Sunday, September 28, 2008

Our Week

We had a really fabulous week and are so thrilled to tell you all about it! We’ve been wanting to blog all week, but the IT Department has been testing the internet all week, so the internet has been so slow that we haven’t even been able to open up our blog. So this may be a bit of a long posting!

Work has been getting better and better each day. The first few days of work were very physical draining for us both. For you Californians, you’ll understand this comparison. For the first several days, when we finished work at 5pm, we seriously felt like we had climbed half dome throughout the day. We were that physically exhausted. It’s amazing how exhausting vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, washing windows, polishing stainless steel, and stubbing the floor for eight hours can be!! God is already teaching us so much in this job placement.

In other news, we took a class in the evenings this week called “The Father Heart of God.” The class was lead by a South African OM missionary. We learned so much about God’s “father” heart. We were challenged to examine our relationship with our earthly father in order to understand how this innately affects our relationship with our heavenly father. We are so thrilled about all the opportunities we’ll have over the next two years to take classes and seminars in order to grow in our relationship with Christ.

Another highlight of the week was that John took a class last Monday on “open air evangelism.” He learned the techniques of sharing the message of salvation clearly through art. He’s going to be joining a team next Saturday to go to Copenhagen to share God’s love through open air evangelism and art. Please be praying for him next Saturday!

We had a very special opportunity last Wednesday to attend an evening service at a nearby church. Over the course of our time here in Koge, the ship has been able to build a great relationship with this little church. A few of the ship’s crew were asked to lead praise and worship and share their testimonies. The church’s pastor briefly spoke and told us that there are less than 300 Christians in all of Koge (the town’s population is about 56k). Wow. God definitely has our ship here for specific reason and purpose – to be a light to this town. May God use us to be a light to the people around us. At the end of the church service, we had a chance to connect with some of the church members. I (Jennifer) had a great conversation with the pastor’s daughter (a teenager) and she said there isn’t a youth group at her church or any church in Koge for that matter! Hard to believe. She and her family were actually onboard today (Sunday) and I had a chance to connect with her again. Pray for our new friendship.

I (Jennifer) have one quick prayer request to end this posting. As many of you know, I’ve suffered from knee problems since my freshman year of college. Because of the many, many stairs I have to climb each day (the ship has nine decks and our cabin is on deck two!) my knees have been really aggravating me. Please pray for strength and healing.

2 comments:

MJ said...

Hey guys! I have finally bookmarked your blog, so I'll be following along. I read all the way back to the very beginning, so now I'm all caught up. It sounds like you guys are underway on quite a magical and unique adventure! I never thought my brother would actually be sailing around the world, newly married and doing what you guys are doing. It's head-scratching sometimes how things turn out. Thanks so much for blogging about it. Go get 'em.

xoxo MJ

Unknown said...

Sure enjoying your blog!!!

Amy sure misses you guys! hard to talk or text to a ship, I assume!!!

About that knee, Jen. Remember RICE! Rest-ice-compress-elevate!
Do this when you get in bed at night! Then take an anti-inflammatory pill. It does wonders for me if I tweak my knee running!
Sounds like the Lord is really giving you a challenge and those knees are getting a work-out. Nothing like a "thorn in the flesh"

John, can't wait to hear about your Art Evangalizing!

eb