It's great to be home

On Thursday morning, it was an early start to get to Lubeck airport and begin our journey home to Scotland. It was amazing how much more Christmasy it felt at Stanstead airport when we arrived there just hearing all the Christmas music playing in the shops. But the prices came as a bit of a shock!
By 1pm we were back in Edinburgh and received a great welcome from Heather's parents and our friends Colin & Allison and Emma.
The last couple of days my parents have also joined us and we have had some good times together, eating, chatting and just enjoying family time together. We've been out and done some Christmas shopping and had a family meal together at a Chinese.

Today is Kara's 6th Birthday. She had a get together with some of her best friends at a play zone this morning and then her best friend Lewis came to play at her granny's house. It is so nice to see them together again.

Tonight we are meeting up with a few friends and having a get together without the kids. Should be fun. Looking forward to seeing everyone at church tomorrow.

Musters and Fire Engines

The ship's general alarm is very loud at any time, but when it goes off in your cabin at 3.15am on a Sunday morning, you get quite a shock. In my 5 years living on a ship, I had never known it to go off in the night, so I shot out of bed and quickly started getting the kids dressed. The alarm is 6 short beeps and then 1 long one. When it finished, the captain made an announcement that everyone must report immediately to their muster station.
So we all headed up in shock to our muster stations in the lounge or dining room. One of the officers told everyone to sit down and wait for the muster station leaders to call out our names.
Gradually everyone filed in and as names were read out and some were found missing, the control team was dispatched to check cabins and locate people. Eventually some 25 mins later, we were all accounted for. We still had no idea what was happening. Was it a bomb threat or a fire?
The captain came a few minutes later to explain that there had been a phone call made to a cabin and someone had made out they had severe breathing difficulties. The bridge was informed and they had been unable to locate where the call had come from and whether someone's life was in danger. After a team of officers and medical staff had searched a large number of cabins for nearly an hour, the captain decided that the only way to ensure that everyone was safe, was to call a muster. In fact everyone was fine.
We don't know who made the call or why, but we now know how well our muster drills work in the night!!

Then on Monday morning, I put my head out of my office to see the captain running down the corridor, followed by 3 German firemen, fully kitted out. There were 4 fire engines on the quayside, one with it's extending platform already above the stern of the ship. and another one heading in the gate. The captain and the officers onboard were very surprised because we have a very sophisticated fire detection system on the ship and no one was aware of any potential fire. The first thought was that someone onboard had called the fire brigade. But it turned out that some people in an office along the shore behind the ship had seen what they thought was smoke coming out of the back of the ship. It turned out to be dust coming from needle gunning the deck, and sparks from a grinder.
We are thankful that neither of these incidents were serious but it is a constant reminder of the inherent risks of living on a ship.

Can it really be Christmas time?

Weekends seem to come around very quickly here. It's hard to believe that in 5 days we are flying back to Edinburgh for Christmas. The ship is now very nicely decorated with 4 real trees supplied by the local churches onboard, and a 5m tree at the bottom of the gangway and lights and decorations in all the public areas.

This week we went out with our ship family (groups put together to encourage a sense of family onboard), to the Christmas market just a short walk away from the ship. Although there are all the lights, sights and smells of Christmas, something is missing. You notice it in the shops and markets, no music. That's right, no sound of the "Best Christmas album in the world ever" played on constant repeat everywhere you go. It might seem strange but it just doesn't seem like Christmas without the music.

Last night we had the works Christmas party. Despite being away from our normal culture, you have to have a works night out for Christmas don't you. So it was lights, camera's, fun in one of the meeting rooms as we all got together and enjoyed games such as " I love you honey but will you please smile" where people have to try and get their colleagues to crack a smile while they try desperately not to. Even our kids were there and enjoyed joining in the games.

As well as all the pre Christmas fun, this past week also saw a visit from the founder of our organisation, George Verwer. George is someone who has had a huge influence in my life, introducing me to OM and missions when I was just 19. He has become a friend over the past 20 years and it was great to spend some time with him again. George has been a real encouragement here at a time when there is great uncertainty. We are facing a very real financial crisis at this time and there are many questions being asked about how we are going to address the shortfalls.

