Post Vacation Blues

Well, most of you will know by now that my parents came to Louisiana to surprise me. It was a fun visit. They were here for a week and we were able do some neat things, see some of the sites and best of all, eat some cultural food. If you haven’t tried gumbo with whole pieces of chicken, crab and shrimps, you are missing out.

If you check out our Flickr page, you’ll notice some photos that we’ve already posted. We plan on adding more at the beginning of next month because we’ve used up all of May’s upload time.

Okay, so here are some of the things we ended up doing. We went to Cameron Parish, a county right on the Gulf of Mexico that was heavily damaged during Hurricane Rita. The sites that we saw were very impacting. It’s crazy to realize that there had already been about 8 months of clean up work already done and it was still a mess. We saw houses that had nothing left but the foundation, cars that were completely ripped open, destroyed churches, hospitals and much more devastation. One town called Holly Beach, which was obviously a beach town right on the Gulf, had been completely wiped off the face of the planet. Upon our tour, we saw that they were already beginning to rebuild and power lines had been installed and pilings or stilts for houses were already being put up. (Because of flood waters, storm surge, etc. many people decide to actually build their houses about 8 to 10 feet up in the air to hope avoiding any such catastrophe. Dess and I have actually seen an entire elementary school that was built on stilts.)

We also went on a tour of Avery Island, the birthplace of “Tabasco Brand Hot Sauce”. The factory itself was interesting because they showed how the peppers were chosen and picked, then how the peppers were processed. Our tour guide wasn’t very enthusiastic about it though. The big deal of the island is actually the “Jungle Gardens” which is a scenic tour of various landscapes. They had bamboo and azaleas, holly and ivy, trumpeter vines and live oaks. Not to mention the living creatures. There were plenty of dear flies that wanted a piece of Dess and my meat. The coolest part was when Dess almost stepped on an alligator. It was a small thing, only about 4 feet long, sitting next to the path. It was near the “Bird City” a habitat and nesting grounds for white egrets. Dess was so excited to see the egrets from the lookout station that she was about 3 feet away from the gator before we could stop her. The gator barely flinched and just opened its mouth and hissed to ward Dess off. Mom was really bummed that the batteries on the digital camera had died and was unable to capture the moment. In fact, the batteries died right after coming out of the Tabasco factory, so she missed a lot of good opportunities.

We weren’t always on the go. We did take some time to relax together as well. Candling Dad’s ear was quite the bonding experience. So was the time when Dess offered to help Mom replace her nose piercing. Dess figured it’d be a cinch. Dess has had her nose pierced for like 8 years, so she could do her own nose no problem. But after taking out Mom’s piercing it took what seemed like forever before the new piercing could be forced into place. Talk about bonding.

Mini golf and bowling were also some of our distractions, not to mention shopping. All in all it was a great week with lots of adventure and tons of stories to tell. Now Dess and I are back in the lull of having to work and not having much fun on a day-to-day basis. We need to find ways to spice up our lives. Well, it’s was great seeing Mom and Dad. We hope to see you soon too, whoever you are that may be reading this!

Check out our Flickr Site!

Hey Everyone!

Just wanted to let you know that we've started a Flickr site. Check out the link on this site. That's all that i want you to know for now.

bye

The long awaited update

Hi!

I want to start by apologizing to anyone who regularly was checking our blog. I'm sure you aren't anymore with the way that we are keeping this updated. For our defense, it's been a pretty crazy time since our last post. Not that our lives are so full that we can't take the 30 minutes to blog every once in a while, it just more slips our mind than anything else.

Well, the Hope and Mersea have sailed off. They left May 2nd. Already they have done about a week of medical mission in Haiti. I thought that when they left that i'd sort of be free to work on my own projects. Boy was i wrong. Instead, Mary put me in charge of all the new male crewmembers. These are guys who may have been involved with Friend Ships for like 2 weeks or less before the ships sailed. So they had no idea where things are, how we work, the rules, etc. I became the mentor or babysitter, depending on how you look at it. At first it was pretty bad. I'd have to walk around showing them where things were, where to park, what to burn in the burn pile, not to drive trucks on the grass, how to show up on time for work, etc., etc. They pretty much have the routine down by now which is nice. But i've been keeping them so busy with work that i don't really have a whole lot of my own work to do.

