Ship family

Tonight has been "Ship Family Night" so I thought it might be nice to introduce you to our ship family. 

Every one who joins the ship for more than a few weeks will normally be put into a family so they have a small group that they can bond and interact with. As with any large community, like a church, it is difficult to get to know everybody well. So the ship families give us all the opportunity to get to know a small group better. For the Packwood family, it is about having fun and creating an atmosphere where young people far from their relatives can feel at home.

This is our ship family. 

At the back from left to right are Wendy & Frank from Arizona, USA - Wendy just left yesterday and Frank leaves in 2 weeks. They will return next Spring. Naomi from Japan, Rob from Australia who is my IT Manager, Paul from South Korea, Heather then Mel from Canada.

Next to me at the front is Reuben from Mexico and then Jael from the Netherlands is on the far right.

We normally meet for supper together and will then do some kind of activity together. Sometimes it will be watching a movie or playing a game in our cabin. One week we went for a mystery tour in a ship van, driving around Kiel before ending up at McDonalds. Tonight we played the game sardines all over one of the decks.

Every couple of months we also have our weekly prayer night in ship families, giving us chance to pray for each other.

Ship families are a great part of ship life and it is interesting having 8 or 9 kids in your family.

The coming weeks are going to be very exciting. This coming weekend we are going to visit old Doulos friends in Sweden. Then on 20th our best friend Colin arrives from Edinburgh to help celebrate Heather's birthday on 22nd November which we hope to spend at Tivoli's Christmas celebration. Then before you know it, we will be opening up the ship to the public for 3 weekends for our "Christmas around the world" spectacular. 

Watch this space for all the updates.