Nikki's Birthday / swing day

Today was Nikki's birthday and so most of the youth of the ship headed down the road to the swings, some 10 to 12 meters high stood two of the swings pictured below. It was a fantastic fun picnic, though there was very little food to speak of beside the corn chips I provided. You can see in the photo below Rob and Adam from Australia attempting a 4-person swing. The temperature was a lovely 22 degrees and the sun was shining and T-shirts were seen far and wide - It seems like this place actually has a summer.
Of course like any good day, today was finished off with a LAN party and watching Battlestar Gallactica. Yes we do actually do some work on the ship as well.

Moving Berth

In breaking news this April the Logos hope has moved berth about 2kms down the fjord. It was a most exciting event. It's the closest I'll get to sailing with the ship on this particular trip. Interestingly because of tax reasons, this time we were not able to use our own engines to move, so we had tug-boats tug us down the fjord.

The Carnival is in town

Last week the carnival arrived in town at the end of the Fjord and like good boys and girls many from the ship including myself have been taking in the sights. Each ride costs about 2 Euros - which may sound cheap, but it's really almost $4 Australian - and there are around 4 or 5 big scary kind of rides, two of which I've now tried. The one in the above picture is similar to Wonderland's Wizard's fury ride going around in circles really, really fast only the differce being that the bar that holds you in doesn't seem to lock - adding an extra element of fear.
This ride is called the break dancer - and if this is what it feels like to be a breakdancer than I'm glad I don't dance. There are a bunch of little taxi's that spin around really, really fast and after going on this ride I threw up in my mouth - yuck. Both the above rides I went on with Rob the Aussie IT guy among others. They went on to ride on this crazy big ride that goes upside down and Rob felt pretty bad afterwards.
On another night I had a go at the dodgem cars, and these tracks either don't have the no bumping on purpose rule or I just can't read the signs so there were many, many head-on collisions with angry, drunk German people and with Shama my friend from Shri-lanka
I also shot some darts with a crossbow and won a prize.

Springtime in Kiel

Spring has finally arrived and the town is coming to life. Trees are bluming and the sun is shinning. Today I went out to the park to play ultimate frisbee with some guys from the ship. It was loads of fun and the sun was warm - it felt a little like home (but without that skin-cancer-causing-inferno-style-sunshine)
Several cruise ships have been pulling up next to us - gosh they are huge! Some have basketball courts on the upper decks and pools and casinos. On the 26th of this month we have to move to another berth and then next month we have to move back to ostseekai and then back again before leaving for Sweeden!

Cafe Jerusalem

Last Thursday I had the wonderful opportunity to take a 'ministry day' in the town of Neumünster in what could loosly be described as a soup-kitchen called Cafe Jerusalem. This little establishment serves breakfast and lunch to around 30 local people who are unable to feed themselves - but it doesn't end there. Every day before lunch the director of the cafe leads an evangelical devotion which appears to be having some effect on the patrons. In the last year 3 people have been led to the Lord through this ministry and subsequently join in a weekly bible study to nurture them in their christian infanthood and eventually link them with a local church.
I was joined by a mexican lady named Mirjam, an american named Christian and my good friend from Germany, Matt (that's the short version of his name). Miriam and Christian worked in the kitchen cooking up breakfast and lunch and Matt (being the only german speaker) helped on the counter serving coffee and tea. Each guest can have 2 free drinks.
So where was I working? I was in the storeroom sorting out boxes. Why? because just like back home, they have a person who can find just about any kind of food or drink for free in ridiculous quantities (just like John and Barbara). Whilst some of the food is sent to the Logos Hope (becuase you can't have spaghetti every day for four years), the rest is in a bunch of crates all mixed up and out of order.
So I had to sort out the returnable from the non-returnable and get everything nice and neat. This way they can get to what they need a whole lot faster.

During lunchtime devotions the director called us up so he could introduce us and I gave a short testimony (which Matt translated for me) and Christian gave his - the director told us that hearing actual people living christian lives really helps them get past the theory and decide to make a choice for themselves.

So this was a fantastic opportunity and I think I'll do it again at least once before I go.

Return to Laboe

Last weekend I went back to the submarine at Laboe with a few new fiends who hadn't been there yet. This time instead of taking the bus to the town we took a cute little ferry all the way up the fjord. In the background of the photo I'm standing at the back of the ferry and the blue crane in the background is exactly opposite the Logos Hope.
The ferry was two decks high and was nice and warm inside and it even had a little bar where you could buy drinks and snacks.

The reason I went to the sub this time was to accompany a brittish man named John whom I met the night before and watched 'das boot' - a german submarine war movie set on the same model of submarine that's in laboe - and also to take (and sponsor) my good friend Ravi who is a missionary from India (oh how the tables have turned with India sending missionaries into the western world). Ravi really enjoyed the ferry ride (he'd never been on a ferry before, only on the Logos hope and that hasn't moved yet) and the submarine. It felt really good to bless him with the day's adventure.
Also I got the change to get this photo - look how small I am!