Ellen On Mission

Week two is done! It feels like time moves differently here on the Africa Mercy, it's hard to believe another week is over!  Ship Life     Easter Sunday on the ship was AMAZING! The day started with a sunrise worship service at 5:30am on the top deck. It started pouring rain during the service, but we all continued to praise in the rain! At the beginning of the service, we sang songs mainly focused on the cross and Jesus' sacrifice for us. For the second half of the service, the songs were focused more on the celebration that Jesus rose again and we have Him as our reigning Savior! The rain stopped after a few minutes and the Lord blessed us with a stunning double rainbow! It was a beautiful image of the Gospel, starting the service with clouds and rain but finishing with sunshine and a rainbow! Later that morning, there was a more traditional Easter service with more worship and a teaching message.  The galley and dining crew organized a delicious Easter meal in the...

 WOW! What an amazing (almost) first week on board! I am continually blown away by the Lord's hand in this adventure already. Below you can read about my journey to the ship, first impressions of ship life, the first three days in the OR, and a weekend away!  Travel :       Heather and I left for the airport around 3:00pm on Friday, April 11th. We flew overnight from Raleigh to Paris (~8 hours), had a ~2 hour layover, and then flew ~11 hours to Antananarivo (Tana), Madagascar. We were not originally seated together for either flight, but thanks to two kind passengers, we were able to sit next to each other! I got extra lucky and had an empty seat next to me for the 11 hour flight 🙌. Overall, the flights were not too bad. I watched a couple movies, napped, and enjoyed the meals provided by Air France.      When we arrived to Tana around 10:00pm local time, we were greeted by a Mercy Ships representative who helped us through customs and filli...