London's Off Again!

On again, off again! That's the way of missions. The London event for commissioning has been canceled. I believe it to be the best decision, albeit unfortunate. The ship yard handed us a bill for nearly $1 Million to take the ship out of the ship yard for a week for our event in London. So being the good stewards that we try to be have decided to move the commissioning event to Newcastle. We still have a HUGE job ahead of us to get the ship ready for such a debut. Think of it this way, in the middle of building your brand new house you have to clean up the construction mess to throw a party before its done, then finish the construction, then clean it again and move in. But instead of a 1 or 2 story house with 2300 sq ft we are trying to accomplish the same feat with an 8 deck, 500' long vessel. And the part that really takes a lot of faith on my part is that this is my job and I have absolutely zero personnel. Because of the living costs here we are not bringing anymore people here before we are able to live aboard than absolutely necessary - - which means NO CLEANING STAFF. It means double duty for everyone already here. Every department is stretched to the max. I am having to learn to do my best every single minute, stay focused, pray A LOT and turn it all over to God to complete. This job is bigger than me but NOT bigger than God.

We did set a stake in the ground this week by sending out our very first A-Team to Ghana. That is short for Advance Team - - or the group of people that have been sent ahead of the ship to prepare the way for our arrival. They will live in Ghana till we arrive and do many things like find the spot for us to hold the medical screenings, contact key governmental people, make port arrangements and find the areas and projects where we can be of assistance when we arrive. Here is a picture of those 5 brave souls that departed on March 1.

March also found Robert on his knees. I'm sure many of you were there as well but for Robert it was not as much for prayer as for preparing taxes on the edge of our bed. Although we covered our taxes with a lot of prayer. This year we attempted to do them ourselves after last year's filing disaster which caused us to pay penalties and extra taxes. We used the on-line e-file and after about 3 weeks of agonizing over reading all the documents, saying a few "Our Father's" it appears that all has been accepted and we are now done! PTL and "Go Cowboys"!

The Africa Mercy was also blessed this month with a donation of a brand new Toyota forklift. I just happen to be at the warehouse sorting and palletizing about 5,000 library books the day the fork lift showed up. This gift will truly be put to the test over the next several years and I for one am very grateful for her (I know it's a woman forklift because she's bright and beautiful) so I named her Blanch (Beautiful, Large, And, In, Charge). Thought you might want to meet my new friend BLANCH before she was rolled off the truck.

Robert and I took a few hours off this weekend to take a drive through the English countryside and found ourselves driving along the length of Hadrian's Wall. Hadrian's Wall runs the breadth of England from Newcastle (where we live) on the East Coast about 80 miles to the west coast. It was built by the Romans in AD 122 to separate what was then Scotland from England. Every mile along the wall was a turrant and every 8 miles a Roman Fort. We stopped along the way at Chester's Fort and were able to tour the ruins. This fort housed over 500 calvary and horses and was quit impressive. It's amazing to see the artifacts dating back nearly 2000 years ago. We witnessed many different alters to their various gods and I found myself praying for the spiritual healing of this land that has been desacrated by sacrifices. Many people walk the length of the wall and we spotted many of those hearty souls this day as we rolled right past them in our heated car. Didn't bother us in the slightest that we were getting so little exercise - - it was snowing, wet and cold that day. Another day will have to do for a good walk. The first picture is of the calvarymen's barracks on either side, the "drain" runs down the middle. The second picture was something Robert thought was appropriate. To put me in front of the "Commadant's House" sign. And the last picture is of the wall running along the road. The ravine is on the Scottish side and was meant to slow down horses and carts. Thanks for sharing our week with us. We truly appreciate your prayers so here is a list of things that we ask you keep lifted up to our Father:

• Purchase Orders are prepared correctly, accepted and processed in a timely manner for delivery of cleaning supplies by March 22
• For grace, patience and peace as both of us work within the constraints of a ministry struggling with finances and yet have responsibilities to provide leadership and meet goals on time.
• For Robert as he faces the frustration of work delays and inefficiencies that slow him down.
• For us to always remember that God loves People, not projects....to love, encourage and appreciate those sent here by God.
• For our family left behind, that God will bless this time that we are spending apart in spite of the difficulty of the separation.
• The ship be delivered into Africa in God's timing and not ours. The people of Ghana who have a divine appointment with our ship be encouraged that we are indeed on the way.