Almost to Sierra Leone!

We're on our last day at sea!  Hard to believe that our two-week sail is almost complete. The time has flown!  The 14-days have been a really special time for the crew.  We really enjoyed having lots of fun, community events plus lots of great training to prepare us for Africa.  We have a family from OM Africa on board with us for the sail that have been giving lots of training session to prepare us for Africa. 

In a way, our visit to Africa will be similar to our visit to the Caribbean in a lot of ways.  Our Experience Deck will be open (book fair, I-Cafe, and Journey of Life display) to the public.  We'll also do lots of on board events for pastors, youth, woman, schools, etc.  Plus we'll send lots of team out in the community to visit orphanages, hospitals, local churches and prisons.  But one area that will change (that we're REALLY excited about!!) is that there will be a big increase in the amount of practical aids we'll be doing.  For instance, just in Sierra Leone alone, we'll be sending out 50 people to villages throughout the country to help in practical ways for up to a week.  John and I will be a part of a team week after next that will go into a community for a week to help build a church!  We can hardly wait!

Other really awesome ways we'll be helping out the communities will be dental and medical clinics, distributing school supplies to children, giving out books and resources to pastors, doing eye exams and providing glasses, and helping to start up libraries in the community.  We'll also be doing a big blood drive on board the ship (nurses will come on board from Mercy Ships!).  Praise God for giving us the resources to really be able to ramp up the aid we provide for local communities!