Curacao

Curacao (pronounced "cure-a-sow") is one of the five islands of the Netherlands Antilles and is part of the Kingdom of Netherlands. Curacao is the largest and most populous of the three ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao) of the Lesser Antilles. Curacao is just 35 miles north of Venezuela. The island is 171 square miles and has a population of 140,000. The capital of Curacao is Willemstad. There are three official languages of Curacao: Dutch, Papiamento and English. Spanish is also a recognized language. Curacao has one of the highest standards of living in the Caribbean and an infrastructure which is among the best in the Caribbean.The main industries of the island include oil refining, tourism and financial services. The currency is the Netherlands Antillean guilder, also called the Florin.

Christmas Crew Photo of the Logos Hope

Merry Christmas from the crew of the Logos Hope (taken by ship's photographer Tom Brouwer on Christmas Day). Can you find us? ;) Hint: I'm wearing a red shirt. ha ha!

CHRISTMAS!

Christmas Eve with our ship family. Jennifer and her nine children. ;)


Christmas morning in Curacao! Doesn't get much better than that!


Hard to believe it's already our 3rd Christmas as a married couple! Keeps getting better and better. ;)


Our chef prepared a glorious Christmas brunch for ship's company! A definite highlight of Christmas!

My 30th Birthday!

As I wrote in a previous posting, I had a wonderful 30th birthday on board!


My ship family threw me an "Indian" birthday party, so we all sat on the floor "Indian style!"


Our ship son BK (from India) always says that the best drink to go with Indian food is Coke. ;)


Our Indian buddies!


My cute little birthday cake!

Ebenezer church

At the end of our week helping finish the church, we attended their Sunday service. What fun to meet the congregation after working on their church all week!


We taught the kids a few fun songs with hand motions.


We did a presentation for the church about missions. Here John acts in the presentation.


We brought little bags full of school supplies for all the kids in the Sunday school class that an American church had put together and sent us to pass out in Guyana. As I passed them out to each child, I prayed a pray of blessing on each one. That was one of the most special moments of my life.


I loved playing with all the beautiful children. This is the pastor's neice Hosanna.

More pictures from our Guyana team

One afternoon, a local guy that was helping us climbed up a coconut tree and cut down a coconut for everyone on our team! He sliced off the tops for us and we drank the coconut water right from it. Doesn't get much fresher than that! YUMMY!


After we finished laying down the concrete on the floor, I had fun sweeping with this broom made from palm branches.


Everyone day for lunch, a group of local ladies made us incredible Guyanese lunches. What a treat!


I made lots of little friends throughout the week!!

Guyana church team

Here are a few pictures from the team we were on in Guyana that helped to plaster a church. I wrote all about the week in a previous posting, so here are the pictures to go with that posting!


John is working hard plastering the side of the church!


Ready for action! :)


Mixing cement!


Taking a little break ;) Man, does that side of the church look GOOD!!

Back in Guyana

Finally we're able to post some pictures online! Thankfully our internet is fairly fast here in Curacao, so we're going to be posting lots of pictures today. This set of pictures is from a children's Sunday school program we did in a small village in Georgetown, Guyana. The village is one of the most socially depressed areas of Georgetown, with an estimated 30% living with HIV or AIDS. What an experience.


A lady from the USA made these sweet little girls dresses for us to give out in Guyana. Here are a mom and a grandma are eager to have their daughter/ grandaughter try on their new dresses!


We did a little skit about Jesus being the "life savior" - here John's the captain of the ship!


We brought lunches for all the 50+ kids.


Here I'm helping to pass out all the lunches.

Christmas in Curacao!

We had an incredible Caribbean Christmas! And we even had a "white Christmas!" Not in the way you're thinking... white snow... but white sand! :) And we both agree that we much prefer white sand over white snow! ha ha! The highlight of the day for both of us was spending a few hours in the afternoon enjoying the crystal clear Curacao waters. It's just doesn't get much better than that as far as we're concerned! ;) We pray that each of you also had a wonderful Christmas celebration. May we always remember the reason that we celebrate Christmas.

Hello Curacao!!

We arrived yesterday morning into Curacao. Wow, what a gorgeous island!! We are berthed in a beautiful part of the island with a beach just down the road. Can't wait to get in that tourquoise water! We'll leave this morning for our little birthday trip, so are get very, very excited!

Wonderful Day!

I ended up having a really, really special 30th birthday on board. I really didn't know what to expect from the day since we were at sea, so couldn't really go anywhere special to celebrate, but everyone on board made me feel so special and loved. I received lots of really nice notes, emails and calls, so that was really special! My co-workers decorated my office space and lots of friends put cute notes on our cabin door. Also, the STEP group (the short-term program I coordinate), surprised me with a cake in the afternoon! In the evening, we had a time of sharing for the whole ship's company about our time in Guyana, then afterward, a friend of ours from Curacao lead us in a class to teach us a few phrases and key words in Papiamento, the language of Curacao. What fun! Thanks to all of you for making me feel so loved.

30 TODAY!

Hard to believe that I've (Jennifer) entered my 30's today! My mother called this morning and said, "Do you feel 30?" And I answered, "NO!!" I feel much, much younger. Guess that's a good thing! ;) We're at sea today, so it's a bit of a funny birthday. We're really moving, so I'm not feeling so great unfortunately. I think it'll still be a really special celebration though. Our ship family threw me a Indian birthday party (we'll add pictures soon). We sat on the floor in real Indian fashion and enjoyed the homemade curry made my our Indian ship son, BK. We even enjoyed a wonderful Indian birthday dessert. We'll arrive into Curacao early Friday morning and then on Saturday, John is taking me to a surprise location on shore for a few nights to celebrate my big 30. Can't wait!

