*** CURRENT - 2020 - If your interested we're making some REALLY TERRIBLE videos based around food and family over at tyronebcookin.com . Our plan is to get better as we do more. LOL!***
[JULY 2019] THANK YOU for following our journey these last two years as our family served with Mercy Ships! We appreciate your prayers, encouragment, financial support...We are so grateful for you partnering with us! -- We are now back in Alabama trying to transition back into our community. ~ The Barton Family

Thursday, June 15, 2017

Campus Life & Basic Training

Wow! It's been busy since we arrived at the Mercy Ships International Support Center. There have been a lot of dear friends that still work here and new friends we are making.

Our housing is on campus. We share a house with a family from Holland. They are a younger family with three children ranging from 2 to 6. The children have fun playing together! They have 3
rooms on one side and we have 2 rooms on the other. The kitchen, dining, and living room we share. Some meals we have together and some are at the cafeteria. It's a little pre-taste of living in community with different nationalities and culture.

This week I (Tyrone) am training Monday through Friday in Basic Training. There are many exercises, tests, and exams. I will share a bit about the fire training with a few pictures. If you would like to see my full schedule for this past week and an overview of the details, here is the LINK.


Your partnership provides practical training for keeping everyone safe in our working environment. Above are some pictures of my fire training.
  • Full gear and self-contained breathing apparatus, or SCBA
  • Putting out different classes of fires 
  • Going in a burning container with a partner
  • Ambulance service on standby (just to watch and be available just in case...)
  • Buck is our 165-pound dummy we had to drag to safety. He is dead weight. And that's not as easy to move as you think with 45 to 60 pounds of gear on.
  • The temperature in the container climbing above 600 Fahrenheit.

Stephanie is getting the boys acclimated to our new surroundings. Helping the boys navigate the layout of the property. She recently attended a family "meet and greet" orientation. With so many changes we have enjoyed the campus having a pool. Great for a little family down-time!


Tytus wanted to have his picture taken with one of the many anchors here on the campus. Ezra did not want to take part. So I give you these 2 pictures. Ezra is wearing a Batman Robot Helmet he made himself.


Whether it's your prayers, gifts, and/or sharing our story, we are so thankful for you! We appreciate you taking the time to read our newsletters and emails! Please send in prayer requests you have for your family. We are teaching the boys to pray for others!

Our On Boarding training starts this Saturday!
We are currently at 95% financially and hope to close the gap on the other 5% soon.

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2020 UPDATE: We are back at tyronebcookin.com doing cooking posts on our blog and our Youtube channel Youtube.com/tyronebcookin.