Back Home

Ahhh! What a welcome we received when John and I arrived back at Mom-Mom and Pop's in North Carolina on Monday evening! There was a "Welcome Home" banner with pretty foil streamers hanging from the porch. And inside, we surprised Bethany and David who were busily finishing cards and wrapping things for us. Joey was at his scout meeting at the time, so we got to squeeze him a bit later than the other two. I think Mom-Mom and Pop were gald to see us, too! Smokey, well...he could take us or leave us. That's a cat for you!

Now comes the business of sorting our thoughts and re-packing everything so that we can fly off to Liberia on August 26. The tickets have been bought, so....here we go! As Joey noted this morning, tomorrow will be the month we're leaving!

I realized just last night that on the Farrell's blog, Tommy has the tour of the Africa Mercy under "video". Follow the link to the right and check it out. There is an example of the family cabin that is very similar to the one assigned to our family.

Jenny

Closing the Gateway

Wow! We've come to the end of our Mercy Ships-Gateway training. It's hard to believe that four weeks has come and gone since we began to get to know our classmates and leaders. Now, we are parting ways and feeling like our family is being pulled apart. But, it's only for a season.

This last week of our training was the most physically draining, but looking back on it, a lot of fun! Tuesday was our firefighter training...




Then on Friday, we practiced what we learned in Sea Survival...




Then, this morning, we had a pancake breakfast, debriefed and cleaned our living spaces. In the morning, John and I will begin our 18 hour drive back to North Carolina and our family there. We are very anxious to kiss and squeeze our sweet babies!

Jenny

Happy Birthday, David!

David turned the BIG 6 yesterday! He celebrated at Funigains, a cool play place in Winston-Salem, with Mom-Mom and Pop and his cousins. What fun! We love you, David! xoxoxox

David and Cameron

David and his cupcake

End of Gateway Week 3

Week three of the Gateway program at the Mercy Ships International Operations Center (IOC) here in East Texas is done. We begin Basic Safety Training (BST) tomorrow in order to comply with Coast Guard standards for ship safety. Tomorrow we will begin with fire fighting! It promises to be an interesting week.

Yesterday we had an African lunch here at the IOC and then we met our friends Bryan and Tricia Smith and their three boys for dinner in Dallas. We ate at Ghengis Grill, a Mongolian stir fry place, and then went to Krispy Kreme. We enjoyed seeing them and having some time to catch up!















Last Thursday was Jenny's birthday and she was showered with love by our new friends here. When we woke up Thursday, our door was covered with ballons and there were balloons and "happy birthday" banners all over the dorm! Sam had mail-ordered a "perudo" dice game for her for the occasion! And, over the course of the day, there were three desserts with candles on them in honor of her birthday! She also got a bunch of cards from friends and e-cards from Mom-mom, Pop, and the kids that she really enjoyed! It was overwhelming! What a wonderful day it was for her! Thanks to all those who celebrated with us!!

This weekend was also the end point for David and Helen Lyth from Scotland who are currently serving at Mercy Ships' vesico-vaginal fistula clinic (land base) in Sierra Leone. David is a surgeon there and Helen teaches children and works with the ladies at the clinic. It has been a real privilege to get to know them a bit and we will miss them!

The missions training portion of the course here is done. We have really been blessed by this training! We have covered topics like: Kingdom principles, communication with God, living on purpose, community living, conflict resolution, world view issues, transformational development, the potential of the poor, and tensions in working with the poor. It has really been amazing!! I think this teaching would be well worth the time and effort even if we weren't planning to go to Africa. One of the highlights of last week was a video of Rob Bell entitled "Everything is Spiritual". I highly recommend it. We also thoroughly enjoyed our teaching by Dr. Camille Bishop on world view.

Our kids apparently had a great week at Nanny and Pappy's (John's parents) and are now back at Mom-mom and Pop's (Jenny's parents). We are really looking forward to seeing them again!!

Be sure to check out the links on this site to the Farrell family blog and Sam the Manny's blog for more on the past week!

Love to all, John

A Night at the Rodeo

We had the opportunity to go to the Resistol Rodeo in Mesquite, Texas last night. Things are not all work and no play here, but it does take a little extra determination and shaking off the tiredness to do the fun stuff. I had never been to a rodeo before and neither had most of our international group. Below are some photos from the event.

John

Silence

Silence is Golden.

What does that mean? Do we value silence enough? As we began our silent retreat yesterday, I was asking myself these questions. And I realized that I was more in tune to what was going on around me; my hearing and my sight were sharper. And I COULD THINK!

I have wondered in the past why we feel the need to fill up quiet moments with noise--music, TV, talk, etc. What is it we are afraid of or feel uncomfortable about and so we find it hard to be silent? Hummm.

This exercise was very good for me. It made me want to be quiet on purpose more often. And in the quietness, I want to know God more, to hear Him in the silence. I want to be able to hear him whisper!

