Monday, October 26, 2015

About Face

Beware: this blog is full of nothing but Katie’s thoughts; a somewhat scary place to be. No pictures or fun stories to be had. You have been warned! 

Like usual, all has been quiet on the blog front. It’s not that there’s nothing going on—on the contrary, life has pretty much been going non-stop. I don’t bother feeling the Monday blues any more because if I just blink it will be Friday again. I just haven’t been too sure what to write about.

My office shares a wall with the gangway so I have a pretty good view of who comes and goes each day. Today, orthopedic surgeries started and so last week I got to see parades of adorable children making their slow way down to deck 3. Give those kids a few weeks though and they will be tearing around creation on straight legs. Today I went down to the hospital to get the serial number off of a refrigerator (yes, my job is really random sometimes) and a line of patients with tumors—some small, others bigger—walked by on their way back outside; they were getting screened and (hopefully) scheduled for surgery. As I peeked into the ward to see if I had permission to come in, a child that I’ve never laid on eyes on before saw me and started waving frantically at me with the biggest grin on her face.

Those moments are just incredible. When I come face-to-face with a patient’s life that is being drastically changed, the small difficulties of my day melt away. 

But while those patients are ultimately the reason that Jordan and I are here, and for which we feel incredibly privileged, they are not that ones that are in my primary circle of concern. It’s a blessing to get a glimpse into that healing but that’s not what most of my days are made of. I’m here to serve the crew and I feel specifically called to do so. (Aside from knowing that I’m not called to serve on the “front lines” in the hospital, I am perfectly happy up on deck 5, thank you very much. I’ve heard some nurse’s stories and I will take potatoes and mops over blood and guts any day!) 

Like most jobs, the days I tend to remember when it’s time to sit down and write aren’t the ones that did go perfectly but the ones that didn’t. The stressful days where I didn’t feel good enough, didn’t get even half of my to-do list done, had hard conversations and overall felt like a fool. For one reason or another though, it’s not entirely appropriate for me to share those days, both for the content and because it would be impossible to try to get my feelings across accurately. On the flip side though, it doesn’t seem fair to you to just post pictures of sun shine and Presidents visiting and making new friends from all over the world because that’s not an entirely accurate picture either. 

So I’ve been thinking about this long overdue post for several weeks completely stumped on what to write. I wanted to be honest and let you know how I’m really doing but I couldn’t figure out how. 

Then last week I had what I like to refer to as a “smack-down” moment with God. You know, a moment where you know that God said “uh-uh”, snapped his fingers in a z-formation and told you to where to get off? I did an about-face earlier this week and it hit me that I’ve had lots of those moments on this crazy ship! I have been changed just as much as some of those patients. I have no doubt that’s part of the reason God brought me here—to work on my heart. So why not share? 

Time for a little vulnerability.

This ship community life is intense. What often gets quoted is working, playing, and living literally right on top of each other and the challenges that brings. But did you know that it’s incredibly easy to judge in this environment? I can judge how healthy you eat just by the line that you hop into at lunch. I can judge where you go in the evenings just by walking out to the gangway and see where you signed out to. I can walk through the port and see who’s at the bar and make an automatic judgement. I can go to the crew bank to get some cash out and look at the list above me to see who was just in there and make a judgement. I can happen to be walking by the chaplaincy office, see someone duck in and make a judgement about why they’re there. I can get an email from someone and read it while completely missing the spirit in which it was sent—and make a snappy judgement. In my job, there’s a lot of public areas that I officially oversee and it’s hard to shut my judging mind off over the weekend (not that I really should anyways) when I go to do my laundry and I see someone breaking one of the 400 rules in there. Or when I go walk through a hallway and see a mug that someone left on a railing instead of returning it to the dining room. Those things technically do concern me but I’ve been dismayed at how easy it is for me to pass judgement on the action—without even knowing who was behind it. 

As I wrote those examples I could sense the awkwardness of hitting “publish” on this blog and letting those confessions out in the open. But I’m being honest—it’s really that easy for me.

Over the last several weeks, I have been exhausted as I dealt with people that I judged. Once I pass judgement on someone, it is so. very. hard. to give that person a clean slate. And from judgement it’s a slippery slope to gossip, which is even harder to get out of. 

