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.

Traveling to Koge

Having finally finished putting in the generator in dry dock in Landskrona the ship limped over to Koge, Denmark for the final stage of outfit getting ready for the Passenger Ship Safety Certificate.

We traveled over the landbridge between Sweeden and Denmark. The bus stopped in Copenhagen where we spent the afternoon looking around the city. I liked Copenhagen and the Kings Gardens were magnificent, but on the whole, I was over tourism. We caught a train home at the end of the day in time to walk on the ship.

Cable work on deck 4

During dry dock, while there are less people on board and less AV operation tasks to take up our time, we have been running cables in deck four - the visitor experience deck. The cables are for audio and video for the various venues including the book ex, international cafe and welcome centre. Videos or announcements can be played on the screens from any of these locations and music can be played over speakers in the ceiling or announcements can be made. Ravi and I have been working away with out hands (and sometimes our heads) in the ceiling, running cables along the lovely cable trays in the deck head. It's dirty, painful, hard work (there's a lot of sharp things in the roof) but it's very satisfying to finish running and tying down a bunch of cables. Soon we will actually run the speaker wire for the speakers and install them in the ceiling.

Mission Experience

Last Wednesday night I headed out with a group from the ship into the town of Landskrona with the intention to spread the Gospel amongst the people there. We split up into groups of three people to make it less imposing. I chose to go with two good friends from the ship, who like me had not prepared for the journey so we had no tracts or bibles or anything. Also we didn't really know what we were doing so we spent a lot of time walking around the town looking for someone to talk to. After much walking we eventually ran into a man with a dog sitting on a park bench. My friend Todd patted the dog and then we began to chat with the man. I explained that we came from a ship in the shipyard and we had people from over 50 countries on board and the ship goes around the world selling books in countries where books are hard to get, and that we help out with building projects and disaster relief. Then I added that we spread the good news of Jesus Christ. He said "Oh, you believe in Jesus?" "Yes" - "You believe in God" "Yes" - "What is God's name?" - I didn't know where he was going with this but eventually we figured out that he was a Jehovah's witness. We talked with him for a while working out the differences and trying to challenge him about freedom and relationships. I prayed quietly while Todd asked more questions. Eventually I think we caused him to stumble a little and maybe he had to re-think something, but overall we didn't get very far before he decided he didn't want to talk any more.
It was an interesting experience, I'd like to know more about witnessing to other religions. Please pray that I receive more of these opportunities in the coming weeks.

The Island

Today a group of people headed from the mainland over to a little green island covered in wind turbines. We took the Logos Hope's rescue boat which is fairly nimble but only takes 4 passengers at a time. It was great getting a little boatride.
We walked the length of the island to explore, mostly we found these wind turbines (which we knew were there obviously) and some dirty water and some tracks. We found a bird sanctuary and several interesting looking sheds probably related to the windfarms. There were dirt roads all over the island, which seemed silly because any car would not be able to go anywhere but around the island.
On the otehr side of the island we met up with some more people from the Logos Hope at what appeared to be a beach where we could relax and go for a swim. It was pretty relaxing lying in the sun there. but...
In the end the 'beach' didn't deliver on an important point - there was water, but it only went up to my knees for around 500 meters. I walked and walked and walked until it reached my waist and then we played in the water a bit and went back. Also the water was full of seaweed - as was the shore. It makes me miss the Australian beaches.

Exploring Landskrona

Today we went out into the town to see what we could see-see-see. Much to our surprise the town of Landskrona with it's ugly shipyard is actually the most beautiful township I've ever laid my eyes upon. It totally blows Kiel out of the water. Earlier I described Sweeden as Northrend because of it's geographical location but it seems much more like Goldshire to me. So many beautiful parks with lakes and trees and lamp-posts.
So when my German friend saw this sign he commented "Hey, do you know what that sign says?" and of course I replied "Nope" because it's in sweedish - duh. He then said "Neither do I! Isn't it great?". It fees good to be in a country where Matt can no longer understand the language either. Apparently Sweedish people speak good english - that's good because Sweedish is freaky.
So Matt and I found these pens with various animals in them including these Llamas, which didn't seem too interested in us, despite the German's amazement at such a creature. We also found some young Llamas which we petted and some young bulls. Matt climed into the pen and stared down the bull for a while.
Man this lake was so beautiful that I just had to cry.

Arriving in Landskrona

Finally we arrived in landskrona a little after 15:00. The shipyard where we are staying is heavily industrialised and looks dangerous and ugly, but it sure is fascinating. There is a ship next to us that is being sandblasted and painted in the dry dock. Apparently we have to wait for 10 days to get into the drydock because another ship got in ahead of us because they paid more money. It's going to be rough and tough here in Landskrona, but since there are fewer people on board it'll be a time of community building as well as hard work.

Leaving Kiel

Today the logos hope finally sailed out of Kiel after a long stay in the northen German town. As the ship still is not registered as a passenger ship it can only take 80 crew while sailing, so any non-essential personnel had to go by land in a bus - that means me and thankfully all my friends as well. Here you see me and Philipp waiting on the keyside for the ship to sail away
Many from local churches and the community at large came to say good-bye to the ship and it's crew, many visiting the day before and during the morning before forming a large crowd on the quayside to send off the ship that has been a large part of the christian community in Kiel for many months.
Finally sailing away it still required two tugs to navigate safely out of the harbor. Everyone cheered and there were many horns-a-honking including car horns, air horns and finally the big, manly ship horn.
So with the ship gone the remnants of the ship's crew walked down the road to a local church where we spent the night on the floor before heading off to Sweeden on a coach. We were all very excited and a little disapointed to be not sailing with the ship, but it was fun nonetheless.

A new look

So dry dock is on the way - a time of dirtyness and hard work where the showers and toilets may be a long way from my room - off the ship for example. So I've decided that I don't really like hair normally and I'm really going to hate having dirty unwashed hair so I got rid of all of it.
So far all the Australians have approved of my haircut, and everyone else has asked "What happened???". I personally think it's pretty cool, but that's just me. Also now all the Aussie guys have shaved their heads, most of them adding some sort of feature - like mohawks.

Hope Fest

This weekend we opened the doors of the Logos Hope - more accurately we set up the gangways to deck 4, the visitor experience deck. There were cultural exibits from many different countries and regions including Australia.
On saturday night we put on a stunning program for the people of kiel with dances, songs, flags and costumes from every nation on board.
Here is a performance from some of the many South Koreans on board.
We also did a number of dramas including for the first time ever on Logos Hope "Everything" (search for lifehouse everything skit on youtube and you'll see what I mean).

Open Ship - Ich kommen aus Australian

Every Friday night is open ship night and last week was Australian themed, so there were Aussie flags and Vegemite and thongs and green and gold. I wore my board shorts and t-shirt, sunnies, thongs and zinc cream and directed people up the stairs. I also took part in a game where three people had to make human sculptures of Australian landmarks - the Germans scored more applause somehow... At the end Meg and I were talking to a German man who had kind of shaky hands, as the conversation went on it became apparent that he had some sort of mental ailment. He was a Christian but he was going through some struggles and our listening ear and some of Meg's words were a great comfort to him and we got to pray with him (though he was certain to mention he didn't want us to touch him) and he felt a lot better when he had been prayed for and talked to and left the ship. So there's some small way in which I was able to help reach out to people on the ship.
Sorry there were no pictures :-(

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.