Greater Things Have Yet to Come...

Our prayer for Cotonou - and all of Benin - as we prepare to leave.

God of This City
by Chris Tomlin

You're the God of this City
You're the King of these people
You're the Lord of this nation
You are

You're the Light in this darkness
You're the Hope to the hopeless
You're the Peace to the restless
You are

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater thing have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done here

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done here

Packing.

As the date of our sail from Benin draws near (only a week to go!), many people on the ship are busy packing it up. The deck department has worked hard taking things down and making the ship safe to sail. Today, most of our land rovers will be driven to Togo, the location of our next field service. Soon my roommates and I will be securing our cabin for the sail (don't want things falling on us in the night!), and I will have to do the same for my classroom (and help out with the whole Academy) on Monday. On top of it all, this time has been spent spending time with people who won't be back next field service, saying goodbye to others, and trying to do everything one last time before we leave Benin.

It's hard to believe that we've been here for 10 months. It's been a long 10 months, though, and I am very much looking forward to a relaxing sail, the Christmas activities that are beginning, the cooler weather of Tenerife, and Viva Maria, the smoothie place in Santa Cruz :)

Please pray for us as we say goodbye to Benin and people that have been an important part of our lives for the past year. Pray that the ship is ready to go on time, and for energy for our engineers, deckies, and officers that are working very hard and will continue to do so for the next while, keeping us safe and the ship running.

Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving :) It is perhaps my very favorite holiday - break from school, eating all the good food you can hold in your tummy, my grandmother's mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie!, and relaxing with family and friends. I have several great memories of Thanksgiving, from playing games of touch football to the time Erin and I accidentally knocked the turkey out of the pan (though I'm not sure anyone else knows about that....until now) to when I got the flu on Thanksgiving and we had to celebrate it with our friends on Saturday - who suffered for me and went out for Mexican on Thanksgiving Day and saved their meal to be with us.

There are many, many things I'm thankful for today - the support of my friends and family back home, a job that I love, a wonderful fiance(!) that I will soon be marrying, a fantastic group of friends (really, my ship family) here on the Africa Mercy...the list goes on!

It's weird to spend Thanksgiving away from the States. We don't get a Thanksgiving break, but the galley is currently preparing a wonderful Thanksgiving feast for us to enjoy tonight :) I'm hoping that my new English family enjoys it as much as I plan to!

Joy :)

Even though it seems hard to believe, living in a 500-foot long space with 350+ other people can really be a blast. Everyone comes from different cultures with different traditions and ideas of fun, and it's great to try out many different things. I love staying up late and playing random games with my friends (Killer Bunnies, Citadels, Scotland Yard....doesn't get much better than that!), eating James's delicious desserts that he whips up at a moments notice, chatting over a cup of tea after dinner with the girls, watching movies in the Queen's Lounge... I have made so many good friends here and I am so grateful for these experiences with them!

However, there is one thing by far that makes me happier than anything else, and that is spending time with Sam. I've mentioned him before a couple of times and each time someone comments on the fact that I referred to him as "my friend Sam", when we've been dating since January. He's from Southend, England, and he is an assistant cook on board the ship.

I met him last July when I was doing my Gateway training in Texas. Sam's sister, Sarah, and her husband Tommy were in my Gateway class, and they needed to bring someone along to watch their two small boys while we were in class. They ended up bringing Sam. We became friends, and while I was attracted to him by the end of the course, I didn't think much of it because I wasn't really sure I'd ever see him again. We kept in touch over the next several months through email, which progressed to instant messaging, which in turn yielded phone calls. During that time, Sam decided that the Lord was calling him to Mercy Ships as well. So, at the end of January 2009, he joined the Africa Mercy for a year.

This year has been absolutely amazing and challenging in so many ways. Through it all, Sam has been by my side, an encouraging and familiar face in the midst of ones that are ever changing. He entertains me when I'm bored, helps me in my classroom when I feel overwhelmed (I even got him to do some coloring for me!), holds me when I'm homesick, and makes me laugh every single day. He has one of the most generous hearts I've ever seen, and he always finds some way to liven up whatever situation he's in.

And on Thursday, he asked me to marry him during our ship-wide fire drill. He had an elaborate plan with the captain. And I, of course, said yes! So as of this coming summer, I will be able to wake up next to Samuel Slennett every day for the rest of my life :)

We haven't yet decided where we will be headed after July. But wherever it is, I know I will be happy and well cared for as long as I'm with Sam :)

Mesdames et Messieurs, le président de la République du Bénin!

Last night my group of friends and I got dressed up and went out to dinner. We enjoyed an evening of socializing, African food, and cultural dancing. The best part of it all? The President of Benin, Yaya Boni, joined us. In fact, he hosted it in the Presidential Palace!