Then last week, two things happened that made me step back. The first was when I was praying for a friend, which is generally a good thing, right? I was praying for something specific for this friend, and it was not a “bad thing” that I was praying for. In fact, I can guarantee that God would have no problem with me asking for this particular answer to prayer. But in the middle of my prayer, I was interrupted with the simple command: 

STOP. It is not your job to ask for that. It is your job to pray that your friend draws closer to Me. I will take care of the rest because I know best in that life. 

Yikes. 

Then later on in the week, I was involved in an activity where I was interacting with someone that I had formed my own private judgment about. During this activity I was really struggling to concentrate and couldn’t stop the nagging feeling that I was still judging. I prayed silently that God would take those judgements away—basically so I could have peace and enjoy myself—and He replied with: 

STOP.  This is bothering you so much and there is literally nothing you can do to fix it. You don’t have the influence over them that I do; after all, this is my child. It is your job to pray that this person would draw close to me—and then trust me to take care of the rest. Their journey will look different than yours and there is nothing wrong with that. You be confident in the journey that I called you on and leave their journey to me, the Map-maker. 

Again, this was someone that I felt righteously justified in judging, although as I type that sentence I realize how stupid it sounds. It blew my mind that God could take two separate incidents where no one would have begrudged me for the opinions I had and left me speechless at my own audacity.

As if I needed any more convincing, the sermon in church on Sunday (delivered by the amazing Nick Cash) was about shutting down gossip amongst ourselves.

Allllllrighty then. I get the picture. 

So speak and act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgement. -James 2: 12-13


A positive bit of homework for myself that I’ve taken away this week: I realized that a lot of judgements that I make come out of seeing things that I don’t agree with because of personal convictions. What is the journey that God has called me on? What are my beliefs/standards and where do the values behind them come from? How can I shine my Light if I’m silent? Is it fair to judge someone who has no idea that I hold a different standard if I’ve never made that clear? Still mulling on what that one means for me … but for now, good night from this side of the International Date Line. 

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Stretch

Mada II

I’m ready for this year and I’m not.
I’m excited for it and I’m dreading it.
Whether or not I would make the same choices to get here remains to be seen.
But whether or not I will look back with gratefulness is entirely up to me. 
There will be moments when I’m overwhelmed
And there will be moments when I feel made for this.
There will be days when I see God everywhere
And there will be days when I wonder why He hasn’t shown His face.
There will be painful decisions
And there will be moments  of relief when everything works out.
There will be confusion
And there will be clarity.
There will be days when I will want to shake everyone’s shoulders with frustration
And there will be days when I am so grateful for a community that presses in on me.
There will be days that drag
And there will be days that are over in the blink of an eye
There will be days when I will want nothing to change
And there will be days when I just want to get to what’s next
There will be days when I just want to hop on a plane
And there will be days when I never want to leave.
There will be days of monsoons (hopefully no cyclones)
And there will be  days of plentiful sunshine.
There will be many hellos
And too many goodbyes.
There will be days when I am the teacher
And there will be days when I am the student. 
The good, the bad, and the ugly?
No; the good + the bad = this beautiful life. 
So I will take a deep breath—
Here we go! 



Sunday, August 2, 2015

Shipyard Round Two

We are back in shipyard! It seems like we just got through wearing hard hats and closed-toe shoes and seeing our home out of the water. Our time in Madagascar flew by, which seems to be no exception to our time with Mercy Ships! Last year this time found us at the almost very north of the African continent; this year finds us in the almost very south. 

We are the purple dot--Durban! 

It’s winter in the southern hemisphere, which looks different all over the continent. In Madagascar, it’s still a very tropical country so the “winter” just means that the rainy season and dry season are flipped from the northern hemisphere. South Africa is southern enough that it does get fairly chilly. Durban stays warm during the day though because it is right on an ocean channel that has warm water. The temps are anywhere in 70s during the day to down to the 50s at night. It’s been beautiful and fun to pull out the few sweaters and warm clothes that we brought! 

