Hello World!

We are in Singapore!!! Yay!!!

And actually we left the Doulos again (not permanently, no worries). Ned and I have moved on to family accommodations ashore while the the old Lady has an overhaul in dry dock.... for FIVE long weeks. Our accommodation though is really nice. We actually live in a hotel with really nice rooms. Ben will be staying with us for most nights and will travel back and forth to the dry docks together with the other husbands and us wives and the kids will stay here. We have one room with bathroom for us as a family which is bigger than our cabin aboard but as it is only one room we decided to put Ned's bed in the bathroom which gives us the freedom to do something in the room while he is sleeping :o)))) so we're all happy... it's jsut funny to stick your kid in the shower for his nap, haha!! (we take the bed out before they come to clean the room, it would look rather funny :o)

Arrived!!

Well, we are finally on the Doulos!! It is great to be here, but there are many things in need to get used to (and some I think, I will never like!!) For example: there is a DING DONG at 7:15am... how annoying!!,there are many, many cockroaches racing around the dinning room, you can't buy DIET coke (how will I survive), there is no Internet in the cabin only email (which would be enough for me, but unfortunately outlook doesn't really work for us yet, so i have to find a public computer if i wanna write an email), you can't give Ned a car toy to play with on our dinning room table, because the table is so crocked that the car rolls off the table as soon as you let go of the car, the doors are easy to open so I have to teach Ned, that he ISN'T ALLOWED to open them (it's not so nice if a random baby walks into a random cabin), the wall panels are very thin so everyone can hear it when Ned makes a fuss, and the cabin doesn't feel like a home yet..... but besides all of those things I need to get used to and that I'm really missing my old home and friends, besides that, the people are really, really friendly and Ned has already a new fan club and friends his own age. So we will survive and feel at home soon:o).
Today i was just thinking about how I was whining and winching the last couple of days..... I mean WHAT is my problem??? I can be grateful for so many things, like a loving husband, a gorgeous little boy, amazing family spread around the entire world, I have 3 meals a day, a bed to sleep in and our cabin is even bigger than our old cabin. there are so many people living who can't say that... I want to learn to be grateful in all circumstances and don't want to winch and whine about how much nicer living on the Logos Hope was.... I want to make new friends and try to be a blessing to the people here on this ship.
Well, I got to go as my Internet time on the public computer runs out :o)))))
Would love to hear from you guy how you are doing :o))) And hopefully soon i can upload some pictures somehow on out web album

P.S.

one funny thing about ship's life is that often you share your name with other people..... but never before have I shared my name with 8 other girls (in one location)..... :o)))) so we asked our ship's photographer if he could take a picture for us: Rebekah (CAN), Becca (USA), Rebecca (Austria), Rebekah (UK), Rebecca (D), Becca (me), Becky (UK) and little Rebecca in the front (AUS/D) (one Rebecca had to leave earlier so isn't on the pic)

Preparing to leave...

It feels very strange! I haven't felt like I'd be leaving any time soon, and yesterday it hit home. We gave our farewell testimony, that made it all of a sudden very real and today almost something like panic struck me because i haven't started packing yet (but that feeling disappeared pretty quickly again and nothing of the packing had been done again). I was encouraged that many people came to me today during the day and told me that they were encouraged through my testimony.... and it's nice to know that people actually are listening :o) and that God can use me in that way as well.... I'm very grateful that I was able to encourage others.

And then this evening, Ben went out with his mates to see a movie and my "girls" came over to our cabin for a surprise party..... man I will miss you girls.... you make ship's life so much more colourful and exciting and joyful!! Thank you for being my friends... I WILL miss you so much and am looking forward seeing you again!!!!!! It makes me sad to leave, despise being excited about what God has in store for us on the Doulos

About ships and why we ended up being a "ship" hopper

Well, many people asked me: "Why are you going to the Doulos?" On their faces I can see a look of utter bewilderment, which my face would have shared up to about 3 months ago.

We were in a bit of a weird situation. Ben's job will be taken over by someone else end of September, which in itself was kind of strange, but additionally we had no idea what we as a family should do..... Well there were several options we were thinking about. For example,... invent something really cool and earn lots of money and buy an island in the West Indies and live there for the rest of our live spending money on fast cars, motor bikes and many other unnecessary things. But we abandon that option pretty quickly. First of all we don't have a clue how to invent things and secondly, the climate here kind of kills me. And lastly.... how boring a live would that be. I mean, where would those adventures of faith fit in such a lifestyle, eh??? Well, other thoughts, more realistic ones, were: Going to bible school, working with MAP in Sydney or with Turning Point in London (both ministries work with Muslims), go to Libya (definitely NOT my choice, as I don't like sand and desert and heat very much, although the people there are really great), go into the secular world again, but going back to the Doulos was NEVER an option for me. To be honest, I'm one of those people who likes it when things look nice (and new) and, well, the Doulos doesn't look, nor smell, very nice on the inside (although I do have to admit, she's much more beautiful than Logos Hope from the outside... LH is a big ugly box, whereas Doulos is a stylish old lady). It is also a scary thing joining another ship and you have to get to know another 320 new people and while you still miss your friends from the other ship. So i thought "ship hopping" is out of the question. We prayed that God would give us both peace in our hearts for what he wanted us to do next.

