Hitting the Ground Running...

We have been back onboard for 2 weeks now and it seems like life never stopped! Already Amy is in her second week of teaching and Samuel is busily preparing the food stores for our impending sail. In about a week we will be leaving the dry lands of West Africa for the cooler climates of South Africa! By September, we should be arriving in Durban, South Africa, where we will spend a few days unloading the ship and relocating about 150 crew two hours north to an empty college campus in Appelsbosch. Though it is very remote and very basic, we are extremely blessed to have found a place that is willing to house all of our crew and to accommodate our schooling needs!

This year Amy is teaching the Grade 2/3 combined class (Years 3 & 4) with a total of 6 students, 5 of them being boys! The first few days have been very fun, though quite a change from last year's Grade 3 class. On Thursday, an elementary resource teacher will be arriving to help out the entire elementary school, but she will be working closely with Amy in helping to teach some of the Grade 2 classes. Having her as an addition to the staff will allow the other elementary teachers to focus more on accreditation processes, which are hoped to be finished this school year!

This week leading up to sailing holds a lot of painful goodbyes for us. Several good friends are leaving, some for vacation and some for good. Though it is a regular part of our Mercy Ships experience, the goodbyes never get any easier; if anything, they become more potent as the people who have been a constant in our lives for the past year, the ones who have stood by us as we said tearful goodbyes to other good friends, are now leaving us too. We rest in the comfort of knowing that our awesome God binds us together though oceans may separate us. Plus - Mercy Ships is a very unique bond that cannot be broken. So Canada better watch out, because the Slennetts will be frequenting it in the future :)

Ephesians 3:20
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Amy