Tertius HJ Venter MD is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon who trained in South Africa and was in a private surgical practice for 16 years. He has been in fulltime mission work since 2006 and in a variety of different ministries.
It all started in February 2000 with a visit to the M/V Anastasis, a hospital ship run by the organization Mercy Ships International. During this first visit his life was changed radically when touched by the desperate need of the poor and the love of God.
Since 2000 he has been serving for periods of 2 -12 weeks every year with Mercy Ships that offer free surgeries to the poorest of the poor in West Africa. The M/V Anastasis was replaced with a new hospital ship the M/V Africa Mercy, the largest non-governmental hospital ship in the world, in June 2007. (www.mercyships.org).
During the years 2000 to 2003 he felt a clear Call to expand on his activities and not only to serve the poor but also to people caught up in prostitution and people entangled by today’s life with its confusing concepts on ethics, moral values, and particularly spiritual values and the misconceptions about religion and the reality of God.
He gave up his private plastic and reconstructive surgical practice in early 2006 and is currently spending approximately 3-4 months of the year in Africa with Mercy Ships and with PAACS (www.paacs.net). The Pan African Academy of Christian Surgeons (PAACS) is an American based organization that trains surgeons in Africa for Africa. A further three months of the year is spent in The Netherlands with a ministry telling prostitutes about the love of God for them. Two to three months per year he works in Europe doing cosmetic surgery to fund his activities.
He has given talks at universities, youth groups, national and internationallll congresses, churches and charities such as Rotary. He has been interviewed on national, international and both secular and religious television and radio about his work and about answering and reacting to the Call.
