Furlough

Sitting on the couch, driving a car, watching TV, going to Starbucks, it's the everyday things that I was looking to most while coming home to San Diego for a 6 week furlough. It's been such a wonderful time to catch up with friends I haven't seen in two years. And it's been a blessing to meet with some of my supporters to talk about what God has been doing on the Logos Hope and what He has planned for me in this coming year!
Since being home I've also been able to play tour guide to my good friends from the ship, Matthijs and Jobina. On their way back to the Netherlands, they spent two days with me enjoying Sea World, Downtown, Pt. Loma and the popular tourist destination of El Cajon.... of course a trip to the Yogurt Mill was included.
I've been very thankful for this relaxing time at home, such a contrast to ship life. On board I live and work with 400 other people. Everyday I eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner with 400 other people. I share a cabin and I share an office. And because we are visiting Caribbean islands with "rough" port areas we must always be in groups when we leave the ship. With so many people everyday in my life, I am soaking up every minute to be alone, walk alone, shop alone and drive alone. And most importantly, spending lots of extra time with God.

Ship Family Time

My Ship family had an opportunity to take the ship vans out for a day at the beach! It was a great time of bonding and relaxing. We headed to the North side of Trinidad to a beach named, Maracas Bay. It is one of the most beautiful beaches on the island. It's famous for a local dish called "Bake n Shark". There a bunch of stands selling the food. It reminds me a lot of a shark taco, but instead of tortillas, they use a fried flat bread. It was awesome!
My ship family: Meyoung Ju (S. Korea), David & Jonathan (Sweden), Maddy (UK), Rahel (Swiss), Amanda & Me (USA), Andy & Micha (Germany), Holly, Jon, Nate, Zac & Gabe (USA/Australia), Lucio (UK), Annette (Jamaica)

Ship families are a group of people that meet once a week and hang out. Kinda like a real family, they are people that you enjoy spending limited time with, but not necessarily people that you spend everyday with. Ship families are also nice, because they give a steady unit of people who will celebrate important times in our lives.
For example, my "ship dad" had his birthday recently.
I'm pretty blessed, that my ship parents are actually my friends from home. My childhood friend Holly and her husband are my "mom and dad". For Jon's birthday we had Mexican food!!! It was feat but we pulled it off... meat and cheese from the ship, tortillas from Germany, enchilada sauce from Ireland, and comics from the US.

Two Years Ago...

September 15, 2007 I took my first steps onto the Logos 2. My first steps on board one of OM's ships. WOW. I can't believe how fast those two years have flown by. Where did the time go? Looking back at pictures and reminiscing has been short lived, as life on board the ships is every-changing and mostly busy. I've said good-bye to many of the people I joined with, people I've spent the last two years with, like a family. I've also said hello to the 96 new people who joined our ship last week, filling in the hole left by my fellow ship mates. I've also been very busy with work and organizing the local volunteers who come to help make the ship's visit a successful one in their home country.
But looking back over these two years I can see where God has encouraged me, taught me, used me, molded me, and loved me. I could tell of the time I had to learn to have joy in every situation, even in dark times. Like when I had to work in the book hold, doing manually labor fighting depression because my task seemed never ending and never rewarding. How discouraged I was everyday that the book hold was looking just as dirty as the day before. God was teaching me to be happy, and embrace those times, instead of being bored, I should rejoice in God's faithfulness and promise that He is always with us.
I can also look back on bright times, when I had peace in my spirit and a good attitude. When things seemed to be going my way, but I could only express gratitude to my God, because I knew that He was making things go my way. Like when I was able to see thousands of people come to the ship, and even though we didn't have enough team members to make it work, each visitor still got presented the gospel through one-on-one conversations. Or when God used me to "talk" to Deaf who came on this ship.
Right now I'm at peace. I'm excited for this new year with the Logos Hope to begin. I know that I'm right where God wants me. That He is using me to minister to the local volunteers. After every port, I'm still in awe that the volunteers walk away with so much excitement for Jesus and missions. I'm in awe because whenever I think the program we are doing is poor or lacking, those are the days that the Spirit takes over and volunteers meet God. To God be the glory!
I'll be home in about 4 weeks time. I can't wait to meet with each of you individually. I would love to share my "God Stories" with you. Please contact me or my mom if you would like to arrange a meeting when I get home. I'll only be in the San Diego for 6 weeks, then I come back to the ship for one more year of commitment.
You can email me at: jessica.edwards@gbaships.org

