My shameful lack of communication

Dear Readers,

Well… what can I say?! I think there is nothing I can say to make up for the fact that I haven’t written, yet again, for another 3 months. My intentions are good, but my execution is woefully poor, and I must humbly beg your forgiveness, and promise to endeavour to do better in the future!

Two pieces of news which you probably all know by now: 1. Logos Hope is sailing! and 2. I have extended my time with the ship for another year. At the moment I’m at home on a bit of a break, and at the end of this week I return to the ship when it begins to sail around the UK.

Until then, I’ll try and do some time travel, to get you up-to-date with all the goings-on in my life from Christmas until now. Keep posted…

My Christmas catch-up

Merry Christmas, and apologies that I haven’t posted here in almost two months! Hopefully this catch-up blog will get you up-to-date about the goings-on in my life.

The ship has been buzzing over the last month as our Christmas event, Christmas Around the World, welcomed over 3000 visitors on board. We had cultural stands, showing how Christmas is celebrated in different countries, and a live nativity, including a local Danish sheep and a goat which definitely stole the show from the adult actors! Here you can see a picture of the British stand, with a roasted chestnut cart, telephone box, snow-covered cobbled street, red post box, Ye olde Christmasse shope and lamp post! All of these things were home-made by several of our carpenters and electricians!

As well, visitors could enjoy a cup of tea or coffee in our newly opened International Café. Every hour we had a different creative programme, with dramas, dances, mimes, carol singing, vocal solos, poi-spinning and more, and ongoing background music, all of which I was responsible for coordinating. It was a great opportunity for the ship’s company to practice many skills that they have been learning. I also had great fun being part of several background music acts, and hope to do more of that in the future.

One of the highlights of my Christmas this year was a visit to the Nutcracker ballet which is showing in Copenhagen. My friend Becky and I decided that it was our Christmas present to each other, and it was definitely a good choice with the enchanting fairytale story, scenery and child dancers!

Here on board we have celebrated in a variety of ways, including a Christmas Eve formal dinner, Carol Service, gift exchange game, family movies, Christmas day brunch, and open cabins community time. At one point we had 26 people in our 13m2 cabin, which was a tight squeeze! While I missed my family over this holiday time, I enjoyed celebrating here.

My first step

My journey with OM Ships started a little over two years ago through one small STEP. STEP stands for short-term exposure programme, and the exposure I received in that time compelled me to apply to return to the ships for two years. Now STEP has begun on Logos Hope, with the aim of exposing more people to international overseas service, giving them training and helping them deepen their relationship with God through their experiences on board.

 

STEPers work in departments and also take part in the different conferences and visits – the same as the rest of the ship’s company. The only difference is the length of time that they stay on board. Most of us are here for two years, but a STEP programme is usually between 2-3 months. At the moment 20 participants are going through the STEP course, and in December another one will start up. If you are interested, or know somebody else who might be interested, then visit http://www.logoshope.org/step. I would definitely recommend it!

My nearby city

It’s only a 40 minute train ride away, but the centre of Copenhagen is not as convenient to ship life as you might think. What with work, weather and (lack of) money, I had only visited once in three months. Finally last Monday on my off day I made another tourist trip with my friend Becky. We wandered around andlooked at the variety of architecture in the city centre, as well as the cute winding streets and building… oh and of course the shops!! We had planned to stay out for dinner, but after about six hours of wandering around we were pretty tired, and not all that hungry, so decided to return to the ship, and complete our “day” in a few weeks by going for a nice dinner then! We finished the trip in our cabin watching The Jane Austen Book Club (well… it is semi-educational)!

My past and future

Last Saturday was certainly the night for parties on Logos Hope! I had no fewer than four invitations to four different gatherings, and, with some juggling, managed to attend all four! Of course the most significant was the party for my own PST group, which joined together in February 2007, oh so long ago… Even though I don’t spend a lot of time with most of these people on a daily basis, joining the ship at the same time does create a close bond. It was interesting to hear everybody’s future plans (or lack of plans) and pray together about them.

Of course this takes me on to a more personal topic – what I am going to do after February 2009 when my commitment on Logos Hope finishes. At the moment I am contemplating different options, including extending on the ship, more study, working in the recruiting team of OM in the UK, and, shock horror, actual paid employment! Maybe you could pray for me as I have to make some kind of a decision in the coming months!

