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.

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.

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.

Furlough

Sitting on the couch, driving a car, watching TV, going to Starbucks, it's the everyday things that I was looking to most while coming home to San Diego for a 6 week furlough. It's been such a wonderful time to catch up with friends I haven't seen in two years. And it's been a blessing to meet with some of my supporters to talk about what God has been doing on the Logos Hope and what He has planned for me in this coming year!
Since being home I've also been able to play tour guide to my good friends from the ship, Matthijs and Jobina. On their way back to the Netherlands, they spent two days with me enjoying Sea World, Downtown, Pt. Loma and the popular tourist destination of El Cajon.... of course a trip to the Yogurt Mill was included.
I've been very thankful for this relaxing time at home, such a contrast to ship life. On board I live and work with 400 other people. Everyday I eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner with 400 other people. I share a cabin and I share an office. And because we are visiting Caribbean islands with "rough" port areas we must always be in groups when we leave the ship. With so many people everyday in my life, I am soaking up every minute to be alone, walk alone, shop alone and drive alone. And most importantly, spending lots of extra time with God.

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!