Corner of my Heart

Rainy Day

2011-09-04T15:01:00.000-07:00

Today is a rainy day, Where I live right now we are having a drought so the fact that I cant see the sun coming through my window makes me VERY happy. It also makes me want to wear these....

Alrighty,

so this week started of the first week of classes...I was on my way to my first morning class at 8am on Tuesday when I was horrifically surprised to find a car smashing into the back of my Nissan Versa going 50 mph. Needless to say, I am now in the search for a new vehicle and some good massages...who knew what this week had in store ( I sure didn't).

Got any good suggestions for a good car with a 13 thousand dollar limit??

I was thinking about my music choices lately and have decided that the reason that I listen to so many mellow artists like The Weepies and Imogene Heap and Andrew Bird etc, is because my life is crazy. Therefore I have to give myself some chill time with my music. Where oh where would I be without my iPod? I mean seriously, I really don't understand people who don't have a strong opinion in music. I guess I have such a passion for it so maybe I'm a little blinded. It's also wrong of me to think that everybody should love what I love....I acknowledge this.

Wait! An artist that I have really been into ( I know I'm late) is Florence + the Machines...I couldn't buy their album for a while...music is expensive! Why do they think people steal it? I mean come on...you would fix the stupid problem if you just lowered the prices.

Well, I think that's about all I have for today...Have a happy Sunday!

New Days...

2011-08-23T20:58:00.000-07:00

I have made a decision.

I often hesitate to post anything I like that I find on the internet because I think it is stealing but then I had a thought today, they had to steal it from somewhere so why can't I? Now, I don't mean music or anything that is illegal ( that really is stealing) I mean pictures I like on pinterest.com or videos I find on other blogs. So here it is. The day that I start stealing things...

First...Pictures

Key Ring...Love

The way I wish I dressed...

I have a love for the color yellow

Well, There you have it. Just a sneak peek of the few things yet to come :)

Good Night Moon

2010-07-14T09:31:00.000-07:00

So here we are, a month before we sail to south africa. All I keep thinking about is that I have four more months left of this grand adventure. Four months sounds so short compared to twelve! I have no clue what these next months are going to look like for me but I do know that I am already starting to get into the mind set of going home.I know that I want to go to college when I get home but I just don't have a clue which college I want to go to. I also know that if I want to get up and going right when I go home I will have to apply while I am here and then I will have two months to visit and decide. Two months in the life span of mercy ships is not long at all so it makes me a little nervious. I also have no idea what im going to do job wise and all that jazz. I think sometimes I can get a little carried away when it comes to thinking ahead. I know I need to do some planning but I also know that I MUST trust God when it comes to my life and I need to learn not to worry so much.

Want to hear a story?

There is the cutest little toddler you have ever seen on this ship, his name is Max. Max loves to run. So I decided to chase him last night. He kept yelling "you cant get me! you cant get me!" and then I caught him in my arms and was tickling him to death. I put him down and that of course, is when he said " Chase me Rachael! Chase me!" So, I proceded to chase him again. I was almost up to him when he fell right in front of me and I was going to squish him to death. So I did what I could by diving over him and landing with all my weight on my right knee and then toppling over. Max, got up with a big smile on his face and said " you cant get me Rachael!"and ran away.

Pain, Mucho Pain.

Then End

GoodByes

2010-05-01T13:06:00.000-07:00

Living on a ship has not been easy but I can tell you that the good far outweighs the bad.

Tonight was a bad night.

