Friday July 25, 8:57pm

Another week down, 2 more to go...maybe...
It has been a busy week since we were delayed a week and a half getting out of dry dock and back into the water. It was quite an experience as they had to rock the ship back and forth with a large machine because sitting so long makes the steel wheels develop flat spots and any grit left on the tracks will stop ship from moving on the track. They have the wheels packed with little bits of cloth to keep grit out and also a man goes underneath and blows all remaining grit away in order to insure the wheels will turn. As they started to move the ship, one of the large roller skates broke and had to be removed. But we made it into the water and now are docked and the work will continue till we leave on the 4th of August to sail to Tenerife to complete loading.

Yesterday all the families returned to the ship with lots of kids and hustle and bustle and little ones greeting their playmates and reunited with moms and dads who have been absentee while the families stayed in hotels in the city. Kids are not allowed on ship while in dry dock so families are moved to hotels. The hotels are so in agreement with Mercy Ships, they either give rock bottom prices or let some stay at no cost. What a blessing.

Began today, loading fuel and cargo and getting ready to serve in Benin. I was told that the fuel costs are $35,000.00 per day of sea travel (will that be cash or credit?) and they only travel at a speed that maximizes fuel economy. We have air conditioning on parts of the ship, not our deck yet, but it takes up to a week to cool the ship down so the air conditioning can work properly.

Since our projects for this year are finished, we now are being assigned to ship's departments to help with to do lists that can use extra manpower. Next week, we begin cleaning the entire ship and will assist medical staff in sanitizing the OR's and wards. Lloyds is here to certify the ship next week before we can sail. Pray everything passes as we will have drills and a thorough inspection of the entire ship. Lots of dust and debris left when you remodel....Oh, for those who want to know, the sterilizers were certified and ready for service. Company flew in 3 technicians for the week and it is my understanding everything is ready.

Ship is really rolling with the swells even though we are tied up. If you look outside you can see the movement or if you sit still, you can feel the back and forth in the water.

We went Wednesday night for our "goodbye" ice cream night at "Liky Liky", our favorite ice cream parlor. We were saying good bye to our friend from the Netherlands, Arie. The girls at the ice cream parlor were sad when I told them he was going home Saturday, but they were quick to ask if we would still be coming. I assured them we would. There was a large picture of the cutest baby eating ice cream on the wall of the shop, and we found out she is the daughter of one of the girls who serves us. What a pleasant surprise.

Keep praying for us as opportunities are arising and we have to make decisions in the upcoming week. Thanks to everyone for remembering us and keeping us in your prayers.

Love
Ken and Peggy

 Our ice cream lady

 Her baby

 Arie and George, George is from Canada and was here for a week to troubleshoot generators

 Cafe' Americano con leche,,,fancy, fancy

 Fill her up

 Machine to rock the ship back and forth in order to move

 20 minutes to get to the lifting dock

 Tractors unhook from pulling, then move to the back to push the ship onto the lift

 Damaged rudder and prop on tanker next to us, whole ship will be scrapped, too expensive to repair

 Sitting on the lift

 Lower, lower, till

Water floods the lift, check for leaks, then towed to pier for rest of drydock work

Saturday 19th, Las Palmas in the morning

Woke up to a sky that was mixed with dark clouds and rays of sunlight.  Back home this would mean rain is coming, but here it only means morning is coming. We have had no rain to speak of, but that is ok. It will be funny when we get home to see actual rain. Peggy commented that everything is green and blooming here and there is little rain. I told her I guess it is because the plants are tropical and God knows what he is doing when he created nature.

Speaking of home, as we draw to the 3 week count down, it seems on every project at this time we start asking God, "What are supposed to do, are we supposed to stay longer, should we go home?" Feelings start arising as we realize we have done what we were called to do, but can we do more? Our hearts desires are to sail to Benin and serve on a field service so we can experience "God" in action in the lives of those who will come and receive medical treatment. We have seen the pictures, watched the videos, talked to those who have been on field projects and all this leads us to more questions.

In our devotions, a lot of the messages expressed how important our jobs are we all do, even though we are not medically trained. I know that with my mind, but my heart just tells me we need to do more. Peggy has struggled the most on this project because she is a "people" person and she wants to have interaction with everyone, but especially she is drawn to the children. Her hearts desire is to be a "baby holder", a prayer intercessor and willing shoulder, and she hasn't been able to do that. I am a hands on "fixer" but there are times I remember in Senegal, just being able to touch someone who others think are untouchable, and how it felt. Thus, our dilemma. There are a lot of doors that would have to open for us to stay and these doors have to be opened by God, not us. That is how we know we are where God wants us. I know there are others that step out and hope the door opens, and it does, but for us we haven't reached that level of faith. Oh, well,....we wait and pray.

