Entries about boating

Hey Everyone!
It’s been a while since I’ve been in contact so there’s quite a bit to tell. Our next stop after Sierra Leone was Tema, Ghana not far from the city of Accra. Only a couple of days after we arrived I got to go on a church team. The church was in a village just out of the city area and even though it was quite small you could tell the congregation was really on fire for Christ. My team did an hour presentation, including the preaching, and my part was to share the ship’s presentation. Everything went really, you could tell God was in it, and the church was so welcoming and hospitable. It was really encouraging to see a strong, healthy church that was so intent on reaching out to its community.

Whilst I really enjoyed meeting the African people and experiencing their culture, not everything is so enjoyable. The adults tend to be very aggressive in their expression and speech towards you and the men are very forward and sometimes not very respectful. For the second week in Ghana I was on gangway watch in the morning so I had to deal with a lot of people who had bad attitudes and I had a really tough times dealing with them sometimes. After my week of watch I had a ministry day on the public deck and I just couldn’t deal with the people any more. I remember that I really just couldn’t speak to anyone so I ended up just sitting away and praying. God really used this time to show me that I can’t love people in my own strength, only through His empowerment. Now it’s still not always easy but God has really placed His love for the African people back in my heart and through Him I can share that love.

We spent 2 weeks in Tema and then sailed overnight to another Ghana port called Takoradi. Takoradi is really different from Tema as its a rural port while Tema was right in near the city. I didn’t have a lot of opportunity to go ashore in my free time but God really blessed me with two amazing Edays! Number 1 was special right from the start because I was made team leader for the very first time. This was pretty exciting and challenging for me and on top of that it was my first school program plus it was for 1500+ kids! No Joke =D! The school was called Sekondi College and when my team arrived we were blown away by the sound of 1500+ kids singing hymns African style. Wow that is Powerful and Moving! They were all gathered in a big auditorium and as soon as we arrived we were straight on. None of my team was very outgoing so I wouldn’t say the program was outstanding but it was ok. Everyone gave their best and I believe God used that. My part was to do the introduction, I played in a drama and at the end tied everything together and shared a challenge that God can use anyone who is willing and makes themselves available.
The 2nd Eday was a visit to the Father’s love children’s home. I’ll just say straight up it was incredible. You know when we go on edays we go to bless others but I swear I always come back more blessed than the people we reached out to. My team was pretty cool to start off, we just sat down and came up with some ideas of what we could do with the kids and decided to leave it open and flexible. We left around 9am and drove for half an hour before arriving at the home. I don’t know about you but when I think of a children’s home in Africa I don’t exactly have a good impression but when we arrived I was pleasantly surprised. It was really set up like a home, each child had a bed and enough room and they ate together, went to school and had ‘parents’ just like a real family. God really has a hand in that place. Anyways, once we arrived everybody gathered in the dining room and then they introduced themselves before we shared who we were and played a game by mixing up our flags and getting them to guess which flag belonged to which person. After that we sang some songs with actions together and then everybody just split up and hung with the kids in different ways. Someone read stories, another person painted hands, somebody else played music etc. One of the teenage girls attached herself to me straight away and I spent most of the time just talking and sharing with her. It was really cool and everybody had a really great time and was really touched.

Africa in general hasn’t been a very easy time for me. God has really been challenging me in a lot of ways and the transitions aren’t always easy but I know God walks with me through it all. One of the things that has always helped me to connect with God and think things through is playing the guitar and lately I’ve really started practicing and worshiping with my guitar again. Looking back these last 6 months has definitely not been easy for me emotionally but I can also really see how God has been using these challenges in my life and how I’ve be growing through everything that’s happened. I used to think that growing in God meant that you always had a really good quiet time, studied the bible and did the right things but now I see that God also works through situations and mistakes that each of us make. So many things that I’ve learned growing up have become so real and true in my life now because I’ve experienced them personally. It’s true that you can learn from other people’s mistakes but sometimes you have to learn from your own. God’s been showing me that it’s not wrong to make mistakes so long as you learn from them and don’t make them a second time.
The ship is currently in Monrovia, Liberia where we sailed to after leaving Takoradi (incidentally, I was on sea watch AGAIN). This port is pretty intense for everyone on board because we are sending out as many help and challenge teams as possible which means all the departments are stretched thin for workers. I go on challenge team in two weeks time and it is going to be a very challenging time for me as I’ve been chosen to be the team leader. We are an all girl, distribution team which means we will be giving out a lot of educational literature and schools supplies as well as doing a few school presentations. I’m very excited about it and will let you know how it goes.
So that’s it for now. I go on watch again tomorrow for a week then I’m on challenge team and after that I’m back on watch straight away so life is going to be very whacked out for a while. Our next port will be in the Canary Islands and will be a lot more relaxed. I’m looking forward to the freedom of a western country again =D
God bless, Rosanna