Don't get me wrong, i'm extremely grateful for the help that these four men have been here around the property. We wouldn't be getting any work done without them. I just am having a hard time being a supervisor because they are spread out everywhere and i can't really get too hands on with the work they are doing. It leaves me feeling defensive because i'm not feeling like i'm accomplishing much, but i'm expecting a lot from these guys. I guess if i'm going to be a supervisor, i'd prefer to be more hands on and not have such a large spectrum to oversee. Because since the ships left, i've been made responsible for two more departments specifically and a whole lot of other stuff indirectly. I like being able to help out with the "leadership load" but i also like to get things done myself.

Okay on to another topic all together. This will be a quick side note because i don't have much to say about it, i just want to comment on it. The other day i went to Wal-Mart. At the front entrance there were two men sitting behind little tables asking for money. The men were dressed pretty nice in button up shirts with ties. The strange thing to me is that they were asking people going into and out of Wal-Mart for money for their church. Since being in the South, i've learned that tithing and money are important matters to the churches down here. Most new people to the South will comment that they don't like how they preach on tithes so much. It is a pretty different world down here when it comes to how pastors will try to coerce money out of their congregation. It's not too often that you'll hear about how we should be giving with a joyful heart. At some churches they even give a mini-message on tithing each time they take up offering. This can be a 5-10 minute ordeal which is led by one of the elders, deacons or ministers. I have a quote from my friend Matt who attended one of these churches. The elder stood before the congregation and said "You've got to give up the GREEN... not that stuff that jingles in yo' pockets... you've got to give the GREEN!!!" While saying this he took out a beautiful $50 bill and stuffed it into the offering basket. It just wouldn't fly in the North.

Back to life passing us by. Well, we got to go to Galveston Island for the weekend two weeks ago. That was a nice day, just sunning ourselves, playing mini-golf, book shopping and relaxing. It's pretty unusual that we get a long weekend, but Friend Ships gave us a day off after all the long hours we spent getting Hope and Mersea ready. It was a huge blessing. We've also been spending our weekends in an apartment off the ship. That's been nice. Central air, kitchen, bath tub, our own frig, leather lazy boys and lots of other wonderful treats. Dess was wonderful enough to do all the cooking. She made up spaghetti sauce from fresh vegetables. She's got skills.

It's been a busy month or so since we've last written. I hope you can forgive us for taking so long to write. I hope you'll continue to check our blog. We'd also love to hear you comment from time to time. Well, that's all i got for now.

Postage

Hey,

Dess is writing on the blog right now, so i thought i'd add a little bit of my own life story. I figure this will be the best time because we've got 2 ships leaving for Haiti in 10 days so life is going to get hectic quick. We haven't really done much in the way of overtime yet, which is really nice. I did have to work one full day Saturday, but that wasn't too bad. Lately though, i've been feeling more tired and irritable. I guess i've just gotta get over myself.

With this trip, i'm not too involved because it doesn't involve my departments too much. Yes, it does involve the warehouse because we are taking SOME cargo, but not much more than a dozen pallets or so. And it does involved the mechanics because there is equipment that we need to get going. But, as a whole, i'm able to stay partially distant and i kind of like it. The thing which i find difficult for me is that i've got a new guy working in the warehouse who wants to be a part of all the action for Haiti. He's going on the trip, but he wants to be more involved in the preparations. So, when he has to do warehouse stuff that doesn't pertain to Haiti, he isn't really interested and doesn't work at it with all his heart. It's tough to work with someone and feel like they aren't really doing anything. I'm trying to not get resentful about it. I know he's new and just wants to be involved in the "fun stuff" like loading a ship.

