reLentless Love 1: Access to Medical Care {& Link-up}

Welcome to our reLentless series and Make A Difference Monday Link-up!  If you are new to our site, you can read all about our seven week lead-up to Easter as we focus on issues, on prayer, on fasting, here. 

This first week, we are focusing on the issue of access to medical care and are highlighting Mercy Ships.

What is Mercy Ships? Mercy Ships is an organization providing floating hospitals staffed with volunteer medical professionals that bring state-of-the-art health care to developing nations. These ships are completely self-contained, so they are able to provide care to places without reliable access to clean water or the basic infrastructure needed to support a hospital.

I know of a young woman who is on her second tour with Mercy Ships.  In her previous life, Tammy worked was a pediatric nurse in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Children's Hospital in Los Angeles. The ship Tammy will be on has 68 hospital beds, making it the largest civilian hospital ship in the world.  She has served in the Republic of Congo and is now in Madagascar. She works primarily with patients after they have had face and neck surgeries, such as cleft lip/palate repair and benign tumor removal.

Their website states: "Since 1978 Mercy Ships has performed services valued at more than $1 billion, impacting more than 2.35 million people directly during more than 575 port visits in 54 developing nations and 18 developed nations . . . and still counting!"

"Every year, 6 million vulnerable children die from preventable diseases such as malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia.  One child in eight will die before age 5. The challenge is enormous, but don’t let the statistics numb you. Every number has a name, a face and a story.  And they will break your heart."

And while many of us do not have the skills or training necessary to travel to far-flung places to serve with time and talent as Tammy does, we can support organizations like Mercy Ships (and others) with donations and with prayer.

As we begin our journey toward Easter, let us focus this week on praying about access to medical care for the single mom down the street, for those continuing to quietly battle Ebola outside of the headlights and limelight, for the children Tammy cares for as they get a surgery that forever alters the course of their lives.

For those of you who would like to join us in fasting this week, we are going to fast from sweets.  If you are looking for a definition of "sweets" -- well, then, it is probably that bit of delicious sugary goodness that just popped into your mind. :)

Lord, let us never become numb to suffering around us. Let us never grow weary and decide to simply ignore whatever feels too big to handle. Reveal to each of us how we can take small steps that, when combined with the small steps of others, become tangible change. Amen.   









Make A Difference Mondays is a weekly linkup designed to encourage and inspire us to live each day on purpose—making a meaningful difference in someone’s life in even the smallest of ways. Five women regularly co-host this link-up. Read on to learn more about the vision, mission, and how to link up!
 
Mission: Our mission is to provide a consistent gathering place for like-minded women to build online connections, share inspiration, and provide mutual encouragement and accountability as we seek to live intentionally and make a difference in the lives of those around us.

Vision: Every Monday we invite bloggers to link up any blog posts that encourage women to live life on purpose, including testimonies or goals from your own life, small acts of kindness or service, creative tips or ideas for showing consideration to others — the possibilities are endless. Our objective is to use our God-given time and resources to his glory! 

Also, just a heads-up: the Make A Difference Mondays team has created a Facebook community group to stay in touch beyond the blog posts AND we also have a new #MADMlinkup group Pinterest board: Make A Difference Mondays Pinterest Board.


   

    An InLinkz Link-up