This is an early morning photo of the Africa Mercy here in Santa Cruz de Tenerife – photo taken by a fellow crew member – Murray.
Last Sunday I had the privilege of sharing at Iglesia Cristiana Fuente de Paz y Esperanza during their morning service. I felt lead to share the story of Alimou who had both a physical and spiritual transformation. Then I went on to share more about Mercy Ships. I shared in Espanol/Spanish instead of being translated. I was a bit nervous as I don’t use my Spanish so much now serving in Africa – but I could tell from the expressions of the people’s faces they were understanding. Some from the church having already visited us on the ship and more will come later.
Captains Board
This is a whiteboard where the Captain and Managing Director place important announcements for the crew – it is just inside the entry at the gangway, by Reception. The Captain wrote ‘God’s Blessings to All in 2010!!’ and that would be my prayer also.
Christmas Day Brunch
We gathered together this morning for our Christmas Day brunch. Ken is showing me one of his favorite fruits – strawberries – which is also my favorite. I joined their family for the morning brunch. We enjoyed many types of fruits that are just not available in Africa, but are available here in Tenerife. Merry Christmas Feliz Navidad
Shoes outside our doors
Being an multi-national crew on the ship, for Christmas for many years we celebrate the dutch tradition of placing a shoe outside your door – for us our cabin door and friends place in the shoe late on Christmas eve a small gift. Amazing to see the long hallways on deck 4 where I live.
Christmas Eve Dinner
For our Christmas Eve dinner on board the Africa Mercy, I joined with the Royston family – Tony (who is our biomedical technician for the hospital), Patricia (school teacher), their son Elliott (also known by a Ghanaian name of Kwesi) and our senior chaplain PJ Hopkins. The galley team did a great job and prepared both ham and turkey and the fixings and various deserts like pecan pie.
Advent 4 with Biney Family
This past Sunday was the fourth Sunday of Advent and the Biney Family who I have known for years from the Caribbean Mercy initially – they lite the four candles and read the scriptures from the Old Testament and New Testament. The theme of this service was ‘Peace’.
OR Door for Christmas
Please see the photo for what the Operating Room crew did for their decoration of their administration office door. The sign above says “The Operating Room is putting Santa Claus to sleep & celebrating the true meaning of Christmas!” They were the winner of the office door decorating contest.
Door with photos of the crew
During our door decoration contest, one cabin on deck 3 decorated with small photos of each and every crew member that was on board during the sail. They won one of the categories in the contest.
Canary Island Map – Off Africa
We have safely arrived in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands after 12 days of journey from Benin. This will be a technical work phase for the ship. Many crew will be on holiday. I will continue my work on all the final reports and individual final project reports from Benin ’09.
Rainbow – to welcome us to Tenerife
A beautiful rainbow welcomed us to Santa Cruz de Tenerife after eleven days at sea traveling from Benin where we completed ten months of field service.