Tyler Pounds Airport

May 4th, 2010

700 Skyway Blvd
Tyler TX 75704
Phone: 903 531 2343

Tyler has a regional airport – just 6 miles East of Central Tyler on Hwy 64.

Currently, only American and Continental Airlines fly into and out of Tyler – to Dallas Fort Worth and George Bush Airport in Houston respectively. There are 3 runways.

Tyler Pounds is a really nice airport. It is very accessible with a large parking lot and a drop off area right outside the front doors. The City of Tyler keep it looking really nice with neat, colorful floral displays and a well kept outdoor paved area with fountain.

The terminal building is light, airy and modern with a spacious feel.

Everything for the traveller is at entrance level, with offices on the second floor – accessible by stairs and an elevator. After entering through the automatic doors, on the right side is the check-in desks for departures and on the far left is the arrivals hall with baggage reclaim. There are 4 rental car desks at the arrivals. In the center is the departure lounge and security followed by the departure gates. Restrooms are clean and wheelchair accessible. There is plenty of seating for passengers. A TV plays news for those waiting to fly.

There is no café at Tyler Pounds. There is space for one and tables and chairs available so hopefully, when the airport expands, there will be an eating facility in the future. Currently, there are 3 vending machines – one for hot drinks, one for cold beverages and another for snacks. If you are at the airport for an hour or longer – a local café called Skyline will deliver a meal to you – menus are available on site. There is no shop or newsstand.

The staff at Tyler Pounds are polite and friendly. The check-in is never busy and the security staff are relaxed.

All in all travelling through Tyler Pounds is a very pleasant and easy experience, if a little un-interesting!

Tags: Arrivals Hall, Automatic Doors, Bush Airport, Car Desks, City Of Tyler, Cold Beverages, Continental Airlines, Departure Gates, Departure Lounge, Entrance Level, Floral Displays, Front Doors, George Bush, Mercy Ships, Nice Airport, Regional Airport, Runways, Security Staff, Skyway, Tables And Chairs, The Anchorage Cafe, Tyler Pounds Field, Tyler Texas Airport, Vending Machines
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Mercy Ships Ministry in Garden Valley TX

April 28th, 2010

Mercy Ships
PO Box 2020
Garden Valley
Texas 75771
Phone: 903 939 7000

Mercy Ships is a charity operating hospital ships to help alleviate poverty and sickness in developing nations of the world. Mercy Ships is an international organization but it has its main operations center here in East Texas.

Mercy Ships was founded in 1978 and grew out from Youth With a Mission (YWAM).

Their mission is to bring hope and healing to the world’s forgotten poor. The reason for doing it – to follow the example of Jesus, who healed the sick, helped the lame walk, brought sight to the blind and who set the captives free. Like Jesus, Mercy Ships will help anyone, free of charge, without regard for race, gender or religion.

As the name suggests, this charity provides their services using hospital ships. There have been ships of various sizes traveling to different places in the past but now the main focus is on some of the poorest of the poor – those living in Africa.

The ship in operation now – the Africa Mercy is a 500 foot vessel with a large purpose-built hospital on board – with 6 operating rooms, intensive care, labs, Xray and CT scanner and beds for 78 patients. 480 volunteer crew can be accommodated on board. The Africa Mercy is like a little floating community – there is a bank, a laundromat, a school for children of essential workers and even a Starbucks café for crew use!

Currently the ship is in Togo, West Africa. Recent port visits have included: Sierra Leone, Liberia, Benin, Ghana and the Gambia.

The surgeries performed include cleft lip and palate repair, tumor removal, cataract surgery, facial reconstruction and various orthopedic procedures. There is also a VVF program which repairs injuries sustained in childbirth and resolves incontinence for women. The need for this is so great in West Africa – due in part to the lack of availability of Caesarean sections for women in obstructed labor, that Mercy Ships started a dedicated clinic for this problem in Sierra Leone. There is an off -ship dental team providing much needed dental care too.