The sail over here went very well. The first two days were a little rough but the last three days were so smooth that it was hardly noticeable! I actually really enjoyed the sail this time around which was a huge blessing. There were some beautiful sunsets and views.          

                                                                                                   
                                 
                                 
Photos: Sunset over the Indian Ocean; Jordan and our good friend Robert watching the sunset. 


Shipyard life started pretty fast once we arrived in Durban and it hasn’t slowed down much since. There has been so much different stuff going on that the whole time has just flown by. We arrived on 15 June and can't believe that it's August already! 

One of the things Jordan got to do was to take an advanced firefighting class. He has been the leader for one of the three fire teams on the ship since last fall so he was glad to get to learn some more about how to lead a team while fighting a fire. We have fire drills every other week on the ship and on the off weeks, the fire teams themselves have training/drills so there is always some sort of training going on. Because Durban is a big port city, there are lots of trainings geared toward ship life. He and four others from the ship got to go to participate in this particular training.

He has also been made the dive team leader. The dive team goes under the ship every other week to inspect and clean the grates. There are 26 steel intakes about 20 inches in diameter that bring in seawater to cool engines and air conditioning systems. These intakes get plugged with marine growth and garbage so they need cleaned periodically. Here in Durban, he has been working on getting the equipment serviced and ready to go for the new field service. While we are in dry dock, there isn’t much of a need for diving under the ship. :) 

And some days he even gets to be a carpenter! This time of the year is actually busier than normal for him with carpentry work; as the focus changes to maintenance he gets called on a lot. There are lots of improvement projects, big and little, that go on all around. 

One project in particular that Jordan was involved in was the refinishing of the cafe floor. All the tables were taken out and he and a friend, Larry Mast, got to work. The area around the cafe was covered with plastic to keep the dust in but it also served as a cool drop cloth to reveal the finished bit. The whole project took about 9 days.

Lots and lots of sanding.


The finished product is absolutely beautiful!

Sorry for the major glare! Phone picture.
We also had the huge blessing of Luke coming to join as crew for the month of July. It was so good to have some family on the ship! He helped Jordan a lot—they put up handrails all over the ship to make it safer when we sail. They also did some work on the gangway and the gangway doors. 

Jordan and Luke working on the dry dock gangway.

Working on the gangway doors.

While Luke was here, the ship went into dry dock as well. You may remember that last year we went into dry dock and said that this only happens every other year. That's usually the case but there were some big projects that needed to happen this year that necessitated us going back into dry dock. Last year the whole ship was put onto a huge platform that was then lifted out of the water. This year, we floated into a full bathtub basically (the biggest bathtub in the world I think), the way out was blocked, and then the water was drained. 

The "door" getting closed by two tug boats. The whole dry dock process took about 8 hours.

Cement all around us! 
Also while Luke was here we took the opportunity to see a bit of the country. We drove three hours north to Hluhluwe game reserve (it’s pronounced Shushluwe, which took me about 2 weeks to figure out) and spent the day driving through and keeping our eyes peeled for wildlife. The reserve was huge and it was awesome to see the animals in their natural environment—absolutely nothing stopping them from going wherever they pleased! We saw elephants, water buffalo, a wildebeest, rhinos, zebra, giraffes, wart hogs, impala and lions. The next day we went horseback riding and saw crocodiles and hippos. The third day we went shark diving further south. I was pretty animal-ed out by the time we got home. It was a great weekend though and so fun to see the country. Durban is a fun city and beautiful in it’s own way but being in the shipyard is pretty much like living in a construction zone. It was fabulous to get out, breathe the fresh air and enjoy God’s beautiful creation! Just the break we needed. We had spent one night off the ship since Christmas so it was very refreshing to get off for three days. 

Pumba!



Impala, so numerous they are known as the "McDonalds" of the land--note the "M" on their hind quarters!
Horse riding on the beach was spectacular!
Hippos. They are crazy! Did you know they can run 40 km/hr on land??
Pretty fast for looking like a bunch of boulders!

