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.

Great Sabbath Week!

We had a wonderful Sabbath week here in St. Lucia. We went through a six-series training on the Tabernacle from the Old Testament. What a powerful message. The speaker was a pastor from Bermuda and he tied the Tabernacle in so beautifully with the life of Christ. We also had lots of time to rest and relax -- much needed after several VERY busy ports in the last few months. This was the first break we've had on board as a ship's company, so we really enjoyed the blessing of it. There were also lots of fun community events, so that was a blast. Now on to Guyana tomorrow! Please pray for safe and smooth sailing.

Goodbye Barbados, Hello again St. Lucia!

We left Barbados late last evening and arrived in St. Lucia early this morning. Quick sail! Some of you might be thinking... weren't you just in St. Lucia?! Yes, we were! The reason we came back to St. Lucia is to have a "Sabbath Week" for the crew. Approximately once a year, the OM Ships take a Sabbath Week (this is our first!). The purpose of the week is spiritual refreshment, teaching, community building and rest. The week will be filled with teaching, community events, personal time and free time. As you can imagine, we're quite excited! After being on the ship for almost 15 months now, we're definitely looking forward to this week. Please be praying that we can feel rested and rejuvenated at the end of this week. We'll be in St. Lucia through next Monday and then we'll be sailing on to Guyana!

Salvation Army Church

We had a great time yesterday at a local Salvation Army church. We gave a presentation to the church congregation on missions and they really seemed to enjoy it. You can see from the pictures below that there are lots of fun props and costumes to illustrate the presentation, so the kids seemed to really have fun. After church, a wonderful lady and her daughter invited us to her home for lunch. We got to try the Barbadian national dish - flying fish! What a treat.

HIV/ AIDS Training

Yesterday morning, I was a part of a team that lead a training on HIV/ AIDS for 20+ local child care workers. What an awesome opportunity. Six of us from the ship lead a two-hour training on many aspects of the virus. I lead a session on "How does HIV attack the immune system?" The last 20 minutes or so of the training was the highlight of our time. We spent the time in small group discussion and I joined in on one of the groups. I really enjoyed hearing the issues that the Bajans are specifically facing in regards to HIV/ AIDS. Meeting these dedicated child care workers was so encouraging. May God bless their amazing work in Barbados.

Ashfords' Visit

Enjoy a few pictures from Wes and Joanne's (John's parents) visit. We really enjoying celebrating Joanne's birthday with her! And John is definitely enjoying his fried banana with ice cream!

Barbados

Easternmost of the Caribbean islands, Barbados is often called "Little England." Barbados means "Bearded One." The name is said to be given by a Portuguese discoverer because of the beard-like vines on the fig tress. Barbados is one of the most densely populated countries in the Caribbean, with a population of 279,000 and size of 167 square meters. The capital is Bridgetown, where we are berthed.

Here are a few fun facts about the island:
-Barbados is hailed as "the land of the flying fish."
-George Washington's only trip abroad was to Barbados.
-Barbados is the birthplace of the grapefruit - a cross between a pommelo and a sweet orange.
-South Carolina was originally settled by Barbadians, and it's first Governor was a Barbadian.

Dr. George Rekers

We had the great priviledge this past week of sitting under the teaching of a wonderful man named Dr. George Rekers, Ph.D., Th.D., MBA. We have never met a man that knows so much about so many topics! To us, one of the most interesting things about him is that he was one of the founders of the Family Research Council, a Christian non-profit lobbying organization. Over the past week, he taught the ship's company on many topics such as leadership, stress management, marriage and parenting, homosexuality, mentoring, and slavery's affect on the Caribbean. What a privilege to sit under such a man.

STEP featured on website

The new STEP group that I'm coordinating is featured on the Logos Hope website today! We'll be the main feature for a few days, so make sure to check it out quick.

Out at Sea!

Since early Monday morning, we've been anchored outside of Barbados. The weather took a bad turn on Sunday night and the undercurrent swell started to make the ship pitch and roll, making it unsafe for us to be docked in the port. We're praying that soon the weather will clear so we can return to the port and reopen the ship! Please be praying with us.

The Invisible War

This evening, we just finished an 8-session DVD series called "The Invisible War" by Chip Ingram. The series was quite powerful -- centered around Ephesians 6:10-18. If you ever have the chance to go through the series, we'd highly recommend it.

STEP

One of the awesome parts of my new job is coordinating a program on board called STEP (short term exposure program). The program is just 10 weeks and gives young people an opporunity to be exposed to life on board the ship. We have new groups coming every 10 weeks and a new group arrived this past week. This is my first STEP group to coordinate, so I'm quite excited! There are 14 in the group and they are from many different counties. On Friday and Saturday, I coordinated an orientation for them and now they are starting their jobs on board. Over the next 10 weeks, they will work in a department on board, but also have the opportunity to participate in ministry and training. Just tonight my new boss said to me "You're like fish in water in this new job." Thank you Jesus for equipting me with the right skills and giftings for this new job!

Teenage Girls Event

On Friday evening, I had an awesome opportunity to MC an event for local teenage girls. What a joy! As many of you know, I mentored a teenage girl for many years back in Redwood City and also worked for a youth mentoring program for several years... all that to say, I very much love connecting with teen girls. The event was planned especially for girls coming from broken homes. What an evening! The program included a few dances performed by ship's crew, an incredibly awesome reggae band and a great message by a local female pastor. After the program, I was able to connect with an awesome young lady and had the opportunity to encourage her and pray for her. Thank you God for this incredible opportunity.