The worst thing about living on this ship is the goodbyes. So many people come in to my life and then leave all too quickly. Tonight I said goodbye to the first one of my gateway family and also to a roommate. The thing about living in a cabin with ten girls is that even though sometimes I don’t want to be there when it’s loud and I’m trying to take a nap or when it gets really dirty because it’s such a small space and let’s face it, girls have a lot of stuff. But, I would not change it for the world. We truly are sisters. We are there when each other gets mad, we are there when one of us has guy trouble going on, we are even there to wake each other up in the morning when one of us (accidentally) sleep in. I have said so many goodbyes since I have been here and I will say so many more. But, it’s worth it. I love being here, I love this place where people come and go and even though you are only here a short time, you still get to know each other more than you ever would if you were somewhere else. This ship has bonding glue on it that attaches itself to you the minute you arrive. You share meals together, you work together, you live in the same place. You cannot hide who you truly are. In reality, I will probably never see most of these people ever again. But we will always have this in common, that we love God, and we chose to serve Him by coming to mercy ships.

Togo!

2010-02-11T07:34:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we finally arrived in Togo!

It was so exciting, we were told that we were going to arrive a little bit after ten so we all dressed up to get ready to dock. I woke up and got dressed in a skirt and nice shirt and went to deck seven. A lot of people were dressed in African style ( which is brightly colored fabrics and head dresses).As we were getting closer and closer to the dock I could see a lot of people standing there and then when we got even closer I could hear the music! the church was there and they had a jazz band playing a worship song and some people were dancing and singing. Then when we got even further in, I saw a circle of people sitting and playing maraca's and then a few women inside the circle dancing. The dock was filled with so many beautiful people just watching us pull in and dancing and waving. This went on for about an hour or so. It was absolutely fabulous! They just really encouraged me and it made me feel really happy that I was finally in Africa again! In case you didn't know the ship has been in the canary islands for the past month doing some repairs. I was only in Benin for about three weeks , I was really not ready to leave so I'm sooooo very happy to be back!

Thanksgiving

2009-11-27T02:25:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was thanksgiving!

My thanksgiving was pretty good, my day started out with me working at 6:00 in the morning in the dining room setting up breakfast( cereal and other such goodness) and then I had a little break till I went back to work for lunch which was left overs and then randomly the galley brought out scallops. I'm not much of a fish person but everybody else was very excited about it. When i got of work at 2:00 I went to the beach with a couple of girls from the ship. It was incredible to think about, I was going to the beach in November when at home I would be bundled up in lots of layers. the beach was called El Dorado beach and it was simply beautiful. There are a lot of rip tides here in west Africa so you have to be careful that you don't go to an unsafe beach but here we could get into the water and it was the perfect temperature! When we got back to the ship we all dressed up for thanksgiving dinner which was so good ( not as good as home of course but I'm just glad we actually celebrate it seeing as how its an american holiday). One of my roommates was so excited about it because she is from New Zealand, she thought it was just like a movie haha. After we were all stuffed with food we went to the community meeting which turned out to be a worship service with english music! The only worship i had been to on the ship so far was African which is awesome because they LOVE to dance. African dance is very, very different than what i have ever seen. Anyway so after the worship service we ended the night with a movie and of course it had to be Christmas and I happened to be the only one with Christmas movies so we watched White Christmas. it was beautiful! So that was my thanksgiving! I hope yours was pleasant and I hope you ate lost of food!

2009-11-23T05:05:00.000-08:00

i cant believe after all this time that im actually here but guess what...im here!! God has been so good, i started working the first day i got here which was pretty good because it helped me get off of american time and get used to african time. everyone is pretty nice and i am in a ten berth cabin so i am always surrounded by people. i took a walk and it was sooo hot and humid! i hope i get used to it! anyway i just thought i should let you know that im here! its so incredible that i get to have the pleasure of obeying God!

