I suppose you could call me a 'guest blogger' since it seems that its so long between posts of my wifes more exciting life in the Ward or ICU.
On my end, the days started getting long last week when we found out the crane for lifting our trash out of the kitchen (because we use big metal bins, you have to imagine a lot more trash from dining room and galley than those few bags you have at home) would be out of service till it could be fixed (and no one was available to do it over the weekend apparently). Hopefully they say it will be done by tomorrow.
We now have our vision trips starting to come to the ship. We also had 2 days of Pastors Conferences on board (Liberian pastors just in case there is some confusion). Both of these combined made plenty of extra work in the form of small lunches and dinners and planned meals for the pastors conference, special meetings, and vision trip people along with the feeding of the regular crew. AND to top it all off actual galley crew staffing is low.
[What is a Vision Trip? Simple answer: Mercy Ships vision trips are one week (maybe longer?) trips intended to give a small number of people a very detailed first hand view (on location, on the ship) of the ministry.]
But I do need to mention (for all the Tyler folks, but not to upset our Grace Community Church friends in Young Marrieds...) that we have had the pleasure of 5 hard workers from Green Acres Baptist Church working in our dining room and galley this past week, so that has DEFINITELY helped us out! Thank You! (here is a post from the Green Acres Pastor's blog - Pastor David Dykes)
I am now sitting at a small table in the 'cafe' area finally getting a little time off to relax and post this blog...while sipping on my chocolate mint latte. Stephanie is off for Bible study with the girls at a local orphanage (she's blogged about it in earlier posts).
Friday it will be the one year celebration of the 'Passing of the Torch' last year when I was recruited for the Maiden Voyage of the Africa Mercy when the retired Anastasis "transferred" over to the Africa Mercy - ..."Passing of the Torch" ceremony on board when the torch was passed from crew member to crew member starting from the top of the gangway of the Anastasis to the top of the gangway of the Africa Mercy.
We will have activities and dinner on the dock for all of this on Friday evening...so hopefully if all goes well BBQ Ribs, Chips/Fries, Baked Beans...coleslaw? rolls, etc...
Monday will bring another small luncheon for guests, separate from the rest of the crew and then, well, it just keeps going. Functions, special events, special meals, the daily feeding of the crew as usual.
Stephanie and I are doing great! But then again she is back on nights so there may be a 'grump' throw down (or fight for those of you who may not know this term) later this week to see who has the right to be grumpier and complain more from all the work we are doing...and whose working the hardest, and why we should be more sensitive to each other because we both tend to start feeling selfish. (this is a usual skirmish at the end of spells of night shift or hard working schedules, but nothing to be alarmed about) But Stephanie does tend to get mad when I laugh about it because I can almost predict it coming!
Well, just as a funny side note we are almost out of cheese and ice cream (for the whole ship)...but hey, I'd rather sacrifice that than my coffee!
[I know, I know, you are probably saying "YOU GOT ICE CREAM?!?!?"]
On my end, the days started getting long last week when we found out the crane for lifting our trash out of the kitchen (because we use big metal bins, you have to imagine a lot more trash from dining room and galley than those few bags you have at home) would be out of service till it could be fixed (and no one was available to do it over the weekend apparently). Hopefully they say it will be done by tomorrow.
We now have our vision trips starting to come to the ship. We also had 2 days of Pastors Conferences on board (Liberian pastors just in case there is some confusion). Both of these combined made plenty of extra work in the form of small lunches and dinners and planned meals for the pastors conference, special meetings, and vision trip people along with the feeding of the regular crew. AND to top it all off actual galley crew staffing is low.
[What is a Vision Trip? Simple answer: Mercy Ships vision trips are one week (maybe longer?) trips intended to give a small number of people a very detailed first hand view (on location, on the ship) of the ministry.]
But I do need to mention (for all the Tyler folks, but not to upset our Grace Community Church friends in Young Marrieds...) that we have had the pleasure of 5 hard workers from Green Acres Baptist Church working in our dining room and galley this past week, so that has DEFINITELY helped us out! Thank You! (here is a post from the Green Acres Pastor's blog - Pastor David Dykes)
I am now sitting at a small table in the 'cafe' area finally getting a little time off to relax and post this blog...while sipping on my chocolate mint latte. Stephanie is off for Bible study with the girls at a local orphanage (she's blogged about it in earlier posts).
Friday it will be the one year celebration of the 'Passing of the Torch' last year when I was recruited for the Maiden Voyage of the Africa Mercy when the retired Anastasis "transferred" over to the Africa Mercy - ..."Passing of the Torch" ceremony on board when the torch was passed from crew member to crew member starting from the top of the gangway of the Anastasis to the top of the gangway of the Africa Mercy.
We will have activities and dinner on the dock for all of this on Friday evening...so hopefully if all goes well BBQ Ribs, Chips/Fries, Baked Beans...coleslaw? rolls, etc...
Monday will bring another small luncheon for guests, separate from the rest of the crew and then, well, it just keeps going. Functions, special events, special meals, the daily feeding of the crew as usual.
Stephanie and I are doing great! But then again she is back on nights so there may be a 'grump' throw down (or fight for those of you who may not know this term) later this week to see who has the right to be grumpier and complain more from all the work we are doing...and whose working the hardest, and why we should be more sensitive to each other because we both tend to start feeling selfish. (this is a usual skirmish at the end of spells of night shift or hard working schedules, but nothing to be alarmed about) But Stephanie does tend to get mad when I laugh about it because I can almost predict it coming!
Well, just as a funny side note we are almost out of cheese and ice cream (for the whole ship)...but hey, I'd rather sacrifice that than my coffee!
[I know, I know, you are probably saying "YOU GOT ICE CREAM?!?!?"]
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