I would like to share a part of our devotion on Friday. It was given by the man who is in charge of shipyard renovations. A Godly man with lots of wisdom and his Mercy Ship story is amazing.
He talked about us (the short time volunteers) who will be going home and people will be asking "What did you do on Mercy Ship?"  He told us we will probably say, "We pulled wire, we built bulkheads, we cleaned, we removed deck heads, we built furniture, we installed pipes in the overhead, we insulated, we renovated lockers, etc." But the people will not have a clue, because they weren't here. But he said to tell them, "We did Holy stuff", in that, we as Christians are to be holy as God is holy. Not "Holier than thou", but just Holy in that we are striving to be like Christ. We have already been made Holy, through Jesus, but we have also called to become, more like Christ. That comes in many ways, Bible study, prayer, obedience to God's word, interaction with believers (and non-believers) and through service. And that is the place we are in now, service. One of the yard workers told one of our leaders in the hallway, "You are going to heaven, because you work on Mercy Ship " What an opportunity to explain, which the leader did, by telling him how salvation is assured already when you accept Christ and heaven is guaranteed, but not by the works we do.
The meat of his devotion, as so many people keep telling us, is that what we do for the ship, is not the most important thing. Mercy Ships want the people who serve to be "renovated and renewed" by the Holy Spirit when they come on board, which is far more eternal than what we do with our hands.


So, again, we approach another day with questions and wondering.  Thanks to everyone who are praying for us and please, DON'T STOP!  We have so few days left and know that God will direct our paths, and lead us to what He wants us to do.

We are losing project people almost daily, but we do receive replacements also. We have 4 or 5 young men from Europe who have joined for 2 weeks. It is amazing. One of the boys' employer paid for his trip here because the company believes so much in Mercy Ships. We found out also, that his parents were in Hawaii, at Kona, last year the same time as we were and now his parents are directors of a YWAM base in Germany. One young man who is 19 had his parents serve on the older Mercy Ship, the Anastasis when he was a young boy, and now he has come to serve. What an example being set by parents!

We say goodbye to our good friends and my boss, Roger and Kris. If we hadn't met them in Hawaii, all this would not have taken place. They return to the states to await the arrival of a grand daughter and we pray for their safe return and the arrival of the new life.

We have had one setback and now we will not be in the water till this Thursday. The new sterilizers will be commissioned on Monday so please pray they work as designed. (Especially since I had to help install them and wire them up). New territory for me.! New flooring is being installed by the shipyard, we are closing up walls, and deck heads, lots of furniture being installed, medical staff and full time people returning....lots of activities going on. Sail dates for Tenerife and Benin are still on go, no changes there.

I know this was long, and thanks for walking this experience with us.

Love
Ken and Peggy

 Most of the projects team, some have left and we failed to get a group photo

 Fine man and fellow worker, Ken Hilton, from the IOC in Texas, I was his gopher doing pipe fitting work

 Shipyard polished the propellers, free of charge...Mercy Ships wasn't going to do it, but the shipyard said, "We will do it for you"

 Young worker from Germany, on our ice cream tour

 Our 2 ice cream testers, 2 shops in one night,,whoo hoo

Going back into the water

Sunday 13th, 2014 Another glorious day

It is another beautiful day in Las Palmas. Actually we have not had any bad days here. So thankful to be a part of this team of servants who serve here and elsewhere.

Our time is quickly coming to an end and we had to say good-bye to 2 of my co-workers, Jim and Nina.
They left this morning at 2:00am and are headed back home. These 2 are amazing people, involved in many mission projects, not just Mercy Ships. Hope to meet up with them down the road. They will be back home for 3 days before they head up a team going to Mexico.

We had a large meal at a local Chinese buffet Friday night, sort of a going away party. We also will get 3 new members on Monday as the ship is slowly getting completed and ready to sail on August 4 to Tenerife for a few days. I understand the upcoming weeks will involve loading food, supplies, cargo and everything else for the 9 month tour in Benin. Already there are advance teams on the ground preparing for the ship's arrival and to serve the poor and the needy. There will be loads of cleaning before the ship can be used again as a hospital as there is construction debris and dust everywhere.

We went to the other side of Gran Canaria yesterday to a town of Maspalomas and Puerto de Mogan. The drive over to Mogan was like driving through the desert midwest with lots of mountain thrown in. Very steep and winding roads and beautiful views of the ocean all the way. This is a very resorty area and the prices reflect it. Peggy actually got kicked out of fancy hotel she tried to go into. I just stood outside and watched because I read the sign, "Hotel guests only".  Lots of RV campers and tourists and hotels after hotels after hotels. They say a lot of the British come to this area so most of all menus, signs etc are in English. The beaches are beautify, and crowded with lots of water activities and boating activities. I told Peggy, I think I prefer this area over any other area we have been to, as far as projects go.

