Some Photos

Here are some of the more artistic photos I have been taking.
Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends and family! We love you and hope you have a wonderful day celebrating. John and I have so much to be thankful for this year ~ for our incredible friends and family, for the opportunity to serve on the Logos Hope for two years, for our good health, and so much more! We hope each of you spend a few minutes today reflecting on God's goodness and thank Him for the provisions in your life. The head chef on the ship is an American, so he'll be serving a traditional Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings to the entire ship's company tonight. Should be fantastic!

Tivoli

We had an incredible day on Saturday celebrating our good friend Heather's birthday. We joined Heather, her husband Steve, their children Liam and Kara, along with a few of their other closest friends for a day at Tivoli. Tivoli is an AMAZING park right in the heart of downtown Copenhagen. The park is like nothing you've ever seen before. The park is filled with amazing rides, restaurants, shops, gardens and live music. The park is mostly open during the summer months, but they open for about a month over Christmas for a spectacular Christmas season. The entire park is lit up with Christmas lights. The design of the lights was actually invented by Tiffany & Co.'s head designer!! To make the day even more perfect, we had our first snowfall on Friday night, so snow covered the entire park. What a site to see. We had a fabulous time celebrating Heather's birthday. Enjoy all the pictures!


The entrance of Tivoli with our little friends Liam and Kara.


This place is amazing!


Performing a few carols for the group! :)


Fun on the carousel!


Beautiful nativity.


Enjoying the gorgeous lights.


This tree was out of sight!


Trying to stay warm!


Copenhagen's "Taj Mahal" lit up for Christmas!


Nothing like roller coasters in the snow!

Ship Family Birthday!

Ship mom Jennifer and daughter Marsha setting up for the party


Jennifer with birthday girl Lydia


Lydia cuts the AMAZING carrot cake that John made!

Enjoying celebrating together as a ship family

Christmas Around the World

Logos Hope crew members are busy preparing for Christmas! Hard to believe Christmas is just around the corner! There will be many wonderful activities taking place on board the ship during the Holidays, but the biggest and most exciting event will be "Christmas Around the World." The event will be taking place over three weekends leading up to Christmas. The first weekend will be November 29th and 30th and the event will follow on December 6th and 7th and then again on December 13th and 14th.

During these weekends, the ship will be open to everyone in Koge and surrounding areas to enjoy a taste of how people from many different nations celebrate the meaning and wonder of Christmas. Currently, there are over 300 people living on the Logos Hope, representing 40 different nations, so the event will truly be an international experience for the Denmark people! Visitors will have the chance to visit Christmas displays from around the world, take a tour of the ship, browse through our extensive book fair, enjoy live Christmas music, and meet crew members from around the world.

John and I, along with a few others, are coordinating the USA booth for the event. We're very excited about it, but there's lots of work to do! Please be praying for us as we have just about a week to finish up our booth. Also, please be praying for the entire event. We're hoping that many Danish Christians will attend the event and bring their non-Christian friends and family so they can experience the true meaning of Christmas. We hope the event will impact many, many lives.

Sunday Service

On Sunday morning, John and I were invited to attend an awesome church called Greve Frikerke. We were specifically asked to attend in order to invite their congregation to our ship's upcoming "Christmas Around the World" event. John and I had the great opportunity to speak before the entire congregation during the service! The was our first time to speak publicly in Denmark with a translator, so it was definitely a new and growing experience for us both. The church service was very contemporary and everyone was so friendly! We were so happy to have the chance to connect with more Danish Christians.

Talent Night

Last night we had a talent show on board. The evening featured the ship's company performing their various, amazing talents. We were truly blown away at the talent on board. Singers sang, dancers danced, guitarists jammed on their guitars, actors acted and puppeteers performed their puppetry. Praise God for giving each of us such unique, special talents to share with others.

Family Prayer Walk

Last night our ship family did a "prayer walk" through the city of Koge. Prayer walking is prayer that is targeted for the place you are walking. The idea is to actually see what you are praying for rather than sitting at home with your eyes closed imagining it. Actually seeing your prayer target can also inspire you with the right way to pray so that your prayer will be the most effective. For example, as our ship family passed by the shops in the city square, we prayed for the shop owners, workers, and shoppers. As we walked by the train station, we prayed for the people traveling, the conductors, and the ticket booth workers.

