Friday, July 20, 2012

The Land of Opportunity...

Leg 3.
Training in Texas (with Mercy Ships)

So I had a lot of preconceived ideas about Texas and Texans and they were all pretty much confirmed.


Here is the Texas update – the final pit stop before Africa (make sure you check out the videos).

So I spent 5 wks in Texas (the home of Mercy Ships) and completed an on boarding program for long term crew. It was jam packed with all sorts of goodness. Every spare moment they had us doing one thing or another which kept us busy.

 
The first 4 wks were based in the classroom which was a bit of a challenge because it has been a while since I’ve had to be in a classroom from 8am until 4.30pm.


Anyways it was great because it’s not everyday you have a block of time dedicated towards growing closer to God.

I learned so much and we covered the following topics:

Week 1 – Foundations of Mercy Ships
Week 2 – Faith Foundations
Week 3 – Personal and Interpersonal development
Week 4 – Principles for working with those we serve


In the 5th and final week we covered Basic Safety Training for the ship and it was awesome.

We learned how to fight fires…



And manage a lot of emergency situations…




Survival tip - always be on the look out for potential dangers

Here are two videos that a group of us put together that show some of the things we learned.

Now I didn’t spend my whole time in the classroom. I did manage to get out and see the wonderful state of Texas a little bit.

And here are some of the things I learned:

It isn’t cooked unless it is deep fried.

Dance and rap battles exist.

10 dances and and only one winner

Wally ball is perhaps the greatest game ever to be invented (think rebound volleyball).



The 4th of July is an awesome time to be in Texas.




Texas is really really hot in July.



Having fun with the Cash kids
The Texas Rangers are an awesome baseball team.



Rodeos are awesome, and Models are more than happy to model with you.


Ok so what’s next?
As part of the on boarding Mercy Ships program we are being sent to a small village in Ghana called Pi Katonga where we will be helping to build and teach in a school.

I tell you what, this is one exciting journey.

God truly is good :)

 Nick :)