Staff writer Michelle de Carion blogs from aboard the Ruth Bell, a medical boat staffed with volunteers from World Medical Mission that brings care to isolated communities in Bolivia’s Amazon Basin.

It’s 7 p.m. in Beni, Bolivia, and I have about three more hours before Captain Manuel shuts off the generator and I have to write by flashlight. I’m not sure if the humming I hear is the engine, the fan whirring in the corner, or the insects buzzing outside my window.

Like the rest of the crew and passengers on the Ruth Bell River Boat, I am staying in an 8 feet by 12 feet cabin where there is a bunk bed, a 4-shelf bookcase, and a very tiny chair and desk. White mosquito nets hang around our beds so that we don’t end up sleeping with more roommates than we had planned.

The shipmate sharing the cabin for the week is Sandy DeWitt, a nurse from Fountain Inn, South Carolina. She served with us in Haiti during the height of the cholera epidemic. Right now she is taking a bucket shower downstairs. You have to give up just a few comforts of home when you are in the middle of the Amazon Basin.

From the moment I “walked the plank” onto the boat, my experience has been both magical and sad. Magical because of the incredible beauty of the Mamoré River. Sad because of the suffering we are seeing among the people who live there.

The communities along the river are completely isolated. Because of the fragile nature of the land, they do not have a permanent dwelling place. Many of them have multiple homes, but unlike those in the United States who do it for a pleasant vacation during the winter months, these families have no choice. Half of the year their homes are completely under water due to the rainy season.




Samaritan’s Purse built the medical boat to reach the unreachable, and named it in honor of Ruth Graham and her passion for missions. Most of the people we are meeting have never seen a doctor or held a copy of the Bible in their hands.

Every morning, before the five World Medical Mission doctors and nurses start meeting with patients, we have devotions in the comadore on the first floor of the boat. Yesterday morning, Sergio, a doctor from La Paz who is stationed on the Ruth Bell, taught from John 5 on the lame man at the Pool of Bethesda.

“Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

One particular part of the passage stood out. The lame man had been waiting at the pool for 38 years. No one was willing to reach out to him and put him into the water to be healed. He felt forgotten, neglected, unloved.

But Jesus saw him. He picked him out of the crowd and healed him physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.




God has given us an incredible opportunity, through the Ruth Bell, to show God’s love to people like ones at the pool of Bethesda. They are desperate for healing and thirsty for the living water that only Jesus can give.

When I look out onto the river and see glimmers of gold rippling off the waves under the sunset, when I look into the feverish eyes of children, when I shake muddy hands that have been fishing for a catch all day, I know God’s love will never end.

It goes deep into the Amazon jungles, it hovers over the waters of the Mamoré, it washes boldly onto muddy shores where worried mothers, distant fathers, and crying children have never seen or heard of the love of Jesus.

Country Director Tom Mangham blogs from Mongolia.

In the ministries of Samaritan’s Purse, field workers often come face to face with immense human suffering. Certainly there is suffering in every part of the world, but the nature and intensity is very different from place to place.

In Mongolia, the nature of the suffering we face in our work often comes in the form of poverty, broken homes, and unspeakable abuse taking place within families. Mongolian people often suffer with and die from illnesses and conditions that are readily treated in the West. There is widespread substance abuse and hopelessness here as well as deep spiritual oppression.

I met a young mother living in the ger districts, which are shantytowns surrounding the capital of Ulaan bataar. Her family of five lives on less than $2 a day in a tiny rundown shack no more than 10ft by 8ft. In the long winters, more than 70 percent of their income goes to buying coal to heat the home.

When I asked what her hope was for the future, she answered that she dreamed that one day she could afford to send her young children to school so that they might have a chance at a better future, but she did not think that this would ever happen.

When faced with suffering, people of faith are forced to ask where a loving God is in these circumstances. Believers in Christ need to reconcile what the Bible teaches about the character of God and the reality of human misery we see all around the world.

In the book of Job, we find a narrative that asks many of the big questions about pain and despair: Why do terrible things happen to good people? How do we cope with it, and where is God in it?

The answers are not necessarily what we want to hear, nor are they easy and straightforward; however, we are given certain truths and assurances. We are told that God is still sovereign, that He still cares, and that His will is still being accomplished though we cannot understand it in the moment.

We are also told that no matter how terrible things get, there is still hope available as these circumstances are not beyond God’s redemption. In the lowest part of Job’s agony, he is still able to say the words: “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth.” – Job 19:25

Karina Petersen reports from the Disaster Relief Volunteer Retreat.

