Southern Hemisphere Christmas

It's been a very busy month. With something almost every night. 

On Christmas Eve Eve I went on a drive with some friends and watched the sunset at the beach. Then got to stand in the waves of the ocean. It was definitely a rememberable evening. Who knows the next time I'll be standing in the ocean so close to Christmas.

This morning started with a pancake breakfast with some friends and then opening the Shop for people to get their last minute items.

Tonight was the culmination of our Advent Services. Since the beginning of the month we have been celebrating God With Us at our community worship services.

The service ended in my favorite Christmas carol, Silent Night. The only difference was that we sang it in eight different languages. 

After the service I spent some time with friends and learned the tradition of a Christmas Cracker.

The night ended with passing out Christmas presents in the Africa Mercy style. Which is to go around the ship and leave your friends present in their shoe that they have left in the hallway.

It has been quite a busy day, and it's not even Christmas morning yet. Hopefully the day will be a bit more relaxing.

During the service our speaker talked about Jesus and how He is our Savior. When's the last time you made that personal? He came to save you. To save you from throwing that fit you threw yesterday when you couldn't find a parking spot. He came to save us from our selfish desire to get everything we want for Christmas. He came to save me from from making plans when I don't want to wait for His. Remember that when you're rushing to the next event. He came to save us.

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."      Luke 2.11

Read More

Love is

A few weeks back Kirstie, the Ward Supervisor, gave a very good talk about what love is. She hit the nail on the head when she was talking about our ability to receive love. During the presentation she showed a specially made video made by the Communications Department. I'm proud to say that many in Communications are my friends. Enjoy the video posted below. If you can't see it, you can find it here.... http://youtu.be/E92OZHSlfq8

3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1 Corinthians 13

If God has called me to do this then he wants me to be alive and not feeling dry. -Kirstie (Ward Supervisor)

Are you receiving the love that he has given, if not we will not be able to do the work that He calls us to.

Is it a ship disease to be extremely willing to give and not so good at receiving love ourselves. We end up going empty and can't give out anymore.

It stems from an unbelief in God as Provider – once we learn that God is our provider, we will be able to give generously, we'll never need to fear lack or fear burning out make us hold back because we will understand that God is our provider.

Read More

We are thankful for

Read More

A language of thankfulness.

There are many things that I am thankful for. One of the downfalls that I have is that I barely ever voice them. When looking at a glass of water I'm the person that says how much is missing rather than saying how much is there. Thanksgiving has come and gone on the ship now. The turkey was carved, the pie has vanished and most people have gone to bed. But I still want to take the opportunity to share with you some of the things that I am thankful for.

• I'm thankful for a God that loves me unconditionally and gives me grace on an constant basis.

• I'm thankful for the opportunity to serve the crew here on the Africa Mercy.

• I'm thankful for people that support me financially so that I can fully focus on my job.

• I'm thankful for a team of 4 people that work together in Sales. All from different countries, all speaking different languages, all here to serve Christ and bless others serving on the ship.

• I'm thankful that I get to work on a ship that changes peoples lives daily.

• I'm thankful that the work we do is so exciting that media teams want to come and document what we do so that they can share it with others.

• I'm thankful that when I wake get ready for work I travel up one flight of stairs and walk about 200 feet before I'm AT work!

• I'm thankful that I get to meet new people everyday and learn a little about them, their country and what makes them, them.

• I'm thankful that many of the people that I meet I get to call friend.

• I'm thankful that I have friends that are my ship family.

• I'm thankful that I have been able to travel to meet some of those countries, friends & family.

• I'm thankful for a God that supplies all of my needs! and even my wants!

• I'm thankful for a God that lets me see the beauty in his creation.

• I'm thankful for a God that has gifted me with many talents

• I'm thankful that I can use my talents to glorify God.

• I'm thankful for food.

• I'm thankful that I can share my love of cooking with my friends.

• I'm thankful that I can capture small pieces of beauty in a picture.

• I'm thankful for a place that I can rest my head at when the day is over.

• I'm thankful that God that gives me lots of energy on little rest.

• I'm thankful for a God that has tremendously blessed me with good health.

• I'm thankful for people that encourage me on a daily basis.

• I'm thankful for technology that makes my family only a click or phone call away.

• I'm thankful that God had a plan for me.

• I'm thankful that God has a plan for my future.

• I'm thankful for a God that is equipping me for things that I don't even know yet.

• I'm thankful for a boss that continues to mentor me even when he's away from the ship.

• I'm thankful for the children that live on the ship and show me God in a tangible way.

• I'm thankful for families onboard that show amazing ways to raise children in light of plans God has for them.

• I'm thankful for you.

• I'm thankful that you have chosen to follow what I do to serve Christ while serving with Mercy Ships.

Read More

Update

The thing about blogging is that when I get away from it I never know where to start again.

