In 3 days we are saying farewell to the Caribbean and crossing the Atlantic Ocean toward Africa. It will take 2 weeks of sailing before we hit land in Sierra Leone. It's an exciting time of not only looking forward to what God has prepared for us in Africa, but also to look back at everything that God has done in the Caribbean.
Our first port of call was St. Vincent, we arrived in July of 2009. 15 ports later, our last country visited was Dominica. In a feat of amazement, I actually stayed in one department for the entire tour! WAs an awesome job I've had! I've been the volunteer coordinator getting to work and train the local believers in each of our ports who have volunteered their own time to serve on the ship. The job has not been void of struggles and disappointments, but all of those have been outweighed by the blessings and joy of the people.
In the last 11 months I've welcomed 449 local believers into our DEEP program (D- discipleship, E- exposure to missions, E- expression of love, P- practical work). My busiest port was Kingston, Jamaica with 52 volunteers, my smallest was Hamilton Bermuda with 7. Our volunteers ranged in age from 17-79. They worked in the book fair, book hold, galley, and accommodations departments. in our first DEEP, in St. Vincent, we had volunteers representing 22 different churches on the island. They continued to meet regularly after the ship left, for prayer. Besides working on board the volunteers also get special training sessions each afternoon. We would have guest speakers talk on a series called "GROW, SHOW, & GO". I've had countless conversations volunteers eager to take a step into missions. In september we will welcome back on of our Volunteers from Jamaica who will join the LH for 2 years!
There is so much God has accomplished in the Caribbean. This is only a small sliver. Now I prepare for West Africa and beyond. We will visited 3 countries, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Liberia. In each port we are accepting 50 volunteers, we've already had over 100 applications from each of the ports!! It's going to be exciting moving into a new culture, but I'm eager to meet more of God's people.
Please pray for me as the task is too much for me alone. Pray for the leadership on board to fulfill my request for extra help. I'll only be on board for 3 more months. My commitment will end in September where I will leave the ship from the Canery Islands. Please pray for my future and what my next steps will be.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
Haiti 20 March - 1 April
I was chosen to lead a special Challenge Team to Haiti for a 10 day trip of teaching mentoring and playing. God was present through the entire trip, from putting the team together, to our daily orphanage visits, to a workshop with youth leaders and finally to our flights back to the ship.
Below are our updates sent while we were in Port-au-Prince:
HAITI UPDATE #1
Hello All,
Greetings from Haiti. These past three days have been filled with kids, kids, more kids and truck rides.
Our team has grown in size. Adding to the three of us are 4 locals who join us each day. All four of them work with youth at their church or orphanages and are eager to gain new ideas and strategies about childcare.
It's been a blessing to have them join our team as we get to invest personally in their lives and they can teach us first hand about the culture and the kids.
We have visited 2 orphanages and today ran a day program at a church-ran community center. The kids are adorable and just happy to have attention.
We heard that you prayed for us and Haiti as you sailed by the other day...Thank you. We feel them everyday. God is busy at work here and we are thankful that we can do a small part for the Haitian children.
The Haiti Team,
Jessica, Lucie, Judith
HAITI UPDATE #2
Greetings All,
It's hard to believe we left a week ago. We've seen so much in these past seven days and are constantly reminded how blessed we are to have food, shelter and our heavenly Father. One of the young girls we met at a church was not only orphaned in the quake, but she herself was rescued from the rubble.
On Friday we went on a fieldtrip with a church we've been working with. This church has been acting as a school for the neighborhood kids five days a week. We were excited to join all 80 kids as they "walked to a nearby field" for a day of free play. Our "walk" turned into a "hike up the mountain side" and an hour later we had reached a shaded area near a football field. What a great day to see kids playing, laughing and having fun in an open space free of earthquake reminders.
On Saturday we visited a church plant from an ex-L2, Pastor Marc. We drove to a rural village about 20 km outside the city... and it only took 3 hours to get there! We arrived to a one room hut make of plam mats and over 100 children eager to meet us. We shared the gospel with all of them and some parents, too. Pastor Marc made sure that everyone in attendance got a meal of rice, beans and chicken.
Two more orphanage visits are planned this week, along with a leader's workshop on Wednesday. We have lots to prepare for. We appreciate your prayers and trust God is blessing you in the Bahamas.
The Haiti Team,
Jessica, Lucie, Judith
BACK ON BOARD
Though we left the ship from Jamaica, we returned to the ship in Nassau, Bahamas. All three of us came back to battle a bit of exhaustion. After a few days to recover we were able to share our experience to ship's company and lead them in prayer for Haiti and work that God is doing there.
