Images of Bremen....

This is the story of the Bremen Town Musicians....
You can read the story by clicking on this link: http://www.bremen-tourism.de/english/bremen.cfm

A park in Bremen with a 'massive' art display

The 'brass pigs' in Bremen city centre!

Being in the office....

There is not much else to report from the last few weeks. Each day I make my way to our little office on the bus. It's amazing that the days I manage to get out of bed earlier than usual, are the days I end up nearly missing the bus! How does that work? Oh well, thankfully, I have only missed it once! If I do miss it, there is another route that gets me to the office, but that means I have to change buses half way there!
Once I get to the office, I set up my laptop and check my e-mails... then it is time to do some work. While waiting for the Logos Hope to arrive here in the north of Germany, Miriam, my colleague and I continue to write documents for Partner Ministries, but there is only so much you can write!
Not having a major amount to do, means that my motivation levels are dropping and this is serious. I know from past experience, that when I am bored and unmotivated, my mind starts wandering off onto all sorts of subjects that are not normally an issue to me and don't usually affect my well-being.
Please do pray that I can find things to keep me busy and motivated, so that I don't fall into the trap!
The Logos Hope is still in the shipyard in Croatia and we are not sure when she will set sail.
Thankfully, this weekend, Teen Street (www.teenstreet.om.org) starts here in Germany. It is taking place in Oldenburg which is about a 40 minute train ride from Bremen, so I will be making some regular trips over there. There will be lots of people that I know coming to Teen Street, people that I have worked with over the many years in OM. It's always a great place to catch up with old friends, and also 'catch' the excitement for God and 'mission' of about 4000 teenagers who attend Teen Street each year...
I will keep you updated on what happens at Teen Street.

Since last time....

At the end of June I made the long trek to a little German village called 'Dorfchemnitz' to attend a wedding of two good friends. Antony & Sabine are both part of the Logos Hope project and it was great to celebrate this special day with them.
There were lots of OM'ers there, and also lots of ex-Ships people. It was good to catch up with them too. The weekend started with a church service at 11am on Saturday (30 June) morning, followed by a light finger lunch outside the front of the church. Then at 4pm we all moved to the local school hall for coffee and cake. Lots of cake!
In the evening there was a wonderful meal and lots of entertainment. Everyone had a lot of fun.
On the Sunday, all those who were still around, gathered again at the school to consume the leftovers and spend time with the bride and groom again.

What I'm up to...

Many of you may be wondering what I'm up to and have been up to over the last few years of my life, so I thought I would give you a quick run down of my life since I was about 18...
Don't worry, it won't take that long..., or at least I will do this in installments, so you should not get bored!

After leaving school....
After leaving school, I went on to do a secretarial course in Harare, Zimbabwe. After about 8 months I was bored and had done most of the exams so I dropped out of the course and went to work in a travel agency. Found I did not like that much, so moved onto another job... and to cut a long story short, kept moving jobs for the next few years.
At the beginning of 1993 I left my last permanent job in Harare, and was doing some temporary work, as well as being very involved in my local church. In June/July of 1993 there was a missions conference down in Cape Town, South Africa run by Operation Mobilisation (OM), which I attended.
I had never thought of going into missions before, but that conference changed my view of missions and my life forever....
On the way back from the conference and sometime in Mozambique, we had a car accident where I broke my pelvis and right collar bone - so out of action for a while! It did not stop me for long though, and I am grateful for the healing of both my pelvis and collar bone.
At this stage, I felt that I wanted to go and work with OM on one of their ship's the MV Doulos, but it took another couple of years before I actually joined OM.

Joining OM...
On 1 May 1995 my opportunity came to join OM. I was invited to join the team working in South Africa and be the secretary to the National Director of the work there. In OM we call them Field Leaders. So, I went down to Pretoria to work with Peter Tarantal, helping him and serving him in any way possible, so that he could do his job of leading the work of OM South Africa. I had 3 and a half great years of working with Peter.

At the beginning of 1998, I told Peter that he should start looking for a new PA, as by the end of that year I wanted to move onto a new challenge. In the middle of the year, I was in contact with a good friend of Peter's, Mr Viv Thomas who was working with OM in London. Viv was looking for a PA, and the idea of heading to the UK seemed good. Little did I know that the MV Doulos was going to be in South Africa and when I went to visit, I was challenged to join the ship. As you may remember... back in 1993 I wanted to join the Doulos!

