Lewis has successfully founded a wonderful ministry, working with the technicians and surgeon we worked with in Togo to continue to provide free eye surgeries. He then helps these previously helpless people to learn and practice the skill of farming so they can then support themselves and their families. Here is a quick video of the people and work that continues to be done in Togo via Believe And See ministry. Bless you Lewis and your lovely fiancé, nurse Naomi.
Friday, March 21, 2014
The Work Continues
When we were on Togo with Mercy Ships two years ago we had the privilege to meet some wonderful people completely on fire for The Lord. Although I was working with the eye team while I was there I had NO IDEA that the media relations coordinator (or a similar title - sorry Lewis Swann) was working with the locals on our team to continue the work still left to be done.
Monday, February 24, 2014
Meet guest blogger Deb in Congo.
My sweet Babooh has successfully left the ship after his short visit in Congo and is on his way to Texas for yet another meeting for Mercy Ships. Busy, busy guy!
I want to share a blog post from a wonderful nurse that has been on board for several years. A lovely woman that selflessly ministers to the patients on board. Here is a recent article about her time with. Mercy Shipes. Enjoy!
Saturday, February 15, 2014
News from the front lines.
It is almost inconceivable to me that it was over two years ago that Peter and I first stepped foot on the awesome big white ship - the Africa Mercy. What a pivotal moment in our lives! This hulking boat with a its collection of characters from around the globe continues in their unified mission to show the love of Christ to the hurting folks of Africa.
Since our first trip there Peter has been appointed the International Medical Director and has made several trips back to the ship. He's gone to Guinea, Grande Canary, sailed to Congo from Tenerife and just last week flew back to Congo for some meetings on the ship.
The piece that 60 Minutes filmed while we were in Togo aired a year ago in February and again last summer. The increased awareness about the healing mission of Mercy Ships and the impact being made in west Africa increased donations by an impressive margin. So much so that the next phase of getting a new hospital ship built is actually underway!
The wonderful charity Sevenly has partnered with Mercy Ships again just recently. Both organizations were featured in a gorgeous video on Facebook's tenth anniversary just a couple of weeks ago. If you didn't see the video here is the link.
http://youtu.be/jW20wFRYPQU
And just last week a beautifully written article by one of the ship's writers was picked up by the one and only Huffington Post and you should certainly read about the heartwarming work that continues in the Congo. Article: Huffington Post Article
So, although I certainly miss not having my sweet Babooh home on Valentines Day...and the dog is driving me a bit crazy since her main love interest and chief dog walker is away, I am gratified to know that we have a small role to play blessing God's people in the Congo.
Since our first trip there Peter has been appointed the International Medical Director and has made several trips back to the ship. He's gone to Guinea, Grande Canary, sailed to Congo from Tenerife and just last week flew back to Congo for some meetings on the ship.
The piece that 60 Minutes filmed while we were in Togo aired a year ago in February and again last summer. The increased awareness about the healing mission of Mercy Ships and the impact being made in west Africa increased donations by an impressive margin. So much so that the next phase of getting a new hospital ship built is actually underway!
The wonderful charity Sevenly has partnered with Mercy Ships again just recently. Both organizations were featured in a gorgeous video on Facebook's tenth anniversary just a couple of weeks ago. If you didn't see the video here is the link.
http://youtu.be/jW20wFRYPQU
And just last week a beautifully written article by one of the ship's writers was picked up by the one and only Huffington Post and you should certainly read about the heartwarming work that continues in the Congo. Article: Huffington Post Article
So, although I certainly miss not having my sweet Babooh home on Valentines Day...and the dog is driving me a bit crazy since her main love interest and chief dog walker is away, I am gratified to know that we have a small role to play blessing God's people in the Congo.
Friday, August 16, 2013
Dr. Peter Linz: Sailing unchartered waters to provide medical care
I guess we are long overdue an update on our involvement with Mercy Ships. Guest blogger Dana Perino from Fox News has forced me out of my inactivity as now she is blogging about my hubby! Time for some catch up.
