Love is in the air
A young couple, who met in war-torn Liberia while volunteering on board the world’s largest charity hospital ship, are getting married in September but will be celebrating Valentine’s Day over 4000 miles apart as they are both back in their home countries – Scotland and the United States.
Pete Fullerton (26), a mechanical engineer working in Glasgow, met his bride-to-be Lindsay Blount, (27) a nurse from Florida, during six months volunteering on the Africa Mercy – a 16,000 tonne hospital ship with a crew of more than 450 volunteers from 50 nations.
In 2007 Pete, a student at Aberdeen University, decided to take a gap year and volunteer as a deck hand with Mercy Ships, the international charity that provides free medical and humanitarian care to the world’s poorest people.
It was during the Africa Mercy’s 10-month outreach in Liberia that Pete met Lindsay, an American nurse, who had also given up her time and life back in the USA to volunteer as a post-op nurse with Mercy Ships.
Talking about his experience on the ship and meeting Lindsay. Pete said: “There were a large number of young volunteers on the ship from all over the world. Each would bring their own cultures and personalities to the group and it really was a lot of fun. You are living side-by-side with all the volunteers so there is quite a camaraderie developed by living, eating, cleaning, playing and staying fit with your fellow shipmates. I became very close to Lindsay during that time, we got on really well and I plucked up the courage to ask her out three days before she left the ship.
“Our time together on the ship was very unique, you get to know people extremely well in a short period of time. You are constantly pushed outside your comfort zone and commonly have to deal with little sleep, heartbreaking external conditions, pressures of living in a confined space, very little private space and the fact that you are surrounded by severe poverty and an overwhelming need for hope and healing.
“Mercy Ships is an amazing charity that offers hope and healing to so many people. Volunteering with Mercy Ships was the most incredible experience of my life and it was because of this that I built up the courage to ask Lindsay out. It made me think life is for living. Mercy Ships brought us together and the experience we shared together will stay with us forever.
“Although I wasn’t part of the medical team I was able to meet many patients whose lives were transformed on board the ship – it was a great privilege to be part of their lives even for a short time.”
Pete proposed to Lindsay on the 1st of January 2010. They are now making the final plans for their wedding in September when they will be joined by Peter’s best man, Nathan Sihlis, whom he also met whilst volunteering onboard the Africa Mercy. After their honeymoon they are starting a new life as a married couple in Glasgow. Peter is part of the Mercy Ships speaker network and available to give talks on Mercy Ships to local groups, organisations and churches.
The Africa Mercy is currently on its way to Togo where it will begin a seven month outreach, offering the vital free surgeries and humanitarian care that is needed by so many.