Reaching out to the needy around the world...
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Port Mercy in Lake Charles, Louisiana is our international headquarters. This is where it all begins and ends! Every mission, every outreach is birthed at Port Mercy. Port Mercy provides a home base for our ships, Spirit, Hope, and Mersea, Integrity and our helicopter and heavy equipment. This is where the equipment receives care and maintenance between missions, where we load supplies and take on new crew. Our larger vessel Spirit carries 5000 tons of food, medical supplies, humanitarian aid and other relief items. Our smaller vessels Hope, Mersea and Integrity stand-by for quick response to emergencies in the Caribbean, Central America and the United States. From Port Mercy all the main office functions of Friend Ships take place. It is also the base of operations for the Friend Ships Louisiana domestic food outreach, Storehouse One.
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Every year natural disasters destroy entire communities, leaving thousands of people homeless, their crops and possessions destroyed and their livestock dead. These people need medical assistance, food, shelter and supplies to help them make it through the devastating time. They need to know that there are people who are concerned about them. Our team of dedicated relief workers do all they can to show God's love and compassion. Many will come to know the saving grace of Jesus as a result of the team's visit. Hope and Mersea help meet this need by being able to arrive swiftly at the port nearest the disaster site with food, supplies, emergency equipment, portable medical clinics, medical teams, relief personnel, helicopter support and other needed equipment and supplies. These ships also function as a home base for personnel.
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"Friend Ships Village" is located on the island of Roatán off the coast of Honduras. From the Village we provide assistance to the community including training seminars and classes, humanitarian aid and disaster relief, medical, dental, and eye care services and the facility is available as a conference center with housing accommodations for local church groups.
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If you feel like God is calling you to something new, we have many opportunities for you. Consider us for a new experience! We are currently accepting applications for long-term and short-term volunteers. The staff is comprised of a group of men and women from all walks of life, ordinary people with a common bond in our love for Jesus Christ and our desire to help the poor. Room and board are provided free of charge and there is no other cost to come and serve with us. The work is hard and the hours can be long, but if you are called to be a part of the Friend Ships team you will have the satisfaction and peace that you are doing what God has called you to do. We have positions available for engineers, electricians, electronic technicians, mechanics, pipe fitters, housekeepers, office workers, ship’s bosuns, ship's mates, deck hands, welders, plumbers, drivers, carpenters, cooks, groundskeepers, gardeners and many others. Click here for more information on volunteering with Friend Ships.
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Friend Ships is supported primarily by private individuals, church and corporate donors. All those who join Friend Ships, serve as full time volunteers. No one receives a salary. As we work together to provide millions of dollars worth of food and supplies to those in need each and every year, corporations provide critical products or services, free of charge, or give us their first-rate products to deliver to victims of disaster, war or poverty. Sometimes they even give us ships! Trucking companies, airlines and railroads provide free transportation for donated goods. Seaports waive all fees so that our ships may visit their countries. Governments allow us to have the free use of buildings, equipment and ship berths so that our operations may flourish.
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Friend Ships Unlimited (AKA Park West Children's Fund, Inc.) is dedicated to fulfilling the Biblical scriptures that teach us to help people in times of need and to encourage others to do likewise. The organization works through the collection, delivery and distribution of food, medical supplies, clothing, and building materials and by providing medical services and trade school education. We provide aid to people of all races, nationalities, and religion. Programs give help to children, families and individuals who are impoverished, refugees and/or victims of natural disaster and to the institutions who assist them. Friend Ships operates with all full time and part time unpaid volunteers, working within the US and in many areas around the world.
HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED WHAT GOD REALLY THINKS ABOUT HELPING THOSE IN NEED?
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- Do good, be rich in good deeds, be generous and willing to share.
- Religion that God accepts as pure and faultless is to look after orphans and widows in distress.
- When we give food, water and clothes to a poor man, invite in a stranger or visit a prisoner, it is as if we are doing these things for the Lord Himself.
- If one has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?
- Do not love with words but with actions and in truth.
- If one oppresses the poor, he is insulting God but to help the poor is to honor God.
- If one is kind to the poor he is lending to the Lord and the Lord will reward him.
- Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless. Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
- When we give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, tile lame, the blind and we will be blessed.
- Give cheerfully. Give and it will be given to us, pressed down shaken together and running over - with the measure we use, it will be measured to us.