the First Day of School

Hello! Today was the first day of school. It was quite a nice change from a regular day of just preparing for school to actually seeing school in action. The kids seem pretty great, there are almost fifty, twenty more than last year. The teachers were nervous, but the report from the first day was very positive.

As for ship life - we are in PR phase, so there have been lots of tours going through the ship. It is exciting to see so many people, Christians, non-Christians, interested in Mercy Ships. This last weekend in Rotterdam was a three day festival called World Harbour Days. I spent much of the weekend biking around and seeing the city. It was lovely. PR phase doesn't really feel much different to me than normal life. I compare it to when i moved to DC - exploring a new city, working 8 to 5, resting at night, chilling with friends on the weekend. normal.

The only odd change is that we move to a different city every week or two. I am really excited about Outreach in November. It is going to be so very different. I was talking with a couple friends who were on outreach last year in Sierre Leone and they were opening my eyes to what it was like for them. Pray the Lord would be preparing me for the poverty and less developed economies. Pray that I would reach out and attempt to build a relationship or two with someone from West Africa. Pray I'd be prepared to handle relationships that turn into them just wanting money from me.

Extra prayer things - since i came to the ship we've been using porter (sp?) potties, however, while this is inconvenient and sometimes gross, we actually need to have our system up and running before we go to the UK, which is supposed to be on Wed. So, pray the system would be fixed and that we would be able to sail on time and have bathrooms on the ship!

Also, the Africa Mercy, another vessel in the fleet, is really behind financially. The work is on hold right now. They need about 2.5 million dollars to get out of debt and to start moving forward again. that's about it for me. I have been slagging on email and letters, but should be getting into a groove soon. Please extend grace. :)