by Bryce and Sam Wagner
Love in Action
Mercy Ships is a love story for humans often forgotten from the rest of the world who are so much in need of medical help! Five billions of human beings do not have access to safe surgical care in the world!
Untreated cases may lead to catastrophic life situations! In the Western world, a small tumour or a cyst are immediately taken care of and removed while in developing countries, they grow until taking unthinkable proportions, sometimes larger than the size of a face, to the point of making the person suffocate. The needs are so vast. Dr Gary Parker says it so well: ‘We have understood that we cannot change the whole world but we can change the whole world of one person at a time.’ We do not only help people physically but we also help them regain their dignity, be able to dream again and imagine their future. All the Mercy Ships projects are love in action projects. This is really the basis of our life inspiration.
High quality care
Mercy Ships is not only a floating hospital and high quality medical care offered to the most destitute people but it also stands as a strengthening of local skills which means mentoring surgeons and a range of classes for the local medical staff. Our surgeons perform delicate surgeries, they work on cases which are not taught in standard programs. We implement everything so that each patient is being valued. We rehabilitate them in their whole being. They have often been stigmatized among their community because of their deformity. The belief that their condition is due to evil spirits is quite widespread. The mere fact to lay a hand on a shoulder is a love gesture, which is very revealing for many of them having not had any human contact sometimes since several years. They often start crying. We spend time communicating with them and they regain joy of living.
FascinatingMercy Ships, founded in 1978 in Lausanne by Don and Deyon Stephens, stands as a unique model with more than four hundred crewmembers paying their own plane ticket and their small accommodation on board. What is impressive on the hospital-boat is that everyone puts their ego aside to serve the people in need. It is almost surreal. Before Mercy Ships, I was not even aware that such extreme cases of tumours existed. Our goal is to help the host country raise its ability to provide medical care for its own population. We look on the spot for the local medical staff who wishes to do everything they can to help their fellow citizens in need. It is a magical thing to be able to better equip those people motivated to make a difference in their own country.
Twalzan Eden Rest
After having served as humanitarian workers during more than twenty years, we came to realize that a lot of collaborators were on the edge of a burnout. It is exhausting physically and emotionally to face the challenges linked with extreme poverty.
We then had the dream to have a house and bungalows to welcome doctors, nurses, administrators and trainers who never really take the time to breath.
Our dream is to be able to take care of those who take care of the forgotten people of our planet, to host them in a rest and regeneration centre specially adapted to their needs. Our goal is that the wind blows in their sails again so that they leave on the field in full physical and mental shape. Some years ago, a patron donated us a plot of land on a small island in the Caribbean’s, we built the first house and welcomed this summer our very first guests. Our centre is named Twalzan Eden Rest. This too is Love in Action.
But we do not need to go to Africa to do good around us! I want to encourage each person to look further than their own needs, it is not an easy thing, we all have worries but if we move our attention away from ourselves towards somebody else with some real love, we also heal ourselves. Our problems become smaller. Today, wherever we are, everyone can help the one in front of us. It is not a matter of money, it is a matter of intention, time and heart.
If you wish to help the most destitute through the action of Mercy Ships, you can:
.Talk about Mercy Ships around you.
.Enroll as a volunteer to serve on board. We are in need of a wide range of jobs to operate the hospital-boat.
.You can make a financial donation to support our surgical or skill strengthening programs.
For more information, go to www.mercyships.ch
If you wish to show a proof of love towards the collaborators who visit the rest and regeneration centre by supporting Twalzan Eden Rest, go to : www.edenrest.org
You can also contact us by phone – 076 376 53 42 – or by mail at the following address: sam@twalzan.org
