Day 383 Sea Life

A turtle spotted yesterday, the day of my niece Layne's 5th birthday.  You may think we're seeing things, but it was definitely a turtle. :)

A flying fish. The zig-zag line is the fish using his tail fin to skim across a wave, then he soars some more. Yesterday I witnessed two fish crash into each other mid-air.  One kept soaring unphased, but the other splashed back into the water.

We also saw one lonely jelly fish, and several groups of dolphins - I don't have a picture of either. But...drum roll please!!!  God is faithful and has answered my prayers to see a WHALE!!!  Make that a whole pod of whales! :) Murray has a pretty fantastic ability to spot whales.  As we were on the Bridge having a tour, he saw spray from a whale spout, then we looked and saw lots of spray as we approached the pod.  As we passed by them, I saw the backs of about three.  Murray had his camera handy as usual and these are his photos.

On the bow enjoying the amazing weather and watching for things in the water.

Thank you, Murray, for sharing your photos!!! :)

Day 376

What an eventful morning and it is only 0900. 
0300 (or maybe a few minutes prior to that) - False fire alarm.  Then couldn't go back to sleep for a looooong time. 
0700 - Security drill.
0730 - The longest line for breakfast I've ever seen on the AFM.
0800 - Said goodbye to another Gateway friend and her new husband.  Goodbye Annika and Idrissa!!! Will miss you!
0830 - The last of the vehicles were loaded onto Deck 8.
In approximately 20 minutes the pilot is due to board, then we will be sailing the blue seas!! :) Yay!! I'm praying to see a whale this sail. :) Dolphins are lovely too, but bring on the whales!!! :)

Farewell Togo! You've been lovely.

Day 371 -Red Carpet-

A few weeks ago, the Africa Mercy was expecting to have the president of Togo onboard.  We usually are allowed to have personal visitors on Sunday afternoons, but because of heightened security needs, visitations were cancelled.  A few days prior to his expected arrival, we had a lovely group devotions in the Admissions department.  Edem led devotions based on James 2:2-4:  

For example, suppose someone comes into your meeting dressed in fancy clothes and expensive jewelry, and another comes in who is poor and dressed in dirty clothes.  If you give special attention and a good seat to the rich person, but you say to the poor one, “You can stand over there, or else sit on the floor”—well,  doesn’t this discrimination show that your judgments are guided by evil motives? 

Obviously, as the President, he must be shown respect. But after discussing a bit how we treat people differently based on their clothing, knowledge, etc, Edem said something like this, "It doesn't matter what your status is here on Earth.  Maybe I won't be allowed to watch the President walk on red carpet while he is here on Sunday, but if the President isn't a child of God, then he can't come see me walk on streets of gold in Heaven someday!"

This has really stuck with me since then, thinking about how we truly are the favored children of God.