Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

I know most of you live in Michigan and have no sympathy for my pathetic little whining I'm about to do but hold on! Remember, we've been either in the Southern states or Africa for most of the past 2 years. And up until the December 28 it had been pretty mild, cool, rainy that kind of thing. Now it is zero and we have our first snow. The funniest thing was that in snow this deep the weather men came on the TV and warned everyone to stay home and IF you had to venture our take food and water - - were they afraid we couldn't find the pub on the corner of every block?

Well it's not just cold outside but our port-a-cabins don't fare very well for heat either. The water in the kitchen has been frozen up for days and the toilets were frozen, yuck! I didn't think too much of the water freezing but DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS TO A BRIT? NO TEA! Oh my gosh - how do we make it? Life is just so unfair, so hard, so miserable.....WAIT - I don't like hot tea, what am I complaining about? I think I have set a new office trend however, do you see how my jewelry goes with my gloves with no fingers or my nice Mercy Ships hat and different color scarf? You don't even see my pink fuzzy socks! A girls' got to do what a girls' got to do. What will the girls of the Africa Mercy be wearing next season? Stay tuned!

As is Robert's custom to get injured every other week, he fell through the deck floor down in the engine room and had an angle iron go into his thigh. They can't stich it because it's jagged and took out a chunck of meat so it is having trouble stop bleeding. The medic at the ship yard didn't clean it out just globbed some ointment on a bandage and slapped it on him. He bled through 3 of those gauze pads by the morning so he went back to the medic and they sent him to the hospital to have it checked out. They gave it a "proper" scrubbing which nearly sent him through the roof but at least we know it's clean now, put iodine on it then put a big wrap around his leg. By the time we were standing in front of the hospital waiting for the taxi Robert said the bandage had fallen down around his knee. I told him to get some duct tape and do an American "proper" job on it. On the more serious side, I know that God had us there for a reason. There was a VERY sick young lady in the emergency room throwing up blood and becoming paralyzed. While her dad fretted over signing her in I went and sat with her, rubbing her back and asked if I could pray for her which she was very appreciative of both. God himself could have done the same thing but I really love the fact that He CHOSES to use us instead.

M/V Africa Mercy at First Snow

At 3:00PM - it is completely dark

Lord, We thank you so much for friends and family we love and who love us. We are grateful to serve you in any way you chose. We are humbled by the friends that touch our lives through emails, cards and phone calls. Please watch over and protect all those we love this year, bring peace and joy into every home and rekindle the flame that burns inside each of them to please you and to be the face of Christ to others.

HAPPY NEW YEAR - Robert & Susan Blanchard

End of 2005 - Time to be thankful

I can't believe how quickly a year has passed. Nearly 19 months away from home and still 2 more years ahead of us minimum. This year has been full of great new adventures, sights and sounds - Benin, Liberia, South Africa, Italy, England and Scotland. Orphanges, construction, cleaning, welding, new friends, mentoring and being mentored, moving-moving-moving and moving again. It has been exhausting and exhilerating at the same time and here we are toasting the old year out and praying that each of you will be blessed in so many ways this coming year. I'm sure toasts work when you are using spiced apple juice - - right?

Susan was able to take a breather for about 5 days early in December and her and 6 friends went by train west of Inverness to the Beaufort Castle which is owned by Ann Gloag. Ann is on the board of the Mercy Ships and genereously allows Mercy Shippers to stay in a cottage on her 1000 acre estate. It costs us the price of a train ticket to enjoy beauty beyond believe. They went to Loch Ness to try another attempt at finding Nessie but without luck, went to Plodda Falls (a fair hike into the mountains), ate Haggis (cow stomach packed with don't ask), neeps and tatties (turnips and potatoes) and took more pictures of my favorite Scottish farm animal, the Highland Cow. Or as the Scottish say "Heiland Coo". My friends are on the nuts-o side of life and they kept warning the cows that the crazy American lady with the camera was coming so run for your lives. Thankfully, they did not listen and I got even more pictures. We enjoyed evenings around the fire, working puzzles, watching movies, eating sweets and good old-fashioned conversations and devotions. It could have only been better if Robert could have joined us - - but there is no rest for Engineering - - EVER!

