Update from Brisbane

Well I guess I have been meaning to write an update to you all pretty much the whole time I have been home, but I am just getting around to it now. First off I want to say thank you so much for the prayers and support my family and I have received over this time, it has really made all the difference in the world.

For those of you that might have missed my last update and were unaware I have been back in Australia over the past 5 weeks after leaving the ship suddenly due to the much unexpected passing of my father. Although coming home for a reason such as this it has still been good to be able to catch up with old friends as well as family members that I haven't seen in a while.

So what have I been doing for the past 5 weeks or so you might ask. Well first of all we were very busy organising the memorial service for my Dad which ended up going very well and a lot of people where able to come and share the day with us. Since then I have been doing my best to try and help my mum out with all the different paperwork and government departments that she had to notify of the death as well as transferring and unsubscribing from all the memberships of different things my Dad had (who knew someone could be a member of so many different things). Also I have been trying to catch up with as many people as possible in my time home and that has been good. I am also going for my motorbike drivers license this week to hopefully make things a bit easier if and when I want to look at getting a bike to get around on next year. One of the bigger things I have been working on while home though is I have actually become a part time travel consultant with a christian travel company called Integrity Travel. The idea behind this is I can work from on the ship when I have spare time and also be there to help my friends and fellow crew members on the ship when they need to travel somewhere. Also it is a chance for me to hopefully earn a little bit of commission and help support my stay on the ship. So if anyone needs any help with travel somewhere or even if you want to book a holiday or something like that let me know and I will do my best to help you out. The website for the company is www.integritytravel.com.au and my email address for travel bookings is timbensontravel@gmail.com

So I will be heading off back to the ship this coming Tuesday the 28th at 6am, which has really come up fast on me I thought 6 weeks at home would be a little while but it has just flown by. I will be flying to Durban in South Africa as the ship sailed just after I left it and is now down there in dry dock getting the main power generators replaced. For those of you that remember I mentioned it before that the ship would be doing this. It will be in South Africa for the rest of the year as it is a big job and a hole has to be cut in the side of the ship to allow the old generators to come out and the new ones to go in. In other news with the ship, I have actually just been offered a new position on board. They have asked me if I would be willing to take on the role of Staff Purser. For those of you that don't know what a purser does on board a ship, he is the person in charge of all supplies coming to and from the ship as well as all customs and immigration for all the crew, also looking after all arrivals and departures from the ship (and for our ship that is alot). Also on our ship the purser oversees the reception area of the ship that takes care of answering the phones and email as well as monitoring the fire panel which is the ships warning system for fires. So needless to say its a big job and involves much more than I have just said here, so I am taking my time to decide. I am leaning towards taking the position after thinking and praying about it as well as talking it over with some friends, but I am not going to make my final decision until I have a chance to chat with the guy I will be taking over from back at the ship.

So yeah that's pretty much me at the moment, just trying to frantically work out what I need to get done in these last few short days before heading off back to my home on the ship.

Praise God in Everything

Well at about 4.30pm my time today I got some really bad news. My Dad had collapsed while on a tour in Iceland and had to be rushed to hospital for emergency surgery to remove blood clots from his lungs. He made it through the surgery and is now in the ICU. My mum is with him, but there is no one else there as they had just taken a cruise to Iceland.

After hearing this news I didn’t really know what to think or do. So I spent the next little while getting in contact with my mum and getting an update and then trying to get in contact with as many other family and friends as possible so that they could join in prayer and support. Then I went to dinner and that must have been the quietest I have been at a meal in a long time (apart from breakfast when it’s early). After the meal I went back to get some more updates and try to contact some more people. Then I went to bible study group I have on board with this great group of guys that are just amazing. It started at about 7.30 and they were so supportive and we just shared and prayed till 10pm and it was just what I needed.

You might ask where the title of this post comes in, well you see I went and made myself a cup of tea after the meeting with the boys and I was wondering around the ship and decided to go outside because it was quite cold inside. I went up to the top deck of the ship and as I was climbing the last stairs something came to mind that had been said by our managing director here on the ship not that long ago. He had said something along the lines of “Praise God in everything” and at the time he said it there were a few families that were going through some tuff times and had to leave the ship and it had really hurt the community, but he encouraged us that the best response to this was to praise God. So after remembering this that is exactly what I did I went to the back of the ship and look out over the water and just started singing praises to God. And you know what it was one of the most amazing times I have had with God in my life just standing there with a breeze blowing and a cup of tea in my hand singing my lungs out to God. Then I got to singing “My God is and Awesome God” and that was it I just started crying my eyes out, but it was strange the more I cried the louder I wanted to sing and it was just one of the most amazing feelings ever.

So my Dad definitely isn’t out of the woods yet by any stretch of the imagination, but I just wanted to let you all know this, no mater what praise God in everything good or bad.

