Please Pray & #SailWithUs

• bunkering
• abandon ship & security drills
• muster station
• securing the cabin
• water restrictions
• sea sick meds
• pre-sail briefing

...phrases that we hadn't heard prior to June 2012 (or at least hadn't heard in the context of living onboard a ship!) have become pretty normal parts of our vocabulary!  We're sailing tomorrow!  Please join us in praying.

bunkering = taking on fuel.  another ship pulls up beside us and fuel is transferred...no need to go to the gas station, it comes to us.  

Prayer on Leaving Port*

Be with us, O Lord, on this voyage, to cheer us and keep us safe**.  Let nothing afloat or on shore cut us off from you.  May we please you in everything we do. Bless all on board, whatever their responsibility. Enable each of us to do his duty. Help us to be good shipmates and bring us in safety to our next port, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. -Amen-

*this prayer was on the "Apostleship of the Sea of the USA" website...we know nothing about this organization and are in no way "endorsing" it - we just like the prayer! 

**changed the original wording just a bit

Also, be on the lookout for the hashtag #SailWithUs on facebook, twitter & instagram.  It's a social media campaign of sorts that should lead you to a plethora of amazing pictures, posts and stories from the pat 35 years of Mercy Ships' history (plus plenty of "what's going on on the sail" posts).

A few of the faces God brought into our lives in Guinea....can't wait to see who we get to meet in the Congo!

So long Canary Islands.  Congo here we come.

"Let nothing afloat or on shore cut us off from you.  May we please you in everything we do...."  Yes, Lord.  May it be so.  

Surely there will be more to come!