Germany - HFOT

So over the course of the week, my main roll was to assist Harold and Karl in the engine room. Taking the engine head apart, cleaning, and rebuilding.

Along the way we got to spend a lot of time with the other ship mates. Dinners are a big end of day relief. People are tried from the hard labor but then each night there was something to do. Monday is worship night. Always nice to just have a time of worshiping God. Tuesday was swing dance night.
We had decided to walk into town as a group to find ice cream. It was a nice cold night - <40 deg F (4C)
Wednesday the group wanted to get dinner in town. So off to the local brewery we went. It was taste, I had the schnitzel. We also had a n appetizer of raw meat, disgusting. Wednesday night was also a speaker night with a guest from the Wycliff bible translators. What a great ministry. Please look them up on the web. They are working really hard and have advanced the process to translate the bible into new languages. We still have a ways to go until God's command to reach all people groups is completed. there is time for all to get involved.
Brewery shot
Sterling in mid bite.Thursday night was Pray meeting night. This is an "open mic" type setting where people bring up anything or any group they would like to pray for. We prayed for a orphanage in Thailand started by a surfer. We prayed for water wells in Gianna. A school in Ethiopia. The Logos hope and al the individual needs still required by the ship. It was really fun to interact more with other ship members. After Rod and I sat and talked for a while with two individuals, Sue Kim from Malaysia. her and her husband spend 2 years on the Logos II doing mission work and now are doing 9-months on Logos Hope. Bethia an Aussie surfer from Australia had been on Logos Hope only 1 month when we talked and was really enjoying her time. She was looking for God to work in her during her stay, but was on fire for God.

So as we moved on to Friday, the last work day for most, not us, but getting ahead. The Friday work day was busy, we were working hard to finish a couple of the engines we had dismantled. It was a nice completion day. Then I ran into Jana - the engine room project worker coordinator. All week she would ask me about the Heavy Fuel Oil Tank cleaning operation and if I would go into the tank. The HFOT is a large vat where all of the oil for the engine system is stored. The new generators they are planning to add to the ship were going to be welded above this tank, so it needed to be drained and cleaned. Most of the sludge had been scoped out during the previous weeks, but now they needed people to do detail cleaning. So I asked what was required. She said that you have to be ok with very small spaces, loud noises and darkness. We'll I'm usually not ok with any of these things, I thought this was what true mission oriented people would volunteer for. So Saturday morning, it was off to the tank. First thing is to be completely gowned up. Heavy boots, heavey gloves, head covering, coveralls, disposable oil coveralls over these, ear plugs and a head lamp. Head Lamp!! There is no lighting in the tank. So Jana, pulls out this paper with a grid layed out. Looks to be about 10 x 15 rectangles on this grid. She points to on side of the shart and shows me my grid marking and then shows the other volunteer (sucker) her grid marking on the complete other side. She hands us a bucket with a toothbrush, a larger brush, diesel fuel for cleaning oil and rags. Then its off to this openning in the floor of the engine room.

Hole in floor.

Look carefully b/c you can see the side hole I had to climb into. My dark dungeon. So the Heavy Fuel oil tank is made up of compartments, each about 4.5 feet long, 3 feet wide and 3.5 feet high. There is a 24" hole between each compartment. Down the ladder and turn left, stoop into the black abyss and start the up down process to get to my compartment. Last one on the row. My job was to sit in this box and clean the weld joints in all the corners. We would be in there for at least two hours and Jana would signal us with a loud bang noise when it was time to come out. Its pitch black, its supper loud and you have to get really close to the welds to clean them with the tooth brush and diesel fuel. God was testing me. I did the best I could and when I was done I knew I had completed my week on the ship. I even got an award. :)

Thanks again to all that supported me financially or with prayers. I feel the trip has helped be more attentive to God's workings in my life and how he plans to mold me moving forward. Thanks again.

Jon

Germany trip continued

So a big apology is needed for all my blog readers. since returning from the trip I/we have been in constant motion. (sleep has been optional) But fear not, Blogging for the Olson's is back thanks to a big kick in the pants by the Johnson's.

