Ship Family Time

My Ship family had an opportunity to take the ship vans out for a day at the beach! It was a great time of bonding and relaxing. We headed to the North side of Trinidad to a beach named, Maracas Bay. It is one of the most beautiful beaches on the island. It's famous for a local dish called "Bake n Shark". There a bunch of stands selling the food. It reminds me a lot of a shark taco, but instead of tortillas, they use a fried flat bread. It was awesome!
My ship family: Meyoung Ju (S. Korea), David & Jonathan (Sweden), Maddy (UK), Rahel (Swiss), Amanda & Me (USA), Andy & Micha (Germany), Holly, Jon, Nate, Zac & Gabe (USA/Australia), Lucio (UK), Annette (Jamaica)

Ship families are a group of people that meet once a week and hang out. Kinda like a real family, they are people that you enjoy spending limited time with, but not necessarily people that you spend everyday with. Ship families are also nice, because they give a steady unit of people who will celebrate important times in our lives.
For example, my "ship dad" had his birthday recently.
I'm pretty blessed, that my ship parents are actually my friends from home. My childhood friend Holly and her husband are my "mom and dad". For Jon's birthday we had Mexican food!!! It was feat but we pulled it off... meat and cheese from the ship, tortillas from Germany, enchilada sauce from Ireland, and comics from the US.

Two Years Ago...

September 15, 2007 I took my first steps onto the Logos 2. My first steps on board one of OM's ships. WOW. I can't believe how fast those two years have flown by. Where did the time go? Looking back at pictures and reminiscing has been short lived, as life on board the ships is every-changing and mostly busy. I've said good-bye to many of the people I joined with, people I've spent the last two years with, like a family. I've also said hello to the 96 new people who joined our ship last week, filling in the hole left by my fellow ship mates. I've also been very busy with work and organizing the local volunteers who come to help make the ship's visit a successful one in their home country.
But looking back over these two years I can see where God has encouraged me, taught me, used me, molded me, and loved me. I could tell of the time I had to learn to have joy in every situation, even in dark times. Like when I had to work in the book hold, doing manually labor fighting depression because my task seemed never ending and never rewarding. How discouraged I was everyday that the book hold was looking just as dirty as the day before. God was teaching me to be happy, and embrace those times, instead of being bored, I should rejoice in God's faithfulness and promise that He is always with us.
I can also look back on bright times, when I had peace in my spirit and a good attitude. When things seemed to be going my way, but I could only express gratitude to my God, because I knew that He was making things go my way. Like when I was able to see thousands of people come to the ship, and even though we didn't have enough team members to make it work, each visitor still got presented the gospel through one-on-one conversations. Or when God used me to "talk" to Deaf who came on this ship.
Right now I'm at peace. I'm excited for this new year with the Logos Hope to begin. I know that I'm right where God wants me. That He is using me to minister to the local volunteers. After every port, I'm still in awe that the volunteers walk away with so much excitement for Jesus and missions. I'm in awe because whenever I think the program we are doing is poor or lacking, those are the days that the Spirit takes over and volunteers meet God. To God be the glory!
I'll be home in about 4 weeks time. I can't wait to meet with each of you individually. I would love to share my "God Stories" with you. Please contact me or my mom if you would like to arrange a meeting when I get home. I'll only be in the San Diego for 6 weeks, then I come back to the ship for one more year of commitment.
You can email me at: jessica.edwards@gbaships.org

Volunteer Fun

We've been in the Caribbean for 41 days now, and seems like so much longer! God has filled my days with so much to do and prepare, but best of all with people!
We've had over 90 volunteers join us while we've been in these first three ports. The local people volunteer for the entire ship's visit, but it's not only to work. We offer a discipleship program where they work for part of the day, but also attend trainings and get to interact with our international crew.
Every time we come to the end of the port I'm amazed by God's hand in their lives. Sometimes I feel that what I'm doing isn't that important, or the volunteer really isn't appreciating the program we've developed.... but then, we ask to fill in an evaluation and everyone comes back with the same answers:
"please stay longer" "God has taught me about being a servant" "I want to live for Christ daily, just as the crew of the Logos Hope as been an example of"
God has given me the unique opportunity to be used in a position that gets to connect with the locals, by sharing a little bit of our world, and a whole lot of Jesus' love with them. I'm encouraged by the growth and knowledge that so many of our volunteers take away with them as the ship leave's their port.
Please pray with me that their enthusiasm for serving God in their own countries will not fade away. And pray also for the next bunch of volunteers we will get in Trinidad, as it is going to be a very BUSY port with lots of visitors expected to attend!