We did celebrate a bit the Valentine’s Day this year. A group of the guys sung a couple songs to the ladies during lunch (though you primarily see children sitting in front of us in the photo – there were women there also). At dinner time, the ladies sang a couple songs for us.
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Health Care Reception
Since we are so involved with the local health care community and since the Ministry of Health is one of our main partner, we host a Health Care Reception on board the ship. During my role with the Advance Team, we solicited names and then wrote and distributed invitations to many to join us for a reception. I found it encouraging to see so many take the time out and come and join us. Our health care staff were able to share with them more ways we can partner together and communicated a clearer picture of what we can and can not do on board.
Grand Arrival of the Africa Mercy
Brenda and I served for 30 days on the Advance Team for the fourth visit of a Mercy Ship to Liberia. This happened on the great morning of February 5th. In following the tradition of the last advance team, we had matching African clothes made to celebrate the arrival.
LMC Pier without the Mercy Ship
While working on Advance Team, I went to the pier to check on its condition and the placement of the fenders for the Africa Mercy. I had my friend take this picture of me standing on a ‘lonely’ pier as there is no Mercy Ship there. This will be our fourth outreach in Liberia and this year will be our longest time in a country.
Traffic Jams in Monrovia
During my service on the Advance Team, I spent a lot of time driving, in meetings with pastors, healthcare professionals and government officials, on the cell phone and on the computer. Due to some major road repairs on the main roads in Monrovia, I encountered many detours that would add minutes to hours to the transit time. Though the roads are improving… in this photo we had almost 5 lanes one way – all trying to come down to one lane – a challenge in patience many times.
Sharing at the Church of God
While serving in Monrovia, Liberia on the Advance Team, I had the invitation and opportunity to share at local churches. On this Sunday, I shared at the Headquarters Church of God.
Tour of central Las Palmas with Ken,Ann,Jean&Jean
On Sunday, I had the day off and was invited to go on adventure with my friends Ken, Ann, Jean and Jean. We headed to the mountains and the former volcano in the middle of this island of Gran Canaria. We drove up to 6,500 feet, though when we got there, we could not see anything but the cloud. We stopped along the way in small quaint small towns and just enjoyed the day together.
Drydock 07 Under the AFM @ Bow
During our tour of the ship on Sunday morning, I took this photo at the bow (front of the ship). Since she was a ferry in Denmark before the ship actually had two rudders – one in the front and one in the back – we don’t need the one in the front and so we welded it closed. So far things are going good with the inspection and certificates that we need to continue to sail.
Holding the weight of the Africa Mercy with help
Sunday morning we had the opportunity to have a tour under of the Africa Mercy as we are in drydock. Here you can see the middle bottom of the ship resting on these platforms with wood on railroad tracks. That is how they move us around the shipyard. It was very interesting to see the bottom and the different parts that are normally always under the water line.
View of Las Palmas de Korean Church
This lovely view is of Las Palmas from the hillside where the Korean Church has their building. They hosted 55 of us crew on Sunday for service which was translated from Korean into English, Spanish and Chinese. Then they enjoyed bulgogi, my favorite Korean food and then went for a short bus ride to the Botanical Gardens and the Calle de Colon – Street of Christopher Columbus.