Shark diving.
From my side, I have changed jobs a bit; in June I accepted the Chief Steward position. Basically I added the Food Services areas to my responsibilities as well as the Crew and Guest Services areas that I was responsible for last year. I was hesitant to accept as I knew the job would be a stressful one and I wasn’t sure I was up for it; I have really enjoyed this last year as the Crew & Guest Services Manager and would have been just fine staying there. After a lot of doubt on my part and some pushing on God's part, I really felt like He was leading me forward. I was absolutely right though; it has been very hectic so far and I have definitely been stretched! Most of the stress has to do with shipyard though and not actual “normal” job stuff. Because we are in shipyard, water and electricity are limited which makes feeding 150—250 crew a little challenging. Thankfully I have FABULOUS team leaders that are much more familiar with the job and have been great in helping me get more familiar with the job. It's getting easier day by day and I am enjoying the challenge. I've seen my relationship with God grow a lot even in these short 6 weeks and I'm excited to see what the next year holds. 

And now forward and onward to Madagascar! We were scheduled to set sail tomorrow (3 August)  but there have been a few delays due to some of the maintenance work going on. Since when does fixing something ever go completely according to plan?? :) Please join us in praying that all of the projects can be finished up with good time so we can be on our way. We love Madagascar and its people and are so ready to get back there. 

To God be the glory! 

Monday, June 8, 2015

A Long Way Home!

A trip I will never forget!

By the time you are finished reading this post, you probably are going to have noticed an absence of the beautiful writing style and story telling abilities that you are used to from Kate. If you make that observation, you will be correct. These are the first three sentences I (Jordan) have ever written on this blog. Writing is near the top of the list when it comes to things I dislike. Almost equal to poison ivy or smashing my thumb in the door! Why am I writing then? Mainly to satisfy all the people who say I must finally write a post. Secondly, I guess I would like to share the story of a trip I was honored to be a part of. My goal through this post is to tell a story that has a thread of God’s undeniable goodness to his children woven through it. For those of you like me, who prefer to read a story through pictures, you can read it that way. For those of you who are truly curious and have nothing better to do, I hope you enjoy reading the narrative. I do apologize for the length, but I just didn’t know what to leave out.

Most of you I’m sure have read the story of, or at least heard of a man named Sambany. If you don’t know about him, you can read the beginning of his story with Mercy Ships here.
In short, Sambany came to the ship with a 16.45 lb tumor clinging to the left side of his face. While on the ship, he found healing in the form of surgery and lots of love from so many people who cared for him and prayed for him. He spent nearly five months with us until he was fully healed and ready to return to his home in his village. With his permission, Mercy Ships used his story quite a bit to help spread the word about what we do. Because of this, they wanted to honor him by helping him return to his village.

This is Sambany and his grandson Flavy on their first day on the Africa Mercy.
This is Sambany on the morning we picked him up. Happy and ready to roll!!

I was asked to be a part of the team commissioned with the task of bringing Sambany home. My primary job in carpentry doesn’t afford me much opportunity to work closely with the patients in the hospital so when I was asked to go along I was incredibly excited!!
The team consisted of Me, Josh Callow, Eunice Hiew, Laurin Avara, Scott Reed and our translator Tsoa. This is the team that I spent 5 days with, hiked 33 miles and gained 2500 of                                 elevation with and loved every minute of it.

Starting from the left Laurin Avara, Sambany, Scott Reed, Josh Callow,
Eunice Hiew, Tsoa, Flavy, and Myself.
I was informed of this trip on a Tuesday afternoon. Having an idea of what we might be getting in to, I started to pray and prepare. We left the ship on Thursday at 6:30 am. Our first stop was at the Hope Center where Sambany and his nephew Flavy had been staying for the last few months while Sambany healed. After picking them up we pointed our two Toyota Landcruisers straight South for about six and a half hours. Just shy of the town of Mahanoro is where we were supposed to turn straight west and hopefully drive as close as we could to his village. We had been told by locals that as soon as we turned off of the pavement, there would be a bridge to cross. We were also told that the bridge was in good shape and that we shouldn’t have any trouble crossing. We spent about two hours trying several different cow paths to find the bridge. Each time we would ask a local which was the right path, we would get a different answer. Now we know that each person we asked knew the bridge was completely washed away and has been for a long time but culturally they have a hard time telling you something that you don’t want to hear. 

