The Past Few Weeks

These are the baby sisters.


Be afraid be very afraid.















They don't look so afraid














SO we had a fun night babysitting Elise and Nathaniel.

The Boys dressed up like Pirates and the girls were the Pirates Booty. (Booty is non your rear end) We were captured by the pirates. We had a blast while the parents were away.

A lot has happened since last we blogged. Joel and I did weekend duty two weekends ago. Which means you work all weekend so that you can cook and clean for the crew. You get days off for the work you do. Joel and I kept the days off so that the next weekend we could go with our Church's youth group to Galveston. The only probably is that the Monday after weekend duty Joel got his wisdom tooth out. So Joel wasn't able to work all week and was not able to attend the conference. But I had a blast with the kids. 19 teens went and 6 adults.

The speaker was awesome and the musical worship was off the hook. (Off the hook means it was awesome) There was about 10 other youth groups that came. On Saturday we had a ton of time to do what we wanted so I took a bunch of the kids down to the pool of our hotel and a group of us spent all afternoon swimming in the pool with beautiful weather. We stayed at the Hitlon on the seawall of Galveston. A uptown Hotel. I felt like a princess in a castle, it was wonderful.

At the end of the weekend the youth or adults could be baptised. There was only two that wanted to baptised which were from our Church. Brandy and Megan were batpised. It was amazing to be apart of that. I had such a blast at the confrence and I fell totally in love with the teens. There were times I wanted to beat them down but 99 percent of it I loved them to death. It was off the hook and it showed me a lot about myself and about how teens aren't as bad as I remember them. When I was a teen I was a punk and didn't want anything to do with God. These kids totally showed me the opposite. Yeah they had their ear stuck to a cell phone for a lot of the time and they hated turning them off their cell phones each service (we had 4 different services) But they totally had a willing and open heart toward the gospel which is so much more than I had as a teen.

I was also nicked name the chaperone of chaperones. There was one chaperone that I became close friends with that would turn on his cell phone during the services. So I kept him in line and gave him the evil eye. Yeah it worked, he didn't turn on his cell phone during the services for the rest of the time. He was like "What. They need to do what I say not what I do" So he made fun of me the rest of the time and called me Mother Teresa.

All in all it was fabulous and I totaly saw God through the whole thing. The best part of all was that I got to love on the kids like no other which is my favorite thing to do in the whole world. Love love love.

Well that is about it. I love ya'll

Oh I almost forgot 20 more days until Joel and I head north to see our families. We can't wait. We are so excited.

WE love you Butlers and Wendles. We'll see you soon.
Check ya'll later!!!

Soup

Hi Again,

Another day another dollar. Not much has been happening... especially for me. It all started on Monday when i got my wisdom tooth pulled. I have pretty much been lazing around the ship since then. Well more like avoiding all human contact (except for Dess' of course). I've finally started coming out as of like Thursday because some friends from the ministry stopped by on their way through Lake Charles. I had to get up to say hi and see how they were doing. Then Friday Dess left for the weekend in Galveston. I drove her to church where she went with the youth to a conference. She went as a supervisor. So i'm alone this weekend and am trying to cope. I've got a sore jaw and a hole in my life missing where Dess should be.

Since i've seen not much more than our ceiling for the past week i don't have much to write about. Since Dess isn't around, nothing interesting is happening in this weekend. So i'm sorry to say that i'm out of creative juices already and you'll just have to wait til next time. Sorry to disappoint.

joel

Digesting

Howdy Everyone!

More time has passed and not much new is happening. Life is going well. Dess keep finding ourselves talking about how 5 weeks isn't long but it is. That's how long we have until we go on vacation. Or at least one day less than that now. But still, it's about that long. So we try to tell ourselves that it will be soon, but if we think that 5 weeks will pass quickly then it makes us nervous that our vacation will pass to quick. It's sort of a catch 22. Instead we focus on getting there and not worrying about how fast it will pass.

Well, i feel like work has been going well. We had a work group come in this Saturday morning and it helped get a lot done. There were like 20ish people working for 4 hours, so they accomplished a lot. We working on getting more warehouse space available too. We've been rummaging around in the brick warehouse trying to get more room in there so we can put pallet racks up. On Friday we were close to putting them up when i found out that they want to asphalt the floor in there first. We are back to a stand still until we figure out what will be done to the floor in the warehouse. Right now the floor is pretty much loose dirt and shells. It's a mess and forklifts just can't move around in there. Oh well, that's work and who really cares about that.

Today is another duty section day for Dess and i. We're working the ship this weekend so everyone else can get the time off. Then we're planning on going to Galveston next weekend with the youth from our church. It'll be interesting because we've never really interacted with them before. I hope that it goes well. Dess is making a huge pot of gumbo today. She got a recipe off of The Food Network website. It's one of Emeril's recipes. She's never made this before, but i'll let you know if it's good and then you can start collecting all the bacon grease you can until the next time we're in your area. Then Dess can mix you up a big ol' pot and you'll be loving it too.

Besides that we're in cruise control right now. We're just trying to get by from day to day until we can go home. The ship in Israel is just about unloaded and they should be returning soon. Dess has mixed emotions about their return. She partially wants to be here for their return, but at the same time she doesn't. It'll be hectic and crazy. I am not excited about the prospect, but i know that we'll get by either way. We are pretty big kids, if you know what i mean.