This coming week, a decision will be made about whether the Logos 2 should sail back to the Carribean for 6 months to raise finances. This would have a massive effect on us here on Logos Hope, as a number of the previous Logos 2 crew are likely to want to sail.

On Thursday we head for Lubeck airport and a Ryanair flight to Stansted then on up to Edinburgh. Saturday 22nd is Kara's birthday and she will be having a wee party with some of her friends and her grandparents.

Hopefully there will be time to write again before Christmas. We'll let you know how this week goes when we can.

Enjoy this last week before Christmas. Hope you get all your shopping done.

Life is a rollercoaster

Since Logos Hope arrived in Kiel, life has been incredibly manic. It is hard to describe the amount of stress, confusion, change but also general excitement of these past days.

There have been many ups and downs. The highlight has been having our great friend Colin come for a 38 hour visit last weekend. It was such a blessing and encouragement to have him here, although we didn't get much sleep - we were doing a tour of the engine room at 1.15am.

Last Friday night it was great to go out with a group of friends and celebrate Heather's birthday properly after the disappointment of the previous week.

It was great to have Paul Coey from our church there as well. He was onboard as part of an IT summit.

I (Steve) have been run off my feet for the past 10 days. I have been responsible for the transfer of everything off Logos 2 onto Logos Hope, while at the same time trying to get all the offices set up onboard, organise a new service desk and still oversee the rest of my division.

We have also been inundated with guests on board including the IT summit and leaders from the organisation from UK and Germany, as well as a medical consultation.

Heather has been busy trying to get the clinic set up onboard and has now officially taken over as head nurse. The kids have been in holiday club while the school is getting set up. Today we learned that the teacher that Liam had for just a week before the ship came will not now be teaching him from next week, so it is more disruption for him.

We are excited to be onboard and today we had 5 real Christmas trees delivered to the ship, so we are starting to feel like Christmas is coming. The German Christmas market is not only found in Princes St in Edinburgh but they do actually have a great one here in Kiel so we hope to enjoy that before we leave to come home in 2 weeks.

Check out more photo's from the ships arrival in Kiel at http://picasaweb.google.com/stehevpackwood/LogosHopeArrivalInKiel

Home at last!

The day has finally come, after 20 months waiting to leave Edinburgh and 5 months across 7 countries, sleeping in 10 beds, finally we are in our cabin on Logos Hope.
What an amazing day on Monday 26th November as Logos Hope sailed into Kiel.

The welcome on the quayside had a particular Latin feel thanks to all the South American's on Logos 2. There were balloons and drums and dancing, lots of dancing.

It was just so exciting to see the ship coming around the corner and draw closer, gradually

recognising all our friends up on the decks.

Once the ship was cleared there was a great rush to get onboard and greet everyone.
We moved onboard straight away and by Monday evening were settled in our cabin.

We were regretting that later on when the water was turned off to install a new part for the heating. By next morning the cabin was freezing and there was still no water.

Now the ship is warming up nicely, most people from Logos 2 have moved on board and tonight we had our first joint meal on Logos Hope - freshly baked, individual pizza's.

The next days will be very busy ones as we work to get everything established here in Kiel. But we are just so excited to finally be in our home.
Thursday, our best friend Colin arrives for a flying visit so we are looking forward to an exciting weekend.

Welcoming our new home

It is our last day living onboard Logos 2. The Logos Hope is due to arrive here in Kiel tomorrow morning. We expect the ship to come alongside sometime between 10 and 11.

Make sure you follow it on our live webcam at http://logoshope.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=284&Itemid=326

The past week has been a huge challenge for us as a family living on Logos 2. Heather had her birthday on Thursday but didn't feel much like celebrating. She has been very unsettled during this time of waiting for Logos Hope to arrive. We are really looking forward to getting onboard the ship and setting up home in our new cabin. After sleeping in 10 beds in the 5 months since we left Edinburgh, it will be great to unpack properly.