I do want to say thank you again to all those that provide a way for me to go on this trip. It was a true heart changing blessing. With out support of my friends this would not have happened for me. I'm still remembering some of the areas that God touched me and I'm trying my best to becoming a better husband, father and Christian.

Well back to the story....

Rewind: So Saturday was a travel adventure(see earlier post) - SFO (delayed) - Heathrow (London) missed flight - world wind adventure in downtown London (just to get a passport stamp), tiring - Another flight to Kiel - BUMPY. 1.5 hour bus ride, restful - arrive at the ship - breath taking - Sleep, welcomed!

Sunday - Woke up to a small bed room and a new guest. I was rooming with Dan and then a new friend from Germany - Berkhart. Morning came early, but due to the long travel day (24hours straight) I acclimated to the time change really quickly. Our room was in the family quarters so it ahd a in room shower and sink(Nice!)

Well Sunday we found out is "get off the ship day" - it was pretty empty. The few people we talked to said that due to the hard work on the ship during the week, Sunday is people's day to escape. We did attend church...worship in english (nice- I was worried about language barriers but it seems that us american's are the only group that speaks only one language.) then Pastor Klaus from Berlin spoke about 'God changing our world view from "us centered" to "Jesus Centered".
Col 1:15-16
"15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him."
Here is a shot of the chapel. The floor has cardboard over it to protect the new wood underneath. Its make shift since each of the different sections of the boat is scheduled to finish at different times.

After lunch, since the boat was empty and we were in a foreign country - site seeing (I know all my supports are like - did we send Jonathan on a trip to Germany or a missions trip) Well the week has just begun and my experiences with our small Team from Venture was a mission of its own.

Let me stop and tell you a little about our team:
Dan - Venture missions pastor and our translator (helped a lot) he is also a missionary to the Kurds of northern Iraq. Lived in Germany for 9 years to train for work in Kurdistan. Since there were no direct english/kurdish language translations. He is also a living miracle (like me) - Lung and heart transplant 11 years ago I believe.
Sterling - construction worker - battled his own life demons and God saved him from a tragic fall (4 stories)
Laurie - eldest member of our team, brave lady who has battled through a lot to finally allow God to work in her life
Rod - Church usher with a big heart - also a small plane pilot, retire 30 years from IBM.
Emily - kindergarten teacher with a heart for Christ.
and me

Oh yea, back to Sunday - Well we heard that there was a festival in town, so off we went - 40deg never stopped anyone.
Here is the Ship - the Logos Hope:
I was there - I swear!
Little shopping district.

In town we took in a little festival - medieval times style. There was good food, including brats galore and waffles on a stick. We visited this old church in town:



After the walk through the city, we were back for dinner and some internet and preparations for the first work day, Monday.

So Monday, we head off to the Project worker coordination room for our assignments. There is lots to complete on the ship so they can complete their PSSC license (Passenger Ship Safety Certificate). We arrived in the office and asked what we could do- well we had a carpenter - Sterling, and electrician and handy man - Rod, Dan said he could weld, Emily said she was up for painting, Laurie offered to help the people cleaning the Heavy Fuel Oil tank (more on that later), and me, well I said I was an engineer and had worked on car engines before - So I guess I fit the bill for engine duty - off to the engine room. Me and my big mouth. It was a blessing because I really enjoyed my work during the week and the people I met were just great.

