He Has Risen…He has Risen Indeed!

How can I not blog about what I (Christians) believe to be the single most important event in human history?? I find I must pay tribute to the Lord in this blog, on this day; as He is the reason I am here in the first place, He is the reason Mercy Ships exists and He is the reason the M/V Africa Mercy sails to developing nations to perform life changing operations.

First of all, this was my first Easter on the ship as last year the entire Academy went on a convention in Kenya. Wow, my home church, which I adore, would be hard pressed to have kept Easter week as focused on the happenings of our Saviour and the depth of what He did for us as did the Chaplaincy department with the help of Susan Parker onboard the ship. Thank you Ans, Marty, Catherine, Susan and all the unseen helpers for the wonderful experience you made possible this Holy Week!!!!  They called it “An Africa Mercy Easter,” and I have been truly blessed this week and reminded to the core of my being what Jesus did for me!!!!!! I am so very humbled and so very thankful! I hope wherever you are and whatever you are doing that you too have felt the love of what He did for you 2011 years ago!

There were many events on board throughout this week to remember, to pray, to be thankful, to be blessed, to have time alone, to remember God’s faithfulness, to take communions…there were movies, a concert DVD: St. Matthew Passion (Bach Opera – very excellent!), foot washing area, the Garden of Gethsemane (that was open all night with perfect nature sounds playing softly overhead), services (sermons), Easter egg colouring, children’s film, Hot Cross buns, visuals, Easter brunch, Easter Egg Resurrection Story and hunt, sunrise worship on deck 8 and more….

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Communion in the upper room & The Garden of Gethsemane

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Foot washing station

The blood of Christ

He took our sins upon himself

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Decorating Eggs

 
Easter morning sunrise worship on the top deck (8)
 
      Hot cross buns & coffee                    Table decorations

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Kids performances

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Dr. Gary Parker (Chief Surgeon and Maxillo Facial Surgeon, Donovan & Mae Palmer (Managing Director), speaking and giving communion

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This family and I are very close. Their children call me nana 

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Delicious buffet – thank you to all who worked on it
Chaplains

As per usual its been a busy week…

“May the reality of our redeemer King, Lord Jesus, pour over you afresh knowing that we too will be resurrected to be forever with Him.”

The Lord bless you and keep you                                     
The Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you
The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace
             -This Hebrew Priestly Blessing is from Numbers 6:23-27

Happy Easter!

Love, hugs and prayers.

In Him,

… Carol XOX

P.S.  Thank you everyone who shared their pictures with me! J

Good news for me…good news for you…

Kussa! (Hello in Krio)

For me…We have hot water – praise the Lord and thank you for your prayers!!!!

For you…I have updated my sidebar from top to bottom; I hope you like it – it only took me 21 hours, honestly!!! Have your ever tried to work with ‘html language??’ A little frustrating to say the least. :)

However, did you notice the clock? Did you huh, did you huh? Yes, I am counting down until I can see you all again. I am very happy and excited! Give me a call (if I don’t call you first) between June 14  and July 18th, and I will be sooooooo very happy to have a visit with you.

Looking forward to seeing you really soon; 46 days from today in fact!

 

This is my new work photo for my door.

 

 

 

 

God go bless you! (Krio)  xx       

P.S. Happy Birthday little sister! I love you!

♫ Oh Canada! ♫

"O Canada! Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North, strong and free!
From far and wide, O Canada,
We stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee."

 

Canuck fans are far and wide, young and old…This little guy is my favourite fan I think – sorry Vera (lol).

Foday, got  8-plates put into his legs so the long one will stop growing, allowing for other leg to catch up. The plates will be taken out sometime in November. He is 5.
I will follow up with a picture Novemberish. Remind me okay…

                                     

Once in awhile (normally when Bernice from Manitoba is here) we get together and have a Canadian gathering. (I did the powerpoint.) 

 

The guy with the Tim Horton's can on his head is Charles. He generously made the delicious donuts below to go with our Tim Horton’s coffee – mmmmm…they were very, very good!

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Coincidentally both of the Canadians with me in the above picture are friends of mine from home At the time of the picture above was taken there were 38 Canadians onboard.

But that’s not the end to the abundance of Canadian activity…

10 of us Canadians had the honour of being invited to the IMATT (International Military Assistance Training Team (S.L.)) The 115 strong (at the time we were there, there were only 32 Brits and 8 Canadians)  International Military Assistance Training Team (IMATT (SL)) was established in 2002 following the end of war and disarmament of rebels by the UN in Sierra Leone.

Its mission is to help develop the Sierra Leone Armed forces into a democratically accountable, effective and sustainable force to fulfil security tasks required by the Government of Sierra Leone. 

According to present plans, the size of IMATT(SL) will gradually decrease as the competence of the Sierra Leone Armed forces increases.

These men/soldiers invited us to have brunch with them and were hosts extraordinaire I must say. The purpose of the brunch was to partake in the memory of Vimy Ridge Day this past Saturday, April 9, 2011. The National Flag of Canada flies at half-mast on the Peace Tower in Ottawa, from sunrise to sunset, to mark the national day of remembrance of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

Breakfast was great as was the company, and the 70 foot pool we were able to swim in and have a shower afterwards was fantazmagorical! :)

Hot shower! :) :) :)

3 out of the 8 IMATT Canadians are with us in this photo. It was a fun day. I have to say, the more I travel the more patriotic I become. The line in our Anthem, “God keep our land glorious and free! “ also means a lot more to me these days…

I love you family, friends, supporters and church. Have a beautiful day!God be with you and bless you!

♥ Carol XX

More information on the water crisis...

All right,  we are now allowed to have cold ship showers of 2 minutes or less - the Captain has a 41 second record of which he challenged us. :)

- We are still not allowed to do laundry
- We still do not have hot water
- And it's been asked to keep the following ryhme in mind when flushing:
           If it's yellow, let it mellow
           If it's brown flush it down

There's more though, our water consumption has been up around 80 tonnes a day compared to the 60ish we normally use???? When the Captain only took away the use of water to do laundry, asked the hospital (sterilizers and such), galley and a few other places to cut back we went down to 65 tonnes a day. However, when the hot water was shut-off, and we were not allowed to shower at all it went all the way down to 18 tonnes. I'd say some people aren't following the 2 minute ship shower rule...:) Furthermore, when we have to use paper products in the dining room it costs Mercy Ships upwards of $2000 USD over a couple of days. Money of course that could be much better spent, not to mention the environment...

Speaking of water, and on a different note; while you are praying about the above information would you pray also for our dive team. Currently, they can only dive during high or low tide as the current here is as strong as 8 knots and actually pulls them out to sea and is very dangerous. There is a lot of plastic that floats around here and our intake valves suck up the debris blocking the valves. We need the water to cool our systems for the engines, air conditioning, fire hoses and sprinklers. It is not a fun job - it is polluted, stinky and here in Sierra Leone - dangerous.   

Plastic and garbage that needs to be cleared from the intake valves

  


This is what the dive teams needs to clean of the bottom of the ship

 


More bags blocking the intake valves

 

Olly Peet (team leader of our diving team) in Benin

Tenki (Krio for thank you), for your prayers.

Lots of love,

Carol xx

Water, water, everywhere...

Day after day, day after day,

We stuck, nor breath nor motion;

As idle as a painted ship

Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water, everywhere,

And all the boards did shrink;

Water, water, everywhere,

Nor any drop to drink.

The above is an old mariners rhyme...We have been on water rations for close to a week now. As of today all the hot water has been shut off and we have been told not to take showers at all, or run water for any amount of time.

Please pray that we will get enough water loaded and treated before we stink up the place...  :)