We have arrived!

"A bit surreal" is my assessment of the last 48 hours.  For 20 years of my life I have dreamed of living in Africa.  Yesterday we arrived.  All I've seen so far of Guinea is what is out my window, so it doesn't feel quite yet like the dream has come true.  It is hard to really wrap my head around the fact that our family now lives here.  The view out our window will be there for the next 10+ months.  This country is our home.  We both fell in love with Africa the first times we were here.   All we see out our window right now is the Conakry port full of unfinished concrete buildings.  It is not glamorous or beautiful, per se, but we know that what truly drew us to Africa was the people and that over time we will have the chance to blend our lives with theirs.  God has orchestrated this journey perfectly to bring us to this point at this time and we have agreed to be part of what he is doing.  We know it will not always be easy but we know the Lord has brought us here and will walk beside us.  We just pray that we are open to being used however he sees fit for in the end it is not about us, it is about the work that God is doing in the lives of those around us!

Here are some pictures of our new home!

First views of land!

 

 

 Waving to the people waiting on the dock.

 

 Gathering to welcome us in

 

Adalynn taking in the festivities. . .complete with brass band!  She loved that!

 

 Prime Minister's motorcade

 

 Reception by the Prime Minister, and others. 

 

The new view out our window.

 



Sailing

We are now on day 4 of our sail to Guinea.  We are predicted to arrive in Guinea on Wednesday morning!  We are very thankful that we have had smooth waters for our entire sail.  John had more reaction to the sea sick meds the first day than any of us have had reaction to the actual sail.  We have gotten so used to the "sway" that sometimes it hardly feels like we are moving anymore.  The highlight of the sail for me has been spending time on the bow.  This morning we watched a pod of dolphins playing with the ship's spray!!!  How amazing to see them in the wild.  I will never forget that!

Last night we had a worship time on the bow.  Pretty hard to NOT feel God's presence and power when standing in the middle of the ocean at sunset!

 Adalynn loved the music. . .

Cora loved her nap! 

A few days ago we were able to tour the bridge (where the ship is controlled, for those of you non-maritime people like me). 

Captain Tim

Other noteworthy events from our sail:

Cora turned 4 months old!



and Adalynn started school

(she gets to go to the nursery 3 days a week from 9-12). 

She has really loved this time to play with the other kids!

Please continue to pray for the rest of our sail and our arrival in Guinea in 2 days!  We can hardly wait to finally be there.  We will be sure to tell you all about it very soon.

The four Walls are at sea, finally!

Last night we took our final walk into the town of Tenerife and enjoyed the wonderful ice cream!  John and I actually got a second ice cream after Adalynn ate most of the first one and we needed one last taste!  Also last night the bunker ship pulled along side us to fuel us up for the journey to Guinea.  Adalynn really liked watching the ship pull up right outside our window.

This morning around 8am there was an emergency drill.  When this happens we hear very loud beeps on the intercom and we are to muster at our muster station.  Thankfully the girls were both already up.  We act as we would if there was a true emergency at sea so we put on life jackets.  This is always done the morning of the sail so that they can be sure everyone is on board before we leave.  The girls actually enjoyed the life jackets!

A few hours after the drill we set sail!  We will arrive in Guinea in about 5 days.  John has already been feeling a bit sea sick, so please pray that the seas would be calm and we would all tolerate the sail well.  Our phone should still work while we are sailing.  The time on the ship is now set to Guinea time (6 hours later than MST).





Work and Play

We've been having so much fun that I thought it was important that we let everyone know that we are, in fact, here for a purpose and John has been hard at work!  His job is very demanding and learning all the ropes of being the finance director of this ship has been a bit daunting at times, but he is doing great!  It's amazing how much money passes through this ship even though we are all volunteers.  He has to try to predict how much money the crew members will need before we set sail to Guinea.  With all there is to do in Tenerife, this has been a difficult task. 

I figure our blog won't probably have a TON of information about John's job since most people don't get too excited about accounting, so here's the pictures to remind you that he is busy working away every day!



 

Hard at work at his desk.                                     Soon he will have a name plate :)

The monitors are glued to the desk so they don't move when we sail!

 

The safe!  (and a good way to keep the door propped)

And on to play. . .

Last weekend we had our first visitors!!  We happen to have a really good family friend (Lori) that we grew up with that live on one of the other Canary Islands.  Her husband works for a gold mine in Africa but he commutes from the islands!  Lori's sister Julie just happened to also be visiting so she and her family came too!  These girls have been like cousins to me and it's so crazy that we connected here. . .so far from the States!  They traveled over on the ferry to our island and then we drove to the southern part of the island for the weekend.  It was great to get off the ship!

 Lori, Julie and me catching up on the balcony after the kids went to bed. Even though it's been several years we felt like we picked up right where we left off!

 Adalynn got to swim a lot and she LOVED it!



Wall girls, Julie and Lori and Julie's kids

Adalynn loved the hotel slippers.

It was such a nice weekend and we felt totally spoiled!  I even got to get a massage in the spa thanks to Julie!!  They bought me a new watch (mine broke)  and got the girls these adorable outfits!!

We were so thankful for this time away and a great time to relax and reconnect!

Then on Monday, the ship had to do some maintenance that required the entire crew to leave the ship from 7:45am-8:30pm.  Mercy Ships paid for us to go to a place called Loro Park.  It is like a zoo and Sea World combined.  It was a VERY long day, but really fun too.  The girls were total troopers!

Ready for our long day!

A really cool aquarium tunnel. Those are sharks lying on the top of the tunnel!

Sea Lion show

A really cool penquin house with real snow!  Adalynn loved watching the penquins dive and swim.

I thought these birds were amazing!

Gorillas!  One of the only places in the world you can see Gorillas.  My favorite part!

Orca show

We loved the dolphins.

Adalynn got pretty tired towards the end of the day but we were able to see all the shows.

We've been able to rest up a bit the rest of this week and are getting ready for our sail to Guinea next Wednesday.  Tonight and tomorrow we will make our final runs to the stores to stock up on gluten free food and also some diapers and other cabin items that we won't be able to get once we are in Africa.  Hoping to have my first IKEA experience tomorrow!  We are excited for the upcoming sail and praying that none of us get sea sick!