First job - get into uniform. Coveralls all week. They have a whole bunch of loaner clothes so i grabbed some coveralls and steel toed boots, dressed and headed to meet with the Engine room project leaders. - Jana (from germany) and Emily (from the States). These were two tough women that held there own among the engine room men. I get to work with Harold and Karl on engine duty. First order of business - removal of one of the engine heads (valve and rocker assembly) This was a dream - get to do missions work and work on engines! So the ship is powered by 4 4000 horse power each diesel engines. Engine #1 and 2 were already rebuilt back when OM first bought the ship. We were on engine 3. One head was out and the cylinder wall was being honed by George (from England - audio engineer for concerts - nice guy) I was paired with Karl and Micheal (both of the states - Karl from Alaska - long time marine engineer and also a staff member of the Logos ship before it crashed in Argentina and Micheal - from seattle, just started his 2 year stay on the ship.) Our first job was to remove all the connections and then remove the rocker arm and start the process to remove the head completely - our engine had a broken connecting rod. But why not do a complete overhaul if you have to take the whole thing apart to get to the connecting rod.
Hydraulic compressors - no torque wrenched used on marine engines, everything is on the BIG scale. So we used these hydraulic compressors to stretch the bolt until the nut was free to move by hand - ~10,000psi.
closer view - see all that grease - covered everyday.
Rocker arm - massive - weighed a couple hundred pounds.

The removal process took two days. I really got slow down and enjoy my work days - something i can't do at my current job. We were on union time - ie we worked until break, the we stopped right at 10am for coffee - 15min and then back down until lunch - 1 hour - back to work till 2:30 - break again and then off at 5pm. It was so refreshing to enjoy my work day. At home I battle every minute of the day, but this allowed me to really understand my job and get to know the guys I was working with. Our first lunch break - we finally found out where all the people were - man the line was LONG. People everywhere - 250 or so are on the ship currently for the building process. People from all over. Lots of day workers come in to volunteer on the ship from Germany and Kiel in particular. Then there are the project works (just a few during our stay), staff, and long term workers(3 month, 1 year, 2 year stays) I mostly worked with Karl and Micheal, Toby (Germany) and Harold (OM employee from the Netherlands but now lives in South Carolina)

The days were busy - each day new work on the engine - removal, cleaning and dismantle and then rebuild. Two days I spent lapping valves, my engine head and then another engine head. A couple days cleaning the engine and another engine. Another day helping with the engine rebuilding. and the last day - HFOT cleaning - more below.
My engine
Me and my engine - love the coveralls. it was extremely loud in the engine room(hence the ear muffs) what with the generators running, welding being done on the floor, George - in the back ground - honing the cylinder walls, engine parts being worked on in the machine shop, machine shop being dismantled, etc.
another head for valve lapping (basically each valve gets custom fitted to the valve seat - this is done with progressively finer powders - like sandpaper in oil - that is used to remove a small amount of material each time the valve is rotated in the engine head.)
Cleaned and ready for rebuild

So at this time my readers are all bored of all this engine talk so I thought I'd throw in some general shots from the boat.
My room mate - Berkhart - from Germany. Had welding skills, so he worked with a group removing, and rebuilding the floor in the engine room and repositioning the all of the pipes on this side of the engine room. This was to make way for some new heat exchangers. He was a very nice guy, loves God and my wake up call every morning.
Sea water heat exchanger pipes
Stairs, stairs everywhere. The ship has 9 levels and so we were walking stairs all the time
a picture of the bakery. They made fresh bread every day we were on the ship, sometimes multiple times a day. It was great. The food on the ship is excellent and hats off to chef Andy and the galley crew.
Kids playland- this life raft is filled with balls and the kids of the families on the ship were constantly running and jumping into the balls, throwing them, etc.

Book store (very condensed). This section is for the visitors that come to the "open Ship' nights every Friday. The Ship opens up to the community each Friday for tours and progress reports to allow the community an opportunity to see whats going on and how they can help.
here is the future home of the Logos Hope theater - part of the Logo Hope experience Level - Level 4 on the ship will be the experience level for visitors to the ship. hundreds of people will visit the ship at each port. the ship will lead the visitors through a number of sections including this theater and also a massive book store. The ships goal at each port is to share Christ. This is accomplished through theater performances, skits, conferences for women, youth, pastors, etc. also a massive book store. The ship will carry thousands of books in tons of languages to meet the needs of the "lost" at each port of call.
This is another shot of the theater section. The theater use to be where the cars were stored for the ferry. The big opening back door has been closed off and sealed and then this stage section built up.
Material storage - there is so much work being done that there is massive amounts of material stored on deck 4. drywall, lumber, flooring, metal, etc.