Volunteer Fun

We've been in the Caribbean for 41 days now, and seems like so much longer! God has filled my days with so much to do and prepare, but best of all with people!
We've had over 90 volunteers join us while we've been in these first three ports. The local people volunteer for the entire ship's visit, but it's not only to work. We offer a discipleship program where they work for part of the day, but also attend trainings and get to interact with our international crew.
Every time we come to the end of the port I'm amazed by God's hand in their lives. Sometimes I feel that what I'm doing isn't that important, or the volunteer really isn't appreciating the program we've developed.... but then, we ask to fill in an evaluation and everyone comes back with the same answers:
"please stay longer" "God has taught me about being a servant" "I want to live for Christ daily, just as the crew of the Logos Hope as been an example of"
God has given me the unique opportunity to be used in a position that gets to connect with the locals, by sharing a little bit of our world, and a whole lot of Jesus' love with them. I'm encouraged by the growth and knowledge that so many of our volunteers take away with them as the ship leave's their port.
Please pray with me that their enthusiasm for serving God in their own countries will not fade away. And pray also for the next bunch of volunteers we will get in Trinidad, as it is going to be a very BUSY port with lots of visitors expected to attend!

St. Vincent

We've been in the Caribbean almost two weeks. God has blessed us with beautiful weather, a beautiful island and lots of beautiful people. My new role is working with the volunteers who come to work along side our crew members while we visit their city. It's been a blessing and encouragement to meet local believers and see how eager they are to pursue God's plan for their lives.


We had a ship outing last week, 160 people in 7 mini-buses. We toured around the island, hiked in the jungle, went to the beach and visited one of the sites where Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed. It was such a great day!

Work Experience

Everyone on board has a job. A way for them to contribute to the community, a way to support the ministry through responsibility of the day to day chores that need to be done on the ship. Traditionally a new recruit starts in a service type job (cleaning, cooking, engine room, ect..) and after 6 months to a year, they are moved on to a more specific job, (such as events, port preparation, service desk, ect..) So on average a 2-year G.A. (Global Action-er) would have 2-4 jobs during their 25 months with the ship.

I'm above average! Here are the jobs I've had...

1. Laundry Queen: 15 to 20 loads of laundry a day, for the 200 people on board the Logos II. Duration: Sept 07 - Nov 07
2. Kid's Camp Director: Implement and plan a two week Kid's camp for 17 ship kids age 4 to 15. Duration: Nov 07 - Dec 07
3. K2 Teacher: Taught 7 students in grades 3-5. Duration: Dec 07- Feb 08
4. Angel: Worked in the accommodations department, known as Angels. They clean the public spaces and prepare guest cabins. Duration: Feb 08
5.Line-Up: Completed Orientation on how to do port preparation for the ship's visit to future cities. Never went on assignment, the ship was never ready. Duration March 08 - April 08
6. Events: While waiting for a line-up destination, I helped to plan onboard events, including being in charge of HopeFest in Kiel; a weekend long international bizzare on our public deck 4. Duration: April 08 - June 08
7. Project Team: Still waiting for a line-up assignment, helped with wire-brushing, painting, chipping, sanding, and all kinds of other methods of cleaning rust and welding slag in the book hold, Charlie and baggage locker. Duration: June 08 - Sept 08
8. Angel (again): Left Line-up because there was no idea when I would be sent out, so I spent so humbling time back on the Angels team. Duration: Sept 08
9. Community Ministries: Worked with outside Librarians to set up the LH Crew Library. Planned the holiday calendar, Christmas, New Years and a Fun Night. Duration Sept 08 - Jan 09
10. Assistant Creative Manager for the temporary Journey of Life/Port Side display: Helped to create and resource supplies for the port side project, which evolved into a photo gallery, theater, kid's area and prayer room. Duration: Jan 09 - March 09
11. Visitor Experience Shift Leader: Over saw the day to day operations on Deck 4. Ensuring all positions where covered by e-day people. Duration: March 09 - July 09
12. Visitor Experience Team Leader: Oversaw the deck 4 shift leaders. Duration July 09
13. Volunteer Coordinator: Working with the local volunteers, who come to serve while the ship is in their port. Duration July 09 - present

Farewell to Europe

After 11 ports and 5 months of ministry we left Europe. I'm so proud to say that I was able to be part of the Visitor Experience team welcoming 140,000 people onto deck 4! God was with us everystep of the way. And it was only through Him that we not only survived being severly under-manned on the deck, but more importantly, we were able to show Christ's love and His free gift of salvation to each of people that visited the ship.
Now we are following the sun and heading to the warm sunny climate of the Caribbean. I'm most excited about being able to wear shorts, packing away all the winter clothes and having to use sunscreen everyday.
I can't wait to see what God has in store for all of us in the islands. Please pray that as we journey across the Atlantic, that God will use this time to teach, train, prepare and unite us before we reach the new culture of the Caribbean.