The whole community here on Logos 2 is excited about tomorrow and have prepared welcome dances and baloons and banners etc. We expect it to be a big party.

We'll post some photo's of the day as soon as we can.

Life on Logos 2

We have now been living on Logos 2 for a week.
We had never planned to live here, but due to the delays in Logos Hope sailing, we find ourselves onboard for the last weeks of Logos 2's life as an OM ship.
The Logos 2 is very full of people waiting. Every cabin onboard is taken and we are just amazed at how a couple have lived in this room for 2 years. You can nearly stand in the middle and touch all 4 walls. We know this isn't home but we are now in our 10th bed since leaving home so we really want to be able to finally settle onboard Logos Hope.

After the wonderful food on LH we are also struggling a bit with the food onboard.

But there are some very positive things about this time. We are getting to know many of the people that we will be living with over the coming months and years. The worship on board is lively and vibrant and there is often fun and laughter onboard.

This week, many of the ships company are involved in a game where they are trying to secretly kill off one another. You can poison someone by putting a sticker in their food, or on the bottom of a plate or cup. You can kill with a kiss on the cheek and you can stab someone by placing a sticker on their back. Every meal time there are screams in the dining room as someone else gets "killed"

The kids started school again on Monday and are enjoying life on board very much. We never see them between meal times, they are always playing somewhere with friends. This may be good for them but makes it hard to have any family life.

I (Steve) am very busy preparing for next weeks move to Logos Hope. It will be a crazy time.

Heather has no role onboard which she finds difficult.

Kiel is very cold and grey. I think we have seen the sun once in a week.

Tomorrow ( Thursday) is Heather's birthday. Hopefully we can find a nice Italian restaurant for dinner.

Christmas is coming

Well we are now here in Kiel in Germany and it looks like Christmas is on it's way.
We went out for a walk yesterday for the first time and went into the shops.
It is amazing to think that in 5 weeks we will be back in Edinburgh.
So as we were thinking about Christmas, I remembered that we had signed up for this great scheme with Amazon.co.uk where we can get money towards our financial support on the ship, if people use our website & blog to access Amazon.
So here is a great idea. If you are planning to do Christmas shopping online, and lets face it why wouldn't you as it is so easy, then consider using Amazon and accessing them via our site.
It is that easy. Just Click on the link in the panel on the right, get taken to Amazon.co.uk and we will get a small % of everything you order. Everybody wins.
Try clicking the link below and check it out.
You can also do it via the Amazon page on our website, www.packwoods.com
thanks for your support

Swiss Holiday

This past week we have enjoyed a family break together at a Christian retreat run by friends of ours who used to be on Doulos. The hotel overlooks Lake Lugano right next to the Italian border in Switzerland.

The view from our balcony

It was great to have a few days away together as a family, actually probably the first family holiday we have had with just the 4 of us for a couple of years.

Paladina has everything you could want for a family holiday - lots of entertainment for the kids - including a trampoline, good food, relaxing surroundings, plenty to see and do in the local area.

We went up several mountains, visited a chocolate factory, visited "Minature Switzerland", went to an Italian market and enjoyed some lovely warm sunny days.

At the end of very enjoyable week, we drove up through the Swiss Alps into Germany and up to Mosbach for 2 nights before heading to Kiel.

We are just hoping we don't all get a sickness bug as we are staying at Alex & Beth's house again and the family are all going down with it.

Logos Hope is sailing!

On Thursday 8th November, after 2 1/2 years in the Brodotrogir Shipyard in Croatia, the Logos Hope finally sailed for Germany and the final stage of its preperations for ministry. All the inspections and surveys were finally completed and the ship was allowed to depart on a beautiful sunny morning.


We are sad to have missed the departure but look forward to being on the quayside in Kiel as Logos Hope sails in.


You can follow the ship on its voyage at www.logoshope.org

Still not sailing!