So, life is going on. I came to the realization the other day that i think i've got people in my life who i'm at the point of considering "ex-friends". The person who made this list in my mind was old good buddy Dan Jamison. I haven't seen or talked to that guy in what seems like forever. It's been a year since i talked with him last. It's sad cause all my memories of him are growing distant. I have no real idea of what's going on in his life. I don't want to not know what's going on, but the long distance thing just didn't seem to work out. Neither one of us kept it up. It's enough to make me cry. I'm down to having no close personal friends here at Friend Ships. I live in a community with about 50 other people and have my wife as my sole companion. There have been so many people who have come and gone. The last guy who i was friends with that left, Matt, has been good about keeping in contact. I think he's still interested in hearing what's happening at Friend Ships and in my life. It's just pretty amazing how soon after leaving Friend Ships that people just kind of loose contact.

Well, i don't really have much to say today. I just am waiting mostly for Dess. She must be giving you a lot of information to be writing this long. I hope you enjoy our updates.

joel

Got Milk!!!

Last Friday was so awesome. I had the best and busiest day of my life. Around 9:30 as I was doing my normal drop offs a milk truck to one of the companies that donates to us came in unexpectedly. They didn't call and let any one know they were coming. Including me who is in charge of the food ministry and when people donate. Well they dropped of 138 crates of milk. Which is 32 to 36 pounds per crate. Our galley(kitchen ladies) kept as much as they could for the up coming mission trip to Haiti and from there it was up to me to decide where the rest of it goes. I decided that giving it out to the neighborhood would be the best bet. But since the Haiti trip is May 1st and we are short handed as it is I was only allowed 2 other guys to come with me and distribute it out. It was really awesome but by lunch time one of the guys got hurt and could not come with us any more. This actually turned out to be a blessing because we took him back during lunch and made an announcement that any one that wanted to give out milk for 30 minutes could come with us and do so. 6 people gave up their lunch break to give out to the community. AFter the 3o minutes me and the one other guy who was not hurt went back and and delivered the rest of the milk that we had left.

We were done by 3pm and came back to eat and clean up. He went in to get his food while I stayed for a minute to clean up the truck. As soon as he had gone I got a call for the Milk company again. They said they had "some" milk left and if I wanted to come get it. I was like "I can handle 20 maybe even 30 more crates of milk. No problem." We hadn't given out to the shelters yet. I could give that much away easy. I went there and to my "great" suprise they didn't have 20 or 30 crates for me but 200+ crates. I was panicking in my head but I had said yes and knew I couldn't say no to this great blessing. I came back to Port Mercy with 200 crates and went to the head mama Mary asking her that if after work which was in 1 & 1/2 hours if I could bring a group of people with me and give out to the community. She didn't think any one would want to at first but when I told her that 6 people left their lunch break and that other people were disappointed they couldn't come she said go for it.

So I told the crew if any one wanted to come give out milk to meet me at 5:30. So at 5 I went to fuel up the truck since it was empty and to my suprise one of the machnics was doing work on it that needed to be done. I said uh Steve when you gonna be done. He said well I just got started how's about 10 minutes I was like "sure fine . .. where's your gas cans" So I ran to Wal-mart in a hurry of course.

At the gas area there was a lady there asking for money. Her story was that she was from New Orleans and didn't have enough money to get there. When I heard her tell some one this I instantly thought of my college friend who would use the same voice to get out of a traffic ticket or get something she wanted from some one. Luckily she tried to approach me twice but saw that i was in a hurry and not to bother with me. I thought to my self "I don't have money on me but if I did would I have pitty on this woman and give her money" As I was running around paying and getting gas I heard many of the customers talk about her "yeah right she needs money where is her car" or "I don't believe that woman really needs money I think she is playing" Well I left with out giving her any thing

