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

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.

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.



- 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.
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