I see that the last time that I posted was the end of October. Now I'm wondering how I managed to post at all in October. You see, the thing is in September and October the Sales Team was short one person. I ended up filling in the position and working a bit to much. It wasn't harmful, but I did get a little overloaded with being at work so much.

For now I have a few random things to share to give you a glimpse of what's going on.

Now that the Sales Team is full, all 5 of us come from different countries. Ib from Sierra Leone, Ed from Cameroon, Giselle from Argentina and Serenity from Chine. It still amazes me the multiple nationalities that serve here on the ship. Often I look around a group of people that I'm with and find that the American are the vast minority.

It has been a full year since I started serving in the Sales Manager position. I enjoy my job very much and look forward to continuing to improve the Ship Shop and Cafe so that we can better serve the crew onboard.

Two weeks ago I bought 288 yards of fabric at the local market; 24 yards of 12 different patterns. Two ladies helped me pick it out and then assisted in cutting and organizing the sets. You see, normally fabric is bought in 6 yard pieces. If you want an assortment of fabrics you have to buy a LOT of fabric. With buying in bulk and cutting the fabric down to half yard pieces people were able to get 12 different half size pieces for an affordable price.

I've become addicted to LOST, thanks to a DVD sharing program onboard I have been able to watch the first four seasons in the last two months.

Earlier this month there was a second screening in Brazzaville, the capital city of the Republic of Congo. Five hundred and twenty-two people attended the even. The turn out was much smaller because people were pre-screened thro local physicians making the job much easier for the crew that traveled to the screening. Two hundred and ninty-four of them were scheduled for surgeon screening and surgery here in Pointe Noire.
94 - general
112 - maxillofacial
45 - plastics
38 - women's health
5 - orthopaedics

Rainy season has arrived. Much different that West Africa, it means that the weather is getting hotter now. Most of the rain has come in the night or early in the morning. It doesn't effect me much, but the Day Crew do have some troubles getting to the ship on days that it is raining.

A good group of my friends found a nice beach to go to about an hour away from the ship. I've been there twice now. It' always nice when I get the chance to get away from the ship. This country boy can only handle living in this big metal box if i can get out to some open spaces every once in a while. And driving to and from is pretty enjoyable too.

That is all for now. If you could keep my parents in your prayers, they are planning on visiting in January and are in the critical stage of determining flights and plans. Also, I've come across the opportunity of a special project this spring. Keep me in your prayers as I look to see what God's plan is.

Read More

Pursuing Joy

Two weeks ago I posted on Surprised by Joy here. At the end there is a small summary and I'd like to expand on the first point. I haven't jumped into the Word to see what scripture has to say yet, I hope to soon, but I have been dwelling on it and God has led me a little further down the road.

Joy is not a destination, it is something that you experience while pursuing a destination.

The Westminster Creed has been something that I have taken as a personal belief. It begins with the line, "I believe man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever," John Piper pushes that a little further by saying, "I believe man's chief ends is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever." You can read more about what John says in his book Desiring God. I would suggest it, but be warned it is a very heavy and long read.

We're looking at Joy and what it is. We said that it's what you experience while pursuing a destination. If our destination is to glorify God by enjoying him forever, then to receive joy our destination must be to glorify God. Now what hit me in the face tonight was that this is a continual pursuit. It's constant everyday. We can never reach the end of glorifying God. We have to take up our cross daily and pursue our destination of glorifying God.

So here's a little illustration, I'm not sure if it will help you, but it's what God showed me to get the point across. Many people have preferences on music, it's safe to say that everybody has a preference on music. In the church some prefer Hymns, some prefer Southern Gospel, some prefer Contemporary Christian, and some would say that we don't even need music in the church. Each person has a reason for what they like and what they don't like. When talking to some of my older friends (Bill & Wanda, you might know them) they say that the modern praise and worship songs are 7/11 songs. The same seven words sung eleven times. My music preferences are very different. You can find anything from Southern gospel to Opera and then back to songs from the Billboard Top 40. I was listening to some of my "7/11" songs and in between the fifth and sixth repeat there was a break and the singers were singing freely with some hallelujahs. Traditionally I wasn't a big fan of this open spot for people to sing whatever they felt. I was always thinking, "okay, get to the point, on with the song, there's lyrics for a reason." Over the last few years I have become more welcome to that and especially liked it at GHOP where I would go to worship with some of my friends. While I was dwelling on this pursuit of joy and the destination of glorifying God I realized that those hallelujahs are enjoying God in the song. It's feeling His presence where we are on the journey and expressing it to Him. The song is just the road that we take to get to His presence, what we add is our personal expression of glorifying Him.

This is just one example. With having a task-orientated personality the relation side of my life normally lacks in many areas. Remembering some of the things that I've talked about here will help me to pursue the glorification of God on a daily basis. Building that relationship with God. It's a journey not a destination.

Read More