In addition to the surgeries, a great deal of training and education goes on amongst the patients, local medical workers and leaders in local communities. This is primarily health and hygiene related but various ship projects aim to tackle some of the underlying causes for disease – like poverty, malnutrition and water born diseases. This has included providing wells and latrines, immunization clinics, agricultural projects and partnering with locals to build homes, schools and health facilities.

Mercy Ships needs volunteers from all walks of life to become crew on the ship. Many come for a few weeks, some stay for years. The support side of the organization just north of Tyler also needs dedicated helpers to fundraise and equip the ship for service. Some of the staff at the office are paid but others raise support from individuals and churches.

Find out more at www.mercyships.org

Tags: Caesarean Sections, Cataract Surgery, Ct Scanner, Developing Nations, Facial Reconstruction, Foot Vessel, Hope And Healing, Hospital Ships, Laundromat, Mercy Ships, Mercy Ships Garden Valley TX, Mercy Ships Ministry, Mercy Ships Tyler Texas, Operations Center, Orthopedic Procedures, Palate Repair, Race Gender, Togo West, Tumor Removal, Volunteer Crew, West Africa, Youth With A Mission, Youth With A Mission Ywam
Posted in Medical, Ministries | No Comments »

KVNE Radio Station in Tyler

February 24th, 2010

KVNE Radio

2721 East Erwin
Post Office Box 8525
Tyler, Texas 75711
Office: 903-593-5863
Fax: 903-593-2663

Broadcasting on 89.5FM, every day, is KVNE ‘the voice of encouragement’ – a local Christian radio station based in Tyler. It is a non-profit organization and raises money from donations and sponsorship from local businesses rather than airing commercials. The aim of KVNE is to encourage local Christians through music, plus promote Christian events and local ministry initiatives in the area.

KVNE has a great breakfast show, featuring a family friendly couple called Mike and Carrie who keep you smiling with their jokes, phone-ins and topical discussions plus contemporary Christian music. I love ‘What the survey says’ and my kids love to listen to ‘Kid’s karaoke’ on a Thursday when kids phone in and sing their favorite song on air! It’s not as cheesy as it sounds – actually, it’s quite cute. They often have guests on the show and as East Texas has a fair share of Christian musicians – Paul Baloche and Chris Tomlin to name a few – there is quite a local flavor. KVNE is very community focused – they collect backpacks for underprivileged kids in Tyler and valentines for patients in the local hospitals. Better still is their concern with the poor worldwide. Each Christmas they promote Operation Christmas Child – a project to send shoeboxes of Christmas gifts to poor children overseas and they also support Mercy Ships and other mission organizations working in the developing world.

What is not so good about KVNE? In a word, the repetition! The music comes from The Scroll Christian bookstore and in my opinion, they don’t give this radio station nearly enough variety. I guess for The Scroll it’s partly about getting airplay to sell their latest CDs (clever marketing) but we get tired of hearing the same old tunes, occasionally remixed, day after day. I wish KVNE would not limit itself in this way and play music from other places in the world – Hillsongs Australia, Vineyard Canada and some of the excellent contemporary bands coming out of England have so much to offer. Christians are hungry for new Spirit-filled worship songs. Stuff that has been reproduced from the original raw stuff by an American artist seems to lose something. KVNE is not insular in its outlook in general so why should it have such a restrictive playlist?

The very, very worse time of year is Christmas. I know I am not alone in turning off the radio for the entire month of December! The repetition is completely unbearable and even for an evangelical Christian who thinks the world of Christmas, there is only so many times and ways you can listen to a limited repertoire of carols and Christmas songs without feeling sick! Luckily my friends and I discovered Pandora.com in December this year – it saved the day for us!

‘Praise Share’ week (in March) is also to be avoided. During this week – the radio presenters tout for donations and there are some unconvincing and in my opinion, undignified, ploys to increase donations by ringing a bell and saying that a mystery benefactor will double any donations given over the next hour. I feel sure that the people of East Texas value KVNE enough not to have this awful week of fundraising and I wish they would just trust the Lord to provide the finances they need through long-term regular giving.