So, after some negotiations, it was all sorted out for me to join the Doulos in January 1999. Sorry Viv, I'm not coming to the UK!

Read about the next step of my life next time....

Doulos Days....

In January 1999 I flew off to Perth, Australia to join the MV Doulos. During the next 15 months, I worked in many different departments onboard the ship, as well as going ahead of the ship to two ports to help with the 'advanced preparations'.

Onboard, I worked in the Book Shop, the Accommodation department, taking Tours around the ship, and 'Pantry' which is mainly making the dining room ready for meal times and then tidying up after each meal etc. I also was asked to co-ordinate a Short Term Exposure Programme (STEP) where a group of people come to the ship for about 8 weeks and have exposure to our ministry. Once that STEP was over, I then went off on my first 'Line Up' (advanced preparations).

A small team of us headed off to a little island called Manus, in Papua New Guinea. The ship arrived two and a half weeks later into port. We had organised many progammes and events for the local people to come onboard and see, as well as for crew from the Doulos, to go to churches and schools and other local places to interact with the people of Manus. It was a great visit.

Shortly after leaving Manus, I was then sent to Subic Bay in the Philippines to do my second Line Up, and on 6 January 2000, the ship arrived there.

Both my Line Up experiences were rather challenging, and I realised that doing that sort of thing is not where I thrive and excel. So, it was agreed by all concerned that I would not do any more Line Ups. I spent the rest of my time on Doulos in the Deck department, painting, scrapping, needle-gunning the decks! What fun!

The call to the UK then came...

Shortly after finishing my second Line Up, I heard a 'rumour' that Viv Thomas (the guy in London that I was originally supposed to go and work for after leaving OM South Africa), was still looking for a personal assistant! I could not believe it, a year and a half after I said 'no', he have not found anyone yet.

So, in a nutshell, after some e-mails flying backwards and forwards between him, me and others in the Ship's Ministry, I was all set to go to London. I did, however, go home to sunny Zimbabwe for about 4 months to catch up with family, friends, church etc., then off I went to London!

Viv and I worked well together and had lots of fun, but unfortunately, due to circumstances out of our control, the job description that I had originally gone to do - it was more than just being Viv's PA - did not materialise as expected. This left me unchallenged and unmotivated. It was very sad, but both Viv and I realised that I probably needed to move on to something else, if I was to 'survive'.

Enter Mr Peter Maiden....

Now Mr Peter Maiden at that stage was the Associate International Director of OM, and was due to take over the leadership of OM from George Verwer, who founded the organisation in 1957. There was a big celebration planned for August 2003 to commemorate the handover and someone needed to organise it!

Well, Mr Maiden got to hear that I needed a new challenge, and the rest is history.... In March 2002, I moved up to Carlisle, UK (near the Scottish border) and started the preparations for the General Council conference in August the following year. It was 17 months of hard work, but all worth it in the end. I realised that even though I did not enjoy my Line Up experiences, I had learnt so much during those that held me in good stead for organising this conference.

It was held in Keswick, about 40 minutes from Carlisle, in the beautiful Lake District. We booked over 90 Bed & Breakfast houses, 32 self-catering apartments and 5 hotels for our 1700 guests that were going to turn up at the conference! Yes, lots of negotiation, as well as all the transport and food arrangements that needed to be made. I had a great team of people working with me, and although there were a few minor hitches with the transport at the end - due to the trains not running on our departure day as they were scheduled to do - it was a great success, and a fruitful time was had by all who took part.

And so to the next chapter....

Final Chapter leading up to the present day...

Even though this final chapter before joining the Logos Hope spans nearly 5 years, there is not too much to write about it.

After taking a well-deserved break after the conference, I started working with Peter Nicoll in the International Personnel Department of OM. Peter heads up anything to do with 'people' in OM, so he oversees Personnel, Recruiting of people, Caring for our people, Training our people etc. My role in this department was to 'administrate' a lot of what took place.

So from October 2003 until 1 May 2007, I spent my days, e-mailing personnel staff, maintaining our international personnel list, gathering information of our annual OM address book and many, many other things too.

What am I going to be doing on the Logos Hope?

As you probably all know, I am a 'people' person. Most of my job over the past 5 years has been very administrative, so when I was challenged to get involved with people, I could not resist it!