My new job

I am now officially part of the Training Services Department. My job title is “Ministry trainer” which covers things like drama, dance, mime, story-telling, sharing your faith, tricks, puppets, clowning…and more! And before you ask, no I am not doing all these things myself (thank goodness), just overseeing and coordinating the training for some of them!

This is all a bit of an “evolution in process”, as my friend Mel and I are moving into jobs which didn’t exist before and which are not developed at all. We have to think about training strategies, as well as organising stuff that is already happening on board. Most of all, our focus is on developing people, equipping them with new/more skills in a variety of areas and ensuring that the ministry of the ship is as effective as possible. Pretty cool, huh?! I’m excited anyway.

My second PST

As the nature of its name might suggest, most people only do a “pre-ship training” (PST) once in their Logos Hope lives. However, two weeks ago I found myself at my second PST – this time as a trainer for PST Køge. Yes, that’s right; I, Alison McFarland, was let loose on around 70 new recruits and expected to provide training, guidance and wise words of advice to prepare and equip them for their next two years! At PST you cover things like public speaking, basic safety training, expectations and reality, cross-cultural living and ministry skills. I had to lead a few sessions but as a ‘newbie’ trainer they broke me in gently. It was great fun, and of course a huge privilege to get to know all the new guys and girls. They are a cool group with lots to give (although as a 24-year-old I felt totally old – most of them were about 18 or 19!). Below you can see a picture of all of us together.

My fake family

Meet my mum and dad. My fake mum and dad, that is. On board everybody is part of a “ship family” unit – just one way to make sure that nobody is lost in a large crowd of over 300 people. Ship families are made up of crewmembers from a variety of countries, backgrounds and ages, usually with an actual married couple as the designated “parents”. We meet once a week for “family time”, where you can do whatever you want to – go for an outing, watch a movie, or just chill out in the almost-luxurious family cabins with weekly snacks provided by “mum”.

My “parents” give a small clue as to why OM is often affectionately (and incorrectly) called Operation Marriage. They met on board Logos II many years ago. He is from Brazil; she is from Finland. They now have four kids, and all of them are trilingual! During my 8 months on Logos Hope I have had 11 other “siblings” from 6 different countries. This is the true meaning of an international lifestyle!

Below are some pictures taken at our weekly meeting and also a photo competition we had once… enjoy!

Back row: Giordanni (daddy!) from Brazil, Fitzy from Australia, me, Eric from USA, Laura from Finland, Judith from Germany.
Front row: Keith from USA/Kazakhstan, Lucas, Samuel, Anna Carolina & Daniel from (in their own words) “Brazil and Finland”, and mummy Maria from Finland.

My trip home

After 19 months away, I finally returned home… although only for three days! The flying visit was action-packed with relaxing activities (a paradox?! You figure it out…). I enjoyed my favourite home-cooked food (lemon meringue pie, mmmmmmm…), got taken out for lunch, shopping, and to the movies (Mamma Mia, complete with my mum and aunt laughing uproariously and even singing along at times), and of course got cornered last minute into doing a “short and easy” interview in church. After a taste of “normal” life again, I was reluctant to leave – although I’m aware that in “the real world” people don’t treat you quite so much as they did me this weekend! For all you flown birds out there, I would recommend returning to the nest once in a while.

My summer vacation

So did I mention that I went to the Oscars this year?!

Unfortunately they were on board Logos Hope, so I didn’t get to meet any celebrities. Last week we had our annual “LogOscars” competition, where crewmembers can submit videos they have made and they are judged, and everybody dresses up and walks down a red carpet (sliver – we are broke after all). I was part of a movie called ‘Doppelgänger’, which was an ironic take on the fact that everybody on the ship mixes up everybody else’s names. We didn’t win any prizes, but at least we were all laughing when our movie was shown!

The LogOscars was just one part of Sabbath Week – the time in the year when the whole community gets to chill for five days. We like to think of it as sleep time, but the leaders are keen to emphasise the three Rs – rest, reflection and refreshment. Or something like that. The latter two sound a bit active for our liking. We had daily teaching sessions on the book of Luke from a cool guy called Julyan, who has worked with OM for years. I was asked to lead the praise and worship for the whole time, so I was kept pretty busy organising the band. However, all afternoons and most evenings were free, and the weather was lovely, which meant lots of beach, park and ice-cream time! Denmark is crazy expensive, but it’s beautiful in the summer sunshine.