them.

Chelsea Darlow is a volunteer hand therapist onboard our hospital ship. Her interest in Mercy Ships was sort of a family inheritance.

Walter Carr lives in Alabama.  He was excited about his new job at a moving company.  But then his car broke down, and it was 20 miles to work!

One elderly patient onboard our hospital ship was affectionately known as “Papa.”  So, it came as sad news that he wasn’t recovering quickly enough before the ship needed to pack up the beds and leave the country.

Over a hundred years ago in a Scottish inn, some fishermen were relaxing after a long day at sea.  A serving maid walked past, carrying a pot of tea, as a man waved his arm to describe a big fish.  His hand hit the teapot, and it crashed against the whitewashed wall, leaving an ugly brown stain.  The innkeeper was upset.

You can meet up to 450 crew members from 40 different nations on our hospital ship, the Africa Mercy.  And each one has a story!  Today I’d like you to meet Chelsea Darlow. 

In 2017 Hurricane Harvey created historic flooding in the Houston area of Texas.  Many people needed to be rescued.  So Harris County Judge Ed Emmett put out an extraordinary call.  He said the fire department, Coast Guard and police were overwhelmed.  He asked people to help their neighbors.

Our hospital ship, the Africa Mercy, went to Guinea in 2018. 

Vivien Welch is a nurse from New Zealand who serves onboard our hospital ship, the Africa Mercy. 

Dr. Jim O’Connell went to Harvard Medical School.  On the way to an oncology fellowship, he was asked to spend one year founding a new health-care program for Boston’s homeless.  That was 33 years ago!