Well, God's plans are higher than our plans (and I'm mighty glad they are!!) and he can change people's hearts in a blink of an eye. About 2 1/2 months ago, we were in London at the time, one of our "big" guys in our organisation, but more important a very good friend of ours, had a quick chat with Ben: how about joining the Doulos as part of the leadership and going with her to the Arabian Golf. Well, Ben said he'd talk with me, but knew that I did NOT want to go to Doulos. Well, he told me and all of a sudden, there was peace and a feeling of "Yes, that's it"!!! As I said, it literally happened in a blink of an eye, crazy!!! The next day we had another chat with that guy and the same day the news spread, that we'd leave the Logos Hope and join the Doulos. We were.... stunned!!! It happened so fast, that our brains couldn't keep up with the speed. But God's peace was there. I'm convinced that the Doulos is the place God wants us to be for now, and it gives me a happy feeling to go with that conviction. It won't be easy, but the excitement is there, that God will use us in some way.... and I'm also excited to meet those 320 odd new faces...... if you'd like to, you could pray for me, as I really long to have a really close and challenging friend.

So, we have 1 1/2 week left on Logos Hope and I don't feel like we'll leave so soon. While we were still in Europe we had the chance to pack most of our stuff in boxes and have them taken down to Mosbach (those boxes are now in a container from Mosbach on their way to Singapore... I hope at least that's where they are) so the bulk of my packing is thankfully done already, but there are still so many things to be done to close our time here on board, but i feel a bit like an ostrich and stick my head in the ground instead of tackling those things still need to be done..... ou well, I'll run around like a headless chick the last couple days (I guess I need the pressure of having to do things)

We will leave LH on the 24th, fly to the States, stay with my relatives there for a couple days and fly out to Singapore on the 28th (LOOOOOONG FLIGHT!!!) We arrive in Singapore some time on the 30th, then we have to get a Taxi or bus or something to get from the air port to the Singaporean/Malaysian boarder and we'll be picked up there (hopefully) by some Doulos people to bring us to the Doulos. If i think about all that travelling, especially all that travelling with a toddler, I feel something like panic bubbling up.... I tell myself that others have done it before me and survived, and so will we, but still, doesn't sound so..... restful. Hmmm, maybe I invent a beamer which can beam people from place A to place be in a couple of seconds than we could go back to option 1 and live happily ever after on that island, hahaha!!:o)

About sand, and sand and other dislikes

Lately I discovered that there are quite a few things I very strongly DISLIKE... (HATE sounds so...passionate, emotional, bad..... but it's easier to say, because it's shorter). For example I hate.. ahm, dislike TUNA VERY much. I hate mosquitoes and mosquito bites. And I hate being wet, damp and sandy... which often brings me into a conflict. Around here in the Caribbean there aren't really any places to go to with children just for playing, so you go to the beach. I theory I love beaches, but practically, there is too much sand. I love swimming, snorkeling and diving but then, when you have to get back to your dry towel there is this mass of nasty sand in between me and my towel. Big conflict. But so far I always survived walking over the sand to my towel, but still I greatly DISLIKE the sand on my feet. Especially, if there is a wet toddler involved who LOVES playing in the sand and also THROWING with the sand...grrrrrrr.... big conflict, big, big, BIG conflict.

Well, today another dislike was added to my sand/towel challenge: We went to a lovely spot here on the island of Tobago called Englishman's Bay. It was our day off and we went with our friends Mel (AUS), Isabel and Daniel (CH) with their baby daughter Sofia (Ned's SPECIAL girl friend). Well, us mums stayed with the kids and played in the (yucky) sand (I got sandy all over, grrr) and Mel and the boys went snorkeling. They hadn't been gone 5 minutes and it started raining. And when it rains it pours, I tell you, that ain't no fun if with a toddler who slowly starts shivering. So here I was, sandy (YAY) wet from swimming as well as getting constantly showered for I don't know how long, waiting for the others to return, holding a cold kid on my arm, trying to keep him warm with a rather damp towel, snuggling under a tree to keep the rain off us as good as possible and praying that no coconut would drop on our heads When the others finally came back we re-located ourselves under a little shelter thing which had so many holes in the roof that it would have been better to snug up to my tree again. And additional there was this guy selling ice cream, he had his truck parked around 10m away from the shelter so we could hear lovely ice-cream-truck-music playing "jingle bells", "O Tannenbaum" and "Stille Nacht". Writing all this, sound pretty ...um... negative, but to be honest, despise carrying a little wet boy on my arm and being wet and sandy, i had to laugh so hard... I mean, look at us... we are at the beach and listening to Christmas music... in September :o)))))

And it really was a nice outing..... with all the sand and water and rain and everything

Boom, boom music

Well, there is one thing in the world I DON'T like...actually, if I'm honest there are MANY things I don't like, but this one thing annoys me immensely RIGHT NOW: LOUD BOOM BOOM MUSIC!!!! The music source is about 200m away from the ship but everything vibrates inside because of that awful music. It is a national holiday today and they celebrate it BIG and LOUD time.

There was also a parade earlier in the day. It finished almost right outside the ship, which almost caused a problem for us, as we had a Logos van booked to go out in the morning to see a bit of the island. Our friends the Colenbranders came with us and we left the car park only minutes before the whole street was blocked off. Another group wanted to leave with another Logos van just a couple minutes later and they had to wait an hour or so until the parade was finished. I was VERY grateful we were still able to leave because waiting with 3 little kids is ain't no fun :o)))

We decided to go to a waterfall and then on to the beach. This little road trip brings me to something else I REALLY DON'T like: motion sickness.... and I got it big times!!! After 10 minutes or so on the road I had to say good bye to my breakfast but felt much better after that.

The waterfall was nice but a little bit disappointing as it was really small, but hey, it isn't about the size, it is about a creator who designed all of this beauty around us!!!!