life

2009-10-15T21:13:00.000-07:00

sometimes i dont realize how much i miss being home until i have time to think. but i do miss home, i miss my family, i miss my bed, i miss driving and the friends that would be in my car while driving. i miss being able to decide what i was having to eat ( its cafeteria style here ) i miss privacy. all these things that im thinking about im not going to have for a whole year. sometimes i wonder why in the world God called me to this life of the unexpected. its an amazing thing, to have a goal that God has set for you but its also scary because im not really sure as to when this part of my life will be over. so much is changing around me. dont get me wrong, im completely ecstatic that God has called me to africa its just a transition. my gateway class leaves for the dominican republic in a couple of days, we will be there for 17 days so im just praying that God will reveal himself in that amount of time through us. we are bringing medical supplies and bibles and also tooth brushes and toothpaste. its been a real challenge to get everything in 5o pound trunks and not take to much. we are going to expand upon the school cafeteria because they feed the children there for free which is a really awesome thing but they want to fit more children so we are trying to build onto it. we are also going to perform some skits that one of the gateway members has made up and has been translated into spanish. im really hoping that the message comes across clear for the kids. im really excited to go and just build relationships there. well i guess ive come to a ending because i really dont think i have anymore to say.

beautiful morning

2009-10-04T06:17:00.000-07:00

today i woke up and just knew it was going to be a beautiful day. it was raining. it is sunday and a bunch of us are going to the cowboy church here which im pretty excited about because e did that last sunday and it was really good. i was thinking about my blog and realized that i hadnt told you anything about what im learning.(oops) the first week i arrived there was only 9 of us here to do our basic safety training which is learning how to do cpr and put on fire gear and rescue someone... and also to put on emersion suits that look like the tella tubbies and jump in a swimming pool into a raft just in case the boat sinks(no worries, this is just a precaution). the second week was all about spiritual warfare taught by dean sherman. it was pretty good but it was alot of discussion because alot of spiritual warfare is confusing. he just kept saying " now remember, there is no specific formula" which is true. i doodle alot in class because it helps me listen and i think i could maybe one day make a living off of it.(joking) so the next week (which was last week) we learned about personal and interpersonal development. we learned about living on purpose, we took a personality test (which was creepy), conflict resolution, and living and working in harmony...very important for someone who is going to work and live with 450 people on a ship. so thats about it so far, my day goes pretty much like this

- class 8
-lunch at 12
-class from 1 to 4:30
-dinner at 5
-some random activity with everyone (22ppl) till we all go to bed

anyway, thats my life here in training!

electric cowboy

2009-10-02T23:12:00.000-07:00

tonight was so fun! a bunch of us from gateway went to a place called the electric cowboy which is a dancing place. after we were in and my hands were freshly sharperized we all sat at a table and just started talking and then all the sudden the cupid shuffle came on and we all got up and started to dance. the dancing didn't stop till the place closed down which was at midnight because its a dry county. i talked to an interesting guy that worked there who told me that he wished that Jesus was an Asian man with glasses and wore a Fannie pack and i couldn't help but laugh because today in class we talked about culture differences and one of them was the words we use. Fannie in England is a whole new word... anyway i told him that I'm not sure what Jesus looked like because Ive never seen him but i hope he didn't because that's not what i really imagine my savior to look like. it was quit comical. after Alex learned how to two step he tried to teach me to two step and was actually kind of successful which is pretty funny because he had just learned it only a couple of min ago and is from England. I'm pretty sure he taught half of us to dance( or tried). the place wasn't very trashy and i think we all felt pretty safe there so i think we might go again. anyway i thought i should let you know my story of the electric cowboy before it slips out of my brain!

here i am!

2009-09-30T20:39:00.000-07:00

One of the things on my list of what I never thought I would do is blogging, but here I am blogging away trying to figure out if I'm spelling everything right. That's one thing you cant expect to always be perfect it your going to follow my blog, sorry. As I listen to Adele I'm trying to figure out how to tell you my story of what lead me to mercy ships. I'm just your ordinary girl trying to figure out what it is that God has for my life. Ever since I graduated I have been trying to figure it out. I even went to culinary school and became a culinary drop out haha. Anyway so I figured I would just work on my basics in school until God gave me this master plan for my life and one day He told me that I was not going to go to college the next semester but I was going to be apart of a ministry, and through many events He lead me to Mercy Ships where I will be on the Africa Mercy for a year. I am currently in the training program called gateway where i have become apart of a family that I love and adore so much! So that is basically my journey so far and I'm sorry this is kind of dull but what can i do?