Fulfillment Through Helping Those in Need

During some downtime as a mariner, Eric Baliantz decided to volunteer with Mercy Ships with motives different than most — he simply wanted to return to Madagascar. Eric had been sailing on ships since he was 19 years old but had never encountered a crew quite like the Africa Mercy crew. Eric’s eyes were opened to something that he had been searching for his whole life and this discovery caused him to return time and again to this impactful community.

In this episode, Eric shares how his life was radically changed through Mercy Ships. He talks about the struggle to find purpose and fulfillment through his thrill-seeking lifestyle and how volunteer work gave him something he’d always been looking for. As Eric speaks from the heart, we encourage you to examine your life and consider the place where your purpose can be fulfilled.

Looking for a way to join our mission of bringing hope and healing? Partner with us through a gift, volunteering with us, or by joining us in prayer.

New Mercies Podcast Transcript

Welcome to the New Mercies, a podcast by Mercy Ships, where we’ll take you behind the scenes and on board our incredible hospital ships that are transforming lives all over the world. We invite you to join us each week as we sit down with our crew, patients, volunteers, and partners to hear their stories of life-changing hope and healing.

During some downtime as a mariner, Eric Baliantz decided to volunteer with Mercy Ships, but mostly because he wanted to go to Madagascar. Eric had been sailing on ships since he was 19 years old, but he had never encountered a crew quite like that of the Africa Mercy. Get ready to be encouraged as Eric shares how his life was completely changed because of that first trip to Madagascar.

Raeanne Newquist:

Eric, welcome to New Mercies.

Eric Baliantz:

Good to be here.

Raeanne:

Eric, you have been involved with Mercy Ships for quite a few years in various roles and I think your first experience on board was in 2016 in Madagascar. And you have been volunteering just about every year since then. So as we kick off our time together, why don’t you give us a little bit of background and to your career path that led you to Mercy Ships and where you are today?

Eric:

Yeah, everybody’s Road to Mercy Ships is a different one. Mine was unique in that I really wasn’t a Christian and had no interest in really volunteering before I came to Mercy Ships, if I’m going to be honest. There was a sort of transformation that changed as I volunteered on Mercy Ships. But when I first came on board, I kind of did it because I’d been to Madagascar a couple of times before, in doing different things and I really liked Madagascar. I didn’t really have a lot going on and I was like, Well, what the heck, you know, I’ll give it a try. My mom had been sort of harassing me to do it for a long time. She’s a longtime donor to Mercy Ships, and she’s like, You should do it. You know, you’re a mariner you could really help out. I was like, I don’t know, I don’t know if it’s really my thing. But anyway, yeah, I was living in New York, I broke up with a girl and I was like, alright, fine, I’m going to go volunteer on Mercy Ships. And so that’s sort of the short answer of how I first arrived at Mercy Ships.

Raeanne:

You mentioned that you’re a mariner. Correct?

Eric:

Correct. So that was the capacity that I joined Mercy Ships as, I was Second Officer when I first came on board. I started going to sea right out of high school, I kind of wanted an adventurous life. I read all these Jack London novels and Hemingway short stories and I was a big fan of the Indiana Jones movies. I just had kind of an idea that doesn’t really exist. But I had an idea of an adventurous life that I wanted to live and I thought that maybe working on ships would sort of facilitate that kind of lifestyle that I wanted. So it was cool. At first, it was different than I had hoped.

I first started working on ships by going to school on the east coast called Piney Point. It was set up through the union and we had to wear a uniform and marched around and do jumping jacks and push ups and that kind of thing. And then I found myself on a ship. My first ship they told me it was a survey ship, but it was actually a US naval ship that was doing kind of secret things off the coast of Russia. But that’s kind of another story. Yeah, that was my first ship I’ve been.

Raeanne:

So they didn’t tell you the truth?

Eric:

Yeah, it was a total lie. Like I was 19 years old and I was just really excited to go to sea. And they’re like, you want this job? I said, where’s it going? They said, it’s going to sea! I thought, oh, that’s exciting. What do they do? It’s a survey ship. And I went there and it was like — I think I’m still not supposed to say exactly what they were doing. I mean, it wasn’t like super James Bond exciting, but it was like secret stuff. Like we weren’t allowed to know where we were at. They would cover up the charts. We kind of had a general idea where we were at, you know, I was just an ordinary seaman, the lowest of the low on the ship.

