Christmas Around the World!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM DENMARK!!!
The Christmas season began quite early for everyone on board the ship! It was the second week of November and we were already lugging out all of our Christmas decorations and ornaments and trees. AT first, I thought this was completely strange, because, in my home, no one dares to unpack the Christmas boxes until after Thanksgiving. But, for the ship, was this an exciting sign for everyone because it meant that we were getting closer and closer to the first official opening of our Book Fair and Experience Deck!!! Because our experience deck was completely empty and not ready for ministry yet, some of the leaders on the ship decided to fill that part of deck 4 with an event called "Christmas Around the World." Each nationality participated in this event by decorating a small section of the experience deck to show how their country celebrates Christmas... To get everyone motivated to do their best job, they decided to judge each stand and pick a 1st place winner. I'm excited to say that the US got first place!!!
The first weekend that the book fair and experience deck were open, I stood at the US stand and explained to everyone what the different American decorations and traditions are. Also, a really neat part about our stand is that we pass out a candy cane to everyone who passes by with the message of what the candy cane stands for ( the red in the candy cane stands for Christ's death for us, the white is for purity, the pepperment flavor represents the different spices the wise men brought Jesus, etc.). I was so excited to find that so many people were curious to know what the candy cane stood for. Some stopped right away and read the paper with the message on it before they even took one step farther. Others asked me to explain the whole meaning out. One lady even approached me a second time because she wanted to know more about what the candy cane stood for.. Our biggest prayer in passing out this piece of candy and paper was that God could use it (as small as it was) as a small part of helping draw people closer to Him. It was so amazing for me to see this already happening within the first weekend that the experience deck was open.
Also, another really amazing thing that I've gotten to do is give tours of the ship. At first, I dreaded giving my first tour because there were so many facts about the ship that you had to share and I could not remember everything. But, now that I've given quite a few tours, I love this part of the ministry... Not only do you get to share about the ship, but you can also share a part of your testimony and love on the people of Denmark and show them that you care.. I love doing this and suprisingly, me and the other tour guides have had some great talks with people about our faith....One of the biggest lessons that I've learned is that on the mission field, you have to completely hand over every second of your time to God and make the constant choice to use every ounce of energy that you've got to serve God, even if it means giving up your free time. One evening, it was my free night and because I had a very busy week I was planning on relaxing and taking time to rest. The next thing I knew, I found myself offering to give a tour that night for a group of people who were coming and needed a tour guide. To be honest, the first thing I thought was, "why do I have to do ministry on my off day, why can't I just do it during my ministry day." But, I have to say that on that specific night, I connected with some of the people of Denmark more than I ever have before... The group we gave the tour to stayed about an hour and a half after the tour was finished to have coffee and tea and talk with us about their lives. We were able to pray for some of the people who were hurting with divorce, etc and they even went so far as to invite us to an arobics class that they teach for free. When they left, they gave us all hugs and assured us that they would be back.. Wow! What an awesome opportunity and to think that I could have missed out on it just because I was tired and wanted to rest...
Well, anyways, I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year! The ship is going to have a huge formal dinner on Christmas Eve and a service. On Christmas day, we have a huge brunch, a gift exchange, Christmas movies, a Christmas service and all of the ship's company has open cabins. So, they are going to keep us really busy! While I miss being at home sooo sooo much for Christmas, I know that it is such a priviledge to have my first Christmas in Denmark. Please pray that I will be able to continue to serve others with everything this Christmas season. And if you could also please pray for a big date coming up on the 26th of January. The surveyor is coming and he is going to be on board for a whole week, checking to see if everything is approved for sailing. So, please, please pray, because this time is very very crucial for all of the ships company to be prepared and all of the welding and engine room projects must be finished. Lately, a lot of the guys have been working until 10 p.m. so that they can finish up the different projects.
Well, thank you all so much for your prayers... I love you all very much and I'm praying that God will bless you all so much. Thank you again for blessing my life even though I'm so far away... Whether it has been through letters, notes of encouragement, gifts, etc, you don't know what joy you have all brought to me. In fact, everytime I seem to have a really discouraging day, I have gotten a note or letter from someone back home that God has used to bring so much encouragement to me. Thank you again!!!! Blessings.....
love,
Joslynn
P.S. I'm sorry that there are no pictures in this blog... I tried for many hours to upload them, but I couldn't. So, I will definitely try to send them in a future blog when I figure out how to upload them.... Thanks...
