The International operations Center
I am currently staying in Garden Valley, Texas attending the Gateway program witch is a entry program designed to educate, equip and empower staff and crew for service with Mercy Ships
We have a class of 33 people from a variety of different places in the world. We have people from the UK, Holland, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Canada, Austria, the United States and Germany. We have singles, married couples, an engaged couple, and a family with two kids. So we are Quite the diverse crowd of people!
We have class monday to friday and some evenings and weekends where we go through a lot of the biblical foundations of what it really means to serve like Jesus served. Im not quite used to eight hours of sermons everyday so its been quite a challenge but God has been teaching me so much over the past couple weeks of being here!
On saturday we did a silent retreat where we went out for four hours of silence to spend with God in prayer and reflection. It was awesome to sit in the presence of God and just listen to what he had to say to me rather than me always coming to him with my wants and needs! It was truly a treasured time for me and I would recommend to anyone who wants to here from the lord. Sometimes it takes just getting out into nature, ignoring all off life's distractions and just basking in the glory of who God is!
In my time here so far at the IOC has really helped align myself with Mercy Ships goal of why we do what we do witch is: following the example of Jesus, seeking to become the face of love in action, bringing hope and healing to the world forgotten poor. Before I left to come to the IOC I was trying to see where evangelism really fits in to what Mercy Ships does, because I want to be out there saving peoples hearts with the gospel and bringing as many people to christ as we can. Mercy Ships seeks to become the face of love in action, bringing hope and healing to the poor. Jesus taught that its not enough to just speak the good news, you have to demonstrate it as well. So Mercy Ships strives to show Gods love through the the gift of a hospital ship in countries where people die everyday from lack of health care. We are truly trying to serve liked Jesus served and I m so exited to have the opportunity to be apart of this!
Im exited to be here and exited to see what the lord is going to teach me through my time of class and my time of service in the field. If you guys could keep the Mercy Ships advance team in sierra Leone in prayer they are preparing the way for the ship to arrive and they have done 2500 screenings of patients so far and have lots left to go. We are hoping to get as many done as we can so when the ship arrives we can start our surgeries right away so we can help as many people as possible in the 10 months we are in Sierra Leone!!!
Im exited to be here and exited to see what the lord is going to teach me through my time of class and my time of service in the field. If you guys could keep the Mercy Ships advance team in sierra Leone in prayer they are preparing the way for the ship to arrive and they have done 2500 screenings of patients so far and have lots left to go. We are hoping to get as many done as we can so when the ship arrives we can start our surgeries right away so we can help as many people as possible in the 10 months we are in Sierra Leone!!!
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