It's been a while so here is an update

Hello Everyone,

Well it really has been a while since I last sat down and wrote to you all. I have been incredibly busy over the past period here on the ship as 3 weeks ago I took over a second job on board the ship. So I am now not only the sales manager taking care of the ship shop and café affairs, but I am also filling in as the IS manager for the ship. What is IS you might ask well you are probably more familiar with the term IT which here on the ship covers everything to do with computers, printers, scanners and the phone system. So to say the lest the last few weeks have been a steep learning curve for me as I have been working long hours trying to help out as much as possible in our already short staffed IS department.

How did it happen you may ask that I of all people have ended up been the IS manager when I actually have no official background in IT. Well, why I was chosen I am not completely sure about, but the reason someone was needed to take over the position until a permanent replacement could be found is because the old manager had to go home do to health reasons of her husband who was also serving on board. So if you could keep them in your prayers as they are still waiting on some test results now that they are back home.

One thing that has really kept me busy over the past 2 weeks is we are currently working on upgrading the email server for the whole organisation of Mercy Ships. This is a huge project, but one that is really needed as our old email system is an antique by IT terms. We are fortunately nearing the end of it which I am really excited about as it will mean I can hopefully work a little bit less in IS and do some more of my other job in the sales department.

One thing I am really looking forward to is I am going to get to see my whole family together for the first time since 2008. My Mum, Dad, Brother and Sister will all be coming to visit me on the ship at the end of this month. They will be staying on board for a week and then we will all be travelling to Ghana which is the country next to Togo and going up north to where my grandparents, my Mum’s parents used to live as missionaries. This should be a great time for my family together and a much needed break for me as I am going to be ready for a break by the end of this month.

Looking ahead we still don’t know very much about what is going to happen when the ship goes to South Africa in August, but we do know that we will be going and getting the much needed work done to the ship. There are still a lot of smaller details as well as some big ones that need to be sorted out before the ship leaves to sail down there, so please remember this in your prayers. Also the advance team for the ship that is down in South Africa trying to prepare things for the ship could use some extra prayer as they are having trouble meeting with people, because everyone is so focused on the world cup currently.

Well that’s about it for now, sorry it’s been so long. Please feel free to write to me and tell me how you are doing I would love to hear about your lives as well.

Tim.

Giving Blood

So just last week on Thursday Naomi who works in the lab on board passed me in the hallway just before lunch time and says “Oh I’ve been looking for you do you have time to pop down the lab and give us a unit of blood” (or at least something like that). You see this might not seem like a very normal thing to ask in a passing hallway conversation or even a very casual way of asking it, but you see it’s just how life here on board is. I know that if it’s been more than 8 weeks since the last time I gave blood, that at pretty much any time they might contact me to come and give a unit of blood. The way it works on board is we don’t actually have a blood bank or anything of the sorts. So what we do is if a patient needs to receive some blood then the lab tech will look through a list of people willing to donate and find a match for that patient and the blood will be taken straight from the crew member and given to the patient just minutes later. Sometimes the blood is for a patient who is just on the ward and might need a transfusion to just help them along a bit, but most of the time it seems that blood is needed for a patient that just currently in the operating room/theatre been operated on. This was the case when I donated last Thursday. The person I was donating to is a 19 year old girl who was having a major plastics type surgery and was loosing a lot of blood. I was the first person to donate to her so that was all the more encouragement to bleed as fast as possible so that they could get the blood into surgery as soon as possible. I am not sure how much blood she ended up needing, but when I had finished donating they were saying that she might need up to 6 people to make donations for her to be able to make it through the surgery.

So as the sales manager on board the ship I don’t get too involved with what goes on down in the hospital as I am busy with my other work, but its good to know I can still be involved in such a crucial way like this and it helps make me feel connected to what is going on downstairs in the hospital.

Election Day

Well today is the day of Togo's national election. So for all of us here on the ship we have spent the day inside without leaving in case things go bad the captain wants to be better safe than sorry. As far as we have heard today there has not been too much to report on the election so I assume that means its all been going well which is good news as we have been praying for this for a while now. One of the main reasons we are been so cautious is that the last national election Togo had didn't go so well and there are still refugees in neighbouring countries from that time. The real test of how things will be is going to be in over the next week as it come up to the date that the results are due to be announced. So please join me in praying that this will be a quiet and peaceful next week especially when the actual result is announced. Don't worry about anyone here on the ship though, we have alot of plans in place and are taking the safest approach to this time possible so if something does come up we should be fine.



Anyway just letting you all know what is happening here in Togo at the moment so please just keep the whole election process in your prayers.

Becoming a Diver

As some of you may remember I have previously talked about wanting to become certified in diving so that I can help out in performing cleaning and maintenance tasks on the bottom of the ship. I have decided that now is the best time for me to do this as 1. There are lots of diving schools here in Tenerife and 2. The dive team is going to be a bit shorter on people this next period while the ship is in Togo, with there been only 3 divers left on board and all 3 of them have other full time jobs as well. I am not yet sure how often divers will be needed to be used in Togo as we will have to wait and see the port and how bad the water and rubbish situation is. While in Benin though divers were needed to be used as much as 2 or even 3 times a week (Togo should be better than this).

