Can you imagine?

Outdo one another in showing honor. ~Romans 12:10b

Today to open our hospital planning meetings the Director asked us to share our goals for this field service - not professionally or what we as an organization deem important, but personal goals.  This verse is the first thing that popped into my head, something that I have been chewing on for a few weeks now...and I ended up sharing it with the team.

In this section of Romans, Paul is explaining some of the marks of a true Christian.  Good stuff, really, about making sure your love is genuine, hope, be patient, etc.  But I love this particular verse because it appeals to my competitive nature!  I mean, it's like he's challenging the Romans (and thus, us now) to compete with each other in showing honor...  Like, You go first... oh no, you go first!  (I heard a preacher this summer mention that and I can't seem to get it out of my head!)

In a miniscule sense, the question for my own heart is how can I be more honoring, respectful, and loving to those around me.  This is an awesome goal and I definitely want to grow in that over this next season...  But then I start to think bigger...  And let me say, I know we do some of these things reasonably well, and our people here are amazing and incredibly giving... but, can you imagine...

What if in every cabin on board the Africa Mercy each person was on a mission to outdo their cabin-mates in honoring each other?

What if we, as a Hospital, were on a mission to outdo each other in honoring our patients and their caregivers? 

What if we, as an organization, was on a mission to outdo each other in honoring our coworkers, other departments, leadership, etc.?

What if we, as a community, were on a mission to outdo each other in honoring each other, friends and family and neighbors and church members and coworkers and all those other 'roles' mushed together in this crazy place?  How incredible would that be?

And even further - what if we, as Christians, weren't known for what we agree or disagree with but rather were known by how we endeavor to outdo each other in honoring every single person who walks on earth... because they are a reflection of their Creator, regardless of what they do or don't believe or do or say or live.

Can you imagine?

Oh, that it would come to pass.... this is the cry of my heart. 

~Krissy

 

Hashtags and Swells.

I’m sitting out on Deck 7, glancing up every minute or two to focus on the horizon.  This helps keep the nausea at bay, thankfully.  I just downloaded an ipod app that measures the degrees to which we are rocking and rolling; in port, it’s around 2 degrees each way on a regular basis. Yesterday, when the water was a smooth, deep sapphire, it felt like we were in port. Today the water is a steely gray color with more whitecaps and a sway of 4-5 degrees, just enough to make me a bit queasy if I’m inside for too long or staring at a computer screen for any length of time.  Please pray the swells don’t increase any further.

The sapphire smooth waters yesterday

I read a quote one time that said something like, “Swells? Whoever decided to call them swells?  There’s nothing swell about them. They should be called Awfuls.”  To which I say… AMEN!

The steely gray water today.  These two pictures look like entirely different places - but the same ocean!

 I’m back on my ship home and will be honest and say the transition back wasn’t as happy-go-lucky as I had hoped.  The stress of catching up and passing on my old job, while preparing for sailing and dealing with jet lag was a bit excessive; I was not in a very good place last Friday.  However, things worked themselves out as they usually do, and under God’s grace I was able to completely release my former job to my highly capable replacement and her fantastic team; I started my new job today with joy and excitement instead of fear and anxiety.  That, my friends, is an answer to prayer in itself.

Fear and anxiety only have the place in your life that you allow them to have.  I may need some of you to remind me of that over this next year!!

The seas have been kind to us; we’ve seen whales, sea turtles, beautiful pinkish fish just below the surface, flying fish, and today the dolphins put on a show.  This sail is a long one, we’re due to arrive in Pointe Noire, Congo in about two weeks time.  The first two days of the sail were lovely, sweet, relaxing time with friends in the sun with the salty breezes kissing our cheeks.  This week is filled with hospital start-up meetings and me trying to get my brain around my new job while not getting too seasick.  There’s also fun activities almost every night for crew, as the ship sails on it seems to get smaller and smaller, and we need to be creative in how we entertain ourselves!

Our communications team this year is really fantastic; they’ve done an amazing job of putting together the #sailwithus campaign.  If you are on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, you can follow our progress this sail as well as see where we’ve come in the last 35 years of this organizations existence by checking out the #sailwithus feed on any of those platforms.  Very cool.

 

 

You might be saying “What on earth is she talking about?” If that’s you, I’m sorry.  Google it.  Smile.

Thanks for sticking with my blog through this last quiet season.  I’ve written posts here and there over the last quiet weeks, and will post those as I have the opportunity to edit them and get them up.  Much is happening, it’s an exciting new season for me and the Africa Mercy, thank you for joining me in this adventure!

Love to all - Krissy

An Update.

Hello blog friends. I'm still alive, contrary to what you may believe from my blog. Not sure if I've ever gone this long between posts! But anyways, I've just decided that my time here in the US is far to precious to spend in front of a computer screen. I've had a great time, camp was amazing, I've spent time with wonderful people, old and new friends, enjoyed food and friendship and sharing of stories and life and loving every minute.  I've written down a few things to write about, and those will come, but for now, here are a few photos.

I'm currently hanging out with my bff Megan and she's trying to get these two little monkeys to take their afternoon naps - so I stole a few minutes on her computer :)

The bottom two photos were taken with my heart family at Alki beach in Seattle on the 4th of July.  Love them so very much. Thank you, friends. 

I'll be back on the ship the 23rd!  Maybe I'll get another something posted between now and then, maybe not... but thanks for sticking with me :) 

Love to all - Krissy