It’s been one disaster after another. In the last two months alone, deadly tornadoes struck southwest Missouri, Alabama and eastern North Carolina. Earlier this year, there was flooding in New Jersey.

Each time, the U.S. Disaster Relief arm of Samaritan’s Purse responded with staff, equipment, and most of all, volunteers.

As the disasters have increased, so have the volunteers. Over 7,300 in Tuscaloosa and 4,000 in Joplin so far, and the number is still rising as we continue to minister in both cities.

Since 1998, we have responded in 117 different locations. Each time, an army of volunteers has answered the call for help.

Recently, more than 400 people from age 18 to 78 also answered the call to the third annual U.S. Disaster Relief Volunteer Retreat. This retreat joined volunteers of the past, present, and future for a time of fellowship and rest, as well as training in order to prepare for future needs.

Different levels of skill and experience resulted in different levels of training. Lessons included everything from roof tarping to chainsaw use to operating heavy machinery.

Carl Martin, a veteran volunteer from Raleigh, first worked with Samaritan’s Purse after Hurricane Katrina. He made 14 week-long trips to southern Mississippi working on mud-outs and rebuilds. Since then, Carl has helped after tornadoes, ice storms, and multiple flood disaster responses.

“I’m here at the retreat to be around like-minded Christian people who are servants at heart and relax a little bit,” he said.

To Carl, it’s like a family reunion.

“I’ve seen people I served with in Kentucky—haven’t seen them in a couple of years. Also, people I served with in Nashville.”

The retreat included advanced training so that people like Carl can be better equipped on the field.

“I’m learning a lot,” he said. “I’m on the site management team. I’ve had assessor training, team leader training, and now advanced chainsaw training. I don’t do this for some ulterior motive. I do it because the Lord is telling me what to do.”

Joan Strombres, from Boyton Beach, Florida, also believes we are supposed to be God’s hands to people in need. But she was reluctant to volunteer with Samaritan’s Purse because she didn’t feel she had the skills to be able to help. The retreat was an opportunity to attend workshops teaching her how to tarp a roof and use saws and other equipment.

“If I can do this, anyone can,” Joan said. “This is exactly what I needed.”

Samaritan’s Purse staff challenged everyone at the retreat to answer the question, “Whatever the next storm is, are you ready to go?”

We encourage everyone to roll up their sleeves and be ready to answer the call whenever disaster strikes.

Alaska Governor Sean Parnell thanked Samaritan’s Purse volunteers and talked about his faith at the U.S. Disaster Relief Volunteer Retreat held at the Cove over the weekend.

The governor has first-hand knowledge of the hard work and willing spirit of SP volunteers from his time in his current post and from an earlier stint as lieutenant governor while Sarah Palin was chief executive. He has seen us conduct several projects in the state, including the rebuilding of homes in remote communities and construction of a camp for wounded veterans and their families.

“Thank you for all of you who have been to Alaska and worked there,” he told an audience of over 400 people. “We are profoundly grateful for you extending your lives to the people of our land. You have brought life and light and replaced despair.”

More than 750 people have volunteered with Samaritan’s Purse in Alaska over the past five years.

“Our people are better off for your service and sacrifice,” Gov. Parnell said. “My hope is that this relationship between Alaska and Samaritan’s Purse and the good work that you do in our state will continue for many years to come.”

After making some remarks as governor, he said he was switching to speaking as “Sean Parnell” to talk about his faith.




“When it comes to serving the Lord and our neighbor, it’s all about our heart,” he said. “It’s all about our motivation.”

He encouraged volunteers to really live their lives for Jesus.

“Do I really live every day as Christ said in John 15? Do I love other people the way He has loved me? Is my service an expression of His love for me? Let’s not let spiritual activity become a cheap substitute for that rich authentic relationship with Him. Let’s ask God to daily make that relationship our reality.”

After leaving the retreat, the governor and his wife, Sandy, traveled to Joplin, Missouri, with Samaritan’s Purse staff members to see the damage caused by the massive tornado that devastated the city on May 22, and to see our work as we help storm victims.

“Within one block we went from seeing what Alaskans would perceive as some wind damage to looking at a place that seemed to have been leveled by a bomb just a few homes away,” Gov. Parnell said. “It was complete and utter destruction. Amidst the destruction, however, we got the sense that people are not giving up. Where American flags appear atop piles of debris, you know the people’s spirit has not been beaten. Our thoughts and prayers remain with the people of Missouri and Governor Jay Nixon and his team as they work to recover from these vicious storms.”