This past winter all the I's were dotted and the T's were crossed finalizing the appointment of my dear as Mercy Ships International Medical Director. Huzzah! Soon thereafter he drove off to the hinterlands of East Texas to the International Operations Center for a month long training program called "Gateway". This program provides not only background information on the history and mission of Mercy Ships but also has some discipleship training as well as real bonding exercises for the participants who will soon be heading off to Africa together.
After his month in Texas he came home but had a few follow up meetings with big wigs in Texas and many, many conference calls at home between even more big wigs in Texas and other parts of the world, including the ship.
In June Peter headed off to the ship's dry dock home in the Canary Islands with a side trip to Lisbon, Portugal to make a few presentations for Mercy Ships at the International Rotary meeting there. The meeting was great, the escape from Lisbon - not so much. Being stuck in the airport for days on end due to a general strike made Lisbon seem a bit less enticing for our intrepid traveller. After missing three connecting flights and having his luggage arrive about a week later, Peter was safely moved into his new cabin on the ship right next door to the room we occupied for five months in Togo.
After a few weeks on the ship, covering for the crew physician I made a guest appearance so that we didn't end up spending the entire summer apart. All I can say is "Wow!" The Canary Islands are beautiful! No wonder most of Europe heads there whenever they need to escape the long, dark winters or the calendar says "Hey, it's August!" I stayed for an idyllic two weeks and even got to go on a mini cruise as the ship left their maintenance berthing in Grand Canary to hang out in Tenerife waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive prior to setting sail.
We rented a car and saw a fair amount of the island, ate some fabulous Spanish food and worked hard to stay awake as late as the night owl Spaniards. The wisdom of the siesta became immediately apparent.
I left the day before the ship set sail so I was able to reconnect with some very good friends I last said good bye to Togo over a year ago.
As the ship sailed Peter would secretly go out on deck and use the satellite to determine their location and plot it on a map. Since their location needed to stay secret due to the threat of pirates he couldn't share their location but now that they are safely in their berthing it's probably OK to show the map. Or I would show the map along with all the other pictures I'd picked out to post with this entry but I can't seem to make any of them work via my iPad. New technology - new challenges. Since I'm running out of time and have an inordinate amount of things to accomplish this morning I'll just post this without the pictures. If I become more technologically savvy - or I fire up a PC I'll give it another attempt. Until then. Keep Peter in your prayers as they head into their big screening in the next few weeks as well as during his continued travels. It is rumored that he plans to make a guest appearance in San Diego next month. It's possible. Until them enjoy out guest blogger from the Fox network.
Dr. Peter Linz: Sailing unchartered waters to provide medical care
This past winter all the I's were dotted and the T's were crossed finalizing the appointment of my dear as Mercy Ships International Medical Director. Huzzah! Soon thereafter he drove off to the hinterlands of East Texas to the International Operations Center for a month long training program called "Gateway". This program provides not only background information on the history and mission of Mercy Ships but also has some discipleship training as well as real bonding exercises for the participants who will soon be heading off to Africa together.
After his month in Texas he came home but had a few follow up meetings with big wigs in Texas and many, many conference calls at home between even more big wigs in Texas and other parts of the world, including the ship.
In June Peter headed off to the ship's dry dock home in the Canary Islands with a side trip to Lisbon, Portugal to make a few presentations for Mercy Ships at the International Rotary meeting there. The meeting was great, the escape from Lisbon - not so much. Being stuck in the airport for days on end due to a general strike made Lisbon seem a bit less enticing for our intrepid traveller. After missing three connecting flights and having his luggage arrive about a week later, Peter was safely moved into his new cabin on the ship right next door to the room we occupied for five months in Togo.
After a few weeks on the ship, covering for the crew physician I made a guest appearance so that we didn't end up spending the entire summer apart. All I can say is "Wow!" The Canary Islands are beautiful! No wonder most of Europe heads there whenever they need to escape the long, dark winters or the calendar says "Hey, it's August!" I stayed for an idyllic two weeks and even got to go on a mini cruise as the ship left their maintenance berthing in Grand Canary to hang out in Tenerife waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive prior to setting sail.