For the final day in Haiti we led a workshop for almost 40 adults who we had worked with at the visited churches and orphanages. It was a really blessed time to pass on practical kid advice, as well as resources for organizing Bible Clubs once schools start up again.
Pictures and videos to come. Thank you for your prayers. All the glory to God.
Below are our updates sent while we were in Port-au-Prince:
HAITI UPDATE #1
Hello All,
Greetings from Haiti. These past three days have been filled with kids, kids, more kids and truck rides.
Our team has grown in size. Adding to the three of us are 4 locals who join us each day. All four of them work with youth at their church or orphanages and are eager to gain new ideas and strategies about childcare.
It's been a blessing to have them join our team as we get to invest personally in their lives and they can teach us first hand about the culture and the kids.
We have visited 2 orphanages and today ran a day program at a church-ran community center. The kids are adorable and just happy to have attention.
We heard that you prayed for us and Haiti as you sailed by the other day...Thank you. We feel them everyday. God is busy at work here and we are thankful that we can do a small part for the Haitian children.
The Haiti Team,
Jessica, Lucie, Judith
HAITI UPDATE #2
Greetings All,
It's hard to believe we left a week ago. We've seen so much in these past seven days and are constantly reminded how blessed we are to have food, shelter and our heavenly Father. One of the young girls we met at a church was not only orphaned in the quake, but she herself was rescued from the rubble.
On Friday we went on a fieldtrip with a church we've been working with. This church has been acting as a school for the neighborhood kids five days a week. We were excited to join all 80 kids as they "walked to a nearby field" for a day of free play. Our "walk" turned into a "hike up the mountain side" and an hour later we had reached a shaded area near a football field. What a great day to see kids playing, laughing and having fun in an open space free of earthquake reminders.
On Saturday we visited a church plant from an ex-L2, Pastor Marc. We drove to a rural village about 20 km outside the city... and it only took 3 hours to get there! We arrived to a one room hut make of plam mats and over 100 children eager to meet us. We shared the gospel with all of them and some parents, too. Pastor Marc made sure that everyone in attendance got a meal of rice, beans and chicken.
Two more orphanage visits are planned this week, along with a leader's workshop on Wednesday. We have lots to prepare for. We appreciate your prayers and trust God is blessing you in the Bahamas.
The Haiti Team,
Jessica, Lucie, Judith
BACK ON BOARD
Though we left the ship from Jamaica, we returned to the ship in Nassau, Bahamas. All three of us came back to battle a bit of exhaustion. After a few days to recover we were able to share our experience to ship's company and lead them in prayer for Haiti and work that God is doing there.
For the final day in Haiti we led a workshop for almost 40 adults who we had worked with at the visited churches and orphanages. It was a really blessed time to pass on practical kid advice, as well as resources for organizing Bible Clubs once schools start up again.
Pictures and videos to come. Thank you for your prayers. All the glory to God.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Dad's visit
What an awesome God surprise! Turns out Dad got a lot of free time for an undefined amount of time.... and since work was always his excuse for not being able to visit me it made perfect sense for him to take some of his new free time to come and visit me! Mom found him a plane ticket and Dad was able to visit me in Kingston, Jamaica for 10 days.
It was a blessing and answer to prayer that I could show my world to Dad. I think we spent more time together in those 10 days, then we have in the last 10 years. I was able to introduce him to my friends, my co-workers and some of the local volunteers that I work with.
Dad had a good time relaxing, in the VIP cabin. He spent some time sight-seeing, after being in Kingston for 2 days he had seen more then I had in 2 weeks! And of course Dad did lots of fishing! As he said "lots of fishing, not so much catching". A hightlight for was fish tacos on one of his last nights with me and my friends. He caught a 11# King fish and we grilled it on the back deck!
I dont' know what the future holds for him, but God does. I'm just thankful we had this time to spend together.
It was a blessing and answer to prayer that I could show my world to Dad. I think we spent more time together in those 10 days, then we have in the last 10 years. I was able to introduce him to my friends, my co-workers and some of the local volunteers that I work with.
Dad had a good time relaxing, in the VIP cabin. He spent some time sight-seeing, after being in Kingston for 2 days he had seen more then I had in 2 weeks! And of course Dad did lots of fishing! As he said "lots of fishing, not so much catching". A hightlight for was fish tacos on one of his last nights with me and my friends. He caught a 11# King fish and we grilled it on the back deck!