Ok, so there were more like 300+ Africa Mercy crew members there. And everyone looked lovely and glamorous. Many people were in African wear, which was fun to see. Even though it wasn't as late a night as I was expecting (my bus got back to the ship just after 11pm), it was an extremely tiring evening! There was a lot of standing, listening to long speeches in French as they honored several management members for their work here in Benin (one was even knighted!), and straining to see the dancers that were all the way at the front of the hall - and of course our table was in the very back row! All in all, it was a fun time, definitely an honor to be invited and an experience to remember.

Here is a large portion of my friends, though some are missing...plus Captain Tim! :)

Football and Friends.

3 weeks left in Benin...crazy. I cannot believe that our 10 months are almost up! Not only will it be hard to leave Benin, but the hardest part of all is coming....

Christmas.

But why? you may ask. Christmas is supposed to be a joyous time!

It is. And it will be. But Christmas means that 90% of the friends I have made this outreach will be leaving to return to their respective homes all over the world, most of them forever. And I hate that part.

Last week was my friend Sarah Oliver's (ward nurse, UK) birthday. We went to the Marina Hotel for a day of swimming and fun, then out for some Chinese to celebrate. It was also the last weekend we had to spend with our dear friends, Deb & Sarah Louden (ward nurse and lab technician, Australia) and Mel (ward nurse, UK) before they leave later on this week. It was a bittersweet occasion, but it was a great day. Especially the part where we tried to take a group underwater photo of the 15 or so of us! Yay for the US government giving me a tax return, the purchase of that camera has definitely upped the fun level of my pool outings!

This one is my favorite....it's so Deb! :) I will miss you and Sarah loads!!

A few weekends ago, the crew members were challenged to a game of football (read: soccer) by our day volunteers. Our Africa Mercy crew team rose to the challenge and a mighty battle was fought at the Marina Hotel football pitch. The game ended, tied, a 0-0, and went to penalty shots. My friend Sam was the goalie, he did a magnificent job defending that net and the crew won 4-1 after penalties. Please notice the trophy in the middle of the celebratory photo :)

Grade 3.

Even though I manage to find time to have lots of fun here on the ship and in Africa, most of my time and energy is dedicated to the reason why I'm here: teaching. Last year I taught 5th grade, and this year I am teaching 3rd grade as well as the grade 9/10 Ancient History class.

I have four 3rd graders, each of a different nationality: American, English, Norwegian, and Dutch/Sri Lankan. They are great and I am blessed every day by them!

We start off our day with silent reading, and then go into Bible class. Our curriculum is called Christ and His Church, and it is all about the life of Jesus. It is a nice change from last year's study of the Old Testament! :) We are currently learning about Jesus' parables. One good thing about the 3rd grade Bible is that there is a craft once a week, which I love! This week's craft was a sheep, since we just learned about the parable of the lost sheep. Here is one of my student's finished work:

After Bible, we go into either Science or Social Studies - the two alternate depending on the day.

So far in Science, we have studied plants, animals, and their interactions with one another, environments, rocks/minerals/fossils, and now we are starting a unit on earth's land. Science is definitely my weak spot. I didn't have to teach it last year, so this is all new to me and is stretching me in many ways! They are doing well, however, so I'm feeling encouraged about it :) We made dioramas of different forests when we studied biomes - below is a deciduous forest in progress.

For Social Studies, we are studying...the world! We started off with maps - reading them, making them, the different types - and moved into studying different countries in Africa. We then looked at communities. Now we have just started Australia, after which we will study Antarctica before Christmas break. To combine maps and our countries together, we created a candy topographical map of Africa!

One thing I have really enjoyed this year is teaching cursive. I like writing in cursive! Though the slanting of the letters is a bit of an issue, I'm quite pleased with how quickly my students have picked up the formation of the letters. I've tried to do some fun things with cursive. We wrote a poem about an owl, so we made paper bag owls (an idea I used while student teaching - thanks Mrs. Yordy!). For the Academy Open House, we wrote a scarecrow poem and made scarecrows to go along with them (see how I'm trying to bring fall to Africa?!?), which turned out really cute. Today, we wrote our initials in cursive, then used our imagination (which is currently our theme) to make them into a picture. One of my girls drew "Crazy Potato Head", using her initials ABP.

Still in an effort to bring fall, we made harvest pictures for fun :)

Earlier this week, the kindergarten invited grades 1-3 to come have a shape party with them. We ate shape snacks, made cone hats, and played different shape games. It was really fun! Here is Danae, the grade 2 teacher from Canada, and I wearing our cone hats :)

We have also had 2 spirit days so far - Twin Day and Formal Day! Here is the Academy staff, all dressed up for the occasion!

Back Row: Ben (PE, Scotland/Holland), Haley (4/5, US), Danae (2, Canada), Christina (Science, US), me, Dara (Nursery, US), Estelle (Kindergarten, South Africa), Kim (HS/JH English, US), Elizabeth (Preschool, US)
Front Row: Carol (Admin Assistant, US), Shelly (1, US), Nikki (Principal, South Africa), Tommy (HS/JH Math/IT, UK)

As you can see, I enjoy what I do...a lot. Our team of teachers is outstanding. My students are great and I'm sad that the year is already almost half over! I truly am blessed to love my job so much!