This is the birdge we were supposed to cross.
Instead they happily point you in a direction with a smile and a wave. That's not real helpful when you have somewhere you're trying to go. When we finally found the completely washed out bridge, we went on into the town of Mahanoro and spent the night. The next morning, we set out at 5:30 and drove to a village a little north of the bridge where we thought we would start walking. Someone told us that we could keep driving for another 3 miles on that trail and park at a school. Once parked, we started hiking. Earlier we had bought 110 lbs of rice as a gift for Sambany's village. I was not real keen on adding it to the 35 lbs I was already carrying and nobody else in the team was either so we paid three local musclemen in the first village we came across to carry it for us. Also as we were walking out of that village, we noticed Sambany talking to a woman who seemed elated to see him. Tsoa told us it was Sambany’s wife. Her name is Barazophy and she was beside herself with excitement! We later learned that she and her village had been told that Sambany and Flavy were dead. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that someone who knew the truth passed through her village and corrected that myth. Still the reunion between the two was very heartwarming. Her excitement over Sambany's presence and new face was apparent. We still don’t know what she was doing in that village but she abandoned whatever her purpose was and walked with us.

Sambany and his wife Barazophy happy to be together again!
About seven and a half hours of walking later, we all agreed that our legs were gonna come unhooked and fall off if we didn’t stop. We spent the night in a village where our team of six shared a one room house with Sambany, his wife, his nephew and our three rice carrier buddies. The house was completely void of any accommodations except a floor and a whole host of Lord of the Rings sized spiders in the ceiling. To our weary bodies though it was a five star resort. After a huge bowl of plain rice with a few noodles on top was safely in our bellies we snuggled down on the wood floor and slept. Our sleep was far from deep though as Sambany in his excitement to get home did not stop talking the entire night!! He had also purchased two radios while here in Tamatave. Somewhere he had gotten his hands on an SD card with about 15 songs on it. This he played on his radio THE ENTIRE WAY to his village at full volume. He also played it all night long. It exercised every single ounce of tolerance our team possessed as we all reviewed in our minds the different ways there would be to silence a radio. Morning came though and we strapped on our packs, shook the fuzzies out of our eyes and headed out.
Barazophy with her radio.

As you can see, the trail was beautiful! It was pretty well solid mud the entire way and very narrow. It took us through rice fields, villages, across streams, one river that we had to wade across and up what felt like about ten Mount Everests. One of the things I meditated on much of the way was the diversity and individuality of our God. No matter where you are in the world, all the diverse beauty that we see around us points us to one place. GOD the creator! Madagascar is no exception! We stood on mountain top after mountain top with breathtaking panoramas. 
I found a buddy!
As we neared the end of the day, it became clear that we were running out of water. There was no place to buy water out as far as we were and there wouldn’t be until we got almost back to our cars. We passed through a village that had a few coconut palms so we bought 24 of them and came away with 5 liters of coconut milk. The milk didn’t spend much time in the bottle though as we were all pretty thirsty. Finally after about eight hours of walking, Sambany said we would be to his village very soon. This put a little extra wind in our sails and we got to his village at about 4 pm. He was like a little kid on the last day of school! He couldn’t wait to be home! He stopped and put on a long white shirt type thing and we crossed one last stream and entered his village. He went straight to the center of town where they have a flag pole with no flag on it and he stood there and prayed. 

