The Long Journey

WELCOME TO THE LONG JOURNEY !

It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, and don’t take yourself too seriously—take God seriously.
Micah 6:8 The Message

We have decided to pursue this way of keeping in touch with our family and friends while we are serving aboard the Caribbean Mercy. We welcome you here and ask that you post any comments you would like to. Our goal is to update this site as frequently as is possible as our work schedules allow.

The ship is currently docked in Puerto Castilla, Honduras on a three month outreach to the area of Colon. This is our second trip to Puerto Castilla this year and we are so glad to be back where relationships have been established. The "rainy" season has started, although we have not seen much rain, yet. The ship is docked at the end of a penisula in the Bay of Honduras. This penisula is inhabited by fiendish little bugs that feast upon the crew. Bill is sporting some very impressive bite marks!

We remain busy each day with lots of work to do. Bill is the Renovations Manager and sees to all the carpentry repairs that are required by a 50+ year old ship. He usually has a helper, so the work, for the most part, is not too overwhelming. Rebecca is the Purser and handles all the immigration requirements of the crew. While on outreach she also works part time as a receptionist and remains a consultant for the sterilization department for medical and dental.

Our schedule includes devotions every day with the rest of the crew. We start out Monday mornings with the entire community aboard ship for a time of worship and praise to our Lord. This is a great way to begin the week and to meet new crew members who have arrived over the weekend. Wednesday devo's are set aside for community prayer and Friday is the time that each area of ministry shares what has happened through out the week. Tuesday and Thursday mornings we meet in our departments for devotions.

Bill and Rebecca's area of ministry has been the PETs. "PETs" stands for Personal Energy Transports. The carts are manufactured by a ministry in Florida, boxed up and given to us (as well as other ministries) to distribute. The carts are hand/arm self-propelled (it requres some upper-body strength) that we distribute to those who do not have use of their legs. Bill and a changing group of volunteers put together these carts then we have the opportunity to distribute them to those in need.

We are planning on being with the ship here in Honduras for Christmas this year. We think we will be docked in Puerto Cortes and we are really looking forward to that as it has been awhile since we have been there. It is the home town of Maria Elena, one of our Crew and a dear friend. It will be hard not to be home for Christmas this year, but we will try to take some vacation in January to catch up with everyone at home.

We have had a little time to do some snorkeling at a wreck of a small fishing boat that is close to our ship. It was fascinating to watch the great variety of fish with fantastic colors darting here and there. I had loaded up on the bug spray and sun screen before entering the water (we had to walk a distance before entering the water) and there was this little school of tiny fish that were transparent with a dark stripe down their sides that accompanied me where ever I swam. They seem to make a slight clicking noise and it was fun to be escorted by them. I think they must have liked the smell of the combination of chemical I had put on. (Can fish smell??) Bill is excited to start a scuba diving class this next week, so perhaps there are some diving trips ahead of us!

Thanks again for checking up with us on this web site. Again, we welcome your comments and look forward to hearing from you!

God's blessings!

Bill and Rebecca