Beautiful Estes Park, Colorado, is a popular tourist spot. Many visitors make a point of visiting Grandma’s Mountain Cookies. When you enter the shop, you’re greeted by the delicious aroma of freshly baked cookies. You may also catch the scent of mercy.

You can find opportunities to show mercy right in your own neighborhood. Joanne Downer of Delaware submitted this story to a magazine about her mom’s kindness.

Abby Watrous made her first trip to West Africa in 2003 with a group of engineering students. They worked on a water project in a remote village. She says, “The trip lit a fire in me for using my skills as an engineer to serve people living in poverty.”

Portland, Oregon, is known for its wonderful fruit trees. Consequently, it’s hard to believe that over 16% of the state’s population struggles with hunger. Katy Kolker decided to help.

One of the Mercy Ships surgical specialties is obstetric fistula repair. Many women suffer incontinence from this childbirth injury caused by obstructed labor.

Biddy Mason was born in 1818 as a slave on a plantation in Mississippi. In 1851 her owner moved his household to California, where slavery was forbidden. So Biddy petitioned the court and won freedom for herself and her children.

Scott Temple has volunteered as a surgery nurse onboard our hospital ship five times. He wrote about one of his experiences.

Imagine combining a family get-together with an act of mercy. Each year, Karen Hanovich and her six sisters and her sister-in-law spend a long weekend together. They work on charitable projects throughout the year, and then they bring the items to the retreat.

Brittany Blake volunteers as a nurse anesthetist on our hospital ship, the Africa Mercy. At the age of 14, a crisis in her 17-year-old brother’s life set her on a course of mercy.

In January 2006, a Mercy Ships-sponsored church team worked in Honduras. One team member was Chris, a hairdresser from Michigan. She volunteered to shampoo and cut Honduran children’s hair. Some of them had head lice, and Chris was afraid she’d bring the lice back to the rest of the team.