I dont' know what the future holds for him, but God does. I'm just thankful we had this time to spend together.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
updating
It appears that I've gone two months without updating my blog. Sorry. Let's catch-up!
December brought me back to the ship after a very restful furlough with friends, family and Thanksgiving. I joined the ship midway through it's stay in Guyana. It was a help port so most of ship's company had been sent into the countryside to help with projects like building churches, youth centers and water tanks. I spent the time falling back into my role as the Volunteer Coordinator and made some wonderful friendships with the women volunteers. They invited me and some other girls over for dinner one night, appetizers were Chicken Feet!
For Christmas and New Years we were blessed to spend the holidays in Curacao. It was an absolutely beautiful port with crystal blue water and swimming from the dock! And after Guyana, it was nice to have a slower port with less visitors.
January we sailed to Aruba. I was able to go on an overnight team to a local church. Along with 3 other girls we moved a pile of sand (A BIG PILE) and organized a large hall that had daycare equipment and toys. I really appreciated our host who showed some of the island and kept feeding us... (no chicken feet).
Aruba and Curacao were pretty quite ports for the ship, which God knew we would need because now we are in Jamaica!! Today we had over 3,000 school kids visit the ship in just 3 hours! The ship will be in Jamaica for a total of 9 weeks, 4 weeks in Montego Bay and 5 weeks in Kingston. In this first port I've been working with 34 volunteers. It's been a cultural adjustment for us all, as I've had to learn about relaxing and going with the flow, and the volunteers learning about "being on time" and showing up for their work shifts! In the next port I'll have about 60 volunteers!
Besides all the school kids, regular visitors and the volunteers, Jamaica also brought major changes to our community life... Since January we've been saying I said good-bye to friends who have been living with for the past 2 years, about 50 people in total. Including all the Indians on board, some I considered very close friends and look forward to taking them up on their offer to visit India! And I said farewell to my bestest roommate Mel, who has gone back home to work as a Trainer with a ministry called Caleb in Australia. But the change doesn't stop there, on Wednesday we welcomed 60 new recruits from around the globe.
That should catch you up from my lack of blogs. Keep praying for our ministry as we share Jesus with each of the people that come to the ship. Pray also for the volunteers that they can experience missions in a whole new way and learn to share their faith with the fellow countrymen. And lastly pray for our community as it is growing and changing.
December brought me back to the ship after a very restful furlough with friends, family and Thanksgiving. I joined the ship midway through it's stay in Guyana. It was a help port so most of ship's company had been sent into the countryside to help with projects like building churches, youth centers and water tanks. I spent the time falling back into my role as the Volunteer Coordinator and made some wonderful friendships with the women volunteers. They invited me and some other girls over for dinner one night, appetizers were Chicken Feet!
For Christmas and New Years we were blessed to spend the holidays in Curacao. It was an absolutely beautiful port with crystal blue water and swimming from the dock! And after Guyana, it was nice to have a slower port with less visitors.
January we sailed to Aruba. I was able to go on an overnight team to a local church. Along with 3 other girls we moved a pile of sand (A BIG PILE) and organized a large hall that had daycare equipment and toys. I really appreciated our host who showed some of the island and kept feeding us... (no chicken feet).
Aruba and Curacao were pretty quite ports for the ship, which God knew we would need because now we are in Jamaica!! Today we had over 3,000 school kids visit the ship in just 3 hours! The ship will be in Jamaica for a total of 9 weeks, 4 weeks in Montego Bay and 5 weeks in Kingston. In this first port I've been working with 34 volunteers. It's been a cultural adjustment for us all, as I've had to learn about relaxing and going with the flow, and the volunteers learning about "being on time" and showing up for their work shifts! In the next port I'll have about 60 volunteers!
Besides all the school kids, regular visitors and the volunteers, Jamaica also brought major changes to our community life... Since January we've been saying I said good-bye to friends who have been living with for the past 2 years, about 50 people in total. Including all the Indians on board, some I considered very close friends and look forward to taking them up on their offer to visit India! And I said farewell to my bestest roommate Mel, who has gone back home to work as a Trainer with a ministry called Caleb in Australia. But the change doesn't stop there, on Wednesday we welcomed 60 new recruits from around the globe.
That should catch you up from my lack of blogs. Keep praying for our ministry as we share Jesus with each of the people that come to the ship. Pray also for the volunteers that they can experience missions in a whole new way and learn to share their faith with the fellow countrymen. And lastly pray for our community as it is growing and changing.
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