Well we are now enjoying a break in beautiful sunny switzerland but the Logos Hope has not yet sailed from Croatia. Despite all our hopes that it would sail at the weekend, the local surveyor decided that because the ships was sailing under the classificaion of a cargo ship, that everyone onboard needed to have a full immersion survival suit! Logos Hope only had 34 on board so needed another 50 for all those who would sail. So hopefully today, 50 of these suits, costing approx €600 will have reached the ship and tomorrow the final inspection (Port State) can take place and the ship can set sail.

Before we left the ship, Liam did his bit helping to clean up the engine room.

Meanwhile the Packwood family decided that we would stick to our plan to travel through Italy to Switzerland for a weeks break. So we have had some great days travelling and seeing the sites and are now staying at a Christian hotel that is run by some old friends of ours from our time on Doulos.

Enjoying a pizza in Verona, Italy

The kids just love it here. They have a trampoline so that is a winner straight away as they really miss their trampoline from home. Also a barn with a climbing wall and flying fox slide, lots of trees to climb, bikes, games and much more. We are glad to have somewhere with internet access and comfy beds.

Next week we drive up to Germany for a couple of days in Mosbach again before heading to Kiel.

Obviously now Logos Hope won't be there until about a week later so we will have to stay on Logos 2 while we wait.

Sailing delayed to 3rd November

Well it is Wednesday afternoon, 31st October, and while many of you may be thinking of all things halloween, this ship should be at sea right now. However, as I am writing this in my office and I am not sailing, clearly the ship is delayed further in Trogir.

We have been waiting for some important documentation called the "stability book" which is required before we can get our final certificates to sail. This book has not arrived so far and therefore we have not been able to sail. We also need a Port State Inspection which is the last thing that happens before we sail and is conducted by the local harbour master.

In order to pass that, we were told that we need to do more work cleaning up the engine room, so once again over the past 2 days, I have been helping out with that.


Heather is stuck in the house with the kids who have finished school and it is pouring with rain so not much fun there.

We are now aiming to sail Saturday because tomorrow, Thursday is a national holiday and therefore we can't get the inspection until Friday.

We as a family will either leave Friday afternoon or Saturday morning and head up to Italy.

We will give another update when we arrive at the place in Switzerland where we will stay for a week.

The final straight - all hands on deck.

We are now in the last week before the ship sails from Trogir and heads up to Germany.

As the time has got closer, the whole ship's company has become more and more focused on getting ready to sail.

This last week, all of the onshore houses have been getting packed up and families possessions brought on board. On Thursday the school finished for the last time here and everything from the school and the villa brought on board.

We emptied most of our house out on Thursday, with a few things left to bring on board the day before the ship sails.

As we have approached sailing, the work has become more intense as we realised how much still had to be done and how few days there were to do it.

On Friday we went onto longer working hours for everyone, 7am to 6pm, to try and get more done. Some people onboard have already been working very long hours to get the ship ready, particularly cleaning the engine room.

Saturday was also a full work day and everyone who possibly could went down to the engine room to help clean and tidy up ahead of a Port State Inspection before we sail.

We passed our ISM audit this week with surprising ease, no doubt due to all the prayer, and many other surveys have been completed. But before we leave there is one final test - the Port State Inspection. This has to be done at least every 6 months and we haven't had one since the ship came here. The port authorities have to inspect the ship to ensure it is safe to sail.

We have been told that the local inspector is particularly interested in the cleanliness of the engine room, hence the need for extra cleaning. If he is not happy with the condition of it, he can stop us sailing, and many parts of the engine room have not been cleaned for years.

So from 7am yesterday, many of us who are normally seen behind computers, donned overalls and really got our hands dirty.

Heather was keen to come and help but several people that she asked if they would like to babysit said they preferred to work in the engine room.

I ended up working with a team doing some repairs to the main engine exhausts in the funnel. Some of the heat insulation had come away and this had to be replaced before we could sail. It involved working in dark, cramped, dirty spaces in the funnel and was physically very demanding but we got the job done and were very relieved when we got finished, some time after 7pm.

