Getting a on Jet Plane

I’ve started out this entry about 10 different times now and I just can’t seem to find an appropriate sentence to begin:

“Here we are at the end of our time in Texas...” 

“Monday was the last day of classes!” 

“Time to pack our bags--our flight for the Congo leaves TOMORROW!” 

“Feeling bittersweet today... excited to leave but dreading goodbyes.” 

None of those are brilliant or capture your attention. And I’m sure I would have points docked off for beginning an essay that way if I was being graded. But SO much has happened during our time here that I'm not quite sure where to start. 

I don’t want to bore you. So I’m going to go ahead and post a lot of pictures [days of fast internet are winding down, after all] and relate some stories and if you get bored, you just hit that little red x, go on your merry way, and I will be none the wiser. 

But just so you know, where we're off to next is at the very end of this post. :) 

We’ve had 5 solid weeks of class plus 4 extra days--3 Saturdays, half of a Sunday, and half of this past Monday. So we have definitely gotten our fill of sitting in classrooms. Both of us have really enjoyed it all though. During the first week, we learned about the organization itself in a week-long class called “Foundations of Mercy Ships”. Everything you could think about learning about this organization, we learned about. Obviously we already knew enough to want to serve with MS but it was still a very helpful class. 

Mercy Ships has 4 core values: 

1. To Love God
2. To Love and Serve Others
3. To be People of Integrity
4. To be People of Excellance

So for the rest of our classes, we spent a week focusing on each core value.

The first week--to Love and Serve God. What our some of our preconceived notions about God that we might not even know we have? What does God say about himself? How is that backed up in Scripture? How does God’s character impact me and my relationship with him? 

The second week--to Love and Serve Others. Before we arrived, we took the DISC personality test [you can take it here]. We took a day looking at our own personalities and seeing what tendencies our personalities give us. We looked at strengths and weaknesses and talked about how to embrace the personality God gave each of us without overlooking our weaknesses. Then we talked about how certain personalities can clash with each other--when it comes right down to it, a conflict is usually not because one person is a jerk, it’s because the two personalities are literally like two different languages trying to communicate: it doesn’t work. We talked about conflict resolution and how to live as peacefully as possible on a ship with not only 450 different personalities on board, but also 35 other nationalities! 

The third week--to be People of Integrity. We heard from an amazing woman--Camille Bishop--who spent this week talking to us about how to effectively serve other cultures. In order to do that, it’s important to learn how to even enter a new culture and how to interact with people of that culture before you can begin to serve. 

The fourth week--to be People of Excellence. This week was known as Basic Safety Training [BST]. Maritime Law requires that anyone working on a ship take a BST course. On Monday and Tuesday we learned about fire hazards and fire fighting, specifically on board a ship. On Wednesday we took a CPR/AED/First Aid Class. On Thursday we learned Personal Survival Techniques [i.e. how to respond to an emergency, what safety tools are on board a ship, and how to use those tools to survive at sea]. On Tuesday we had to do a fire practical so from 7 to 10 am we practiced putting out fires! On Friday we had to take a pool practical so we practiced with life jackets, life rafts, and immersion suits. 

That was an incredibly quick summary of our time--we learned SO much. In fact, while Brian and Sandy were visiting last weekend, we were going through some of our notes with them and time after time I saw something and said, "Oh I forgot we did that!" We're bringing our notebook to the ship because I know we will need to refresh! 

The most pictures I have are from BST because it’s the most active class--who really wants to see pictures of us sitting taking notes? :) 

So now follows a bunch of pictures!

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We had to use SCBAs--very nice ones but I would be fine with not ever putting another one on my face.

On Monday we picked out our fire gear and got it all ready for the next day. 

The whole group! 

Buck--160 pounds of dead weight that we had to drag out of a smoke-filled container. Also something I don't care to do again.

Getting ready to go rescue Buck!

Practicing working as a team.

First aid day.

Our pool practical! These immersion suits were very strange! 

Our fantastic group!! :) Love all these people! 

Brian and Sandy came to visit--we went to the Fort Worth Stockyards and wandered around all day. The boots in this store were EXPENSIVE--$2000-$5000!

Rodeo time!

We've also had a great time with my family! I kind of feel like we WERE back in college: class all week and family and home-cooked food on the weekends! 

One night we went bowling. :)

Jordan came up with the names. :) 

Our yearly family photo. :)

And... goodbye until the other side. :) We are meeting in our dorm lounge at 5:00 tomorrow morning to make sure everyone is ready to go. Then we'll load up in the vans and head out for Dallas at 5:30. We flight to Dulles, then Frankfurt, then Libreville [Gabon], and then Pointe Noire! We'll get picked up and taken to our field service. Every onboarding class does 5 weeks of class and 2 weeks of field service. Field service is working on a project in the country. We will be working around an orphanage--painting, fixing, cleaning, building. We'll be staying in a nearby "hotel", and I put that in quotations because hotels in Africa are rather different. Namely, ours does not have running water. :) I'm really looking forward to the field service. It will be great to be back in Africa and I'm excited to do some hands on work with the people in our class. And I'm sure the kids will be adorable! :) We will not have internet or phone contact while we are doing field service though; our families will be called when we arrive. We'll board the ship November 8!!

Each step in this whole thing has felt so big. Prayer-->Applying-->Acceptance-->Support raising-->Selling-->Packing-->Moving Out-->Traveling-->Class ... and here we are. Thank you--everyone--so much for following our journey! We'll keep you updated. :) 

Nothing Important (Part 1)

I have a bit of a confession.

I love social media. Love it. I love posts and pictures and updates and hashtags and notifications and feeds and tags and all things social media. 

[If you haven't figured out by now, this is Katie.] 

I know it can be used wrongly. That quote could be changed to say "Better to not post at all and be thought a fool than to use Facebook as your diary and remove all doubt". [Abraham Lincoln] Except that makes the quote longer and it loses its effectiveness. 

But speaking for myself, I love it (when used appropriately). 

A few reasons I LOVE social media and technology: 

We got to watch Luke's baptism via FaceTime last night!! 

How cool is that?? 

Athena is super sweet and sends me pictures of Radar. :) 

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All that to say, I will probably write a lot of blog posts. Consider yourself fairly warned. 

In this case, I just feel like posting some pictures of life down here. :) 

 The whole dorm surprised me with breakfast on my birthday morning! It was fantastic! I'm still note sure how and when they planned it all ... they had bacon, eggs, sausage, toast, oatmeal, juice, coffee... Perfect way to start the day. :) 

Last Sunday, Matthew led a worship night at his church. Him and his friends did a really great job! We had had a full week and weekend of classes and it was so nice to be able to drive over there for the evening. 

On Wednesday night, we went for a picnic and Jordan did some fishing. 

And this is just what we see twice a day when we go up to the Oasis for lunch and dinner. Every day I stop and say how pretty it is. :) 

There’s lots to do after class--fishing, frisbee, racquetball, working out in the gym, a coffee shop, swimming ... oh and homework. :) 

So you could say we’re having a great time. I hope you’re saying the same wherever you’re at. :)