Faroe Islands

Do you know where the Faroe Islands are? Have you ever heard of the Faroe Islands before? I didn't, I hadn't. Wow. I have been blessed by the landscape of God's beauty and the generous hearts of the Faroese people.
The Faroe Islands are 18 islands that sit half way between Scotland and Iceland. There is a population of 40,000 and Denmark claims them as a territory.
My ship is registered in the Faroe Islands, and before we bought her, she was the main ferry that carried people and cars to Mainland Europe. Everyone in the Faroes has been on board her. They were excited to see how she has been transformed into "God's Ship".
As Crew members, we were never at a lost of invitation out to see the islands, or have a home-cooked meal. On our Monday off, a local guy named Jakup picked up myself and 6 of my friends for an all day adventure. The highlights were eating whale meat and rotten lamb (Both staples of the Faroese diet.) And we also climbed a mountain to take in the view of all the fjords.
Early in the visit I met a deaf couple. Mei was from the Faroe Islands and her fiance Bryan was from Malaysia. They were both deaf and met at an American Bible College in Hungry. Wow, it was there that they both developed their American Sign Language. I was able to spend a lot of time with them, and even interpreted our Sunday Service and two ship tours! I'm still in awe at how much God is using my hands to communicate. And how much He brings to memory after not really signing for almost two years.
God really used the Faroe people to bless the ship's company with a much needed break. While we were there we were able to welcome close to 15,000 people on deck 4. We were also able to visit most of the local churches. We shared a lot about world missions and acting out your faith. That Christ calls us to spread his good news.
After the sun and fun of the Faroes, we sailed on to Belfast, Northern Ireland.

SCOTLAND

It was our first UK port and had a lot of visitors. It actually took some adjustment to be in a country where everyone spoke English. God was present and lots of people came to the ship and were presented with the gospel.
Almost every day of the week we had schools coming on board to visit the ship. One school that came for a visit was a local Muslim school that was studying transportation with their kindergartners. The asked us to not share anything about our faith, but to only focus on the ship. The amazing thing is that after the tour and program, the teachers were more interested in why we do what we do, and said they would return with their families.
Another story from our International Cafe, is about a church that partnered with us. They invited a business that is near them to come and visit the ship. The employees came to the ship, bought books, and spent time in the I-Cafe talking with crew members. By the end of their visit 3 of them had asked how they could become Christians!
Let's thanks God for the three new believers and the curiosity of the teachers.

Open Ship

The ship has been open since we left Denmark in February. This means that everyday, but Monday, we allow guest and visitors to come on board. They come to visit the world's largest floating bookstore, to learn about the crew and the purpose of the ship, they can enjoy a refreshment in the International Cafe, and they have conversations with crew members. Through it all we have weaved the gospel. As they first come on deck 4, they sit in a mock-lifeboat and watch a video about life on our ship, and are asked the question: "Where do you place your hope?".
It's been encouraging to hear the stories of people lost, confused, depressed, and searching, who coming on board the ship and find a reason to live and that Jesus cares for them.



Last Saturday was our busiest day since the ship opened.... we welcomed 2,800 people in one day. And what's more amazing is that most of those people were just walking by on their way towards a beach. They have no church background and spontaneously decided to come and check out this big white ship sitting in their harbor. Altogether we have had 20,000 people visit the ship in the last 18 days while we have been in Scheveningen, Netherlands.
Tomorrow we sail to Scotland.. bright and early at 7:00 am.

SAILING!!!

Today is the day the Logos Hope sails, for the first time, a reregistered passenger ship and ready to bring knowledge, help and hope to the nations of the world. I didn't really feel the excitement of this historic event until the mooring lines where released and we heaved off the quayside. What a moment!!
On Sunday of this week we needed a miracle to be able to sail, we still had outstanding documents and insurance matters to take care of. We prayed. On Monday we were "grounded" by the Danish Authorities who would not let us leave to Sweden until we had some Danish required paperwork. We prayed. On Tuesday we resigned to the fact that we would have to wait the 2 to 6 weeks it would take for all the paperwork to come through. We prayed. On Wednesday morning, all the paperwork had gone through, we had fuel in our tanks and the Swedish port was ready for us! We Praised.
God is constantly creating miracles. He is a provider when there seems to be no way. Please join me in giving thanks to the awesome God who made all this possible.
Today we are sailing.
We are off to Sweden for the weekend. You can keep track of us and see where in the world we are with the following link:
http://www.omships.org/dashboard/

SAILING!!!

