...regarding our last post about the MV Doulos......as you know the Doulos cannot sail past December 31, 2009. Doulos is 95 years old and she needs a lot of constant work & repairs to keep up to code & meet all the 'safety at sea' requirements...and the maintenance is very costly! It has come to the point where it is just not worth it. Of course we knew this would happen eventually, but not quite so suddenly and it is kind of sad as we have so many great memories of our time on the ship.
.
Harv joined the Doulos in 1984 and after a year of working in the Book Holds he served 3 years doing "Line-up" which is going ahead of the ship to a port city to prepare & organize for the ship's visit. Harv came back to Canada in 1988 to study at WBC (now Providence College) in Manitoba and that is where we met. In June 1990 we were married, in March 1991 we had our first baby, Rachelle, and when she was 2 1/2 months old we flew to Taiwan to rejoin the Doulos. We served on the ship until April 1997. Sonja and Jordan were both born during our time on the Doulos (in Seoul, 1992 & the Seychelles Is, 1995). When we came back to Canada I was 7 months pregnant with Melissa. Our time on the ship was very precious, not always easy, but it was such a privilege to be part of this great ministry. The Lord has touched so many lives through the ship ministry! Our kids don't remember much about the ship and living on board. They were too young when we left 12 years ago. I always wanted our kids to have an opportunity to go back to the Doulos at least for a visit, just to see where we once lived and served, but now it won't be possible. We do have some video footage from when we were on the ship so we should get that out and watch it (if the viewing quality is still any good).
.
Today is an OM International Day of Prayer for the Doulos and everyone on board as they have a lot of matters to take care of by the end of December, particularly all the ship's staff & crew who now need somewhere else to go. I think there are about 300 people on the Doulos. Do they just go home or do they go to serve somewhere else in OM? Each person will be guided & counseled individually. Currently the Doulos is in Singapore and she will not be leaving this port. Thank you so much for your prayers.
About the Doulos ... From the Doulos website:
Doulos was purchased in 1977 by GBA Ships e.V. (previously known as Good Books for All), a private, non-profit, charitable organisation registered in Germany.
Over 20 million visitors have been welcomed on board for tours, programmes and visits to the floating book fair. With stops in over 500 ports of call, this unique ship has visited more than 100 countries in including Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and many island nations.
Doulos is recognised in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's oldest active ocean-going passenger ship.
.
.
November 25, 2009
November 23, 2009
"Sudden End For Doulos"
A ministry that is very dear to our hearts...
Our home as a family for nearly 6 years (1991-1997)
.
(Photo taken Oct 26, 1995)*** *** ***
Doulos personnel and partners around the world are coming to terms with the news that the ship’s service will end on 31st December 2009. Until this week, the crew had hoped the world’s oldest ocean-going passenger ship could continue sailing until September 2010. But surveys by marine safety authorities confirmed major repairs are required to keep Doulos in service. Early estimates indicated this work would cost over €10 million.
The organisation's executive leadership team and board believe that it is not appropriate to invest resources on this scale into the vessel, since Doulos would have a limited future.“This is not what any of us wanted and has serious consequences for everyone on board and the ports we planned to visit,” said CEO Peter Nicoll. Each person on Doulos will receive support and guidance as they consider their future steps.“We recognise God’s faithfulness through 32 years of wonderful service with more than 600 port visits in over 100 countries,” Peter Nicoll said. “We are deeply grateful to our partners around the world who have supported the ship through the years.”
.
November 18, 2009
What's Up?
Nothing terribly exciting, but...
Tonight Harv & I are attending the Port High Honor Roll dinner with Sonja... hopefully she actually makes it in time as she is in Toronto today on a school trip to attend "The Sound of Music" production. Sounds like fun ... wish I could go too! Tonight is also our church youth so Jordan and Melissa will be going to that.
Recently Harv started walking to work every day. It's about a 1/2-hour walk. Great exercise!! Things have been really busy in the OM office. As for me, lately I have been mainly keeping up with my church power point work and music. I finally started working on the music binder for OM. Earlier this year I put together a new OM song booklet and then started leading singing at our weekly prayer meetings (with the use of a keyboard). I need to get back into that again as it has been awhile. Anyway...OM has an account with CCLI so we have a certain number of songs that we can print by a certain deadline and I need to get the music together with all the lead sheets before the deadline. When I start a project I don't like to leave it because then it sits there in a pile and if too much time passes I forget where I left off...but I don't want to clean it up until it's done.
Last week I put up Christmas decorations inside the house, including the Christmas tree! The kids helped with the tree ornaments on the weekend when Rachelle was home. I am debating whether to do something outside too. If we do then we need to get new lights.