So when I got back, steve was still working on the truck. "Hey steve you done" "Well I am but I can't find where this tube goes." AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I screamed in frustration and stress. Steve then had me drive the Truck out in the sun to see better. I was getting so upset I wanted to cry. Danette called and asked where I was she said It was 5:40 and asked how much longer I was going to be I said 5 to 10 minutes. I got of the phone and became more upset ready to cry at any second. Then God spoke really clearly to me and said "Praise me" Of course I didn't feel like it but God said it again "You need to Praise me Dess'' I started Praising God. God you know what you are awesome I love you so much. As soon as I started Praising Him steve said Found it. I was off and running. When I got to where everyone was they were gone. They had all decided to go for dinner. When they started coming back down they said can we eat I said I drive slow enough just get in the truck. We all were on our way. I wanted to get to a certain part of town but on our way there I saw a huge family celebrating Good Friday. I stopped and told the crew to get out really quick and give them milk. They got out quick but didn't get in quick. We were losing day light ours and the milk was staying out longer. I said we got to go two guys motioned me on ward. I drove slow hoping they would run and catch up but they never did. So we were down two and finally made it to the place we needed to be. It was awesome we gave out so much milk. God really provide the perfect time to give us the milk. In Louisiana Easter is huge. Much bigger than where I am from. On each block there were about two huge groups that had gotten together for the holidays on their lawn. We were able to be more affective this way and wish then a blessed resurrection day.

In the middle of where we wanted to be I saw the woman that had been asking for money at the gas station. I was blown away. She was sitting out side either her place or her friends place enjoying the day. I wasn't passing out milk because I was driving, taking pictures, and keeping people together as much as possible. So I jumped out so she would recognize me. And she did. I was so glad that the Lord had set it up the way he did. That she saw how busy I was trying to get gas and then she saw why I was so busy by wanting to give out milk to the neighborhood. It was awesome I am glad it was such a testimony. Our peole gave her house milk and asked if they wanted prayer or wished them a great resurrection day. How awesome is that.

So our crew got done at 8 at night with all the milk given out it was awesome. God was so good. We all had a great time. I learned so much that day. Here are some pictures of us giving out the milk and the kids flocking to the truck.













So first the kids were getting milk for them and their families. Then they came back to give to their neighbors.













Aren't they so cute and wonderful. What a blessing from God.













So that was our day. It was so awesome. God rocked to the max. Have a blessed day. I hope your Easter holiday was as wonderful as mine.

Blessings to you all,
Dess

Dess' Thoughts

Hello Everyone,

It has been forever since I have blogged. Things are going great. God is working in both Joel's and mine life for the plan He has for us. Everyday is so hard because people really bring out your weaknesses. It is funny because you start praying that God will take those people away but then you realize that the weakness would still be there so you might as well get it over with and have Victory and be praising Him while you are at it.

I just had an amazing talk with one of my friends on the ship, Danette. She was one of the dancing girls at Joel's and mine wedding. We were talking about the old testament, talking about Jesus, and then discussing how and what Jesus changed from the old testament to now. I have realized He has changed a lot less than I thought He did. Just as He said "I have not come to abolish the law but to fulfill the law" So I was discussing with Danette how Amazed I was that even in the Old Testament God would tell His people "If you turn from your wicked ways then I will forgive you" When I first heard about Jesus and all He did for me I thought He did this. Meaning: I thought that God would never forgive in the old Testament and that because of Jesus we are for sure Forgiven today. But if you look in Ezekiel the 18th chapter at the very end it says. "Why will you die, O House of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!" I love
it. No one can argue and say I have gone too far, I have sinned so much that not even God can forgive me! LIAR. God can forgive even the wickest person. You have to read Ezekiel all the 18th Chapter. God is soooooooooooooo good and forgives us when we turn back to Him.

So God has been changing both Joel and I. How can I tell well you see God has put people in our lives that drive us crazy and if I was a brand new Christain I would think, "These people, They are driving me Crazy I wish God would just show them their faults so we can all live in Peace." But learning from my past I realize that God has put certain people in my path to help form me to the way He desires. For instance if God wants me to increase my patience He puts me with someone that gets on my nerves all the time. Or if God wants to show me that I am self righteous in some areas then God will put me with a self righteous person. Now I am not saying this is a pat answer for all the people that annoy me in life. But I have finally come to a point that I start praying for those people instead of talking about them. And I have also come to a point where I am praising and thanking God that He has put such people in my path. My biggest prayer as of now is that I will actually learn from these experiences and not let my flesh get in the way. Joel is going through similar circumstances. He has some people that are under him that are trying him in many ways. I see this and praise God that He has such a plan for Joel that he is willing to put people that are not easy to work with under Joel. I am not saying all of them are difficult, but there are those that are difficult but I know it is growing Joel.

