Chiefs Event + Nursing School

Yesterday was a really tremendous day!  In the morning, John and I were hosts for an exciting event on board.  We had an event for all the chiefs in the area.  Wow, what an experience!  It's certainly not everyday that you meet 50 African chiefs dressed in their beautiful robes and lavish gold jewelry.  The event coordinator asked several crew members to crew in their "national costumes" as the chiefs were also dressed in their traditional clothing.  John and I dressed like cowboys and really had fun! :)

Later in the day, I (Jennifer) joined a team of ladies from the ship to give an AIDS seminar to a local nursing school.  What an honor and a privilege!  We did a one-hour seminar on the social and emotional impacts of HIV and AIDS.  There was about 150 nurses in attendance.  They were very attentive and interested in our presentation.  It was so encouraging to see so many young African men and women desiring to become nurses in their country.  Now I can add to my list of experiences "college lecturer!"  ;)  

Check out the OM Ships Website!

The posting on the OM Ship's website today is about the school visits that John has been involved with as an actor. Check it out - www.omships.org. Interesting!

John as the Captain!

A few postings back (July 16), I wrote about John's debut in our children's program "The Greatest Treasure." Since, he's performed the play many times, so we thought you'd enjoy seeing a few pictures of John as "Captain Scally Wag" with his fellow sailors "Skittle" and "One-Eye Pete." :)

New ShipShots Video!

A new ShipShots video was released today called "Legacy of Libraries." Enjoy! Click here.

Marriage Revival Event

On Sunday afternoon, John and I MC'd an event on board called "Marriage Revival." What a GREAT event! We had 120 locals come on board for an afternoon of teaching and renewing their marriage. The main speaker was a local pastor/ professor (of business!) and did a fabulous job. In addition to enjoying MC'ing the event, we also really enjoyed the messages. We got lots of great new tips and ideas for a healthy marriage... from the African point of view! ;) What a blessing.

DEEP

In each port the ship visits, we have a program called "DEEP." The program is for locals to come on board each day to volunteer in one of the departments on board and also go through a training program. DEEP stands for Discipleship, Exposure to Missions, Expression of Love, and Practical Work. In many of the ports, John and I co-lead a training session called "Show." The session is all about how God shows His love for us; and in return, how we show His love to others. Yesterday was the last session we'll lead for DEEP before going home. Thanks to God, the session went great! We have loved meeting the volunteers in each port. They are such a HUGE help to us and we count it a blessing that so many people in each port have the desire to be apart of this great program! Enjoy the pictures!

John did such a good job teaching the group. We thank God for so many public speaking opportunities on the ship over the past two years! John has become quite a good public speaker if I do say so myself. ;)

The group of volunteers working through some questions. We had about 50 volunteers yesterday!

We love interacting with the volunteers. They are always so friendly, lively and fun! They always make us laugh. ;)

While John teaches the session, I act as the "scribe." One of the topics we discuss is how God describes His love for us in the Bible in so many ways. He loves us like a hen loves her chicks; like a shepherd love his flock and like a father and a mother love their children. Here I'm taking notes about how God loves us like a mother. They always have such good answers!

One month!

We can hardly believe that today marks our one month count down until we leave the ship. Two years had FLOWN! We'll be flying home in our next port, Monrovia, Liberia on August 22. Please pray that we'd have an impacting and meaningful last month on the Logos Hope!

Goodbye Tema, Hello Takoradi

Early yesterday morning, we set sail from Tema, Ghana to Takoradi, Ghana.  We arrived into Takoradi early this morning.  We are thankful that it was a relatively short sail as it was ROUGH!  Whew!  A few times last night, we thought we might roll out of bed.  :)  Tema was an excellent port for the ship.  In the 14 days that we were open for visitors, we had over 52,000 people come on board.  On our busiest day, we had 8,000 in one day!  We sold lots and lots of books - about 137,000 books in total.  And the most exciting part of the book sales was that we sold one Bible every minute our book fair was open!  We're really looking forward to this second port in Ghana.  Hard to believe this is our 2nd to last port!

