Done with Classroom

This has been a pretty good week.  We are now done with the classroom, it has been a challenge to spend a month sitting in a class after all the time we've been out of school. 

We continue to have a great group of people in our class, several of whom are now done, they have jobs that aren't on the ship.  We move on to basic safety training next week.  This is comprised of CPR/First Aid, Fire Fighting, and water safety.  There will still be a fair amount of classroom instruction, but we get to do a lot of active things too, so that should help the week go faster.

We got some good news late in the week, our house has been leased!!  A family new to town will be moving in March and will be there for 2 years!  We knew this would happen eventually, but it is a relief to have the details done before we leave.

Speaking of leaving, we were able to spend the weekend in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.  It was nice to get off the base and spend some time together.  We enjoyed some museums, dinners, and the Ft. Worth rodeo.

It was gratifying to watch 60 Minutes last weekend.  The general response was so positive that CBS did a followup on the evening news on Monday!!  As an organization, we have seen response like never before with thousands of hits on the website and lots of people seeking to work with Mercy Ships.  If you haven't had a chance to watch the segment, please do so!!  It will help you understand why we have a passion for the mission!!

Our phones will still be active until March 5.  We'd love to hear from you!  We leave on March 6 and fly from Dallas to Newark, to Brussells, to Dakar, Senegal, and then to Conakry, Guinea.  Not a flight we are looking forward too. . . about a total of 30 hours.  Then we will be working on a 2 1/2 week project at a women's hospital before moving on to the ship.

Hopefully we will have another blog update before we leave, but if we don't, it is possible we won't be back on line until near the end of March.  Take care all and God Bless!!!

Mercy Ships on 60 Minutes

This Sunday, February 17, Mercy Ships will be featured in one of the articles on 60 Minutes on CBS.  Air time is 7 pm Eastern or 6 pm Central.  Please take some time to learn about the organization in which Denise and I serve.

Week 2 of Training

Greetings from rainy Texas. . . .

This is a picture of our group as we celebrated the sixth birthday of Gracie, the daughter of a couple in our group.  Tonight we get to celebrate their son, Caden's eighth birthday!

We are in our second week of specific training.  We are following the core values of Mercy Ships, week by week.  The first week was "Love God" this week is "Love and Serve Others"

In that light, we have gotten our service project for Guinea defined.  We will be constructing a playground at our partner Women's Hospital.  The group before us did the "big kids" playground and we will be doing the construction for kids age 3-5.  The challenge is that basically all we will have for construction materials are tires and 2x4s. . . people are starting to work out plans.

We have been studying some personal and interpersonal development.  Today, one of the things we were challenged with is "If your tombstone listed your accomplishments, would you be happy with what was written?"

 One of the teaching points was a great poem, titled "The Dash"

I read of a man who stood to speak at the funeral of a friend
He referred to the dates on her tombstone from the beginning to the end.

He noted that first came the date of her birth and spoke of the following date with tears,
But he said what mattered most of all was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time that she spent alive on earth
And now only those who loved her know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own, the cars, the house, the cash,
What matters is how we live and love and how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard; are there things you'd like to change?
For you never know how much time is left that can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough to consider what's true and real
And always try to understand the way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger and show appreciation more
And love the people in our lives like we've never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect and more often wear a smile,
Remembering that this special dash might only last a little while.

So when your eulogy is being read with your life's actions to rehash
Would you be proud of the things they say about how you spent your dash?

(c) Linda Ellis

This is a real challenge to me to remember how to live my dash!

Blessings!!! 

Week 1 Done . . .

I promised I would try to add a picture for blog entries now that we have left Minnesota.  Denise and I are shown at the entry building for the International Operations Center (IOC) for Mercy Ships.  This facility has several buildings including dorms, a cafeteria, a gym, a guesthouse and cafe, an administrative building and several office spaces.  Most of our class was in the classroom this week, however, because we had been down here in September, we spent most of the week helping with duties around the IOC.  One of our duties was repacking eye surgery packs.  Alcon donates all the packs used for restoring site to thousands of people blinded by cataracts in Africa.  Alcon boxes them 5 to a box; however, Mercy Ships has found that by doing some rearranging they can get 7 packs in the same box.  As donor dollars are used to ship these via container to Africa, this results in a significant savings. 

We have spent many hours bonding with our class.  The class has people representing Minnesota, Colorado, Texas, Washington, Idaho, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Canada, The Netherlands, UK, and Slovakia (via Spain).  All this in a class of 24!!  We vary in age from 18 to 60's.  This just shows the reach of Mercy Ships and the worldwide vision of "Bringing Hope and Healing to the world's forgotten poor."

We will be here in Texas until March 6, then will fly to Conakry, Guinea.  We will work on a land-based mission for 2 weeks building a playground at the women's hospital.  At the end of March we will join the ship and begin our regular jobs.

Hope all of you have a great week!  Blessings . . .