Jennifer's Parent's Visit

We had a wonderful time with my parents over the past week! We were so happy they could visit us a second time on the Logos Hope. We had quite a busy, fun-filled week! We did lots of fun, touristy activities in Bermuda, but I also put them to work on the ship! :) They helped out throughout the week with our school children visits (Dad counted all the children that came on board and Mom greeted all the children) and they also helped us to host a few on board events. This morning, we enjoyed going to a local church, St. Andrews together. They also enjoyed taking part in our every-day life on board -- morning devotions, ship family night, prayer night and more! What a wonderful time. Thanks Mom and Dad for coming to visit us in Bermuda!

Below are a few cute pictures from John's very early birthday celebration! John turns 30 in July, but since we won't be with family, my parents wanted to celebrate early with him, so they took us to a wonderful Thai restaurant.


The ship has a wonderful location in Bermuda - right on Front St. in downtown Hamilton!


The restaurant overlooked the ship!


Yummy Thai teas!

Happy Birthday to John!

ShipSHOTS 2

We just published our second ShipSHOTS video called "Lovin' the Crowd." View it from our website - www.omships.org/shipshots. You can also view it on YouTube. Enjoy!

Wonderful Partner Weekend

As I mentioned in a previous posting, this past week, John and I were part of a team that hosted Donors/ Partners last Thursday - Sunday for a wonderful OM Ships Partner Weekend. What a joy to help host the event! There were 14 of us from the ship that hosted the partners. We picked them up from the airport, registered them, helped with all the programs, events, and tours and just enjoyed meeting and interacting with them. We had over 150 partners from the US, Canada and Netherlands. The event was held at a Christian retreat center called Willowbank, which was lovely. We would have loved if they could have all stayed on board, but currently, the ship is bursting at the seams with crew, short-term mission trips and guests (which is a good thing of course!). :) Thank God for another fantastic opportunity!

Bermuda

Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Bermuda is the oldest and most populous remaining British overseas territory. Bermuda's first capital, St George's, was settled in 1612 and is the oldest continuously inhabited English town in the Americas. Bermuda was officially discovered in 1503 by a Spanish explorer, Juan de Bermúdez.

Located off the east coast of the United States, Bermuda's nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about 640 miles to the west-northwest. Bermuda's capital city is Hamilton (where we'll be berthed). The population of Bermuda is just over 67,000. Bermuda has a very affluent economy, with finance as its largest sector followed by tourism, giving it the world's highest GDP per capita in 2005.

Here's a few interesting facts about Bermuda ~
-Bermuda consists of about 150 islands, but only 20 have people living on them.
-The biggest island is called Great Bermuda.
-The islands were formed by volcanic rock topped by coral formations.
-The islands have no rivers or lakes or any fresh water wells, so they have to depend on rain water.
-English is the official language of Bermuda, and some Portuguese is also spoken.

And, of course, Bermuda is very famous for the "Bermuda Triangle!" And we're currently sailing through it! ;) The Bermuda Triangle is famous for the nonappearances of over 66 airplanes and ships. Bermuda is also very famous for it's Bermuda shorts. ;)

ShipSHOTS

On board, we're now producing a new video series called ShipSHOTS to share insights to the ministry of Logos Hope with our partners around the world. The series is available on the OM Ships website. The videos are also on YouTube and Facebook!

If you haven't already, you can become a fan of OM Ships on facebook to get updates on your wall. Click here!

To view the first video we're produced called "Lights, Children, Action!" on YouTube, click here!

Goodbye Bahamas, Hello Bermuda!

We left Nassau, Bahamas late Thursday night and plan to arrive in Hamilton, Bermuda early Monday morning. So far, the voyage has been relatively smooth, so thanks to those of you that are praying! :) Bahamas was a wonderful port for the ship. We thoroughly enjoyed being in the Bahamas and now are excited for our next port! In Bermuda, we'll be having a Partner Weekend for OM Ships donors. The weekend event will be held at Willowbank Resort (as there's not enough room on board for the 150+ partners coming!), but there will be many neat events held on board for them to experience ship life. The event coordinator planning the weekend event has asked a handful of crew members to be "hosts" for the weekend and John and I have been asked to be on that team. We're quite excited! Should be a wonderful experience. Please be praying for a wonderful time for the partners and for us hosting them!

Happy Easter!

He has risen! He has risen indeed! Praise the Lord! We hope each of you are having a wonderful Easter celebrating Christ's resurrection. We had a wonderful Easter service on board and a wonderful brunch. We're having a lovely, restful day in the Bahamas following a very busy week! I (Jennifer) helped to coordinate a leadership training this past week for first-time leaders and managers on board. The training was six full days on shore, so it was quite a full week! We covered topics like delegation, stress management, communication, listening, leadership styles, spiritual leadership, time management, motivation and more! I really enjoying helping to coordinate the week and also sit through all the training sessions as well. :)