Mercy Ships Certified | Classes Are *Almost* Over!
Well, it’s been a long and fast three and half weeks. I received my “Onboarding” certificate which means I’m ready to work as a semi-long term Mercy Ships Volunteer. This training included a lot! My mind has expanded in understanding who God is, the power of prayer, cross-cultural teamwork, self-care in ministry, and what makes up a world view (Just to name a few of the topics we covered.) We had a wide range of speakers, which was awesome. I took SO many notes on my iPad (included a little page of one of them below)
Its been such an encouragement to be around people from around the world, and learning from one another.
One of my favorite quotes for week 1: “If we hide our pain, we hide the ability to heal- and make others feel like failures. “
It has also been very healthy for me to be recognized a missionary kid / third culture kid in an environment where there are others around me who know not only what that means, but what that implies. Its fun to share stories of growing up, culture shock, and travel with others who have similar stories.
Using the app Notabilty has been absolutely incredible! Highly recommend.
I wore dresses and nicer outfits in general, but on the last week I definitely started just wearing my one sweater and leggings. The room we were in is HUGE and so collllddd.
Ashley teaching about different way of Self Care and how vital it is (and examples of Jesus taking care of himself in the midst of his ministry on earth.)
Cartoon Dr Clark showed that made me laugh.
Beth, and the Scace girls presentation was a reading of the book SWIRLY. (highly recommend for any kid, especially TCKs!)
My presentation was a 17 slide cartoon of myself about asking God when I could move away from America for the last ten years.
Dr Clark taught for the majority of personal and interpersonal week. He is an incredible story teller and encourager.
We got to separate into groups and visually present our “home cultures”. I chose to do Turkey.
Had an over view of the history of Africa, and understanding the dynamics of Mercy Ships presence in West Africa.
My personal favorite snack! Little egg blt! Hospitality team has been so amazing (too amazing haha) We get two snacks a day. EEK haha
Final Presentation day! Got to pull out one of my new dresses for the ship. It was probably too cold for it, but couldn’t’ resist.
So now what?
Well, I’m not actually done here at the Mercy Ship International Support Center. Next up is “Basic Training” to receive an official Seamans Book.
“Seaman Service Book is a continuous record of a seaman’s service issued in Pakistan. This document certifies that the person holding is a seaman as per the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, 1978, as amended from time to time.”
Learning how to flip a lifeboat in the water, survive at sea, fire training, ship drills, and crowd management classes will all be involved. In fact, I’ve been told I will be crawling in fireman gear through a shipping container set on fire!? Went for a walk, and discovered the said shipping container. lol. Its gonna be a wild time! Pretty excited about not having to sit in classes all day though! The only other people in this class will be Jeff and Andrea (new friends who have three kids), who also are headed to the Africa Mercy ship in the next few months. We know someone else will be in the class though we have not heard who!?
The suspected shipping container that will be lit on fire. haha