"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." Psalm 46:10

Jenny

Half Way

Well, we're about half way through the Gateway program here at the IOC. The classes have been very good, very intense! This week we talked about "Living on Purpose", "Community Living", and "Conflict Resolution".

We were reminded that first and foremost, we need to KNOW God! We do this by studying His Word, and spending time with Him, and hearing Him, in prayer and through other means by His design.

Tomorrow we will be spending several hours on a silent retreat at Tyler State Park. I, myself, am looking forward to this opportunity to be quiet, reflect on what the Lord has spoken to me recently and hear more of what He wants me to know. We'll give an update afterwards on how it goes.

Jenny

Joey's first week at camp

Here is Joey's account of his week at Boy Scout Camp at Camp Raven Knob, Mt. Airy, NC (June 22-28):

"On the afternoon of Sunday, June 22 we got to camp Raven Knob. First we unpacked, then a few of us went to see the archery range, and the shotgun range. We had a supper of spaghetti and garlic bread and peaches. We all then went to church at 8:00 PM. That night I slept in my sleeping bag, and I sweated so much, I felt like I was in a bathtub. The next night, I figured out that I should put the sheets on top of the bag, using the bag just for padding.
Monday morning after breakfast, I went to my classes: archaeology, woodcarving, and swimming. Then we had a 2-hour break for lunch before we went to archery. Then another 2-hr break, then supper. Then we went frog hunting because the museum needed more live frogs.
Tuesday we did the usual daytime routine; then church at 8:00PM; then to 22g. rifle-shooting. After that , it was still light outside, so we went fishing. I caught the biggest fish that the scoutmaster had ever seen from that lake. Nobody had a camera, but we had 5 witnesses. We had to throw it back. At sunset, we took a hike to the knob. On the way back down, we saw a copperhead lying on the edge of the path. We didn't have a scoutmaster with us, so we bypassed it.
On Wednesday, the highlight of the day was that our families came, and the archery teachers came for dinner. My grandparents came all the way from Laurinburg, NC, along with my parents, brother and sister.
On Thursday, the most important thing happened in the swimming merit badge class. It was a survival lesson where we had to inflate our shirts and pants to float with. The shirts were a lot easier to inflate. You had to unbutton the third button down, bend your head down, and blow air into the shirt, then float on your stomach. Then we were rewarded with pizza for dinner. Then we went on another knob hike; it was pitch black when we started back, and it also rained on us. I was exhausted that night!
Friday was the most important day of the week. We finished all of our merit badges that day. I got 3 of the 4 merit badges that I took: archaeology, (we had to find little plastic army men buried in sand, and carefully uncover them); woodcarving - I made a neckerchief slide that's shaped like an axe; and swimming - we had to swim 150 yards without stopping.
Saturday we ate a little breakfast, then packed up our belongings and got on the bus for home."

Sweet Sleep

Have you ever been so tired you can't get through your book?

Psalm 127:2 ...for He grants sleep to those he loves.

David was captured napping by Mom-Mom and Pop today!

Jenny

Don't You Love Weekends?

What a full and exciting weekend we've had in East Texas! First, on Friday, July 4th, we went as a group to Tyler to eat at CiCi's Pizza and then on to watch fireworks down the road from the IOC. (My pictures will be out of order in this entry since I am just learning to use blogger.com to a greater extent-Thank you Tommy!)

On Saturday, we experienced the Canton, TX, First Monday Flea Market which is just enormous! We met this very cute, very small, sugar glider there. He looks like a chipmunk/baby opossum/flying squirrel. There were many other animals-kittens, puppies, farm animals, etc. And like most flea markets, there was old stuff, new stuff, and Fair food! Yum, greasy, yum!

This morning we attended Cross Brand Cowboy Church about twenty minutes east of where we are staying. The pastor brought a great message that lined up with what we have been talking about in the Gateway Program this week. How good of God to remind us in several different ways and settings of what He wants us to remember! We can be effective when we know our purpose and walk in humility and boldness.

Jenny

Greeting's from Texas!

Well, here we are! John and I have gotten settled into our home away from home and began classes today to prepare us for life and service with Mercy Ships. We've hit the ground running and we're not looking back!

We are living in the family dorm on the campus of the IOC in Garden Valley, Texas. We have wonderful house mates, too. But there is one fellow who has a tendency to be a bit dodgy! (You know who you are!) We played NERTS and speed scrabble tonight before some went to the racquet ball court to play wally-ball. No, that is not a misspelling of volleyball. Wally-ball is played like volleyball but you can bounce the ball off the sides of the racquet ball court walls. If the ball hits the ceiling, it's out. It very good exercise and lots of fun.

Our new friend, Sam, has encouraged me to blog more frequently and I agree that I should. I'll try, but I can't make any promises!

Until next time...
Jenny