Best Week Yet

This past week was (without a doubt) one of our best weeks since leaving home 15 months ago. Guyana was a really special port for the Logos Hope. We termed this port a "help port," which meant that over the course of the three weeks of being in port, we sent out 21 teams into the country to do practical aid all throughout the country. We were on a team with eight other crew members this past week to help plaster the outside of a local church. What an incredible time. This past Tuesday - Saturday, we left the ship each morning at 8am, worked all day at the church, and then came back to the ship around 5pm. For me (Jennifer), the highlight was the people. Even though the village was extremely low-income, there was such a joy and peace about the people. All week, I felt such an overwhelming calmness in interacting with the people. Many people from the village stopped by throughout the week to see what we were doing, so we met close to 100 people in the village. So awesome. The highlight for John was working along side the local people. When the week began, we had three local people guiding us in the work. By the end of the week, many more had joined in to help. What an amazing community. They saw the need and responded. Praise God for this once-in-a-lifetime week. Thanks to so many of you that were praying for us! We'll post pictures soon.

Scouts

Last evening, we had a great time giving tours to a local youth scout group! What fun to see all the young people come to the ship in their scout uniforms. A scout group of about 30 came to the ship last night and was really interested in having a tour of the ship, so a few of us from the ship offered to give tours. John and I each gave a tour to a group of really excited young teenagers. They were so thrilled to be on the ship and to get a tour! The girls in my group were 15 and couldn't wait to apply to join the ship in three years when they turn 18! ;) What a blessing to meet them amazing young people.

Volunteer Training

This afternoon, John had the opportunity to lead a training session for our local Guyanese volunteers. We have 50 local volunteers in this port helping us with various jobs around the ship. In addition to working on the ship, the volunteers also receive training every day. The theme of the training today was "show" - how God shows His love towards us and then in turn how we can show His love to others. John did a great job and I was happy to help assist him! :)

Operation World Prayer

We've started a new, exciting prayer aspect on board. Each work-day morning, we have a time of devotions for the ship's company from 7:45 - 8:30am. We start each morning off with a 90-second news reel, which is great for keeping us connected to the rest of the world. After the news, we usually start right in with a devotional thought from one of the leaders on board or from a local pastor or speaker. But starting last week, after the news reel, one of ship's company leads the crew in a time of prayer for a specific country. An organization called Operation World (www.operationworld.org) posts information and prayers requests about a different country each day, so we've been following along with their country prayer requests. Last week, John lead the ship's company in prayer for Uzbekistan and this morning, I led prayer for Vietnam. What a neat way to stay connected with the needs around the world. I would encourage you to check out Operation World's website and pray along with us each day!

Thanksgiving Day Pictures

Along with several other women, I helped bake apple, pumpkin and pecan pies for all the Americans on board!


We were so proud of our Thanksgiving display! ;)


Our dining room set up for Thanksgiving.


Yummy! Our American head chef prepared a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner for all of ship's company!

Guyana

Guyana means "The Land Of Many Waters". Guyana is bordered to the east by Suriname, to the south and southwest by Brazil, to the west by Venezuela, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Guyana achieved independence from Great Britain in 1966. At 83,000 square miles, Guyana is the third-smallest independent country on the mainland of South America (after Uruguay and Suriname). The population is approximately 770,000, of which 90% reside on the narrow coastal strip (approximately 10% of the total land area of Guyana). Guyana is one of the five non-Spanish speaking territories on the continent, English being the official language. More than 80% of Guyana is covered by forests making it one of the countries with the highest biodiversity in the world. The main economic activities in Guyana are agriculture (production of rice and Demerara sugar), bauxite mining, gold mining, timber, shrimp fishing and minerals.

Taekwondo!

For fun and to get a bit of extra exercise, John and I have been participating in a Taekwondo class on board a few mornings a week. Our South Korean friend, Enoch, is our fearless leader. ;) During our Sabbath week last week, John and a few other guys were able to perform a "Taekwondo Dance" to ship's company! What fun! John worked so hard on the dance, so it was quite fun for him to perform for the ship's company during a community night on board. We hope they have the opportunity to perform for locals soon as a display of culture. Enjoys the pictures taken by our ship's photographer Tom Brouwer.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving on board the Logos Hope in Guyana! Yesterday morning, we had the official opening ceremony for Guyana and we were asked to dress as American cowboys to welcome the guests (see photo with us and a guest taken by our ship's photographer Tom Brouwer)! What fun! In the evening, all the Americans (there are 80 of us now!) had a wonderful dinner together. Our head chef is American, so made turkey and all the trimmings for the entire ship's company! How amazing is that?! We have so much to be thankful for in 2009 -- good health, being able to serve the Lord together on board the ship, having three new nieces be born this year, a new brother-in-law in the family and that both sets on parents were able to visit us on the ship!

SOUTH AMERICA!

We arrived to Guyana yesterday morning! We are beyond thrilled to be in a new continent. Neither John or I have ever been to South America, so we are so excited to be here! The sail here was VERY rough and we were very sea sick, so we are happy to be in port again! More to come soon...

More pictures from St. Lucia!

King of the castle!


Out for a nice walk...


Natural modern art... :)


We thought this banana plant was so unusual!

Sabbath week pictures!

Enjoy a few pictures from our Sabbath week in St. Lucia!


We walked through the only "walk through" volcano in the Caribbean! Whew, did it ever smell of sulpher!


Beautiful waterful! The movie "Romancing the Stone" was filmed here!


Lying on the beach looking up....


The Grand Piton... St. Lucia's most famous landmark.