Raeanne:

This sounds a little sketchy though. Were you scared? Once you got on board was there the grand reveal? We’re actually going to Russia? Don’t tell anyone!

Eric:

Yeah, well, we were at sea and there were some moments where if I was a reasonable young man, I would have been scared. Still, to this day, we were in the biggest storm I’ve ever seen in my life. There were just these mountain sized waves crushing us for days. And there was one point when we got stuck in the ice. We went so far north — this was this was a while ago, like in the 90s and we didn’t have as good weather forecasting as we do now! Yeah, for whatever reason, we got a bad weather report or something, somebody messed up, and the ship got stuck in the ice for a few days.

Raeanne:

Were you questioning your decision to go do this?

Eric:

I was romanticizing it all. I thought, Yes, this is what being a grown up would be like — missions trapped in the ice! Yeah, right, storms and all that was cool, you know, they say that you never really forget your first ship. And I still have a lot of fond memories from that trip. It was cool. It was like coming of age on a ship. There were all sorts of interesting characters on board.

Raeanne:

So you got a taste and you liked it. So how did you advance in your career?

Eric:

I eventually grew accustomed to the lifestyle — merchant mariners will go to sea for typically three or four months. That first trip was eight months, which is the exception, not the rule. Usually you’ll go for three to four months and you’ll take that same amount of time off in vacation. And that’s kind of the thing that keeps mariners coming back, you know, is that kind of lifestyle, and I really grew accustomed to that. What I would do is I would go to sea for three or four months on a container ship, or green ship, or all these different kinds of ships, and then in between ships, I would go to school. I would take a semester at college and I went all the way up through to grad school in New York. Yeah, that was kind of my life for a long time. And I advanced on ships all the way up, I have my unlimited Master’s license now. So I just kept going — I’d go to school at university, and then I would go to sea. And then as you accumulate time on ships, you can advance your license, so it’s mostly based on time. So, you know, once you get three years sea time, that’s like three years total working on ships, you can sit for your officers license or third mates license. And that’s what I did.

Raeanne:

What is an unlimited masters license?

Eric:

The unlimited Master’s license is issued by the United States Coast Guard, I’m American, but it’s the license that says you can work on any size vessel as a captain. Yeah, it’s the highest license that the US Coast Guard issues. I was happy when I got that, it was a big touchdown in my life.

Raeanne:

Yeah, I would think that means that you’re very marketable. I mean, that you could really be so useful in any situation.

Eric:

Yeah. So right now they’re calling it the “gray tsunami,” a lot of the people that work on ships are starting to retire. And there isn’t a huge supply of younger people to fill that void. You know, as people retire, there isn’t enough supply to work on ships, in terms of people. So there are a lot of opportunities to get jobs just as it is right now. It’s a good gig.

Raeanne:

So tell us how Mercy Ships came into your journey.

Eric:

Like I was saying, I was living in New York, I didn’t really have a whole lot going on. I saw Mercy Ships as kind of in line with the way that my life had been going up until that point. I would go to school, but I would also go on these adventures where I would sort of chase having peak experiences. Like I went to Central America, I went to Australia and went to New Zealand, I had this whole phase where I was riding freight trains — that was super fun. I would do all these things that were exciting and I thought volunteering on Mercy Ships would sort of be in line with that, right? I thought this could be exciting. I’d been to Madagascar before, because I used to work for this private security company out of Kenya that would escort ships through the high risk area when piracy was a big problem off the Horn of Africa. Madagascar was where we would go to pick up our guns to protect the ships so I had been familiar. And so I had been to Madagascar before, and I really enjoyed it. And I just thought like, wow, I’d really like to go back there and have a fun adventure. And that’s kind of what initially drew me to Mercy Ships.

The experience that I had when I went there was different than I thought it would be. The initial draw was adventure. I wish I could say I was called by the Lord to go there, but I wasn’t.

Raeanne:

So you’ve had all this crazy experience throughout your career and throughout your life. You’ve had all this experience working on commercial vessels in all sorts of different capacities, now you find yourself on board a Mercy Ships vessel. Tell us a little bit about how they differed.

