CHRISTMAS IN A FLOATING COMMUNITY

Have you ever experienced Christmas celebration on a floating community? Stay with me as I walk you through how Christmas is celebrated on the Africa Mercy.

Christmas is basically a season that everyone looks forward to regardless of where you are. On the Africa Mercy, it’s no different. The Africa Mercy is a community made up of people from over 40 nations. We have a community of people from every continent on Earth. You may have started wondering how such a community celebrates Christmas with different cultural values and expectation. Different from my Sierra Leonean background where Christmas preparations depends entirely on your economic status, that is; the rich prepare for Christmas around one or two weeks close to Christmas whilst the average Sierra Leonean starts preparation several months before Christmas.

The Africa Mercy with its diversity in cultures creates a unique culture that accommodate a bit of every culture so that the crew members will feel home on a floating community. According to professional fitness coaches, every exercise session must begin with a warm-up that helps activate the heart for a good pumping of blood. To warm-up and activate Christmas mood was the Christmas Open Mic Night. This Open Mic Night had events varying from African Drum Solo to Miming, Storytelling, African Folktales, Christmas and Traditional Poems, Dancing, Sharing a Tradition, Kids displaying their piano talent, etc. With the beautiful lights outside deck 7, I leaned back on my chair as I watched all these fun moments. Just after the Christmas warm-up, we had the visit of Sinterklaas. The visit of Sinterklaas is a Dutch

tradition that is held on the 5th of December every year. Sinterklaas does not visit homes empty handed, his visit usually brings a lot of Dutch chocolates and candies for children. On the Africa Mercy, Sinterklaas does not only bring gifts for kids but also for adults. Because of the covid situation in the world, Sinterklaas and his main man Piet visited us on the 3rd of December this year as he was trying to escape the regular quarantine policies around the globe. Sinterklaas and Piet came with a lot of goodies as they spent time playing with kids and answering questions from them. When Sinterklaas and Piet departed the ship, a community event that is called Deck the Halls came in. In Mid-December, most crew members volunteer to decorate all public spaces on the Africa Mercy, from the dining room to the reception area, café area to mid ships, international lounge and hallways. Its such a wonderful moment as these decorations switches the community into the mood of Christmas.

Deck the Halls is followed by the Christmas Door Decoration Competition. This competition lasts for a whole week, crew members are given the opportunity to display their creative skills by decorating their cabin doors and or office doors with ideas ranging from spiritual to cultural, comedy to inspirational, and even personal. The competition is climaxed with an informal award presentation after a panel of two or three judges have graded the artistic works of the competitors in specified categories. With Christmas Door Decoration Competition, we discovered the artistic talents that are hidden in crew members who come to serve in roles that have absolutely nothing to do with Creative Arts.

The next creative event that followed was the Gingerbread House Contest. As the community tries to work on traditions that provides the sense of belonging and comfort during a hectic season, the Gingerbread House contest that brings the kid in all of us comes in to create lasting memories. A Gingerbread House Contest is a creative game that brings out the construction skills in anyone that participates in the contest. Assorted small candies such as mints, gummy bears, and worms, jellybeans, gum, licorice, sour candies, hard candies, gumdrops, mini candy canes. Assorted snacks in fun shapes such as cereal, crackers, pretzels, cookies. Assorted baking decorations such as colored sugar, red hots, sprinkle, etc. are all needed to successfully make a gingerbread house. In the case of the Africa Mercy, all shapes were pre-made by the host, a few volunteers, and the baker on the ship. On the 23rd of December, one of the crew members hosted this contest in the café area where kids and adults formed groups of 2,3, or 4 to showcase their building skills. The contest began with the host outlining to the participants the rules that govern the contest. In no time, participants grabbed their building materials and started laying out foundations, raising walls, making roofs and designing their constructions. It was such a fun moment as I saw people constructing structures that are just too amazing. The interesting part of this competition is the teamwork that depicts real construction sites and also our little toddlers who spends time eating the construction materials. What is more amazing than having a great teamwork of different ideas to make a structure that draws the attention of spectators and other contestants. The AFM Gingerbread House Contest is one fun contest you would love to see.

Christmas Eve is another amazing moment you will experience on board this floating community. At 7:00pm on December 24, the community gather in the beautifully decorated International Lounge for a Christmas Eve service. It was an amazing night as we heard stories about the prophecies of Jesus in the Old Testament, the Annunciation in Luke 1:26-38, the Icon of the Annunciation (telling us about an icon), Joseph’s Dream in Matthew 1:18-24, Challenges about Christmas (Explanation on why Christmas can be a difficult time), The Birth of Jesus in Luke 2:1-7, The Shepherds (Interactive telling of the shepherds story from Luke 2:8-20), Piano Prayer (A crew member saying a prayer through playing on a piano), a Christmas Poem from 1 Corinthians 13 and a reading from John 1:1-14 talking about the Light of the World. The evening was a moment fellowshipping together as we reflected on the significance of why came as a man. Another beautiful part of the evening is the “Christmas Shoe”. Before joining the ship, I believed I knew what it means to give or receive a gift, but the ship community gave me a different definition of gift giving or receiving. Traditionally on the ship, after 10:00pm on the eve of Christmas, every crew member on board should place a shoe in front of his/her door. By the time you wake up on Christmas day you would be amazed on how much gift you will find at your door. It is so wonderful how people not only having the heart of serving each other but also showing much love and affirming that you have people who care so much about you. You may be tempted to think that people who don’t talk to you regularly don’t care about you but on this day, you will receive precious gifts from these people you once thought don’t care about it. That is all about a community, knowing that you are surrounded by people who don’t just work with you on a professional basis but also on a relation basis.

Christmas Day……….. A long-waited day finally here with so much sun in a windy Granadilla Port. The port usually has wind blowing at 30 knots that is approximately 56 km/h or 35 mph which makes the environment cold and windy but Christmas on the contrary brought a warmer weather that left a few trying to run away from the sun on deck 8. Christmas day on the ship started with a special Christmas breakfast in the café area. From coffee with different specialties, to snacks and cookies with different tastes and aromas. The Christmas service on the upper deck where we can see the creativity of God (The ocean, the sunny sky, the mountains of Granadilla) is one thing you will always look forward to. A live musical band with professionals on different musical instruments led the worship service with songs of thanksgiving and adoration. We heard readings from the amazing academy kids and a wonderful Christmas message from our Managing Director. The highlight of Christmas on the Africa Mercy has always been the lunch buffet. As all entrance to the dining room are being closed after dinner on Christmas Eve, a lot of work is ongoing behind the closed doors of the dining room. If you are new to the ship, you would be wondering why all the doors to the dining room are closed and you will be looking forward to what will come out of the dining room when it’s finally open. The Food Services Department works very hard and professional to make the Christmas meal a lasting memory. Once the dining room is opened after the Christmas Service, the first thing you will notice is the beautiful red and green linen decorations in the dining room. As you draw near to get a good view of the decorations, you are swept off your feet by the different delicacies found in the dining room. With the entire community coming together to have a meal at the same time is just a wonderful way to celebrate Christmas not just as colleagues but also as a community. You can also be a part of the community that brings hope and healing. No matter what your profession is, Mercy Ships has a place for you. You want to volunteer for 3 weeks or more, there is an opportunity for you to extend the grace and love of Christ to others. The Africa Mercy is a beautiful community that accommodate all cultures and backgrounds. I’m also offering you the opportunity to continue serving God and humanity by partnering with me in this course. God bless you for your continual support. Visit the Gallery to view more photos.