A Matter of Heart: Update on March 30, 2009

As I write to you, oh faithful supporters, we sail the seas en route to a place that I have dreamt of since my younger days. We are finally sailing into the UK starting with Edinburgh, Scotland. The past week and a half have flown by in a blur, but I will try to slow them down and make it tangible to you who weren’t here to experience the port of Scheveningen.
The first week was just a matter of adjusting to a new place that was much larger than our previous port. Also, we had many more events lined up for the locals and had a lot we could do. I spent a day on Deck 4 trying to give tours, but it was during a slow time, and nobody came for a tour from me (I’m sure I’ll have plenty of opportunities to give tours in the future). Aside from that, I spent some time just going out into the town and enjoying my time, while talking to a few locals.
Accidents happen every day and especially when one doesn’t do things as they should. This was the case for me a week ago last Friday, as I took a nice spill that still has me sore. I was cleaning the funnel with a ladder, just finishing the base, when my ladder slipped out from under me and I somehow landed on my chest first. The breath was stolen from my lungs, and I was very scared. I ended up okay, just sore and feeling stupid.
Last Thursday was one of the longest days of work I’ve ever experienced, as we had a total of four full trucks of food arrive to the ship. It took us around 13 hours to get all of the food put away, partially because of the 40 knot winds. We had to crane pallet after pallet down into the ship, where others took them into the food stores and unpacked them. This was a long process, and I ended up outside the whole day in the rain and wind. We finally finished at 11 pm with everything, and I already knew I was going to be sick, which I am still fighting a cold… again.
This past weekend I was sent overnight on a church team to a town famous for its cheese; Gouda. We were sent to help an evangelistic church with an event they were putting on called “NL God Loves You”. This was an open air thing in the middle of the market of the town. They had music, skits, and a lot of dances. Unfortunately, we weren’t prepared enough to take part in any of the events, and our skills hadn’t been matched with each others. We did have a crash course on making balloon animals and swords, which proved to be incredibly useful. We had children drawn to us asking for swords and dogs and flowers while we handed out candy with little pages about Jesus. This was a blast as I really enjoy kids, and just seeing how happy they get from simple things.
Aside from that event we attended about 4 different services during the weekend, and heard familiar tunes of worship songs, but the words were Dutch. This of course made things more difficult the whole weekend, as a lot of the congregation didn’t seem to want to talk with us. The church we attended also had a special event on Sunday where a TV pastor gave the sermon and it was being recorded and broadcast. My attitude about this was less than perfect, as I have a negative view of televangelists. The whole experience was awesome, and the hospitality we received was great. I was a little unreceptive of the church, unfortunately, because I am much more conservative than they were, but I still enjoyed my time away.