Eric:

The major difference between working on freight ships and volunteering on Mercy Ships, is the culture. On freight ships, the motivation is first not to get hurt. And second, make some money and go home. I mean, those are kind of underlying reasons that people go to sea, you know, it’s a job. On Mercy Ships, there’s a big difference in that people are doing something to help other people. I know that sounds like a simple thing, but I think the effect that that has on the crew, and how they interact is profound, or at least it has been in my experience. I mean, we do all the same things, you know, we have to be safe on Mercy Ships, there’s all sorts of regulations, we’re monitored by the same class associations, we have to adhere to the flag state that we are under — all of that is the same, but it would be very unusual for somebody to say, I know you’re going through a hard time, I just want you to know that I’m praying for you. Like, that just wouldn’t happen. I’ve since tried to be that guy and on occasion I will delicately say, I’m praying for you, but that’s not the norm. That’s definitely the exception. I mean just to kind of give you an idea, if you’re on Mercy Ship for Christmas, like it’s a whole extravaganza, right? I mean, they pull out all the stops. I mean, it’s just this wonderful sort of celebration of community, and there’s singing, and it’s just joyous. I’ve been on freight ships during Christmas many times. And it is not like that at all. I can remember being on a ship for Christmas, this was sort of early in my career, and I got all dressed up. I bought this silk shirt in Hong Kong that I was really excited about. That was my first Christmas at sea and I got ready to go and I was like, Merry Christmas to everybody. And it was just like people were ignoring me. It was so unhappy. I think that’s the difference, there’s love on Mercy Ships, right? Yeah, it’s different. It’s much different.

I would dare say, Everybody on board a Mercy Ships vessel is not there to just do their job, make some money and go home. Because you’re not making any money.

Raeanne:

So you have this whole different experience, then getting on with a Mercy Ships vessel and working there, and then going back for several years — can you share with us maybe a standout moment for you working on board?

Eric:

I’ve always been on the Africa Mercy. I’ve never served on any of the other vessels yet. There’s been many standout moments that I can think about when I was serving, probably one of the highlights for me, just personally, was going out with the screening team. We would do these screenings where we would see if patients would fall into one of the categories that we could help on board. And sometimes they can be kind of chaotic. And you know, there’s just a lot of desperate people that are trying to get health care because they just don’t have access to it in any other way. Some people’s health care is Mercy Ships, they just wait for them to come. And I remember we had done this really big screening in Guinea. And it was just a really hard day screening. People were pushing and shoving, we had to try to get people to stay in line. And it was just a long, hard day. And everybody was just kind of waiting for it to be over and it was just starting to get dark. And they said that’s it, we’re done, we’re calling it. No more screening. I was part of the security team that day where I was the one trying to get people to stay in line and try to organize it so people would come in an orderly way to the desks to see the doctors and nurses for screening. And on the other side of the gate, there was maybe like 20 people, and there was this guy who had keloids. I’m not a doctor, but it just looks like big sacks of skin that are crawling all over his body, he had dozens of them all over his body. And I knew that that was something that we could take care of on the ship. I ran back and I talked to — shout out to Nate Claus — and I was like, Hey, man, you know, there’s this guy who has like tons of keloids, do you think we could let just 20 more people into the screening? And he’s like, Yeah, let’s go take a look. And he came over and he looked over the wall. And said, Yeah, that person has a bunch of keloids, we can take them, and we let them in. That moment just still chokes me up. Because I had the ability to help somebody in a way that I never had before. So that’s definitely a special moment. I have a picture of him and me in the ward down below after his surgery. Yeah, that was that was definitely very meaningful to me because I had the opportunity to help somebody. And that was an experience that I never really had before, to directly help somebody and change the direction of their life. I mean, he was really debilitating for him.

Raeanne:

Well, it was no accident that you saw him, that you turned around, and you saw him. But had you not seen him? Who knows? And maybe that was just the Holy Spirit kind of saying, turn around. Look at this guy.

Eric:

Yeah, exactly, it was definitely an awesome moment. And, you know, I’ve had other moments like that serving with Mercy Ships, but that’s definitely one that I’ll often reflect on, and just be grateful that I have the opportunity to help somebody like that.

Raeanne:

Eric, you obviously said in the beginning that when you came to Mercy Ships your first time, you really just came because you wanted to go back to Madagascar. You weren’t a Christian, and you weren’t really fired up about the mission so much, but you just wanted an adventure and wanted to go to Madagascar. So what was it when you were on board, that first time that caused you to say, wait a minute, this is totally different than what I’ve experienced before. And I want to do this again, and then continue to go back for the following six, seven years? What was it that changed for you?

