Volunteers Helping Volunteers in Some of the World’s Poorest Countries

25 years on from their Amazon River adventures, Elizabeth and David Warner recount the lessons they learned, the people they were able to help, and how it impacted their lives. “It was an adventure of a lifetime, that’s for sure,” said Elizabeth. Patrick Butler/The Epoch Times

Mercy Ships currently operates the largest nongovernmental hospital ship in the world, staffed “mostly by volunteers,” says David Warner, 67, a two-decade, full-time volunteer with the organization, which was started in 1978.

Warner, a U.S. Navy veteran, found a natural home in the maritime mission after his military service and a 12-year stint as an Amazon River boat captain, volunteering in the remote Brazilian jungles.