Loving London!

London is quickly becoming a very special and forever memorable place for us. We absolutely LOVE London. We celebrated our two-year anniversary this past week and were blessed to be able to spend a few nights on shore celebrating. What a blessing. John planned a really special time for us that we will remember forever. We have a really slow internet connection here in London as all the tall buildings are blocking our satellite connection, so we'll try to post a few pictures as soon as we can! :) Please continue to keep us in your prayers here in London. We have a record number of overnight guests coming each day. We're averaging about 17 overnight guests per day in London, which is a HUGE increase over other ports. Please pray for energy, stamina and wisdom in dealing with so many guests on board! We also are having a record-breaking amount of day visitors as well! On Saturday, we had over 4,500 visitors to the ship! Praise God!

Family!

We were so thrilled yesterday to see our first familiar faces in ten months! John has an Aunt and Uncle and cousins that live in London. We have been anticipating seeing them for months and months now! We had a great time yesterday showing them around the ship and then going out in Greenwich (where the Prime Meridian crosses). We hope to see them several more times while here in London!

Goodbye Cardiff, Hello London

We left Cardiff early on Tuesday morning and arrived into London Thursday evening. Thank God for an AMAZING time in Cardiff! We had over 24,000 visitors to the ship ~ a record for our UK ports! Praise God. And praise God for a smooth sail into London. We sailed up the River Thames into London. What a beautiful sail! We are berthed in the financial district of London called Canary Wharf. We are THRILLED to be in London!

The Marriage Course

We just recently completed a seven-week marriage class called "The Marriage Course." Many of the couples on board took the course, so it was a real blessing to all of us! The course was created by the same folks that created the Alpha Course. Each week, we watched a video and then had time to discuss and answer questions as a couple. Each week we had homework to apply what we learned each week. The seven weeks were a great time of renewal for our marriage. What a blessing. We highly recommend the course if you ever have the opportunity to take it!

New Ship Family Member!

We welcomed a new member into our ship family this past week. Let us introduce our newest "son" to you! :) He's the one of the far right in the below photo, Mattia from the Netherlands. We celebrated his arrival by going out for icecream!



Our family is "jumping" for joy! Ha ha!

A few pictures from last weekend

A few pictures from our lovely weekend in Bristol.


Our "traditional" English Sunday lunch! What a treat!


The two missionary couples!


Enjoying the beautiful sunshine with my new friend!


Our lovely host family.

Amazing Song

Before reading this blog posting, read the one just below to understand the context of this song. AMAZING to see how God brought us and this other missionary couple together. The words of this song were the exact words on our heart last summer as we left home and were heading out to join the Logos Hope and they continue to be our heart's desire today. The words of the song were inspiried by ancient monks that would head out in their coracle (a small boat originating in Wales) and see where the wind took them. Wherever they would land, they would spread the message of Jesus Christ. Talk about amazing faith.


Lyrics by James and Jane Horsfall.

Fabulous Weekend

We had a truly splendid weekend. We we blessed to be able to stay on shore for a few nights in a lovely home in Bristol, England in Somerset Country (about an hour from where our ship is berthed in Cardiff). An couple that previously served on the ship put out an invitation to the crew that they wanted to invite a few people to their home for the weekend in order to have them share at their local church. John and I had the great privilege of taking them up on their offer! They had a very charming home in the English countryside ~ and it was everything like you imagine the English countryside to be. We had the most lovely time with them. Their daughter and son-in-law were also visiting, so we had an wonderful time connecting with them as well. They were about our age and had just been married a year, so we really had a lot of fun with them. A missionary couple that serve in Poland were also visiting for the weekend, so we really had a full house! The couple were musicians and were quite intriguing and inspiring.

This was our first "get away" since we joined OM in the fall, so it was a real treat. And they truly treated us like royalty! Tea times every afternoon, a lovely stroll in the English country side, sipping lemonade in the garden, playing card games and laughing about all the differences between the Brits and the Americans! :) The highlight for us was definitely having the chance to speak at their quaint village church. The church held just about 40 or so people and must have been several hundred years old. It was incredible. We really felt the spirit moving through us to speak to the congregation. The other missionary couple preformed two songs during the service that they had written. One of the songs so perfectly tied into our experience on the ship. I'll write a separate blog just about the song ~ really amazing.

Wow, thank God for such an incredible few days. We came back to the ship feeling so refreshed and rejuvenated. Praise God.