Eric:

If I’m honest, I really feel that the Spirit worked in me, but it wasn’t something that happened right away. Like I was explaining earlier, prior to Mercy Ships, I was looking for something that didn’t really exist. I was always kind of looking for this experience where everything would change. And I would often seek that out in excitement, or thrills, or some kind of sensory kind of experience that could fulfill me in some kind of way, and it never really adds up to what you had hoped it would. And that was always sort of my experience — why isn’t this as exciting as I had hoped it would be? But I think that I had invested too much hope and in what I would sort of get out of it. So there’s this quote by CS Lewis that I actually wrote down for this interview that I want to share, because I think it illustrates the point that I’m trying to make, and it goes like this. He says, “the fact that our heart yearns for something earth can’t supply is proof that heaven must be our home.” So what I get from that, is that when I first started volunteering with Mercy Ships, it was the first time in my life that the hope was the same as I got. When I first started volunteering with Mercy Ships, suddenly, I started to feel fulfilled, I started to feel that there was something that did satisfy me.

Like that CS Lewis quote, it was what my heart yearned for, right? And it wasn’t because of some sensory peak experience, it was because I was doing something that was in line with the way the world is supposed to be. I mean, I think that’s the ideal that doing that kind of work can provide, right? Like, it’s you’re trying to align the world with how it’s supposed to be. And when you’re doing that, it does fulfill you. I don’t know if that makes sense. You know what I mean?

Raeanne:

Yeah, I mean, I think really, God created the world in a certain way, the heavens and the earth in a certain way. And he created us in His own image. And when everything kind of went awry, you know, we still have this longing for life back in the garden, if you will, back when everything was perfect and we were in right relationship with God. And I think whether people know it or not, I think the human quest is trying to get back to a place of meaning and purpose, like being in relationship with God in the garden. And people do that in the world in all different ways, not knowing they’re really seeking a relationship with their Creator. Like you’re saying, you were trying to fulfill something and you were doing it by kind of being an adrenaline junkie, just trying to go to the next high to try to fulfill this longing that you had. But it wasn’t satisfying. But really, the only thing that can satisfy is the God that created us. Right?

Eric:

You said that beautifully. That’s exactly right. I think that’s what I started to realize when I volunteered on Mercy Ships was just aligning myself with the way the world is supposed to be, you know, it’s that idea of the way that the world was before the fall, right? And that’s how we know that there’s a heaven, right? Because it’s the fact that things just aren’t right. Like when we go to these countries and we see how fallen the world is, it’s the health care problems, and all of the things that we see, but it’s just not supposed to be that way. Right? I mean, you know, when you see corruption, when you see, children without parents, when you see all of these things that just don’t seem fair, it’s because it’s not supposed to be that way. And I think, if you have the opportunity to work in a career where you can try and change things to how they’re supposed to be it can just be so fulfilling. I mean, at least that’s the experience that I had when I volunteered on board. I just felt full, like I was a part of something that is trying to get things back to the way that they’re supposed to be instead of just allowing the world to continue in a bad direction. That isn’t how it’s supposed to be. And we all know that right? We all know how it’s supposed to be.

Raeanne:

Well, that fulfillment that you started to experience on board through having a life of purpose, a life of helping people, is what probably propelled you to come back year after year. And when you returned, was that always in a mariner’s position on board?

Eric:

Yeah, I mean, mostly, I did all of the different positions among the deck officer jobs, except captain, I haven’t been captain there yet. But I would work as the training officer, the navigation officer, firefighting officer, safety officer, they have all of these different roles on board. I worked as chief officer too a few times. In addition to that, I was the security officer. So that was a little bit different. Where we would drive around different parts of the country and do screening trips to try to find patients that we could bring back to the ship. And those were a lot of fun. I got a lot out of those trips. We would go out for a week or two at a time. So those are the different roles that I did on board. I also helped sail the ship down from the Canary Islands to Dakar once.

Raeanne:

Can you tell us maybe about some of the more harrowing moments, when you’re working on a ship?

