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.
