Melting Pot

Living on a ship has been exciting. We have gotten to work with so many people with extraordinary faith. They have welcomed us into their community very graciously and quickly accepted us as ‘one of them.’ It has been interesting how many similar blessings and struggles Latreia and the FriendShip crew have in common. One of their biggest strengths is their amazing community of people. The flip side of that, just like us, is that they also struggle with finding alone time and personal space while remaining in that community. I was having a conversation with one of my shipmates last night about how learning to love everyone on the ship has changed her life. She said this place is amazing because it is a furnace for Christians. God brings you here, chips away at your hardness, melts you down and then finally begins to mold you into the person He wants you to be. It is a continual process. I liked her analogy because it is good to reflect on how important that first step is—without being melted down, God couldn’t rebuild us as His tools effectively. Though we may not understand it at the time, those long hard days may be our ‘melting’ days…how exciting to know that during those hard times we can look forward to the next step and how God will build us up even stronger!

Kelly