Eric:

Yeah, I could share a harrowing story or two. One that I would like to share was actually when I was on one of the screening trips in Guinea. We had just got through doing a screening and it was a pretty tough one. Sometimes they’re just long days and you have to start at usually like two or three in the morning to make sure everybody’s in line properly and you work all day until the sun goes down. And we were staying at this kind of missionary hostel kind of place. And I decided to go for a run — I often do that just to kind of blow off steam. And I was going for this run down this beautiful little single-track path, kind of through the jungle and it was very green. You could see a ridge in the distance and there was a little river down below. It was a really lovely moment. I started to see as I came around this band, there was this woman who had like a bucket on her head, as you’ll often see in a lot of African countries, and a child on her back. And she was wearing this colorful dress kind of thing. It was so beautiful as the sun was setting on the ridgeline in the background, I just wanted to take a quick picture.

And so she’s pretty far from me at this point, but I go to reach down to grab my camera and just as I’m going in my hip pack to grab my camera, I guess she feels that somebody’s looking at her. And she turns around, and she sees this admittedly kind of weird looking white guy reaching in his bag. And she just looks at me and she’s like wide eyed, sort of terrified, and she starts running down the trail screaming! I thought, Oh my gosh, I just did something really bad. And so of course I started running after her saying, No, Mon amie, and she just started screaming louder and screaming, and I’m just like, No, I didn’t mean anything by it. I was just going to take a picture. And so she’s running. And then as she’s running down the trail, I start to hear these male voices kind of yelling back at her. And I’m like, oh no, things are getting real now. And I come around the corner and the trail’s really narrow and there’s this guy standing there with a machete in the middle of the trail! The woman skirts off into the, it’s not really a village, it was just kind of houses in the jungle. And there’s this guy bare chested with a machete in the middle of the trail. And then I start walking down the trail, and I put my hands up and I say mon amie, pas problem, I’m just going for a run — whatever French I can muster up!

I do this thing where like, there’s only enough room for me to get around the point of his machete on the trail. He’s just looking at me and he looks really fierce and angry and he doesn’t really know what to think. I mean, I assume it’s his wife or a sister or something. It’s not good for me. And I’m praying, oh Lord, please and I just give him a little tap on the shoulder as I go around his machete and he just kind of softens. And he’s like, Oh, maybe you’re not so bad. It’s really all nonverbal. And then I just kind of continue down the trail, finish my run, and then I go back to the hostel.

I know people listening to this probably have their concerns. And I actually thought about telling this story before we even started the interview, because it doesn’t make me look very good. But I think it’s a good illustration of aid workers in general. Like, here I am, I’m here to help and I’m chasing this woman. I think this is a good metaphor for a lot of the problems that aid workers have when they go to foreign countries. Like, they come to help and they just do it completely wrong. Like, I admit that probably the best thing I could have done in that situation is as soon as she started running down the trail screaming, I should have just stopped and thought about what was happening and what the right move was. But instead I just kind of foolheartedly started basically chasing her, trying to tell her everything’s fine, I’m not here to harvest your organs! I just think that’s kind of a cautionary tale in a way that I’ve often gone back to and thought about and I try to take with me, you know, as I continue to try to help people in a thoughtful way without intruding on people.

Raeanne:

I think it’s a great story and I think a great posture to have when you are an aid worker, or even just a tourist, you know, is to go with the desire to learn — what can I learn from you, rather than what can I teach you, or what do I have to offer you. But instead to kind of have this teachable spirit, if you will, to learn from the people that you’re with, and to really find out what their true needs are, rather than assuming.

Eric:

Yeah, and when there is the language barrier or a cultural difference, sometimes we think, no, we’re helping you, and they’re like, actually, you’re scaring me. You know?

Raeanne:

Yeah, I love that. Having a teachable spirit which I think is something that Mercy Ships does really well in how we employ a lot of the national workers, national crew, so that we can learn from their culture and use them as translators, we can learn more from them. So talking about going into countries with a heart to learn more, tell us about someone in the organization that you’ve learned from, someone that has impacted you, and why.