We rented a car and saw a fair amount of the island, ate some fabulous Spanish food and worked hard to stay awake as late as the night owl Spaniards. The wisdom of the siesta became immediately apparent.
I left the day before the ship set sail so I was able to reconnect with some very good friends I last said good bye to Togo over a year ago.
As the ship sailed Peter would secretly go out on deck and use the satellite to determine their location and plot it on a map. Since their location needed to stay secret due to the threat of pirates he couldn't share their location but now that they are safely in their berthing it's probably OK to show the map. Or I would show the map along with all the other pictures I'd picked out to post with this entry but I can't seem to make any of them work via my iPad. New technology - new challenges. Since I'm running out of time and have an inordinate amount of things to accomplish this morning I'll just post this without the pictures. If I become more technologically savvy - or I fire up a PC I'll give it another attempt. Until then. Keep Peter in your prayers as they head into their big screening in the next few weeks as well as during his continued travels. It is rumored that he plans to make a guest appearance in San Diego next month. It's possible. Until them enjoy out guest blogger from the Fox network.
Dr. Peter Linz: Sailing unchartered waters to provide medical care
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Set those DVRs Folks! The Time Has Finally Come!!
Yeah! We are so excited to announce - and for some of you - announce again and again, that THIS SUNDAY the segment that 60 Minutes filmed at the ship in Togo last spring will finally air.
As a recap, during the time that Peter and I were in Togo with the Africa Mercy there was a passing parade of media types that descended upon the ship in the late April, early May time frame. Most notably there was the morning crew from my fav radio station - K-LOVE followed closely by a large crew of folks from 60 Minutes.
We had first heard that 60 Minutes was considering a story on the ship and the wonderful work done in Africa several months beforehand when the founder and President of the ministry, Don Stephens made a visit to the ship. What really impressed us was that as soon as soon as he mentioned that 60 Minutes was thinking of coming all the Americans on board were completely a twitter with excitement! No surprise you say? Well, what was surprising was the reaction of the non-Americans on board. Along with the American exuberance was an equally non- exuberant "meh" reaction from the rest of the ship's crew. So for the next several days we Americans attempted to explain the Sunday night ritual of many Americans that gather around the TV and watch Morley Safer et al ambush some ne'er do well CEO. then we'd have to explain why we were actually excited that this was going to happen to us. Yeah, um...no. They don't always expose the dirty under belly of organizations... So we're pretty certain that this will be a favorable piece on a ministry we love, doing God's work with the forgotten poor. Funny how cultural differences pop up when you least expect them.
Week after week we waited, wondering if they would come? We were sworn to secrecy until we knew for sure they were doing the story. During the weeks of blog writing where I had little to say it was tempting to spill the beans but we waited....
Then in late April the 60 Minutes folks sent producers and film crews for a couple of weeks to do background interviews, find interesting stories and preview patients that would be willing to be filmed during the actual shoot. After about a week or so of them crawling all over the ship and commandeering a part of the cafe with all their equipment the famous Scott Pelley showed up with his oh so handsome son. Both of them were very nice and we were extremely happy to get to meet them and share a little of our experiences on board. He was particularly happy to learn that we tape the evening news everyday and watch it without fail.
So - although the crew taped about 1200 minutes of stuff happening in and around the ship, the segment will only be about 12 minutes long so we don't expect to see ourselves except for possibly standing in line waiting to eat or something. But we are thrilled that you all will get a glimpse into the wonderful world of Mercy Ships and we pray that if the Spirit moves you to become involved with this awesome ministry that you will listen and respond.
We're certain that the Lord is still working on us in regards to Mercy Ships. In fact, Peter is at the International Operations Center right now getting training for future work with the organization. So - our prayer is that we'll see you on board some time in the future and if not. We know that you will be with us in Spirit as you always have been.
God's greatest blessings to all of you and enjoy the show!
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