PS. I randomly decided to upload this recent photo of (nearly) the entire deck department because I though you might be interested =D

Hello everyone!
So here I am in Bermuda and what a beautiful place this is!! It's a the Caribbean with a European influence and a touch of America! Well technically it's not even part of the Caribbean because it's closer to New York but it still kinda has that feel, a little.
So the last couple of weeks have been very awesome. hmmm... wait just let me sit and think about what I did, everything blurs together after a while (that's not an opportunity to remind me to blog more often =D).
So obviously we sailed from the Bahamas to Bermuda. It was a beautiful sail (I wasn't on sea watch, YEEEEESSSS), the weather was calm, I wasn't seasick and one of the days I got this really cool job where I got to chip and needle gun rust of the starboard side gangway hoist. Not exciting, what do you mean not exciting??? Oh well I guess I have to explain a little more for you landlubbers. Working on the gangway hoist means that I got to wear a harness and sit outside that railing and hang myself, or my legs, over the side of the ship while we were sailing!!! Now you've got to admit that's EXCITING!!!
Oh I just remembered, I've got to tell you this funny story about when we arrived in Bermuda. So we sailed in on Monday morning but before we went to our proper berth we stopped off at the cruise ship berth to bunker (fill up with fuel). We were going to be there for about an hour and a half and I was told that we could go and be back at our mooring stations at 1300 (1pm) So I went and had lunch, looked at the time and decided that I had time for a short walk. The port was really beautiful and I had a great time looking around before heading back with plenty of time. So I'm walking at a good pace and as I start to get nearer the ship I hear this shouting and see someone running for the ship in front of me. Now I'm think OH MAN!!! so I start belting myself to get back to the ship, all the while with the rest of my mooring station is yelling and cheering me on. So I finally get to the ship, totally out of breath and exhausted, and race up the stairs to my mooring station. Turns out we were supposed to be at mooring station @ 1245! That's not the end though. Because I was late I was chosen to go to the aft mooring station to help out as it is generally less liked and Gareth (our 2nd officer who is in charge of the aft mooring station) tends to yell at you a lot. The walk was still worth it though!
Last Sunday I was on Eday and I had a really awesome day! In the morning I signed up to go to a local church, which has been really supportive of the ship's visit to Bermuda, along with 110 other ships company. It was really great we all dressed up and then got bussed out to the school where the service was being held. It's quite a large church and probably tends towards the Caribbean, charismatic side but everything was straight down the line and the sermon was great. The preach (Gary Simons) talked about purity and it's biblical basis. It's not a subject you hear preached on and it was really challenged you to raise the standards of how we live before God. After the service we got to mingle a bit and then we were bussed back to the ship. I had most of the afternoon off so I went for a walk around town with some friends and then at 5pm the rest of my eday started. Now I've deliberately left out any details about what I was doing to keep you in suspense cause I think this is pretty cool! I was helping out the AV team during an event as a Camera man/woman. I don't just mean on a home video camera I mean the real thing. I was in charge of camera 5 and learnt the basics that evening and then either used my initiative or followed the prompts to get live shots for the screens. It was pretty cool and I made a few little stuff ups but in general I did pretty good. I was on the camera from 6:30 to 9pm so It was quite tiring but very worth it. What an awesome opportunity huh. Where else would I get to learn how use this kind of equipment and use it during an event!! Plus I'll probably get asked to do it again so I'll have the chance to get better. Sweet huh?!
So that's it for me this time. I hope you enjoyed reading a few of my stories and got a taste of what I'm up to.
God bless...