The kids are doing great! We have been very fortunate so far not to catch any bad flu's or H1N1. We've had colds in our family but nothing too serious. Sonja is currently painting a beautiful design on her bedroom wall. Did you know that she is very good at drawing? Lately she has been re-thinking her future plans. I will reveal more about that as it becomes more certain. Jordan continues to practice his guitar LOTS and is getting better all the time. Jordan brought home a school report card last week and has an average of 94.5% ... his classes are Geography, Math, Science and Gym (the first three are French Immersion). Melissa is glued daily either to a book, the TV or her DS (handheld game thingy) and hardly ever has homework. She's doing great in school though and I am looking forward to that report card! She hurt her ankle the other day so she's limping around a bit right now. Melissa has been enjoying going to the High School for "Design & Tech" every two weeks. Rachelle is doing well at college. We don't see her very much but we keep in touch through Facebook. She was home for a week at the end of October for Reading Week ... plus she was home this past weekend.
.
.
Melissa's "Design & Tech" projects
"Love is the Song of the Heart"
.
October 31, 2009
October 20, 2009
October 16, 2009
Makin' Music @ Market
This morning Sonja's music class provided entertainment at our local Farmers' Market...despite the very chilly weather and their freezing hands & fingers!
.
.
Sonja and two of her friends played "The Pink Panther" theme song (two saxophones & one clarinet).
.
.
October 14, 2009
Where to start??
I have to admit it's with lacking enthusiasm that I write, first of all wondering "who actually reads this?" and secondly... it has been so long and so much has happened I don't know where to start. Also I feel I have better things to do right now...there's always work and things to get done around the house, etc. I find that blogging is very time consuming especially when you make slideshows and do stuff with photos, trying to be a bit clever sometimes...but also just in the basic writing without anything else or trying to make it special. Right now I just can't keep up that level of creativity. It just takes too much time and energy and brain power.
.
.
Life has been so crazy the past several months. Backtracking...June was absolutely insane...Sonja & Rachelle both got their driver's licenses, we celebrated three Birthdays (Sonja, Melissa & Jordan's), we also celebrated Rachelle's grade 12 Grad, Jordan's grade 8 Grad, our Wedding Anniversary...and in the middle of all that also went away on an OM Canada weekend retreat (which despite adding to the hecticness was very enjoyable). Then 2 days after Rachelle's Grad she travelled 5 hours up north to work for five weeks at Camp Kahquah.
.
.
Summer did not slow down for us one bit. Jordan went to camp to work as CREW for 2 weeks in July, then Melissa went to camp for one week as a camper. While Jordan was away I painted his bedroom which was a bigger job than I expected ~ it doesn't help that I'm a slow painter. Also at the beginning of July we took in a boarder who lived with us for 2 months. She came to work with OM Canada for 2 years (she's now in her own apartment). In August as many of you know we travelled to Manitoba and Saskatchewan and were gone for 3 weeks. By the way we had a really great time and really enjoyed seeing everyone! Thank you so much to our families for everything and for making our visit so special!!! I took a lot of pictures but right now the task of sorting through them to create a slideshow is just too huge for me. Our trip went very well and we are so thankful we didn't encounter any road troubles. By the time we arrived home we had put over 7000 km on our van...we certainly don't take for granted the safety on the road when travelling such long days.
.
.
While we were in Saskatchewan we got the sad and devastating news of Canadian OM friends who were in a tragic car accident on August 11th travelling through the USA...planning to head back into overseas missions. The husband and 11-year-old daughter both died while the wife survived but with many serious injuries. Even at the time of the funeral which Harv attended in Edmonton on August 31st she was still hospitalized and was only released long enough to attend the funeral of her husband and daughter. This tragedy was a huge shock to our whole OM staff and we pray for complete healing for our dear sister, physically, emotionally and in every way.
.
.
After we got home from our trip out west we helped Rachelle get ready to move to Oakville where she's currently attending college. We moved her there September 1st as we also attended an orientation at the college that day. I ended up driving (my first time on the QEW!!) as Harv met up with us there having just flown back from Edmonton into Toronto that morning. As far as college, it's so strange having Rachelle gone, but she is doing very well living on her own and she is really enjoying her courses ~ she's taking Art Fundamentals. So far she has come home one weekend for a visit. The other three kids are back in school (three different schools) and doing great. Jordan is now in grade 9 and continuing French Immersion in High School. Sonja is in grade 12 and continues to work at a local pharmacy. Melissa is in grade 7. Life continues to be very busy and can become rather overwhelming at times. Whether it's school, church, work, OM or just family life in general ... there's always so much happening. God is good though and we have so much to be thankful for. Speaking of being "thankful" we enjoyed celebrating Thanksgiving this year (as we have the past couple of years) with a few OM friends here. I cooked a turkey with stuffing and it turned out great. We had a wonderful time together!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