Sambany gives all the credit and glory to God for his healing! I don’t know what his knowledge or belief in God was like when he came to the ship, but through his time on the ship he met God in a real and personal way! As he then proceeded to his house, the village people began to come out of the woodwork and gather around. To them Sambany’s whole identity no doubt had been the huge tumor that he had carried around. Now it was gone and their reactions were very moving. Even though I understand surgery and the healing process to a degree, even I still stared at his face in wonder at the fact that something like that can be removed and healed. So it’s no wonder that these village people who have no idea what surgery on a ship is, stared at him in wonder. One of my favorite parts of the Bible is when Jesus combines physical healing with spiritual and emotional healing. Sambany is proof that Jesus is STILL healing through the hands of Doctors and Nurses and people like you who pray. Now for as long as Sambany lives, he will serve as a testimony in his region to the love of God. Our prayer is that he will be able to communicate that to his village in the days and years to come. One truth that sank a little bit deeper into my heart on this trip was how God loves us all equally! As we got to know Sambany and his wife a little, we learned to love them and enjoy their company. A few times I met someone along the way whose personality would remind me of someone back home. As I watched Sambany and found myself in a place completely different than the world that I live in, I was forced to look into how God transcends all the differences and loves us not for what we have or who we think we are but because of the way HE see us. He made us with such individuality and He knows that thing which makes each of us unique from each other. He loves us equally and deeply. Therefore he sees me and Sambany the SAME. If he didn’t prevent that tumor in Sambany, He wouldn’t necessarily prevent it in me either. That realization of truth for me brings a whole new level of compassion and urgency to the hurting people of this world. God loves every single one and nobody in 2015 should be living with 16lb tumors on their face.
This is outside Sambany's house. Some of the people you see here are checking out Sambany and some of them are checking out the weird white people.
Inside his house, he told his story to the village elders.

While Josh and Eunice started interviewing people and capturing the whole reunion on camera, Scott watched all of our bags. Laurin and I set about to solving our water shortage issue. We were completely out and all of us were dealing with early symptoms of dehydration. As some of you reading this know me well, you know that I’m a recovering germaphobe. Acting out of that paradigm, I set myself to make sure the water we were to acquire would be as free of little bugs as possible. We got water from the nearby river and put in on a fire to boil. Four hours later, we had boiled, cooled and UV penned 25 liters of river water. Once we got past the smoky earthy taste and the cloudy, floaty filled texture, it tasted great! The important thing was that it rehydrated us.

We spent the night in Sambany’s village once again on the floor of a house. We dined on the rice we had brought with us and again some noodles on the top. They also brought us some bananas and a little later on, some chicken which we ate for breakfast the next morning along with some cold rice.
After saying our goodbyes and receiving a gift from the village of three live chickens and some rice, we took the same trail we had brought and set out for our cars.
Before we left the whole village got together for a photo.
The way back had a lot more downhill in it which helped us make better time. Ten hours of grueling hiking later, we were within about four miles of our cars. We decided to stop for the night as it was getting dark and this was the first village we could actually buy water at again. After we ate one of our chickens with some rice, we sat around waiting to collapse on the wood floor. At this point God did something really cool. Eunice wanted to sing a song so we did. This led to about an hours worth of song. We were tired, we stank really bad, we each had sores and blisters but our hearts were bursting with the joy of the Lord!! Any song we could think of, we belted out. When we were pretty sure our cobbled together melodies had driven out all the spiders in the ceiling, we finished with a time of prayer thanking God for taking care of us to that point and trusting Him for the rest of the way. One of things that had me nervous was how remote we were. If someone would have got sick or injured, it would have changed our trip greatly. In the end, no one got sick or injured at all. THANK YOU all for your prayers!
Dinner of chicken and rice.
Our singing could be heard through the whole village!
 The next morning, we all put on our wet muddy clothes for the last time and headed to the river where we were delighted to learn that we could take dugout canoes all the way to the cars! All of our blisters joined together in a chorus of thanksgiving that we were DONE hiking! We piled in two canoes and enjoyed the river as yet another part of God’s creation. The canoes had zero stability and we all held our breaths and barely blinked for fear of tipping. Somehow neither canoe tipped and at last the cars came into sight.


The Toyota symbol has never looked prettier! After changing into clean clothes, we pointed our cars back North, and arrived back to the ship just in time for dinner.

Toyota Landcruisers have never looked so good!

Monday, May 11, 2015

It's a Pleasure

One of my favorite things about living with people from all over the world is the different sayings and phrases that are tossed around. Most of them make for a great cultural lesson; the first time I heard a Brit say he was “absolutely knackered” I nearly choked on the water I was sipping. Today a South African came to my office looking for a coworker; when I said she wasn’t there he said, “Oh she was here now-now.” Huh? “Oh I’m sorry; I mean she was here just now.” (Once I heard him properly I decided I really like that phrase.)

