Preparing to Sail

Early December 2023 - Borrowed Houses and Cars!

The house has been rented out and we are living with family members until we leave.  The car and motorbike are sold and we are getting around with borrowed cars . Thank you to generous family and friends who are helping us out. A highlight this month has been a short stay in Canberra to see our third son Elijah graduate as an Army Officer after four years of hard work. 

We keep working to reduce our luggage to three suitcases we can take with us. It's not easy to refine what is important to take. Ruth has finished work now, lots of goodbyes and tears. One student painted this beautiful picture as a farewell.

13th November 2023 - Things are temporary

Jon here - Our house is getting emptier! Furniture is mainly been given to friends and family with a few pieces lent or stored. Currently, there is no comfy lounge to sit on or even table to eat at. We perch on two little stools at kitchen bench.  

I find myself grieving at times, over nice things gone and empty rooms. I have to remind myself, the "things" we have carried around for years are temporary treasure that wears out and is eventually thrown away.  Better to store up love and caring for others.

29th October 2023 - We have tickets

We have tickets now. It is feeling much more real as we finalised tickets and paid for these. We fly out to the US in early January and spend 2 weeks doing some training in Dallas at the Mercy Ships Headquarters. Then we fly to South Africa and will be joining Africa Mercy in East London (SA) on the 22nd January. The ship has been in South Africa having some work done on it for the last few months and will be headed to Madagascar in late January.