The harvest is plentiful

“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few” I read aloud as I motioned to some volunteers from the congregation. Four people represented 40% of the world’s population who have not been reached with the gospel, and one man represented the 10% of Christian missionaries working with these people.

At the Franklin Town Church of God we were asked to take the service after worship. “G’day, my name is Chris and I come from Australia, the land of Kangaroos and Koalas” I said as I addressed the church. After our introductions I gave a presentation with the aim of mobilizing Christians in Jamaica to be a part of world mission. Jamaica and the surrounding Caribbean has been reached by the gospel by brave souls who came before us and now it is time for Caribbeans to go into all the world.

Others from the team presented a mime-dance and a testimony, and one gave a powerful sermon. Afterwards we were able to sell books for people who couldn’t make it to the ship.

I always enjoy the experience of speaking to a church body and helping them to understand the need for following the great commission.

Behind the Scenes

“I really like dressing in black and feeling what it is to be sort of selfless – you forget that people are watching you,” described Joy Lin (Taiwan). She and nine other crewmembers were responsible for the sound, lights, and video at an event in the Hope Theatre. Considering there are only six people in the audiovisual department, it is evident that making these types of events happen requires dedication. For a two-hour event, the team had a walk-through a few days earlier, a meeting the day before, and was on the job for seven hours the day of the event. However, for this bunch of crewmembers, it is important to see things from a deeper angle than just the technical side. Working behind the scenes can be difficult, but as Joy put it, “it teaches you to be humble.”
Source: http://www.omships.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5&Itemid=141&resourceid=R20352

Unforgettable anniversary

One year ago on 19 February, Logos Hope sailed into active service. An audiovisual summary of the year was presented last night – 23 ports, 18 countries and 565,000 visitors later as part of the celebrations. Throughout the evening crew and staff watched as due honour was given to the thousands of volunteers who contributed to the project of preparing the vessel. However, one of the most interesting aspects of the celebration was brought to light simply by the fact that 12 crewmembers from Doulos had arrived a few hours earlier. “The ship is only steel, but what’s really special is you, the community,” attested Director Gian Walser (Switzerland). This is true of both vessels although one has just completed her service and the other has just begun. The appreciated presence of OM Ships’ CEO, Peter Nicoll (South Africa), created added anticipation on board over the week leading up to this unforgettable anniversary.

Quayside Extravaganza

On our last weekend in Montego Bay, Jamaica many people queued for hours to visit the Logos Hope. To bless these people as they wait patiently in line we held a concert on the stage outside the ship. Early on Saturday morning the AV and events teams got our hands dirty putting out a portable stage and setting up some serious AV equipment to provide a high quality sound that could be heard far away.
Local artists and crew members performed on stage and people were captivated by their performance. Many shared their testimonies and the Gospel.
Pictured above is Sam Stainer from the U.K, the newest member of my AV team. He is a professional audio engineer and has run his own AV business for a few years before he visited the ship in London. He was impressed by the opening ceremony and talked with the AV manager on board who encouraged him to join up for two years. Immediately he decided this was what he would do, so he began to close down his business and a year later arrived in Montego bay. Praise God for bringing the right people at the right time!

Cash desk

“Just one moment Madam” I said calmly and politely as I scanned the many rows of buttons on the cash desk. Where was the button called “find product”? Finding it, I realised it couldn’t help me either! “Head cashier!” I called, then turned and smiled at the lady waiting to pay for her books.

A few days prior I had participated in cash desk volunteer training, since I figured I could help out when things got busy, and now I had been recruited to put my training into practice. But in the heat of the moment all of my training had left me. Most items presented have a barcode that will scan but every now and then there’s a product that doesn’t scan and you have to go searching for it in the system. Thankfully the head cashier was very helpful to me. To be honest I figured that the job of cash desk was fairly simple compared to my highly technical AV job but having experienced the stress of an impatient customer and a mystery product – I have a newfound respect for the cashiers.

I hope to have many more opportunities to help these people because like me they have busy times when there are just not enough people to do the job, and I’ve always wanted to try a retail job. I also quite enjoy that most orders come to over 2000 Jamaican dollars, which is like $40 Australian, and there’s no such thing as cents!

Goodbye old friends

I don’t cry often, but before the sun came up this morning I was standing outside crying and there was little I could do about it. My good friends Ravi and Philipp – along with many others – were leaving the ship forever. We’d had many goodbye parties and farewell speaches and now the dreaded moment had come, carrying bags down the gangway and packing them into vans, lining up for one last hug, saying my last goodbyes. There was no doubt we’d gone on an incredible journey together – for 8 months combined I had known them, and they had changed me as much as they had encouraged me. I hope to visit them both in the future, when I don’t know. I hope the ship will visit India one day, but I doubt it will visit Switzerland (being land-locked and all).

Since joining the ship I’ve made new friends, and now it’s time to focus attention on those relationships, but at the same time – people will come and go, but God will be with me all the time – and I need to learn to rely on Him and not on friends. Then I can truely be a friend to others, when I don’t put my needs on them.

Coming home

On monday the 30th I arrived home safe and sound at Sydney Airport and my parents drove me home. I am currently begining the process of settling into a normal life in Australia and re-connecting to friends and family. Please if you havn't had a chance to speak to me in person and you would like to, just reply to this e-mail.

While I was over in Europe I contributed to the IT (Information Technology) department and the AV (Audio/visual or production) Department. I helped build a storage room for all the AV equipment to be used for quayside events where the crowd is too big to fit on the ship, I helped unpack, configure and install 60 new dell computers, I wirebrushed (sanded paint off) 10 parcans (lighting enclosures) and re-painted them for use, I helped arrange donated food and drinks in a soup kitchen/shelter, I helped people use the ship's intranet to communicate valuable information to each other, I did AV / Production for a number of ship events taking the load off my leader, I helped run many cables all around the visitor experience deck and I helped install speakers in the ceiling on that deck. I could not have achieved these things without your support, so you have blessed the ship ministry in all those ways.

With the extra money I was given to spend for the ministry I purchased many small things including a DI box, A really cool electric screwdriver that can go around corners (which was amazingly helpful taking the ceiling panels down), Some paint and windsocks for microphones. It wasn't a great contribution considering the great financial needs of the ship, but these small things could be purchased immediately without being submitted for approval and waiting for delivery, so in that way these small things were a great help to the current ministry of the AV team.

Also while I was there I took the opportunity to visit Cafe Jerusalem, where free meals are given to regular patrons at breakfast and lunch and an evangelistic sermon is given each day before lunch. Along with helping with the store room, I was given the opportunity to share my testimony (my life story with Jesus if you will) with a crowd of non-believing down-and-out Germans (with a translator of course). It was a great experience for me to speak in front of a crowd about why I was there and why I was a Christian. I also had the pleasure of mixing with locals at an 'open ship' event on a friday night with an Australian theme, dressed in my boardshorts, cap, sunnies, thongs and zinc cream (it's ok, it's warm on the ship). I had the privilege of joining an ausie friend and praying with a German man who was struggling with his faith and doubting God and he was very encouraged by our honesty and our faith and left the ship with a new passion for God.

I don't know if I've chaged at all or learnt very much, but I suppose that is something that is difficult to measure. I thank you for giving me the opportunity to experience all that I did and I look forward to living life back here in this great country.