If you have a hard time just sitting still in a room praying over a list of people or needs, you might really enjoy prayer walking. The expereince was really impactful and powerful for our ship family, so we'd encourage you to give it a go! Grab a friend or a family member (or even just by yourself!) and try prayer walking through your neighborhood, a local park, or a nearby school. We'd love to hear how it goes!

Awesome Answer to Prayer

John experienced an awesome answer to prayer this weekend! During our Purpose Driven Life small group on Thursday morning, each of us shared one way that we would like to serve the ship's company by doing something we really love. John shared that he would really like to have the opportunity to serve one of the ship families by teaching their children to swim. (John was a swim teacher and coach for many years before we joined the Logos Hope). After we all shared, we prayed that God would give each of us the opportunity to serve the ship's company with our unique giftings.

Literally 24 hours later, one of the families on board that knew of John's swimming background asked if he would be interested in joining them on Saturday morning to go to the swimming pool to help their kids with their swimming skills. What an awesome (and very quick!) answer to prayer! John had a blast swimming with their three children and even helped their oldest give up his floaties and swim all by himself. What an amazing answer to prayer.

On Board "Clubs"

When we're not working, ministering, or training, there are lots of "extra-curricular" classes and clubs offered on board the ship for the ship's company to join. You wouldn't believe how many fun opportunities are offered!! We have African dance, origami making, drama, swing dancing, soccer, poetry, mime, a choir, and so many more! Each of the classes and clubs are lead by crew members - people just like John and I who have a passion for something and desire to share it with the rest of the ship's company.

For now, John and I have both decided to join just one "club" in order to not become too busy on board and also so we can really make the most of that one club. I (Jennifer) am very proud to announce that I have joined the Spanish club! Currently, we're doing a 10-week intensive language program. I'm two weeks into it and LOVING it. For many years now I've been wanting to begin Spanish classes and I'm so thrilled that I finally have the opportunity!! Our class is taught by a Colombian who was a Spanish and English teacher back at home.

John has joined the photography club! He has always been interested in photography, but his passion has really increased since being on the ship. The class is led by the ship's official photographer, so he has an incredible amount of skill to to able to pass on to the club members. John is really improving in his photography skills and loving the classes.

Connecting with Danish University Students

Monday night, we headed to Copenhagen with a team to attend a Christian student organization's event. The student group, called KFS, is a large organization of Christian university students living all throughout Copenhagen. They meet once a week for teaching, worship and fellowship. A member of the organization was on board the ship a few weeks back and so invited a group of ship people to visit their student group. We really enjoyed the teaching and learning a few Danish worship songs. The highlight was the fellowship. After the teaching and singing concluded, everyone headed to another room which was set up like a cafe. We had a great time drinking coffee and connecting with many Danish Christian university students. Many of them were very interested in the fact that we are Americans and had lots of questions about our view of the election. What a fantastic opportunity to connect with like-minded Danes.


Jennifer is excited to meet so many awesome Christian Danes!


Ready to listen to the English translation! The headphones are becoming a trend! :)

Ship Family Birthday!

One of our "ship daughters" turned 19 on Sunday! Enjoy a few pictures from the birthday celebration!


Our "daughter" Marsha (Netherlands) turns 19!


John proudly displays the coconut cake he made with "children" Aaron (USA) and Shama (Sri Lanka).


Shama again with BK (India).


Passing the cake around! Lydia (USA) with Marsha.


Cutting the delicious cake!


My sweet little friend Kara joined us to celebrate Marsha's birthday!

Delightful Morning with Danish Seniors

We spent a very lovely morning with Danish seniors! John and I left the ship early this morning to head out to a rehabilitation center for seniors in the next town over from Koge. We borrowed bikes for our transportation and the ride was quite delightful! The morning was very brisk, but we really enjoyed the cool morning air and the gorgeous fall colors. The bike path to the next town over is along the Baltic Sea, so it was truly a stunning ride. We arrived at the center a bit after 8am and joined several seniors for a delicious breakfast of home made bread. Unfortunately for us, the seniors didn't speak English (and the workers spoke very limited English!), but we did our best to be friendly and helpful despite the language barrier. After breakfast, we took a few ladies out for a walk along the sea. They seemed to really enjoy the fresh air. Afterwards, we played a few games and then John played the saxaphone for them! They LOVED it! They clapped and clapped after each song. They were quite tickled by it all. We really enjoyed spending time with them this morning and hope they were blessed by our visit.


John with his saxophone strapped to the back of his bike!


John's Danish saxophone debut!


I love this photo! This man was intently listening to John play.


His audience. :)


A little fresh air!


John and his new lady friends!