The time has been long in coming, but next week could be the week!
This week we learned that we have been granted our PSSC, Passenger Certificate. As we wait for the insurance and other documents that were dependent on the PSSC to clear, the realization that we are actually going to sail hasn't yet sunk in.
I think the moment we heave off the quayside and pull in the mooring ropes, will be the moment my heart rejoices. Praise the Lord, we sail soon!!
With this news also comes a published list of our future ports:

Port - Arrival Date - Departure Date
Koege, Denmark June 22nd - TBA

Gothenburg, Sweden February 20th - February 23rd

Harlingen, Netherlands February 25th - March 10th

Scheveningen, Netherlands March 11th - March 30th

Edinburgh, Scotland - UK April 1st - April 14th

unconfirmed port, Faroe Islands April 16th - April 27th

Belfast, Northern Ireland - UK April 29th - May 12th

Dublin, Ireland May 13th - May 26th

Cardiff, Wales - UK May 27th - June 9th

London, England - UK June 11th - June 29th

Cork, Ireland July 1st - July 14th

Kingstown, Saint Vincent July 30th - August 18th

This information is also on a Logos Hope web page... follow this link:
Logos Hope Itinerary

I hope to see some of you visit me in the future, now that you know where I'll be.
Some important information:

1. I will have limited email access. This means I will only be checking my ship's email regularly.
jessica.edwards@gbaships.org
Facebook may be sporadic and there will not be any Skype or I-tunes downloading (this means no LOST!) unless I find an internet cafe, or hot spot.

2. The ship's phone number will always be:
USA: +1 954 518 7256
UK: +44 1228 815 299

3. My permanent mailing address will always be:
Jessica Edwards
LOGOS HOPE
Alte Neckarelzer Str. 2
74821 Mosbach, Germany


Keep checking the Logos Hope Website, to follow our progress and find out when we REALLY sail away from Denmark and into the rest of the world.
Thank you for your prayers and support!

What's up?

There are lots of new things on the horizon from jobs, people and soon the open ocean!

If I ever showed my ship resume to a company on land, I think I would be laugh out of the office. I've had 10 jobs in the past 16 months. I don't know if it's a record, but I feel extremely blessed to work in almost every department on board the ship and to work with so many amazing people. The current position I'm filling was non-existent before I stepped in. I made the title up myself... here' goes: Assistant Creative Project Manager for the Deck 4 PSSP (Port Side Special Project) for the UK, Ireland & Netherlands Port Visits.

What does it mean? After the guest come on board and visit the book store they will enter the PSSP part. In the future this space will be called the "Journey of Life" and be where we present Help, Hope and the gospel. However, that area won't be completed by the time we travel to the UK. So they have enlisted me and my team leader, Su-Ling (Singapore) to come up with the concept and construction of the space. It's a big job and I'm excited about all the possibilities. Please pray that I do not become overwhelmed with the grandness of the job; my responsibilities are delegating task, budgeting and overseeing the construction of display walls, and a mini-theatre. But more importantly, pray for the visitors that come on board, that there hearts will be opened to Christ.

Next week we also receive our new recruits! This is always a thrilling time on board, as we get to meet new friends from around the world and welcome them into our community. Currently they are training in Germany. You can pray that they are ready for this adventure and trusting in God to grow and shape them over these next two years.


The last week of this month also brings a monumental occasion we have all be waiting for.... the PSSC, the certification that will allow us to sail as a passenger vessel. There are surveyors coming to inspect every nook and cranny of the ship, to make sure all our emergency procedures are in place and to insure that ship is safe for passengers. Once we have that certificate, we can leave Denmark and head off to new ports, for the ministry this book ship was built for. Pray that we pass and all the last minute projects will be finished quickly, efficiently, and safely.

New Year

Christmas came and went, followed quickly by new years and before we know it January will soon be over. These past few months I've been working with community ministries and had the great pleasure of preparing all the holiday activities for our 350 member community and their guests.
I now look forward to a new role, I will be serving with Public Ministries and working with the Experience Deck. An unique quality about the Logos Hope is that the whole of deck 4's purpose is to serve and minister to the guest that come on board.
My role on deck 4 is still in it's infancy and as I write this I'm not even sure what my responsibilities will be. But it will have something to do with guest relations, sharing the gospel with those who come on board in our future ports.
I'm looking forward to what God has in store for me this year. As I look back on 2008 I realize that words can not describe my thanks and appreciation for each one of you and all you have meant to me these past 16 months that the Lord has allowed me to serve on the Logos Hope.

Happy New Year from the the entire crew!