Jay Swanson is currently serving aboard the Africa Mercy as the Reception Team Leader. They are docked in the Canary Islands to undergo repairs and is where they will stay until mid-August, 2012. You can see a photo Jay took of the ship in dry dock below (she looks a lot bigger out of the water). The Africa Mercy is Mercy Ships’ flag hospital ship dedicated to alleviating the suffering of Africa’s poor by providing surgeries to resolve a number of medical issues.

The Africa Mercy has 6 operating theaters where they work tirelessly to heal everything from cataracts to tumors and cleft pallets. All for free. The mission is to express Jesus’ love by following him into serving the world’s poor through surgical procedures.

I (Jay) am currently working as the Reception Team Leader on board as a part of the Purser’s department. We’re the first point of contact during most emergencies, and are responsible for mustering (gathering) the entire crew for evacuation. Basically that means I’m in charge of the ship’s reception team, training the newbies and keeping things running as smoothly as I can. It’s been a good change for me, much more social and interactive than my job as the A/V Technician.

There’s a lot of activity that happens on the ship, and we’re at the center of a lot of it. We’re open 24/7, monitoring the fire panel in particular which is the first point of contact for the ship’s emergency central nervous system.

I’m a full time volunteer with Mercy Ships and I need the support of people like you to live and work here. If you would like to do so you can always email me or click here to donate one time or on a monthly basis.

A little about Mercy Ships, from Mercy Ships’ website on their values:

“OUR VALUES
Around the world today, billions of people live in fear and desperation, with impure water, inadequate food, and little or no access to health care. Behind every statistic is a person waiting for hope and healing. Utilizing hospital ships, Mercy Ships delivers medical excellence with integrity and compassion to the world’s forgotten poor by mobilizing people and resources worldwide. Mercy Ships serves all people without regard for race, gender, or religion.

MISSION
We follow the 2000-year-old example of Jesus, bringing hope and healing to the forgotten poor.

VISION
Mercy Ships seeks to become the face of love in action, bringing hope and healing to the poor.

VALUES
Desiring to follow the example of Jesus, we seek to:

Love God
Love and serve others
Be people of integrity
Be people of excellence in all we say and do”