Flash Backs, Current Events, and a Growing Bump

A while ago I wanted to write a little more about a few people that I managed and worked with during my 10 months in Benin. During a field service the ship hires a special group of people called Day Volunteers. They are people who live locally, but come on board to work with us each day. In my department, I was blessed with five great Day Volunteers....

Bienvenu: our Laundry Man from Northern Benin, has a desire to help the church in West Africa, will most likely be a Pastor someday, has a gift with learning foreign languages (Korean for example) and is currently doing DTS in Ghana. This guy has a heart of gold.

Salome: Laundress and housekeeper originally from Nigeria, Pastor's wife and mother of four. This woman loves to sing, pray and care for anyone she comes in contact with. She's now attending Bible school and keeping busy with her church and family.

Luvia: Housekeeper from Togo/Benin, young and lovely, has a radiant smile and is petite but powerful! She's a prayer warrior, a singer, and loves to laugh. She is applying to work with the ship again in Togo beginning in February.

Terez: Housekeeper from Benin, prays and sings in a beautiful tribal language, wife and mother of two sweet girls, and working on her business/ownership of a women's boutique/shop.

Dennis: Housekeeper from Ghana, a man of integrity and good work ethic, an athlete, has a great smile and laugh, and is coming back to the ship in March as a crew member! He will fit well.

I was blessed to be able to spend 10 months learning from them and investing my time in them. Each of them brought special dynamics to our group and each of them put in an amazing amount of work. We laughed, cried, danced, worked, and prayed together until it was time for the ship to depart.

L to R: Bienvenu, Salome, me, Luvia, Terez, Dennis

Other news:

Currently I am staffing a training school for people who are preparing to serve with Mercy Ships, long term. I get to drive them around in a 15 passenger van most of the time :) I take them to town, to church, local dining favorites, and bowling this Monday night! I am keeping busy with them... which is a good thing because Justin is on the ship. Their first week of school was Basic Safety Training (fire fighting, first aide, CPR, and sea safety). This week, just ending, included topics of prayer, hearing from God, and spiritual warfare (a 24/7 acknowledgment of spiritual issues rather than it being an 'event'). It was great, and they are a great group of people!

Justin and I will reunite at the end of February. Two weeks down, four to go! He has been keeping busy with engineering and studying for an upcoming 'Fundamentals in Engineering' test. This is one of those things that he doesn't have to do, but it will better his career and opportunities in Engineering... I'm proud of him. Wish I could help him study, but one look at some of the questions and/or math problems and I get an automatic headache, it's so far beyond my comprehension.

In the meantime, my baby bump is growing and I've entered into week 24. More than half way!