Soap and Hula

These last few weeks we seem to have gone into blog brain freeze and so we are back and trying to catch up with all that has been happening. Quite a random variety of things has happened in the last month and so we will attempt to share what's been going on over the next few posts to bring you up to speed.

This past month has seen 3 actresses come and work with us from the German soap "Aller Freundschaft", it's almost like a cross between ER and the UK show, Casualty and doctors (if you know those programs). They had heard about Mercy Ships and thought to themselves,"we can do that" so they did. Their TV show kindly wrote them out of the series for a few weeks, one has chickenpox, one has gone away and another has something wrong with their hand and can't work in the TV world "hospital". Cheryl Shepard, Hendrikje Fitz, and Alexa Surholt, known to many as Dr. Elena Eichhorn, Pia Heilmann and Sarah Marquardt worked really hard in the dining room, serving meals, washing dishes for 400 people and cleaning up ready for the next meal. Then during their time off they got involved with many of the other things that Mercy Ships does, like watching a surgery, helping out at the dental site and experiencing the extreme poverty of Sierra Leone.

(working in the dining room)

We had the opportunity to spend an evening with them and enter a little into their world back in Germany. 2 of them have been with the soap for about 13 years and the other, 9 years and it is broadcast on the public free channel in Germany. They showed us an episode and they translated it into English for us so we could at least follow the plot. They have been so humble in their work and they have most certainly embraced life here.

We also hosted a vision trip from a church in Honolulu and what a lovely group they were. They have been raising funds for Mercy Ships through concerts and this is the first time that they have had the opportunity to come and visit and see what they have been supporting for all these years. They brought along their pastor, a film guy and even Miss Hawaii 2009.

Pastor Elwin Ahu Pastor Elwin is the Lead Pastor of the Honolulu Campus of New Hope Oahu, a network of churches that averages approximately 12,000 in weekend attendance. In 1995, while sitting as a Judge for the State of Hawaii, he experienced a radical transformation in his heart and accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. It was a decision that emerged as the defining moment in his life. On January 1, 2000, Pastor Elwin resigned from his promising judicial career to respond to God’s call and stepped into full-time ministry.

We were invited to an african dinner with them all and Miss Hawaii, a christian now working at their church, performed a Hula to a christian song. It was very interesting to see how her hands portrayed the music. Then the fun followed. The Africans had already got them up dancing to their African songs so now the tables were turned. She had them all up and dancing some hula moves, it was so funny to see our African friends wiggling their hands and bodies around. Good on them for being such good sports. Click here to read their church mission blog and read what they experienced during their time here.