MaritimeMercy.com

The dry dock is a unique experience. Every year the Africa Mercy comes out of the water for clean-up, inspection and a fresh coat of paint. Yesterday she began her annual dry-dock in Las Palmas de Gran Canaries. Jim Paterson, Senior VP of Operations, said: “The two weeks dry dock is the end of a five years cycle. The work will consist of taking the ship out of the water, valves inspection, cleaning and painting. In addition an AC unit will be replaced and repairs in the Galley. It is a straight forward work, we don’t expect any difficulty.” The Astican shipyard in Las Palmas de Gran Canaries uses a syncrolift system for lifting the ships out of the water. The vessel is maneuvered over a submerged cradle, which is then lifted by a set of synchronized hoists through rails to where the work is done. Syncrolift system has the capacity to handle several vessels at the same time. Marine Operations is responsible for the shipyard phase. I don’t need to work with the dry-docking,...

Most of you will agree with that we don’t always get as much rest as we should. No matter, at home or at work the days seem shorter and the to-do list longer. Rest is very important in life. The first mention of rest in the Bible is on the second chapter of Genesis, on the seventh day after God finished the work he was doing he rested. Interestingly the text does not say that God had to rest because he was tired, but says that he rested. If God will not grow tired or weary, Isaiah 40:28, why did He rest after the creation? A possible explanation is that even though God does not get tired, we do and He wanted to model the practice of stopping what we are doing for rest and reflection. Throughout the first chapter of the Bible God stops and reflects after each act of creation and his critique is always positive: Good, good, and very Good. Reflection is an integral element of rest because it requires stopping what we are doing to think about it. Doing something we like can be...

Have you ever wander about eternal life? The tendency when thinking about the subject is to focus on what to do approach like the young ruler in the First Century who asked Jesus: “ Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? ” Luke 18:18. Two thousand years later what to do questions still roam in the mouth of a self-help society. What to do questions focus on an external, temporal and immediate action to be done, in a unilateral way. To do something in order to earn eternal life is like to attempt to build a bridge from a temporal perspective to an eternal reality. Eternal life cannot be approached this way because like the young ruler there is always something one is not willing to give up. The young ruler had done every conceived thing required in the Law, but when asked to do something that required him to give up something; he was not willing to do it. The irony is that God does not require anyone to give up anything in our own. He is there to help us. Tha...

Living godly lives is a Pagan society is a sub-title of I Peter 2:11-25 in the NIV version of the Bible. Even though sub-titles are not in the original Bible text, this sub-title is rather relevant to our lives today. The assumption is that Christian living is meant to be lived in the world. Verse 12 says: “ Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. ” The question posed here is how a Christian life is lived. Peter’s instruction deals with quality of living and the impact of one’s life on an opposing society. Francis Schaeffer addresses the issue in his book “ How should we then live? ” For him the only viable alternative is: living by the Christian ethic, acceptance of God's revelation, and total affirmation of the Bible's morals, values, and meaning. Peter also points us back to Jesus command to love God and to our neighbor. To love our neighbor by liv...

I like the quietness of Sunday morning, the stillness of the wake up of the day give me the opportunity to quiet down my soul before life’s worries began its relentless job of hunting me down. The stillness of the morning does something pleasant and calming in me. I can say “ It is well with my soul ”. This morning I meditated on the verses of I Peter 2:9-10.  “ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. ”   Isn’t it amazing that God see us as worth, valuable and an integral part in His plan to rescue His creation to Himself? Like the Psalmist we wander, “ what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? ” Therefore, Sunday morning is the perfect time to quiet down...

There are few things Carla and I like better than travel together. So this is an exciting time to visit Tamar and Adam in their new house in Minnesota. Thursday evening we flew from Dallas to Minneapolis. The flight was on time and we arrived 10 minutes early. Tamar drove us from the airport to her beautiful little house one block from the Mississippi river.   Tamar and Adam moved to Minneapolis last summer for Adams new job. They enjoy the weather, quite cooler compared with Texas and are enjoying life in general. Tamar continue to do pottery, she works on a pottery shop two days a week and get to cure her work for free. Yesterday we went to a Brazilian restaurant. Established two and half years ago, Samba Taste of Brazil embodied the true spirit of Brazilian hospitality. The restaurant atmosphere was warm, relaxing and the live Bossa Nova music brought many childhood memories. The sound level was just perfect; I don’t like places where the music is so loud that y...