These are the faces that break your heart...

Bel-Air Children's Home - "You are special!"

Spent all day with the 35 kids who range in age from 1-19; some handicapped.  Originally we thought it was an orphanage, but no, none of the children are actually orphans; they are - which is worse, I think - abandoned or abused.  Rejected by those who should love them the most, these children are starved for touch and affection.  God bless their caretakers who put up with a LOT - trust me, I know.  Our theme?  "You are special!"

Just their Bel-Air pledge shows their pain:

As a resident of Bel-Air

I want to prepare for a better future.

A place with room for you and me.

Where our minds can be safe and free.

With goals that you may try to achieve.

No matter what people may believe.

I have a life to live.

I can help because I am growing.

I am as bright as the sun that shines.

I am as strong as the wind and the rain.

As rich as the deep blue sea.

I can rise, I can try,  I can succeed.

I am going to reach to the top.

And I will, because I believe in me.

These are the faces that break my heart, and haunt my thoughts.  What will become of these children in a few years?

If we brought them smiles, even for a day, then we succeeded.

my little boy

running to greet me

Shondell & me

"SHONDELL"
she says he is a little more than a year
he looks at me
his eyes wide with untold fears
he's old enough but doesn't speak a word
it's too loud for him be heard
left alone in his crib all day
silent he sat
watching the others play

i pick him up
"he is too light" crosses my mind
only six teeth show
can he really be one year old?
do they feed him enough?
does he ever play?
who is there to care for him each day?

what can life have in store?
what future can he have?
doesn't the world care a little more?...
but he doesn't need the world
he just needs someONE.

his name, she says, is Shondell
he was my one-day baby boy.

RIGHT NOW!

This is right now, Sunday evening Aug. 9!  We might break a record!

All these people coming to visit the ship; each one hearing about Jesus. 

This is why we're here.

Kingstown, St. Vincent

Logos Hope - Bringing Knowledge, Help and Hope

our berth in St. Vincent

Special needs Children's Home

They may not have father or mother to care for them and love them, but they have a Father in heaven who sees and is watching over them.  

They have so little; by having three meals a day we have so much.  My heart hurts for these children - what can I do that will "make it better?"  But we give what we can - love, touch, time - to show them that Someone loves them.

They played their hearts out -- to try and raise money to build themselves a new home.

...they are precious in His sight.

The book she's holding is the story of Jesus that we give out to kids.  They are so happy to get a book!

Kid's Programs

Day Off

(l.-r. Nicky and Simon - USA, me, Rosanna - Australia, Tony - South Africa)

Off to spend the day at the white sand beaches on the Grenadine island of Bequia!

The lines of people coming to visit the ship.

My first Hope Team!

Mental Health Centre

their first books!

Telling about our ship and sharing the message of hope.

Annika (Germany) and Kency (far left, India) officially handing over the books to start their new library project! 

with one of the patients 

Registered as a 160 bed centre, they normally have 226+ patients.  Bare cement walls and floor, locked behind bars; about half were barefoot.  Hardly humane living conditions.  The nurses do the best they can with what they have.  But if there are only 160 beds... I don't want to think about where the rest of them sleep...

Pray:

• for all the people in these pictures; the orphans, special needs children, mental patients, and visitors that Logos Hope crew are getting a chance to reach out to
• that they would understand and accept the message of salvation - their only certain hope
• for Hope Teams, a part of the ministry that is just starting up in the Caribbean region.  Pray for creativity and unity in the teams, as we as a team are told where we are going and then must come up with the "program" we are going to do - dramas, music, testimonies, flag parade, ship presentation, etc. - and then present it.  It is a stretching experience, and can be stressful if it is rather spur of the moment.
• for energy for me, each day!
• that I would get many more opportunities to reach out to orphans and children, as this is really my heart
• against Satan's attacks.  At times we can really tell that we are fighting a spiritual battle - pray against dissension and sickness onboard
• THANK GOD for all my supporters who are making it possible for me to be here!  Did you know???!  I have had enough support come in each month to be fully supported for the past 7 months - 1/4 of my time! 

THANK YOU

for standing in the gap with me in prayer!

During our 14-day Atlantic crossing, this verse came mind:

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.  

Habakkuk 2:14

Do you have any idea of how much water there is in the sea???  Enough so that we can sail for days and days and never see land, and can't drop anchor because it's too deep.  That's how much we want people to know about God!

my week in the engine room!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024981&id=1223075100&l=bb5f52e7cb

So this is the Faroes!

Today is a special day for Logos Hope!  Today marks the 5 year anniversary of the ship Norrona (changed to Logos Hope) being bought by Operation Mobilization.

Now we are back in her "home" port of registry, Torshavn, Faroe Islands.  It's o.k., be honest; you know you don't know where that is!  I didn't know it even existed until I came to the ship.  Look NW a bit from Denmark, I think - I'm really not sure... and kind of near the Shetland Islands... maybe I should look on a map myself... :D  It's a group of Islands owned by Denmark (but shhhhh, don't tell them I said that!) with a population of only 48,000.  The unique thing about this place is, there are no trees.  And they eat whale and have lots of sheep.

sisters!  (and both in our work clothes :P)

i AM going to write an update... AND PICTURES!!!

...as soon as i can figure out how. :)

THANK YOU for your partnership with me!

Thursday we saw a miracle as we sailed to Sweden.

PST (Pre-Ship Training [group]) Birkedal's Welcome to Logos Hope

Who am I?

We sat at lunch chatting.  It was because I had asked him a question; "How did you decide what culture to become?"  He was calmly eating his pizza with his fingers as we wrestled with reality.   Everyone else at the table, including me, was eating European style with our knife in our right hand and our fork in our left.  And cutting our pizza.  We were after all, in Germany.

I grew up in three very different cultures and even more subcultures of those cultures.  Each country and culture is a like separate life and I can live each equally well.  Though from the outside I look like an American, and I am an American, my heart is part Chinese.  For whatever country I'm in, I just adapt and blend in.  And I have never left without picking up some mannerism from that culture that gets added to my own.  But no one culture feels like "mine."  It's not as easy as what passport you have.  No, it's something inside - the values, mindsets, worldviews, and habits subconsciously ingrained - they are all twisted and confused.  And all my life, deep down, I have been wondering, questioning, which one is me?  Which one is the real me? 

Am I the stylish, fast-paced, confident, business minded, efficient, perfectionist city kid of Hong Kong?  Am I the proud, patriotic, carefree girl in America?  Or am I the bold, daring, adventurous teenager of China, testing her wings?  

CJ picked up his fork and started eating his salad - with just a fork.  Confident.  That's what it was.  He didn't feel like he always had to be checking himself to make sure he was doing the right thing and blending in.  Eating pizza with your fingers and salad with just a fork definitely wasn't European, but it was part of his culture, and it was okay.  I wondered if maybe it would be okay if I changed back to eating my food with just a fork too.  I don't have to have separate lives for each country.  I don't have to change all of my behaviors to try to blend in with the current cultural system.  I am free to be me.

I have a culture, but my culture is a mix of all the others, and for the first time I feel like I am finally all of them AT THE SAME TIME.  And I am free to be who I am.  

Thanks CJ. :)

~Sailor Girl

Sorry, this post probably doesn't make sense except to other third culture kids.