Ships Ahoy at 12

My 12 year old pics seem to be temparily MIA. Probably for the best as I did get a crazy perm that year. Let your mind conjure up that beautiful image...

For my 12th birthday, I did something I had never done before. We always knew that my mom hid our presents in her room. For the first time I peeked and it made opening the presents and having to pretend to be surprised such a let down that I never did that again. I had a new found obsession with the Dallas Cowboys and my mom had gotten me some pretty nice loot. That Spring I even somehow convinced my extremely un-sporty family to watch the Super Bowl with me and the Cowboys won.

So 12 rolled around and after Christmas we again made the road trip down to the TX. We rented a house in Van, TX where most of the Mercy Ships staff sent their kids to school. 6th grade in Van was in the middle school and this was a whole new world for me. I had to get used to changing classes, lockers, locker rooms, and the snobby girls of middle school. My first day of school in Van, we spent a good hour outside because of a bomb threat. Boys here were different. They made sexual comments and I was mobbed on my first day to see who I was going to “Go with.”

That summer we drove to Tampa, FL, and moved onto the newest ship, the M/V Caribbean Mercy. We were each allowed to bring what fit into 2 boxes. My stuff of course was overflowing and I had to sit on it all the way to Tampa because I couldn’t bear to part with my treasures.

I loved meeting the 100 other crew members who had just moved on too. Some of them we had known from the Good Sam. There was never a lack of people to talk with. Then it happened. We started sailing. And I thought I was going to die. I get motion sick on swings so when all of a sudden the whole ship is rocking and rolling, let’s just say it was rough for me.

On that sail we were passing Cuba when one of the watchmen spotted a little fishing boat about a mile off the coast. There appeared to be several people in the boat and they were frantically waving to us. We circled them until we got the go ahead from the coast guard to let them come onboard. Just in time as shortly after a big wave hit their boat and it sunk. They were trying to escape Cuba to come to America, but they were out of food and water only a mile from the coast and 1 of the ladies was almost dead from heat stroke. We kept them onboard overnight until the Coast Guard could come and pick them up. We were all stunned to see what desperation could lead people to do. Later I heard about someone who made it from Cuba to the Florida coast in an inner tube. Shocking that they survived!

And off we went back to the Dominican Republic. This experience was MUCH better than the 1st! I started helping in teach the pre-school onboard and loved that! In the afternoons I would swim in the pool that was set up on the dock, and go out into the villages at night with the teams. The teams built a church, dug wells, and did free medical and dental procedures. One thing about living on the ship those first years though was that it was not air conditioned, it was black & made of metal, and we were in a tropical climate. IT WAS HOT!!! Amy and I started sleeping out on deck everynight under the stars which we continued doing for the next 4 years. Be best was sleeping under the stars when we were sailing and looking up at the mast amongst the endless starry sky only you had to make sure I held tight to my foam mattress I slept on so it wouldn’t fly away and when I would wake up in the morning I would always be salty and wet. I spent the majority of nights between the ages of 12-16 sleeping outside under the stars which is something I really miss!

There were teams that came and volunteered short term that summer. One came from California with a bunch of teenagers that Amy and I had tons of fun with and then a team came from Chambersburg, PA led by a man named Gene Strite. I remember sitting out on the deck talking to him about his family. His oldest daughter Selena and her best friend Crissy were on the team too. They were 2 years older than me and thought my brother was cute and I thought they were so beautiful and cool, but one day we were all sitting around giggling about this weird doll and we decided to become pen pals.

The hardest part of living on the ship was saying goodbye to the new friends that you made. I always cried.

We sailed back to Jacksonville, FL, and had our first Discipleship Training School come onboard. I LOVED when the new DTS students came onboard! A family moved on with 2 boys just slightly younger than me and we started school in the little classroom they had set up onboard which was like a 1 room school with all the ages together.

While we were in FL, someone paid to take all of the “ships kids” to Disney World. I LOVED it! Luke was terrified of roller coasters, but we convinced him to come on Splash Mountain with us. He was having major anxiety all the way through the line and then we started through the ride. He saw an exit sign (for the workers) and all of a sudden jumped out of the cart. I still remember seeing him standing there with the charactors in the sceen and remember the look Miss Jana gave him.:)