Today will be a relaxing day for us and hope to catch up on some rest.

Getting this close to finishing up, makes us start to think about our next project. We are making plans to go to Carlinville, Il. to see the upcoming MAPS projects for next year. Don't know yet, but it is amazing that 2 of the projects I had in mind are the exact 2 Peggy was thinking of. Praying for God's direction as there are so many areas to serve in the Kingdom. We just have to say "Yes". We have already been given next year's dates for dry dock, again in Las Palmas, so that will be on our calender as a possibility. Also, we are making good contacts with the HR people and others for a possible field service trip in the next few years.

Leaving for now,
Hope everyone is well and doing good. Go to church today and enjoy God's presence wherever you are.

Peggy and Ken

 Friday night at the buffet

 Our friend, Arie, he loves his ice cream

 2 Dear servants of God, from the IOC in Texas

 World Cup everywhere, and ice for our drinks

 Only Peggy could find Micky and Minnie in Spain, and it only cost me 2 Euros for this photo

 The sidewalks in Puerto de Mogan

 RV camping in Wal-Mart,,,not really, but it was a shopping center

 One of many views as we drive down from the mountains to the coasts

 One of hundreds of hotels built into the side of the mountains

 Future RV MAPS prospects, I just didn't have time to pass out applications

Tuesday evening, 8th of July, 08:15

We got news today that we will be a week late getting the ship back into the water. It is taking longer to clean and repaint the ship water tanks so that puts us a week behind. It doesn't affect the sailing to Tenarife and then on to Benin.

Work is ahead of schedule for our end of the project, with lots of progress being made. We moved the 2 new sterilizers into their places and re-installed the 2 sanitizers. All that is left is to make final connections and checking them out. All the walls and new offices have been completed, and the shipyard is completing the above deck piping. Our water outages are off and on but not a problem.

We had a great weekend. We attended an A/G church and met the Pastor and his family. They are from Alabama and have been here 3 years. Pray that their paperwork gets approved as they were scheduled to go home for 6 months but had to postpone. They haven't been home in 3 years and their 17 year old son has been in the states for a year. The wife is really anxious and these setbacks are disappointing.

This weekend we are losing some of our team we have worked with and Friday night we are all going out to eat, sort of our last good-bye. We have loved meeting people from all over the world and working with them, all with the common goal of making the ship ready to fulfill its mission of caring for the poorest of the poor. And to think it started just over 38 years ago with the vision of a 19 year old boy, while on a mission trip in the middle of a hurricane. If you get the chance, read the book "Ships of Mercy" by Don Stephens.

Peggy has found her stores in Triana, and she told me "We will be back"...that's OK, I found several nice bakeries I can bide my time in. We have found that there is a pharmacy on almost every corner and some medicines we have to have prescriptions for are over the counter here..That comes as no surprise to us as we found the same thing in Senegal.

Both shafts and propellers are installed as well as the front bow thrusters are being completed. One rudder is on and the other is being put on tomorrow.

Peggy had a wonderful time today giving her (our) story of what we do and where we go from here. Then her supervisor, Henry, prayed a wonderful sweet prayer over our endeavors. I was asked today if I thought I might stay on for a longer period. I said "Right now I don't know if my body is up to it". The man who asked me, said that dry dock is the hardest part of being on the ship and once they sail and arrive in country, the work gets slower and easier.  We have learned that the non-medical crew can serve in a lot of areas in country as well as on the ship while it is in port. Peggy really wants to make the sail to Benin and help with the screening of patients. Who knows?, we are praying about it.

Hope everyone is doing good back home. We got to talk to Michelle and Ashley last night and tonight since we can receive phone calls from the states, we just can't make calls.

Love to all,
Ken and Peggy

 Peggy loves Triana and wants to go back,,,

 Cobblestone streets of Triana

 Macaws in Christopher Columbus' house and museum

 How about and "Old West Show" in Las Palmas

 Pork on the hoof, or hooks

 Lots of pork sold here, this little piggy, as well as his friends went to market

 Sand art on the beach

 Almost done

 Taking out the trash, or should I say, Dropping down the trash:

 When it's easier to do, just cut holes in the bottom of the ship,,then weld them up when through

 Views from atop Cathedral of Santa Ana

 Las Palmas Auditorio

 Fresh fish in the grocery, I do believe they sell everything they catch, mighty unusual stuff to be found

 Oh, No,,I'm in trouble, Peggy has found her way to "HER" stores....

 Triana

 Triana

Triana