But I think one of my absolute favorites has to be every time I get off the phone or leave the office of Mr. Henry Gwani, our HR Director on board. He’s from Nigeria. As I was leaving his office after a meeting today I thanked him for his time and he responded with his usual: “Pleasure.” Whereas I was would say, "You're welcome" he says "Pleasure" and it's downright melodious. 

It’s also how I’ve felt for the last month or so. I’ve walked away from so many moments and conversations and thought, “That was a pleasure!” We recently shared on Facebook that we are extending for two more years; through November 2017. That decision was not an easy one to make, because we felt very strongly both ways (staying or leaving) and it seemed like God just would not make it clear what we should do! But he took us on an awesome journey that perfectly wound our personal lives and our marriage tightly together and made HIS plan clear. That's a story for another day but as we've made this decision and gotten used to the idea of being here longer, I have been overawed by the people we serve with--beautiful, called, talented people. No one's perfect which means that Mercy Ships is by no means perfect but it really is a pleasure to serve here alongside these hearts. 


On this floating white box are every kind of social circle: work, friends, church, school, small group, etc. I love the random interaction with people with vastly different jobs and backgrounds than mine. The people on this ship are really something special and I thought I would share some of them with you. I’ve put a picture up with a short caption and that person’s name linked with their blog. There are few stories I wanted to share that are just stories. There are not even 10 links here, which is literally about 2% of this crew. There are so many amazing testimonies out there; these are just the ones that have been swirling around my head the last few days.


Marie from Norway (my former Head Hostess; she has gone home now) plays with Marie from Madagascar down in the ward. Marie (Madagascar) fell into a pot of boiling water when she was 2 years old. Medical care was not available so her arm healed incorrectly, making her lose much of its use. Read her story here. 


Tom plays with Prisca, a little girl he met in the market one day who needed surgery. In case you can’t tell, she has him wrapped around her little finger. :) Tom does the maintenance for all the off-ships sites and his wife Ann-Marie is the crew nurse. We have been attending a couple’s Bible study with them for the past 3 months and have so appreciated their wisdom!


I don’t know what I would do without this team. They are some of the most joyful people I know—even without the cut-out smiles. This week I’ve been meeting with them all individually to discuss our plans for next year and I’ve come out of every single conversation blessed. They sing and pray every morning and evening—the best bookends to a work day that I’ve ever heard. 





Last week I had one of the funnest interactions I've had; I played the mimicking game with a patient in the hospital hallway. She was adorable and so full of spunk but I knew what a long way she had come because of Heather's blog post (you might want to grab a kleenex) describing this little girl's journey. 




Our Sales Manager (KJ). I count myself incredibly blessed to call KJ friend; she will rise to any occasion to encourage anyone. We share a love for monster cookies, Jack Bauer, cute dresses, and we recently trained for a 5k together! I stop by her office at least once a day to get some unofficial therapy from her and her bouncy exercise ball and a laugh. She inspires me by keeping a list of gifts and blogging about it. It's so encouraging to see someone purposefully looking for the good in each day. 


This woman with a dry skirt and new life who shines joy. Even with just a snapshot you can tell this woman's got the moves. This was at the Dress Ceremony that Jordan, Tyrel, and I attended just a few weeks ago. 

I have all respect for the moms on board the Africa Mercy; raising children on this floating white box would certainly be unique! Tracey and Dianna both have blogs that I shamelessly stalked before we arrived! Your blogs were so full of HELPFUL information! :) I love how they share life--this IS their life! It's not a short trip; two minute showers and cafeteria dining 24/7 are how their kids will remember growing up and I love watching them raise their families! It is really special to see kids running around :) 



Marris and Yfke, who visit chronically or terminally ill patients every day and offer friendship and hope. Read Marris's farewell blog here; it has some really amazing patient stories. 



Amy and Krissy, along with their teams, and the surgeons who provide education for local health professionals, leaving behind a lasting footprint. 


Jenny who made my first blood-donating experience as pleasant as possible. :) 



Jordan loves diving with these guys (and a few others) for ship maintenance every other Friday. From left to right: Derek (electrician), Justin (electrician), Jordan, and Dave (Academy Principal)

There are lots of hellos ... 



... and way too many goodbyes (although I guess technically that number should all be even) ... 



... But it's a pleasure to serve alongside this crew.