I have contacted some local dive schools to see what sort of price they could offer me to get my PADI(Professional Association of Diving Instructors) certified open water diver certificate. This is a lifetime certification and allows me to dive anywhere in the world pretty much. I was shocked at the response I got from one company as they replied to me offering me the course for 183 Euros which is down from their regular price of 395 Euros. I feel like this might be a little hint from God telling me that I am doing the right thing.

I don't normally like asking for money, but this is something that I never planned for in my original budgeting and thus I didn't budget for it (funny how that works). So I was wondering if there was anyone who would like to sponsor me for a part of the cost of my diving course.

For information on how to support me go to http://tiatiminafrica.blogspot.com/2008/12/support-tim.html

Or if you would just like to put money directly into my bank account on the ship go to http://www.mercyships.org/page/outreach/view/crewmates/Timothy

I am planning on doing the course sometime in the next 1.5 weeks before the ship leaves Tenerife. There are a few other guys who also want to do this course and help out with the dive team on the ship, but they are having trouble working out the best time to do it as they have to work around their work schedule to get the 4 days to do the course. So please pray that we can find a way for them to also have time to do the course before the ship leaves.

So What are we doing in Tenerife?

So some of you may ask the question why in fact is our ship in Tenerife of all places at the moment. Well that is a good question as it is quiet the tourist destination for Europeans. Well one of the main reasons is Maritime law. The ship is required to go through various inspections, obtain various certificates, etc and this is the closest place a ship of our size can go for these services. Without the required certificates, we would not be permitted to sail. Currently on board we are working on Cleaning out all our tanks to get them surveyed. This is a big job as there are alot of tanks to be cleaned so alot of the work is been done by crew volunteering from other departments to go help out the engineers and deck hands. Everyone from receptionists to nurses are down there getting their hands dirty, its great to see people willing to help out in a role they are not used to. Mercy Ships has also had a long term relationship with the island and our agent and vendors here which helps in our dealings with them. There are also many ship repairs that need to be done when the hospital is not in use and when the number of crew members on board is lower. Many short term crew leave at this time to go home as well as many long term crew take vacation with the advantage of cheap flights been available to Europe from the island. So even though its a great change of scenery and a holiday culture there on the island we are still getting alot of work done as well as getting a bit of rest ready for the next outreach.

Visiting my Brother

So the day after the ship docked in Tenerife I set off to go and see my brother for Christmas. I flew to Istanbul via London and Rob met me in Istanbul. Unfortunately I had flown into the airport that was on the opposite side of the city to where Rob was staying with a friend so we proceeded to take about 1.5 hours and various forms of public transport to get to the house we would stay at for my first 2 nights visiting. So we spent 2 nights in Istanbul and Rob showed me around as he used to live there for a while. I really enjoyed seeing the city as it has such a rich and long history that there is lots to see, we even went to the archeology museum there and saw some artifacts that were from Babylon from the time of King Nebuchadnezzar who is in the Bible. We traveled by bus to Haskovo, Bulgaria on the 23rd which is where my brother is currently living. We had a fairly relaxed time together and on Christmas day met up with an Australian family that lives there and went to a park behind the world’s second largest statue of Mary holding baby Jesus and we played a game of cricket :). Then in the evening of Christmas day my brother took me to a local Church he has been going to and said the service should go for about 1.5 hours and we left about 5 hours later, so I defiantly got a good dose of culture there. For the rest of my time there we just hung out and relaxed and I got to see a bit of how Rob lives there and the work he is doing so that was really good.

So we traveled back to Istanbul on the 30th and I caught a plane back to England on the 31st. Where I spent the next 7 days meeting up with friends mostly from Mercy Ships past and present, which was really good. I was due to travel back to the Ship on the 7th of Jan, but the night before I looked to find that my flight had been canceled due to snow and cold conditions that England has been experiencing. So I got my flight rescheduled for 2 days later and in the afternoon which was nice, because my original flight was in the morning at 7am which would have made it harder to get to the airport. So I went to the airport 2 hours before my flight on the 9th only to find that it had been delayed, but wasn't shown as so on the website so I proceeded to sit around for about 5 hours and finally after much waiting I was on the plane and then after a bit more waiting to be deiced we were on our way.

So now I am back on the ship, but I am no longer working in accounting. I am working back in the sales department as acting sales manager while the real one is away for a break, so I am in charge of the shop and cafe on the ship. I will be doing this for at lest as long as the sales manager is away and then I am not sure where I will be working, but I am unsure if I will be staying in this department or going to work somewhere else, so please pray that I get used in the best position where I can be most effective.