I'm going to have at least one of my wisdom teeth removed tomorrow. I don't think about it much, so i'm not too sure how i feel about it. I guess it's starting to make my stomach queasy just thinking about it now. The dentist we go to here in town said he'd take it out for free. The only catch is that he doesn't put people under, instead he'll give me some local anesthetics and some valium. I take my first valium pill tonight, so i'm interested to see how that makes me feel. I've got one wisdom tooth coming in at a hard angle and it'll push into the my other teeth eventually if it isn't removed. My other 2 wisdom teeth seem to be growing fine, but i don't know if he'll take them out or not. I never had a fourth one grow in.

I think that's all i've gotta tell you about for now. I hope all is well in your life.

Refiners Fire

It has been too long. But to tell you the truth there hasn't been anything too exciting going on. It has been the same old same old. But recently I am seeing more and more why Joel and I were left here at Port Mercy instead of going to Isreal.

So for God's purpose to take place in our lives He needs to do some rearranging with our personalities and character. He needs to refine us. Put us through fire to take out the impurities. Man do I have a lot of impurities. So what does God do: PUT US THROUGHT TESTS. Man am I going through some test. I would consider these test a lot easier than others I have been through in the past but they are showing me where my weaknesses are and where I need to grow in order to be the woman God wants me to be for the future.

I have learned over the years to apprecaite and be excited about tests because they are to make me better.

Test # 1(as of now): Unconditional love. In the past year Friend Ships has been airing on TBN a lot. Which brings attention to us that we would not normally get. It has brought in many donations, prayer and support. But most recently (and the one that affects me the most) is the crew it has brought it. TBN listeners are a group all their own. A group that in the past I have never gotten along with. They are the older generation who finds "kids" like me irresponsible and hard to love. As of now we have about 10 ladies who are 60 and up. Not all of them see me as irresponsible but there are a few that stand out in my mind and put me to the test DAILY. PRAISE GOD!!!!!

Let me give you a few examples. We have a pet bird on the ship that Joel and I give much attention to. One of the ladies had a problem with the bird and doesn't like to have her out and about. Joel and I know how to handle "Ms. Bird" (that is her name) so we like to take her out when we spend time in the mess hall so she can stretch her wings and legs and get around a bit. Well she got out and Joel and I were playing with her and she left a present on the table. As soon as she does this Joel or I get a napkin and bleach and take care of her blessings. Well I went to go get a napkin when one of the ladies started rebuking me and yelling across the room in front of a group of people, AT ME "Don't you leave the room and leave the bird out for us to take care of" (May I say this was my first interaction with the older generation since they started coming to the ship and I never had faced it until that day how much I dislike older people looking down on me" So in my flesh I reacted back and said very rudely I wasn't leaving and that I was taking care of the bird.

That night Joel and I discussed it and I realized I had a problem with those that are way older than me that don't like me and find me to not be responsible. The next day I apologized to the lady for being rude and made a promise to God I was going to not be rude to the praying grannies as I call them.

Example 2: I had picked a lady up from the airport. Which I love picking people up from the airport because I love encourage them in the Lord and reasure them how great Friend Ships is and what a good place it is to grow in God. Well this trip was so much more different. It lasted forever. The lady talked about herself the whole time. Which I didn't mind at least she didn't really ask about me. For the most part. But in the middle of the ride she found I was from washington and started to name off some christian schools that were in washington or oregon. I shrugged my shoulders having no clued about the schools. She then blurted out in dismay "I take it your not pentacostal" Through my gritted teeth I managed to get out "Christian" She then said louder even more in dismay "Are you FILLED with the HOLY SPIRIT?" In my head I was getting upset and thinking "What in the world does knowing some christian schools have anything to do with being filled with the Holy Spirit" awwwwwwww. I was mad Through gritted teeth and blushed cheeks I was able to mange "between 9 and 12" The car felt so much smaller as if the walls had just come in. I HAVE had the Holy Spirit between 9 and 12 I just can't remember the date but I could tell you what happened. Any way the car ride felt longer than ever. I was so glad when it was over.

Example 3: Joel and I were sitting with a couple we love having an evening chit chat about nothing and everything. When one of the ladies came around our table to clean. We all started talking about Jesus then Joel sang a line from a Christian song while swaying his head to the beat of the music in his head. She looks at him and says something to the point of "Oh you should shake your head like that and sing about Jesus. That is hypocritcal." I started defending Joel and saying "oh no he was just swaying to the music" "she said well when I was a teen I would shake my head and confess Jesus is Lord" I said "well that is not what Joel was saying" She said "Let your yes be yes and your no be no, you need to know where your allegiance lies" I said some other things from my interpersonal communication class that I had learn trying to show her that she does non-verbals different than Joel and not to assume that he is doing the same thing she has done. She keep saying let your yes be yes and your no no. I was so upset after that conversation. Awwwww. The next morning I got up and was thinking about it. God brought the scripture to my mind "Man looks at the outward appearnce but God looks at mans heart." I wish I had thought about that the night before. So any way.

What have I learned from all of this. You can't judge a book by it's cover. No really I have learned that. That I want to give people chances instead of looking at their tatoo's, age, hair color, race, nationality, etc. I have learned that to love unconditional is hard that God is awesome to love us past the gunk. And that He loves those ladies so much and they are a gem in His eye and that I must love them as a precious gem also no matter what they think of me.

So that is what has been happening around here. I love tests. I am being for real because by the end of this I will hopfully be able to look past people appearences and pray that God will show me for who they really are and what He sees them as. Isn't God awesome. I could have never of learned this going to Israel because all the people going to Israel are about my age or they respect me and love me as is. So Thank you God for letting Joel and I stay. I know there are more reasons than this one but this is a pretty gosh darn good one.

Love you guys,
Dess