I’m walking on solid ground!

 After 11 days of sailing from Africa to Spain,we officially made it to Tenerife. 

The sail was absolutely breathtaking.  I got up every morning at 530am to do some praying and then I would go and watch the beautiful sunrises.   My work day would then start around 8am where we would have hospital devotions on the bow.  This was extra special since normally the nurses and hospital staff don’t get to have morning devotions due to us having to take care of patients BUT now since the hospital is closed we were able to get together every morning and have a time fellowshipping together.

 

One morning as we all collected on the bow, a couple of the nurses screamed out as we walked up the stairs “DOLPHINS!”  Now there have been a few dolphin sightings on the sail, which have been amazing as we stare at them swimming in the distance.  As I walked towards the other nurses I looked out to see where they were looking and instead they pointed down.  My heart leaped as I saw about 20 dolphins swimming WITH the ship.  You could practically touch them, well if you were 6 levels down and had really long arms.  They were swimming and jumping right along with the ship.  It was so cool!!

The first 8 days of the sail were especially great.  The ship had a slight rock and as we sailed along the Atlantic Ocean it felt like we were sailing across Lake Sunapee.  The whole atmosphere of the ship and the anxieties and frustrations that weighed us down in Benin were quickly lifted.  We were smack dab in the middle of God’s creation and loving every minute of it. 

(The girls and I doing a 'Pirate Watch' dressed as pirates... arrr!)

But, all good things must come to an end.  Hence days numbers 9 and 10. It started the night of the 8^th as the ship felt a little rockier but didn’t think much of it until about 3am when my roommate and I were suddenly awoken by a jar of Ragu flying across the room.  We switched on the light to see what all the commotion was about only to find most of our loose belongings strung around the cabin.   After tucking away most of the casualties we tried to go back to bed.  Even though this was a good idea in theory the rocking of the ship nearly rocked us right out of bed and by 6am we were both forced up out of bed.  As we walked up to breakfast you saw the dark bags and pale faces of all the crewmembers that got just as much sleep as we did.  That morning the stories slowly made it round about the many things that were broken or damaged from the rocky night and day.  A $50,000 eye machine was broken, the Galley had a food fight with itself, filing cabinets dumped out all their contents, and bed ladders attacked innocent crewmembers.  We all did our best to work that day only to find that the following night was just as bad as the last. 

So by the 10^th night you could say that we were all more than ready to walk on solid ground.  By 9am on the 19^th of December we were safely trumpeted into the port in Tenerife and by 10am me and my 2 friends were running the streets of Tenerife… Hooray!!!(This man plays his trumpet every time Mercy Ships comes in or leaves the port in Tenerife)