Dan - cutting metal for his racks.
Dan's racks - dan worked in the hull of the ship where all of the staff suitcases/luggage will be stored. He was cutting and welding in this dusty hole all week. He even lit his favorite shirt on fire during one cutting experience.
Emily - she donned some ear muffs and climbed into the corners of the engine room for paint striping, cleaning and priming. It was really tough getting into all of the corners to clean off the engine soot and then stripping of the rusted paint to make sure a new layer of paint could be applied.
Rod - showing me where his wall is being built. Rod worked in the staff lounge, helping build out one section.
Staff Louge at the back of the ship. Lots of work to be done.



Sterling - worked first in the staff lounge putting in windows, then worked in the hull area above Dan putting his carpenter skills to good use, building storage shelves.

More to come - hold tight till thursday.

How long has it been?

Sara, here. The cries of the masses have been overwhelming. "Pictures!" they cry. "Posts!" they scream. "Did Jon ever get to Germany from London or is he still touring all the spots from Amazing Race 4?" they wonder.

Well, I'll let Jon respond to the Germany inquiries. As for the rest of us, we're enjoying life:

Ava celebrated her fifth birthday in princess style.

Jillian is growing like a weed and is keeping us laughing and wondering what she's into now.

Eli is 8 months already and filling his mouth out with new teeth on top AND bottom.

I just ended my run as MOPS coordinator and am getting ready for a new stage of my life, homeschooling mother. All that and a mix of friends visiting, some short road trips and prepping for our first vacation with three kids. Let the good times roll!

(Yes, Chris, its on the world wide web...)

Germany - Logos Hope - days 1 and 2

So the first of the month through the 10th, I traveled around our wonderful earth on a global missions trip through Venture Christian Church. I 'd like to thank my travel partners for making this trip a real joy and I'd really like to thank those that gave to support my way. What a blessing you poured out covering all of my expenses. Thank you so much!

My trip started off with saying good bye to my lovely family. It was so nice of them to let me go (and my Sara did just fine without me - thank you to those that came over or called to keep her mind occupied)

After the wonderful trip through security, we waited on the tarmac in SFO for almost 2 hours. Finally taking off at 10 min. to 2pm (instead of 12:30pm), had a very uneventful flight of watching movies and reading "Into the Wild". Landing in Heathrow, we again waited another 20min before even getting to the gate. At this time we had used up our buffer for my next flight and ran to the gate (Heathrow is not a nice airport, busy and full of mazes). We missed our flight time by 2 minutes and they would not let us board. Soooooo, the next flight is at 3pm (its 9am). What to do with 6hours. Well...we did not want to sit around the airport and so we got our passports stamped (#2 for me) and off into downtown London via the underground railway. Such fun. ("Mind the Gap") Stuffed with people, this truly was an adventure. We had a 45min rail trip to Piccadilly circus.

Then we ran around the area until we saw something of interest. This pillar I had seen on the amazing race TV show so we headed this direction.
At the end of this street is S. James park, which at one end has the Horse Guard Palace.

We saw the changing of the horse guards.

We practically ran everywhere. And since I had not slept on the plane it was tough. Walking the same way as everyone else does get you somewhere some times. We saw Big Ben (from a distance)

But at the other end of St. James Park - Its Buckingham Palace!

Who knew. (See I was there, these are not just pics from Wikipedia)

Well all the people that were there knew, just us"Travelers with no guide book".
Of course The Victoria Memorial Fountain is there also.

To end our day in England, we had lunch at an English tea house and then road the underground back to the airport. We caught the next plane without issue and flew to Hamburg. No we were not done traveling yet. After my travel partner lost his luggage in Hamburg (didn't make the flight) we had an 1.25 hour bus ride North to Kiel, Germany. Tired but very excited, we found the ship and our rooms and hit the hay. That was just the start.