There is still much to do in the next 2 days as we continue to prepare the ship for sea. We have been told that the ship could roll up to 35 degrees. No one really knows because this ship has never sailed as it is now, with new decks and many other changes.

When the ship sails, we will leave the next day, hopefully Thursday and drive up through Italy to Switzerland for a weeks break before heading up to Germany to meet the ship again.

A day in the life

So what is an average day like for us here in Croatia?

Well the day starts early for me, Steve, leaving the house soon after 7 to walk the few minutes along to the ship yard and onboard Logos Hope to grab a bite of breakfast. At 7.30 am I meet with the other ship leaders to discuss progress and to pray. Then at 8 am I meet with my team for a few minutes to review the day and pray together.
Meanwhile Heather is getting the kids ready for school and at 8.45 the ship van calls at the house to pick up the kids and take them the 10 mins drive to school.
Heather spends some time doing some housework and then normally comes onto the ship between 9.30 – 10.
I will often spend the first hour of the day catching up on emails and prioritising what needs doing that day. I will often have a couple of meetings in the morning with other leaders or members of my team as we plan for the work we need to do to get the ship ready for the next phase of the project.
Tea break at 10 am is a good time to catch up with people that you need to speak to.
Heather will often get people coming to her with their health complaints. At the moment the clinic is not set up so Heather holds surgery wherever she happens to be.

After tea break I might be running around the ship trying to organise getting another office set up or dealing with problems with the ships vehicles. I could be trying to organise transport for people travelling overland to Germany or taking part in a meeting about our plans for the transition of the IT network from one ship to another.

Lunch is at 12.30. The kids have a packed lunch at school and Heather and I get a few minutes to find out what the other is doing in a busy dining room in between announcements, devotions etc. Before you know it, it’s 1.30 and back to work, catching a few people that you need to talk to before you leave the dining room.
Heather will spend an hour doing emails, paperwork or sorting out drugs before leaving at 2.30 to get home in time for the kids getting dropped off from school.
Heather may take them out to one of the other families home or to play on their bikes for a while.

For me the afternoon will disappear in a blur of meetings, emails, updating financial spreadsheets, taking phone calls and running around the ship organising this and that.
Before I know it, 6 pm has arrived and I really must get off the ship and get back home to see the kids for the first time today. Most week days we only get a very short 2 hours together over tea, a bit of homework and bedtime stories before they are in bed.

Once the kids are settled down Heather and I finally get chance to catch up a bit on the day. Sometimes we might watch a DVD together – we are currently enjoying Alias Series 2 and Cold Feet, or else write emails or postcards. Several evenings a week one of us might go to the ship to use the internet or for me perhaps to catch up on work not finished during the day. It’s soon bed time and we gladly hit the pillow knowing the alarm will soon be going off again.

We all really enjoy our time here in Trogir – but most days it really is no holiday.

Nuclear submarines and other strange questions

"You are having a laugh eh?""No we need you to do a live TV interview tommorow. Away I went in my kilt with ma wee Soltaire flag..I actually loved it! It was like being on the Richard n Judy show with me on the sofa!!! They will surely be calling me when i get ome!! The TV was a local chat show they wanted to advertise a Scottish Dance evening so they asked me what I thought of Croatia, why I was here, Scottish food and places to visit in Edinburgh. When leaving the studio, the pastor who had come to translate said "now to the radio station"! The radio station was unexpected as were the bizarre questions they asked me! Seriously the first thing they asked was "what do i think of the nuclear submarines in the Adriatic"!!! There were quite a few more weird questions to follow! My fellow Scot, Marian, was with me on the radio and they actually tried to sell her to the highest bidder

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Weekly community events take place to help the local church build relationships with the people of Split. The Scottish Dance was good fun with lots of tourists as well as a few locals coming along. The space for dancing was the size of a table tennis table so that was cozy.
So what do i think of nuclear submarines in the Adriatic??Am I in the navy?Ive no idea!!!