Recent News
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7 February- Thanks to
the kind folks at Trinity Baptist church in Nashua, New Hampshire, I now have a
brand new
laptop, and can once again keep you up to date on what is going on.
I left the Logos Hope in Montego Bay, Jamaica
two Sundays ago on January 24th, and spent only four days home before jetting
off to Tenerife and the Africa Mercy,
which was due to sail the next day. Sail we did, and we're currently
underway, due to arrive in Togo in a few days.
There's a surfeit of deck officers on board, and thanks to that, all of us
only have to stand one watch each. My watch
is the 2000-2400, or 8-to-midnight for the nautically-challenged among you. The
rest of my day is spent reading all
of the Africa Mercy's (heretofore to be known as the 'AFM') training manuals,
Safety Management Systyem, and other
narcolepsy-inducing materials. Just as I've had to 'unlearn' all of my Mercy
Ships lingo and re-learn it as 'OM-Speak', I
am now doing the same in reverse. 'Line-up' has become 'Advance Team' again,
'Charlie' is now 'boutique', 'CDS' has
replaced 'Help Ministries', and 'Roving Party' (which I never quite grasped)
will know be known by the much-superior
'On Scene command'. Methods, schedules, and procedures have all changed, and I
found myself heading to the Inter-
national Lounge at 11 for church...forgetting that the AFM doesn't have church
on board Sunday morning; they have
community meeting Sunday evening, instead. Meal times are a half-hour earlier (
and shorter ), and the ship shop is
open every weekday, all afternoon. Little things that I have to re-learn all
over again. I've even inadvertently written
Logos Hope on my paperwork once or twice, and I've had to remind myself to say
the right ships name when talking
on the radio. When I forget these things, Capt Tim is there to tell me, ''Ten
Demerits!!!"
Still, it's good to be back, and among so many old friends. There are some I
miss; Jen, Gert-Jan, The Joensens, and
Marlene most of all, but many of my old friends are still here and great
potential for new ones. I look forward to this
outreach, and to my service aboard the Africa Mercy, now as 3rd officer.
My time home was spent buying supplies,
visiting friends, and most importantly, submitting my paperwork for the USCG, to
upgrade to Second Officer. Things
were already complicated before, but have grown even moreso, so I am not sure
that i will be able to upgrade. I ask
you to keep it in your prayers, if you would. If I upgrade I will likely extend
my service a few months. If I don't, I am
considering taking a break from ministry for a year or two to advance. My heart
is in ministry, but garnering sea time
and advancing my license has been my biggest stumbling block. Pray that I will
be able to advance, or barring that, I
would be able to see more clearly what God would want for me, and would have the
courage (and faith) to follow the
path He sets out for me. I will endeavor to update this page as often as I can,
and I will try to finish up the Caribbean
page, as well. After 15 or so months on the Logos Hope where I rarely got
involved in the ministry side of things, I'm
going to make a more concerted effort to do so. It will be easier, as I am only
doing one job instead of 2 or 3, as on
the Hope. Being among more people my age makes it easier, as I am not
automatically thrust into the leadership role
by default due to my age. There will be a language barrier, of course, but
hopefully I will be able to connect with an
patient to adopt. Thank you all for your continued prayers,
support, friendship & interest in my mission and my life. eric
*
View From My Window-
3°57.4"N 10°37.4"W
2/5/10
*
Secret Agent Man
One of the many good changes here on board is an increase in Liberians serving
as crew. When I left,
there was only one, a deckhand. Now, after four outreaches in that country
within 5 or 6 years, a number of Liberian day
volunteers have completed a DTS at YWAM Tema in Ghana, and are now serving here
as crew. If you worked on board the
Anastasis or Africa Mercy, you might remember such names as Oretha the ward cook
or Gregory Kulah in deck. Even that
eternal day volunteer Wahblo Briggs is finally signed on as crew. It has been a
pleasure seeing which of the day-vols have
been called to service with us. I'd forgot how much I missed the Liberians easy
sense of humor and only-in-Liberia accent.
I was speaking with Montez, a Liberian day volunteer-turned-crewmember,
who worked on our ships AC systems. He used
to have a little shop up on Carey St in Monrovia, just off Johnson St. I used to
go by here all the time, as this was the way
I would travel on my way to downtown from the Ducor Palace. I don't
remember his shop specifically, though I know the
street very well. He remembers me, and told me how him and his friends on
Carey St. used to see me heading up to the
Ducor. The Ducor, of course, is the former 5-star hotel towering 9 stories above
downtown Monrovia. After the war, as the
hotel slowly fell into disrepair, squatters moved in and made homes in it's
vacant rooms. After a visit there in 2005, I was
led by the Holy Spirit to build a school for the hundreds of kids living there.
Along with a local man living in the hotel, we
transformed one of the floors into a multi-grade school with about 100 students.
It went strong for almost a year, until in-
fighting tore it apart and parts of the school began growing legs and walking
off. President Johnson-Sirleaf put the nail in
the coffin when she ordered the Ducor evacuated in May of 2007. To anyone living
near the Ducor in 2005, I must have
been a familiar sight, heading up to the hotel on Saturdays and throughout the
week, as I got the school up and running.
I was certainly a familiar sight to Montez and his friends. He was telling me
today over lunch how they used to watch me
shuttling back & forth between the Ducor and the markets downtown. Somehow, it
became decided that I was in the CIA,
of all things,...conducting some sort of sinister black ops on the rooftop of
the Ducor Palace. It's good to be back in Africa.
*
For the complete webpage of our 2009
Outreach to the Caribbean, click here
For earlier news, including Logos Hope's 2009 Outreach to Europe,
click here.