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Currie climbed aboard the Africa Mercy to lend a hand by Julia Le Oakville Beaver Staff 35 | Thursday, November 19, 2015 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com Mercy Ships have touched many people's lives and Oakville's Lyn Currie's was no exception. The long-time Oakville resident spent three months aboard the Africa Mercy as a volunteer and says it was an experience of a lifetime. The vessel, the world's largest charitable hospital ship, specializes in treating a vast variety of disease and illness common to countries affected by poverty and war. It also aims to help develop sustainable health care throughout Africa by helping to train local surgeons and medical professionals. Professionals, including surgeons, dentists, nurses, health care trainers, teachers, cooks, seamen, engineers, and agriculturalists, donate their time and skills to the effort. Currie was among an international crew made up of 400 volunteers. She told the Oakville Beaver the trip, which took place last July through September -- was an "incredible adventure." "I saw how serving, loving and caring for one person at a time makes an amazing difference. Working as a team of like-minded people is powerful. Each person plays a critical role, and together, great things were accomplished," said Currie, who boarded the ship in Durban, Africa in early July before it travelled to Madagascar. Currie, a single parent of three sons, took her Oakville's Lyn Currie, left, is pictured helping out with a surgery on the Africa Mercy ship. Currie took part in the relief effort last summer. | submitted photo role as a hostess very seriously and helped out where she was needed. Often times, that entailed providing tours on the ship, disembarking passengers, checking and preparing cabins, baking cookies as an added touch of detail to guests' experience, and helping with special events. She also assisted dental surgeons at the ship's land-based dental clinic. "I really made a point of smiling and trying to get to know what I could do in order to help people feel comfortable and at home when they came aboard the Mercy ship," said Currie, who is no stranger to volunteering locally, or internationally, having provided food for the homeless in Toronto through Harvest Time Café, working with the Oakville Crisis Centre and with Mully Children's Family Orphanage in Kenya. The Oakville woman has also participated in numerous mission trips, including one to Manitoba during the Red River flood in 2011. Currie said it was exciting to finally be able to go on the trip that she'd thought about for a long time. She first heard about the Mercy ship almost 20 years ago when she worked for a Christian television show and interviewed a married couple that volunteered on it. "I was intrigued by their story," she said, noting she told herself one day, when her circumstances changed and her children were older, she planned to go on the adventure. She liked the idea that volunteers on the trip pay their own way so that donations Mercy Ships receive go directly towards providing free medical care to all people free-of-charge without regard for race, gender, or religion. Currie said it was an "incredibly unique experience" for volunteers and patients alike to be on the ship, which was like a travelling village. From a volunteer's perspective, she said she loved the adventure aspect of the trip, sharing her Christian values in assisting others and being part of a team that was "giving everything it could to help people in need." It was very satisfying and gratifying to help others, she said. During the ship's 2014-2015 service in Toamasina, Madagascar, the crew provided more than 2,200 surgeries onboard for adults and children, treated more than 10,000 people at a land-based dental clinic and provided education to health care professions in the country. For more information, visit mercyships.ca. Glen Abbey's Only Authentic british Pub! liVe Music WeeKenDs 481 North Service Rd. @ 4th Line, Oakville 905-825-1109 Visit www.abbeyarmspub.ca to see our menu Mention this aD to get 10% off your fooD orDer see our flyer in today's paper or visit us online at badboy.ca TOMORROW NOV. 20TH 8AM