Teaching English

On Thursday I was able to visit a local Jr. College with 6 of my fellow crewmembers. As native English speakers, we had been invited to the school to speak English in the English classes. We spent the entire day speaking to 4 classes. Each class was about 20-40 students and we were given 90 minutes to talk and answer questions. After sharing a bit about the countries we came from, what the ship is all about and what our jobs are on board, we were able to share about Christ and why we all trust in Him.
Coming from a culture that does not tolerate "God" or "Jesus" or even "Christian" to be mentioned in public schools, it was surprising to see how much freedom we have in here in Germany. In one of the classes the teacher asked each of us to share why we had chosen to give up the comforts of home to live on a ship for two years. Each of us was able to share our missions testimony, and how God called us to the ship's ministry.
By the end of the presentations all the students were invited to visit the ship, which is about 30 miles from school. I was encouraged this Monday morning when I found out that two of the students had come for a visit the ship over the weekend, and more of the students want to get involved with the project of finishing the Logos HOPE.
A big praise to God that he could use us in an English class to share is grace to others, and a prayer that more students will be challenged to find out what we and God are all about. Pray also for more opportunities for us to visit schools and share so freely.

School's Out!... what now?

Friday, last week was my last day as a teacher. I am truly blessed to have had such a wonderful class. And I am thankful for the opportunity to serve the ship's community by spending time teaching the kids. I will miss my short workdays and the youthful energy that greeted me each morning, but there is still more ahead for me. What is my new job? I don't know yet.
After this week of transition where I hand over my class to the new (real) teacher, I will be training for another department. I've been asked to join the Line Up team. This will be a HUGE change and a big commitment. Please pray for me next week as I attended an orientation class and pray that I can see God's path clearly.

What is Line Up? The line up team is usually a group of 3 or 4 that go ahead of the ship and prepares a port for the ship's visit. This would include getting to know the local churches and pastors, doing PR, talking with government officials regarding customs and visas, we are responsible to find a berth and organize opportunities for ship company to minister on shore, as well as arrange on board conferences. As you can see this is a big job for just 3 people!! In March we have a team of 3 heading to England to start line up for one of the cities there; they plan to be there for 6 months.

I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do. I like the idea of Line Up and being involved in all the little details. But on the other hand, I would be leaving behind my friends here and having to work and live with the same 3 people for 6 months. The great thing is that God’s in control and he wouldn't give me anything I couldn't handle.... maybe a little uncomfortable at times, but nothing I couldn't do with out Him.
Thank you for your prayers and support, especially this next week as I enter the unknown.

New PST

On Tuesday, 5th of Feburary, we had 50 new people join our community on board the Logos HOPE. It's hard to believe that just 5 months ago we were in the same place as they are now. Just getting to know one another, just getting to know the already established community onboard, finding our jobs, and surviving "pool day"!
In this time of change, I've also got a new cabin, and 3 new roommates. I'm really excited about the cabin. It's on deck 5, about twice the size of my old cabin on deck 2 and it has it's own bathroom!! I think that's the part I'm most thrilled about! The night before my new roommates arrived I threw myself an "open house" and had some peeps over to celebrate. All, of course had fun, and at the height of the party we had 20 people inside the cabin!
Tuesday night we had a huge welcome party for the new recruits.Vanoosh (Australia) and myself were in charge of the party and it was a great success! The party included a Ceilidh (pronounced Kay-Lee), which is a Scottish barn dance. It was our third ceilidh this year!
My new roommates are Meg (Australia), Satu (Finland) and Uzma (Pakistan). I'm looking forward to getting to know each of them and the rest of their PST as they begin to settle in to life on board the Logos HOPE.

Overnight Church Team

For one Sunday in the month of January the churches in Germany come together, within their denominations, and have a huge Sunday service. Along with 3 others from the ship I was able to go on an overnight church team to the city of Lubeck, where we were responsible for a children’s service. Our team was well balanced and strong at children’s programs. Beside myself, it was Matthijs (Netherlands), Haelyn (Trinidad &Tobago), and Jana (Germany). We presented the ship and the idea of missions to the 100 kids in attendance that day. Through dramas, a slideshow and a video we challenged the kids to be missionaries in their own city or, someday in the future, around the world.
We were the first team sent to the city of Lubeck and it was exciting to see how God used the Children’s service to talk to the parents in the church. Since our visit we have had several families come to visit us and ask how they can help.
One family’s young son, Lucas, was so excited about the ship that he insisted that his parents drive him the 2 hour trip west to visit the ship the following weekend. Mom, Dad, Grandma, big brother and Lucas enjoyed dinner with us, followed with a tour of the ship. After the tour Grandma signed up to be a project worker, and for the past week has been working in our galley helping the team prepare meals for the 300 people currently on board.
While on the church team, God was teaching us to trust in him and that being a missionary can be as simple as a smile to a child.