Eric:

Oh, right. So definitely many. There have been many people, some of the most remarkable, awesome, admirable people I’ve ever met my life have been volunteers on Mercy Ships. One guy is Captain John Barro. When I first signed on, he was the captain. And it was such a dramatic departure from my experience with what a captain is. He did all of the things that captains were supposed to do in terms of keeping the ship safe, and having good discipline and all of that, but it was how he did it that was just such a departure from what I was used to. He did a great job of making everybody feel that they were on the same team working towards a common goal. And he did it in a fun way. Like he made things feel kind of joyous. We would have these like officers lunches where we would go out to lunch once a week and just kind of hang out. And he really cared about what we thought, it was a good way to approach a problem, which is not something that captains typically do on merchant ships. Typically, when you’re tasked to do something, it’s definitely a one directional conversation, but John was just really open to hearing other people’s ideas, and was just really encouraging in that way. And I mean, you know, honestly, like every captain that I sailed under since then was the same — John, Djurre Jan and Taylor — they were all just these really good role models one could admire as a boss. So those were all people that I deeply enjoyed working with.

There were people that I would kind of admire from afar, there’s just really good leadership on Mercy Ships. One person that just came to mind was Warrie Blackburn, she was the managing director there for a long time. She was really confident, but humble at the same time. And it’s not unique to her but she kind of stands out because she was the managing director and up on the stage a lot. But you would see that a lot. Prior to volunteering on Mercy Ships, I thought those two things would be in opposition to each other, you couldn’t be humble and confident at the same time. But there’s just so many people that express that Christ like humility, but at the same time they do it from a posture of not being ashamed of who they are, they’re children of God. So to have both of those sorts of qualities was new to me. And it was something that I really admired. And a lot of the leadership that I had the opportunity to work with in Mercy Ships and just everybody was so loving and kind. I don’t know what else to say about that. But it was it was definitely something that was new to me, it wasn’t something that I had experienced prior to Mercy Ships in any of my professional life.

Raeanne:

Yeah, it is pretty unique. It’s a special environment and it is so special to be with so many highly accomplished professionals who are excellent in what they do excellent in their field that yet treat you like you’re their best friend. And you’re all just one big family.

Eric:

I made some really lifelong friends. I was actually baptized in the swimming pool. It was just awesome.

Raeanne:

How did that come about?

Eric:

I’m always a little bit, I don’t want to say jealous, but like some people have these moments where it all made sense and for me it was over time that the Lord worked on me. But it eventually came to the point where I was like, this is true. Like, I really believe in Jesus, in the spirit and when I pray to Him, He listens to me. I mean all of those ideas kind of slowly started to overwhelmed me. And there was a friend on board who was really good at answering all of the basic questions that somebody who really didn’t grow up in the faith has, so I would just ask him all sorts of things. One of the things that was really hard for me, and I think it continues to be hard for a lot of Christians, is that the whole works not faith thing. I was like, wait a minute, you mean I don’t have to earn my salvation? It’s a gift? Don’t I have to be good to go to heaven? He’s like, you’re already saved. And so there was a lot of wrestling matches about that. With some of the mentors, like faith-based mentors that I had on board, and continues, there’s like guys that I call and ask about different spiritual questions that I have.

Raeanne:

And then you came to a point where you said, Hey, I’m going to make this faith public. I want to be baptized.

Eric:

Right, so I wanted to do it publicly, but it was just me and him. I really wanted to get baptized. And then after I had a little bit of a celebration with some friends, after I got baptized, but it was just something that I just felt like I needed to do.

Raeanne:

So Eric, would it be safe to say that your life has been radically changed because of Mercy Ships?

Eric:

Yeah, it would be safe to say that my life has been changed. I look at the world in a different way now. I’m a big reader. I’ve been reading books my whole life. And one of the books that I read and often reflect on is Don Quixote. I don’t mean to sound pretentious. I know that’s like some fancy book, but it is a great book. And I think that a lot of the times people kind of missed the point of Don Quixote, because everybody knows about the beginning part, or maybe not everybody — just a quick summary, and spoiler alert, I will tell you how it ends! Stop listening if you really want to read Don Quixote, and don’t want to know how it ends. But in the beginning there’s this guy who spends his whole life reading these romantic novels about knights and slaying dragons, and rescuing damsels and all of this sort of thing. And at the time of Don Quixote, when he is reading all these books, knights hadn’t existed for years, for centuries really. But he really, really wanted to be a knight — he really felt that being a knight was going to transform his life, like if you could just be knighted everything would change. And he puts on I think it’s like a cooking pot on his head. And he gets like this old sword and he gets some old armor that’s been inherited, and he goes on all of these fantastic adventures. And the whole time, he’s, he’s trying to create his own reality, right? He’s trying to experience life in a way that sort of aligns with all of these made up novels that he was obsessed with. And at the end of the book, he basically comes to Christ and he’s no longer Don Quixote. He’s Alonzo, I think Cassandra is actually his real name, he dubbed himself Don Quixote della mancia. But he’s actually, I think his name is actually Alonzo Cassandra, if I remember right. And he’s just like, I’ve been a fool, I can’t believe that I’ve been doing all of these crazy things, and he kind of comes to his senses.