Mentoring

As many of our readers know, mentoring is one of my main passions in life (Jennifer). So I am thrilled to announce that last night, we kicked off a six-week course for crew on board that are interested in learning more about mentoring and being mentors for younger crew members on board. When one of our chaplains on board mentioned that she really wanted to run this course, I (of course!) offered to help train. Last night we had our first session and it went really well. We're going to run the course on both Friday and Saturday nights. We had 40 people sign up which is so encouraging! Last night, I trained on the Mentoring Continuum and the Constellation Model of Mentoring Relationships (both are concepts that I've learned since joining the ship). Before coming to the ship, I worked at a mentoring program for at-risk youth, so most of my knowledge of mentoring was between a caring, stable adult and an at-risk youth. Since coming to the ship, my understanding of mentoring has broadened quite a bit and I've become more familiar with the adult-to-adult type of mentoring. Over the past several months, I've actually been mentoring four younger female crew members which has been an absolute joy!

John acts in "The Greatest Treasure"!

Since the Logos Hope took her maiden voyage 17 months ago, we've been having school visits in each port.  We bring several classes into our 400-seat theater for a fun kid's program almost each day the ship is open.  The program is called "The Greatest Treasure."  On busy days, we have up to five programs a day! The program is very interactive and exciting for the kids.  A group of sailors are looking for the "greatest treasure" which turns out to the be the Word of God.  We also share about God's love and what our ship is all about. 

John and I have helped with the program before (welcoming children, etc.), but have never acted in the play before.  Since we're in our final stretch, we decided to go ahead and try something new and participate in a training to learn the play.  I'm happy to say that John played the part of the Captain twice this week.  He did a GREAT job!  I was so proud of his "pirate" captain voice.  So cute.  The kids love it.  We're so happy to still have the opportunity to try new things even in our final months on board.

New ShipShots Video!

Check out the latest ShipShots video about our Atlantic crossing. Click here!

John's 30th Birthday!

We just returned to the ship after a few days of break on shore celebrating John's 30th birthday. We had a wonderful time! We stayed at a fun little place called Big Milly's Backyard in Kokrobite (pronounced cock-rah-bee-tee), a small fishing village about two hours from where our ship is berthed in Tema. We had a great time resting and practicing our new hobby... African djembe drumming! :)

John's birthday on the beach!

Our drumming instructor, Master Okoe.

My new little friends!

Our new friend, Thomas, the head waiter at Big Milly's. We loved connecting with all the locals working at Big Milly's. What a great staff.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July to all of our American readers! Hope you have a wonderful day celebrating the gift of our independence today with your friends and family. Hard to believe we're in Ghana today celebrating an American holiday! :) All of the Americans on board will celebrate together tonight with a BBQ. May today be a wonderful day of celebration for you. May we never forget the amazing freedoms we have as Americans and all those who sacrificed their lives to enable those freedoms. May God bless America!

Check out the OM Ships Website!

Our friend Emmanuel Shaw (that runs the Mercy Children's Orphanage in Sierra Leone) is featured today on our OM Ships website (www.omships.org)!  The article will be on the main page for only a few days, so check it out ASAP!  How wonderful!

Hello Ghana!

We arrived into Tema, Ghana last night around midnight!  We haven't been off the ship yet today, but are anxious to go out and explore soon! 

John worked so hard in Calaba Town!

I thought you'd get a kick out of seeing all the different types of jobs that John had during our time in Calaba Town -- digging, carrying water (on his head African style!), pumping water at the well, and breaking up rock to make gravel.  Just a few of the many ways John served the people of Calaba Town during our week there.

Ghana

Ghana is a country located in West Africa bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south. The word Ghana means "Warrior King" and is derived from the Ghana Empire. The capital of Ghana is Accra. The official language is English as Ghana was a former British colony; however, most Ghanaians also speak at least one local language.

Ghana has a population of about 24 million people and is home to more than 100 different ethnic groups. Ghana has not seen the kind of ethnic conflict that has created civil wars in many other African countries.

Ghana, known for its gold in colonial times, remains one of the world's top gold producers. Other exports such as cocoa, timber, electricity, diamond, bauxite, and manganese are major sources of foreign exchange.

Here are a few interesting facts about Ghana:

-Ghana is the second largest producer of cocoa in the world.

-Ghana is one of West Africa's most popular tourist destinations.

-In the 1970s, Shirley Temple Black, a former world-famous actress, was appointed America's ambassador to Ghana.

-Lake Volta is one of the largest artificial lakes of the world (more than twice the size of Rhode Island).