My role on the Logos Hope will be in a new division called Partner Ministries. In this division, one of the departments is Guest Relations. Onboard the ship we have about 80 guest beds that we would like to use 'hotel' style, so that family, friends, prayer partners, OM'ers, donors, pastors, church members and many more can come and stay on the ship for short periods of time. I will be involved in all the practical arrangements that need to take place to make a guest feel welcome and have a fruitful and memorable experience onboard.

I look forward to welcoming many people I know onto the Logos Hope. Maybe if it is anywhere near YOU, then YOU can come and be one of my guests too.

Until the ship arrives here in the north of Germany, my days are filled with writing documents and thinking through how all this 'guest relations' stuff is going to work.... sigh!

Life after leaving Carlisle....

Thought it was about time to update everyone on what has been happening in my life over the last few weeks...

I left Carlisle on Thursday 10 May and had a very pleasant journey down to London, via Lancaster and Harpenden. Stopped by West Wickham, Kent, to collect some keys and have a cup of coffee, and then dropped my friend Christine and her brother off at Gatwick Airport.

Friday through to Monday was spent catching up with lots of friends in the West Wickham area, attending church and eating lots!

Then, Monday night I spent with an ex-OM friend fairly close to Stansted Airport, who very kindly dropped me off there early on Tuesday (15 May) morning.

By 10am, I had arrived in 'my new country of abode'. For how long, who knows....

The past 6 weeks....

At last I have found the time to update my blog and actually publish it. I thought I would spend a few minutes updating you on the last 6 weeks or so of my life and what has been happening since I moved to Bremen, Germany to await the arrival of the Logos Hope.

You may think from reading the following that I have NOTHING to do, except eat and party, but I want to assure you that I am also working. As most of you know by now, my move to the ship is to take on a new role in Guest Relations onboard. In order to fulfil that role, one needs a ship and some guests! That, of course, is not happening quite yet, with the Logos Hope still in the shipyard in Trogir, Croatia.

In the meantime, I am spending time writing various documents that will help to lay the foundation of our department, Partner Ministries, on the ship. Other than doing that, here are a few highlights and a few bit of information....

Where I live...

This is my 'house' here in Bremen. I live in an apartment in the basement of this church. It is a Brethren church in a nice leafy suburb of Bremen. The services are all in German, but there is a kind man who will translate the sermon for me!It consists of two bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom with separate toilet. I share this apartment with a Jamaican lady, Annette Harris. Annette does travel quite a bit, so I have it to myself quite a bit of the time.From here, it is a short walk to the bus stop where I catch the No. 29 bus to work each day. It takes about 20 minutes. Then I have another short walk to the office which is located in another church.

Meet the Team...

Here it the team presently in Bremen... we have 1 Jamaican, 1 Mexican, 1 Zimbabwean (that’s me) and the rest are South African!
Photographed are: Brian & Miriam, Jaco, Jenni, Louria, Annette, Neil and myself. There picture is taken out the front of the church where our office is. Not in this photo, are Neil's wife Marie and daughter Nicole.

There are 3 of us that belong to the same department on the ship, otherwise everyone is in different departments.

Watching Rugby...

The first Saturday I was here, some of the team got together to have a Braai (BBQ) and then to watch the Super 14 Rugby final. The match was between two South African sides, the Blue Bulls and the Sharks! With the team here being made up mostly of South Africans, it was great being able to watch the match via the Internet.

Jaco & Brian cooking!










Action in the Rugby!

Ladies Breakfast...

Now and again the ladies on the team get together and have a breakfast. At this one we made omelettes in freezer bags! Yes, that’s right, all you do is break two eggs into a Ziploc freezer bag, add any other nice ingredients like onions, bacon bits, cheese etc, and then boil the bags in a pot of water for exactly 13 minutes! This is a trick I learnt back in Carlisle and it works perfectly every time!

Trip to Mosbach...

A couple of weeks ago I went to Mosbach, where the OM Ships head office is located. It was a great time to catch up with many people that I know there and also to hear more about the progress of the Logos Hope in Trogir, Croatia. Of course, while I was there a few of us went out for a meal!

Bring on the Ferrari...

While in Mosbach, there was an exhibition at the local Shell Garage of a Formula 1 car. It was amazing to see a car like this close up and realise how small they actually are. Watching on television makes them look much larger!