Monday 12th, a team of 10 arrived from the States to begin the installation of the Journey of Life exhibit along with many other additions to our visitor deck. I have been working on this project for 8 months and it was exciting to finally see it all coming together.
Concept designer Patrick Marsh
The original plan had been to work at night and still have the deck open during the day. However,customs authorities here in Bermuda had told us that we were not allowed to have our International Cafe open here to sell anything not bought on the island. So we took the decision to close half of the deck to allow the work to be done during the day time. The team actually worked two nineteen hour days to get the job done.
This was clearly a Divine intervention as it became clear in the subsequent days as we worked more and more hours,all through the day and well into the night, that we would never have got the job done just working night shift.
It was exciting to see the walls going up, the paint going on and then the story starting to appear.
Textiles from around the world
Half way through the week, we began preperations for the annual ships donor weekend which was to take place here in Bermuda. With my upcoming role in Partner development in the UK, I wanted to be involved in this weekend as well, so I accepted a role as transport co-ordinator, which proved to be a significant challenge.
On Thursday, I moved over to the hotel on the other side of the island where the donor event was taking place, and left someone else in charge of seeing the Journey of Life completed, in time for all the donors to have a tour on Friday afternoon.
Friday was intensely stressful as I had to oversee the transport for nearly 200 people by bus, van, taxi then boat to get to the ship, quickly change and MC the programme for them all in our theatre, then run up and stand at the beginning of the Journey of Life to explain it to everyone as part of their tour. After grabbing a quick bite of lunch, we took groups on a tour of the whole ship, ending up in our cabin for coffee.
I had less than half an hour to then race around the ship and find the installation team to say goodbye, as they were leaving next morning and I would not see them again.
At 4 pm it was back to the chartered boat to take everyone across the bay to the jetty where the buses would transport them back to their 2 hotels. It was well over an hour before we got everyone back to their hotel.
I realised that sometimes you just say yes to too many things and push yourself beyond your limitations; Friday was one such day.
The donor weekend went very well with all of those attending, mainly North Americans, excited and challenged by all that they saw and experienced of the Logos Hope. We were very encouraged that many of them gave significant financial gifts at the end of the weekend towards the ongoing work of the ship.
Now after a couple of days to recover, it's back to more normal work, trying to continue to push forward the development on deck 4 and do some training with the team on how to maximise this new tool for the gospel.
New interactive bridge display
Father & son reconciled
Finally - check out the latest video clip from the "ship shots" collection - the crowds in Kingston - go to www.omships.org/shipshots
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