SHIP NEWS! It has been slow in the last month when the ship workers were laid off but the new year has a new promise. There should be over 200 men working 24/7 and the promise from the yard is that they are still on target to deliver the ship on March 31. These last 3 months will be extremely busy for everyone here. Helping each other trying to get their departments up and running. Preparing for the day that another 250 crew members will join us to set sail to Ghana in May. While in prayer one day it was decided that the ship yard workers needed more incentive to understand why we were so desireous of the ship leaving the shipyard. Therefore, a Mercy Ships video explaining all that we do, the surgeries, water and sanitation, education and construction projects runs 24/7 just as you come up the gangway for all of them to watch. Now we are getting comments like "It will be sad to see her go, but she MUST go because she has a purpose and it's not to stay in the ship yard!" PTL, they are getting it!

PRAYER REQUESTS

• For the people who have been accepted as crew but do not know when they can join us - some have sold homes and are ready to come, others still need to raise support.
• For the crew of the Anastasis as they continue to deal with loosing their home, their ministry, their friends, their school.
• For finances for the ministry to properly supply the Anastasis until she goes out of service in June
• For finances for the ministry to properly supply the Africa Mercy for the many years to come
• For wisdom for all those in leadership roles to lead by example and to look only to the God that set them in those positions for the true answers
• Needed equipment for Susan's departments (library shelves, floor scrubbing & polishing machines, chemical supplies, printers, scanners, laminators, kitchen equipment)
• For the Aged, Orphaned and Abandoned children's home in Monrovia Liberia.

Ahoy Maties!

BLOG - - sounds like a pretty serious disease caused by lack of sun or purpose in life!

Since this is all the rage and looks like pretty easy to navigate and share thoughts and pictures with my friends I thought I'd give it a shot. I hope that others surfing the web will also happen across it and learn a little more about MERCY SHIPS and the work that is being done by a relatively small band of volunteers.

The M/V Africa Mercy pictured above is currently in the Newcastle-upon-Tyne shipyard in the UK. When completed in the next few months will be the world's largest non-governmental hospital ship. This ship will have a crew of 484 volunteers who pay to work aboard in various positions such as Captain, Engineering, Deck hands, Welders, Pipefitters, Nurses, Doctors, Housekeeping, Seamstress, Educators, Construction, Radiology, Dental, Laundry, Galley and many many more. Our ship is scheduled to be commissioned the beginning of April 2006 and then set sail for 10 months in Ghana followed by 6 months in either Liberia or Sierra Leone. Our purpose is to bring hope and healing to Africa's poorest nations and its people. We will preform free life-saving surgeries, thousands of dental procedures, drill water wells, educate the people of Africa to help themselves and to maintain their progress, HIV/AIDS education and care of dying patients, construction of orphanages, schools and clinics and last but certainly not least is to bring the message of a loving God to the spiritually empty. We show the love of Jesus through every interaction with the people of Africa, if it is in the ward while they recover or just playing with the children or taking the time and interest to sit with a dying patient in a village.

Sounds rather bazaar - - not common place you say? You're absolutely right! But there is total peace when you actually fall in line with God's plan for your life. Does that mean you can only find God's purpose for your life if you sell everything you own and run away to Africa? Ohhhhh no! Where ever you live, whatever job you are in, whatever neighborhood God has placed you can be your opportunity to help others and make this world just a little better for the sake of the one who died for us. So many people call themselves Christians but fail to realize that getting to know Jesus, accept that He IS the son of God and died to save us is only the first step. The hard part follows - - the dying to self, caring for others above yourself, seeing God in the face of every person you meet (even the unlovely) is the really difficult part of being a Christian. Christians are not perfect by any means but we all should strive to become a little more like Jesus every day.

Blessings - Susan & Robert