DOES THIS SHIP MAKE ME LOOK FAT?

This has been a tough week – full of emotion, joy and sadness. It started off with our ship being hit again. I was off the ship having attending a 50th birthday party for our friend Glen Borgert. When we returned and stepped up to the reception desk to return the car keys one of the Officers kept telling me “everything will be alright, the phones are down and it wasn’t too bad” - - WHAT WASN’T SO BAD? Come to find out the cargo ship directly berthed in front of us was being towed out of its berth and was released from the tug too soon. The current started moving her towards us. The Captain dropped anchor but not in time to prevent a collision. Thank God no one was injured and the damage was concentrated to an area about 3 feet across and dented her inward about 3-4 inches. HERE IS A PICTURE OF OUR CAPTAIN (right) and Eric (left) trying to ascertain the level of damage in the middle of the night. Robert titled it DOES THIS SHIP MAKE ME LOOK FAT? I guess Robert’s had a lot of practice with that question. It loosened about 9 rivets and separated some of the metal but that can all be repaired. I never knew before living in a port how common this type of thing is. We’ve been living on board for 2 years and this is our 3rd “bump”. It’s like we are a floating rouge ship magnet.

Then on Thursday one of our loved crew members had a heart attack just as she settled in on the Promenade Deck to do her personal devotions. We praise God that there was another crew member there to respond quickly and was able to get the emergency response team alerted. We knew something dreadful was happening because there are no overhead pages allowed before 8:30am and it was only 7:15 am and lots of pages where requesting medical teams. The great thing is that instantly it sends 300 people to prayer. Three hundred praying people made a tremendous impact in this case. CPR was administered for over 15 minutes and she had to be shocked 5 times before reviving her. We were given updates throughout the day. What I found very miraculous was those who visited her by the end of the day said she was sitting up talking. And true to her character she only wanted to go back to work and didn’t know what all the fuss was about. Unfortunately, she does have to return home for now - - she is currently at an American hospital in Paris. Please pray for her total and complete healing and that if it is God’s will for her to return to us that she will get to do so quickly.

I looked out from the aft deck a few days ago and there she was--,docked across the docks behind us - - the USS Elrod out of Norfolk VA http://www.elrod.navy.mil/index.htm. I got goosebumps seeing an American Navy Ship. I screamed and yelled like they could hear me. One of our officers went over and got all 300 of us an invitation to visit her. We shuttled Land Rovers back and forth for 2 days. We extended the invitation the other way as well and had many come over and even some went out one of the construction teams we send out in the day. About 8 of them came to one of our services Thursday night and one (the one that led my tour) his name is Luke gave his heart to Jesus that night. He later told me their whole ship was a buzz with questions about why would anyone live the life we do and pay to do it... But it has started a great conversation for the Christians on their ship to be challenged to answer. I took over Mercy Ship brochures for them to see who we are and they are fascinated. I treated the group that came over to some cinnamon rolls (homemade by my department of course) and they asked if I could come to their ship. IT WAS VERY TEMPTING. But you know me. I could barely stop crying as I hugged everyone of them around the neck and told them God Bless you. I got a lot of God Bless you Mam's. I cried going on their ship, I cried because I had to leave and today when they pulled out I was the only one by the rail waving like a fool – AND CRYING. They blew their horn for me on the way out! It was so good to see them but it also gave me a real sense of homesickness…..so what do you do when you are trying to get over homesickness? You go out to Pantang Psychiatric hospital the next day and forget all about it -- FOR NOW!

Missing each and every one – please write when you get the time.

PRAYER POINTS
· Complete and total recovery and healing for our crewmate and a swift return to the ship
· Bunkering fuel (ship pulling along side) to become available to us as it is much less expensive than delivered to the dock fuel
· Continued unity and excellence in the Crew Services Department
· Preparations for the arrival of the Africa Mercy