Prayer Requests: Joel hurt his back today. He went to bed around 6:30. He went to pick up a piece of metal that was in the ground but when he went to grab and lift, it wouldn't budge and in the process pulled a nerve or muscle in his back.
Also pray that since the Haiti mission is coming up there is more spiritual warfare than usual. Before every mission and during every mission there is more spiritual warfare than usual because the enemy does not like what we are doing.

Last, just wanted to brag on Joel. He has been so awesome to me. Things can get rough when you are trying to learn more about one another. But on Sunday we were at the picnic for our church and I was playing Volleyball I asked Joel to get me some water. He left without complaints and when he came back he had water for the whole team. Then left and came back a second time with water for the other team. He is so wonderful. I know I take him for granted at times and I know I don't always see what God wants me to see in him BUT I am blessed. He treats me like a Queen. He treats me the way God would want me to be treated and there is nothing more I could ask for.

Two things to think about from this email. God can and will forgive you no matter how far you have gone or how bad you have sinned (But if a wicked man turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is righ, he will save his life. Because he considers all the offenses he has committed and turns away from them, he will surely live; he will not die. Ezekiel 18:27-28) and Second praise God for that Person that is driving you crazy this week or last week or for the last month or for the last year. Because He is doing a work in you that He will complete so don't get in the way.

Love you all in agape,
Dess

Life Goes On

Hi Everyone,

Sorry it's been so long since we last wrote. Life is pretty much going on as usual. We can't say that it's been more busy lately, it's just that we haven't been taking the time needed to write. We are preparing for a trip to Haiti. Both the Mer Sea and Hope are preparing to leave on May 1st. This means we've got a lot to do in preparation before they can get out of here. I worked all day Saturday on some projects for Capt. Stan. He's trying to get some of his projects finished now so we can shift our focus to other goals soon. The busiest of my departments right now is the mechanics. There are many repairs needed to some of the vital equipment that is going to Haiti. Since Richard is back, i've been able to get less involved with the warehouse stuff. That's been a blessing for me.

Dess and i went to a church picnic today. They started playing a game of volleyball and Dess was asked to play. For anyone who doesn't know, Dess was an awesome player back in high school. She even got scholarships to college for volleyball. So, as she was playing with these guys, she'd stuff it in their faces and make kills on them (that means she served the ball with no one touching it). She was great. It was the first time i'd ever seen Dess play. Even though it wasn't really competitive it was fun watching Dess do something which she used to love doing so much.


The other day i remembered a "prophesy" i once heard. It was from a guy on the ship who was certain that the end times/rapture would occur in early 2006. This guy was for real. He honestly thought that this was going to happen. He made many parallels between himself and Jesus and the prophets. As i was realizing that his prophesy didn't come true (which i never really thought it would), it made me wonder about how we hear God. I know that we all have different relationships with God. No two people's relationship with God is the same. There are people who get close to God in nature or in solitude. Those who prefer community or praise music or reading their Bibles, or just quiet times with God. We all do it differently. So why is it that there are times where it seems like we just miss it. I guess i think about my own life and the time where i felt God told me to stay at Friend Ships for 7 years. When i told my family they thought i was a bit of a nut and i think they had their doubts. Since then, they will sometimes remind me that i don't have to stay at Friend Ships, that maybe i could come home. Well, what if i missed it. What if i made that time into something that it wasn't? It's so easy to be convinced of something that isn't true.

Dess resonded with me that there are three voices in our head. There's our own voice, God's voice and Satan's voice. That we need to know which each voice sounds like so we can follow the right voice. Then we talked about angels and how God's messanges are brought to people. But what comes to my mind is the scripture about how the Devil can come as an angel of light. That's pretty scary to think about. Do we sometimes miss it because we're listening to the wrong voice? How does someone get so convinced about something like the end of the world but it doesn't happen??? Christianity can be so bizarre to me at times.

These are my thoughts lately. It just seems so strange to me.

How much of our faith is truly "blind"?