He then accepts Jesus as a savior. There’s actually a quote in the book, I can’t remember the quote, but it’s something like, I’ve been a sinner my whole life, Jesus, forgive me for my sins. It’s something very biblical like that, and in a way, I can really relate to the story of Don Quixote, and thankfully, I kind of came to my senses before I died. He actually did that just on his deathbed. You know, this is kind of a long way of saying, how Mercy Ships sort of transformed me and now I don’t let experiences define my identity. I look to aligning myself with reality and the reality of the way the world should be before the fall, kind of like what we were talking about earlier — I don’t think that the experiences of life should be what defines our life. But what I want to do now is be helpful in some kind of way, and just align myself with God’s purpose for my life, instead of just trying to do it on my own and try to live some crazy kind of life that doesn’t really lead to the kind of fulfillment that I now know is knowable. Like everything that I’d ever hoped for in my life came true, but in the complete opposite way than I ever expected it to when I volunteered on Mercy Ships, if that makes sense.

You know, it wasn’t through excitement and adventure, and woo hoo sort of experiences. It was just by the fruits of the Spirit kind of thing, loving people in that way, I was transformed, not in the way that I thought I would be.

Raeanne:

Totally. Well, I think one thing that’s incredible to note is that you were seeking this adventure, like you mentioned, going to these extremes, to get these highs to try to find some kind of identity or fulfillment in your life. And then you found that not in those things, but you found it in Jesus — a life given to Jesus is a life that is filled with adventure. You gave your life to Jesus and it didn’t get boring and quiet. In fact, you have continued to volunteer and serve all over the world in crazy extreme situations. I just have to say, several months ago, I tried to contact you for an interview and you were captaining, not for Mercy Ships, but for another Christian organization, I think in maybe Papa New Guinea or something, and you accidentally called me in the midst of some crisis situation as a captain. I thought, oh, my gosh, this guy lives such a life of adventure! So I think it’s so important to note that giving your life to Jesus doesn’t mean you give up on adventure or a thrill seeking life. In fact, it becomes so much more adventurous, Would you not agree?

Eric:

No, I totally agree. I think that’s just really well said. I think that when we construct these architectures that aren’t built on Jesus, or God — if your identity is based on being funny, like, I am funny, and as soon as you tell a joke and nobody laughs, you’re completely crushed. Right? But when you build your architecture, when you build your identity on Jesus, you are indestructible, you are Teflon, right? There is nothing that anybody can do to you and that kind of courage has redirected my life. Life has become so much better. So much, in some ways harder, but in most ways, it’s just become easier, and more exciting.

Raeanne:

Well, Eric, I’m so excited that your mom was praying for you and supporting Mercy Ships and kind of dropped the hint. Why don’t you go to Madagascar? I’m so grateful that you said yes. You know, maybe at the time, selfishly, just to have another adventure in a beautiful country. But all along, God was weaving a beautiful story of transformation for you. I just want to say thanks for being vulnerable and sharing that with us today. I’m hoping that you do get to, maybe if it’s even for a short stint, Captain, one of the Mercy Ships vessels, because I think that would be pretty spectacular.

Eric:

Well, thank you for that. We’ll see where the Lord leads me. Yeah, it’s been a real pleasure, I really enjoyed this. Thanks for taking the time to let me share some of my experiences on Mercy Ships, and I hope it’s an encouragement to other people who might be kind of searching for the next chapter in their life. I think Mercy Ships is just a great opportunity. And there’s so many things that you can’t even imagine if you were to volunteer on Mercy Ships. I would really encourage people to at least give it a try. It’s just a really wonderful experience.

For more information about Mercy Ships, go to mercyships.org, and to keep up with the guests on New Mercies, follow us on Instagram at NewMerciesPodcast.