LIFE: observed: February 2013

Sunday, February 24, 2013

how 12 minutes out of 60 Minutes can change countless lives

It is pretty incredible how much impact a 12 minute segment out of a 60 minute long television news program can have! CBS' 60 Minutes showed a segment this month about Mercy Ships and my world has been spinning since then! You can watch the segment below by clicking on the picture!

If you cannot see the video above, click HERE to watch.

According to the Nielsen Ratings the show was seen by 9.5 million people on air and was upstaged by America's Funniest Home Videos. From a live Facebook/Twitter event to answering a million social media questions I have been kept busy. God is amazing and what a response. Overall, people were blown away by what we do day by day and the social media scene has gone crazy!

After more than 11 years with Mercy Ships I have become quite blase about what we do. The response and comments were quite humbling, to say the least!

My favorite was from a mom who wrote about her 11 year old son who asked her to send a portion of his allowance to help Mercy Ships. Pretty humbling.

To see more of what Mercy Ships is all about, visit their website at www.mercyships.org

Caution:

My ramblings might not inspire you.

You might not be emboldened to attempt anything more than making a fresh pot of coffee. There are plenty of blogs out there written by very courageous souls who have poetically broken away from main stream society to achieve their goals.

I am a South African serving with Mercy Ships currently stationed in the United States. Mercy Ships, a global charity who has operated hospital ships in developing nations since 1978, is following the example of Jesus, by bringing hope and healing to the forgotten poor, mobilizing people and resources worldwide, and serving all people without regard to race, gender or religion.

This blog is simply the ramblings of a middle aged man viewing life from the sidelines and might not always be about my work with Mercy Ships.

Disclaimer: I serve with Mercy Ships. Everything here, however, is my personal opinion and is not read or approved before it is posted. Opinions, conclusions and other information expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of Mercy Ships.

Frequency

I will put some things "up," so to speak, on some days, and on other days, I will not put things up. Whether or not I put things up will depend largely on whether, on a particular day, I have anything to put up. For example, let's say that on Monday I have something which I want to put up. On that day, I will put that thing up. On Tuesday, though, I might not have anything to put up. I will worry for a moment about not having anything to put up. "Oh no," I might say, "another day has come, and I have nothing to put up. What will happen if someone visits this site and there is nothing new to look at? Will people be angry?" But then I will realize that, chances are, people will not be angry -- that, chances are, people will understand. Most people are pretty understanding. Then again....