Enough negative things said. There is a lot of good stuff about KVNE. I do enjoy Mike and Carrie. The news in the morning is a bonus, I like the weather updates and enjoy the Focus on the Family spot. Tune in sometime from Jan – November, you’ll probably like it, and as they tell us in their tag line – it is safe for the whole family to listen to.

Tags: Chris Tomlin, christian bookstore, Christian Musicians, Christian Radio Station, Christmas Gifts, Contemporary Christian Music, KVNE, Kvne Radio, Latest Cds, Local Ministry, Mercy Ships, Ministry Initiatives, Mission Organizations, Old Tunes, Operation Christmas Child, Paul Baloche, Post Office Box, Shoeboxes, Topical Discussions, Tyler Texas, Underprivileged Kids
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Local Tyler Ministries Helping Haiti – How Can You Help?

January 29th, 2010

What are the local ministries doing in Haiti and how can Christians partner with them?

Mercy Works – YWAM Tyler are sending wave after wave of short term medical teams to Port Au Prince. The first team has now come back and they were involved in providing first aid to the victims being rescued from the rubble – in a very unstable environment. The team that is now there is doing wound care and medical assessments of the many victims. Next weeks team and the ones following will be involved very much on a medical level – performing amputations, other orthopedic surgery and rehabilitation.

Haiti Relief Effort

The teams there report very unsanitary conditions – the stench is horrendous and there is obviously a huge amount of human suffering which is hard to see. The crush injuries are devastating and the need for medical care is very urgent. They are doing what they can to help, currently with limited supplies and equipment. They are staying in tents and there is no electricity. It is also not very safe – there is violence and looting. Please pray for their safety and for God to multiply their effectiveness so they can reach more people in need. If anyone wants to volunteer and can spare 2 weeks in the next couple of months to work on a medical team – please email Mercy Works mercy@ywamtyler.org The current needs are for doctors, nurses and paramedics, preferably people with emergency or orthopedic experience.

Mercy Ships has sent a Disaster Response assessment team to see how they can be involved with the longer term rehabilitation in Haiti. They will be sending several Mercy Teams to that area for years to come – to meet the both the medical and reconstruction needs that are there in Haiti on a long term basis. If you want to help in in Haiti in the future this would be a great option. You do not have to have medical skills to go and help – good health, a desire to work hard and a heart of love for the people affected is what is needed most. These teams will come alongside existing projects to increase the amount of help that is being given. Look for the Mercy Teams application form on the website www.mercyships.org

Mercy Ships and YWAM are also sending funds and equipment so if you haven’t donated and want to get involve that way, you can also do that online at the YWAM Tyler or Mercy Ships websites. So far they have not been able to send a lot of supplies as air transport has been very restricted but things are improving and they will soon be able to meet the huge needs for the medical supplies in the area with your financial donation.

Finally you can pray. I guess Christians everywhere have already been praying for the victims and their families, for those facing loss of limbs and ongoing pain, for those whose lives are devastated in other ways. But there is one thing that is often omitted. There is lawlessness everywhere on the streets of Haiti. We need to pray that God would intervene and stop the ‘every man for himself’ mentality. There needs to be a spiritual revival in that land otherwise chaos will remain there – traditionally there is a lot of occultic practices which came with the immigrants from the voodoo traditions of West Africa . The Christian organizations there (like YWAM and Mercy Ships) can have a big impact in showing God’s unconditional love and hope to those affected and can bring a dimension that just isn’t present in the other relief efforts.

Tags: Assessment Team, Crush Injuries, Disaster Response, Haiti, Haiti Relief Effort, Human Suffering, Limited Supplies, Local Ministries, Medical Assessments, Medical Level, Medical Skills, Medical Team, Medical Teams, Mercy Ships, Orthopedic Surgery, Port Au Prince, Term Rehabilitation, Unsanitary Conditions, Unstable Environment, Wave After Wave, YWAM, YWAM Tyler
Posted in Charities, Ministries | No Comments »

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