Easter eggs painted like famous figures like George Verwer, Easter sunday service on Saturday night and working on good Friday. This year’s Easter was not like the previous years on the ship.
This Easter the ship that I live on is in a dry dock – which means it’s out of the water for repairs to the hull and the engines. We work hard from 7am till 6pm and have many local workers come on board to help us complete the work on time. The dockyard is in South Asia, in a country where other world religions dominate the landscape and Christianity remains a minority – so there’s little allowance for us to stop work and reflect. But we did find time to have a special prayer evening on Thursday night, watch the passion of the Christ on Friday night and have a resurrection church service on Saturday night – Easter eve. Even though we were hard at work, it was impossible to escape the reality that Jesus suffered for us. The movie The Passion of the Christ really brings home the full impact of what he did for us. In church we were reminded that we will also undergo suffering and trials if we are to grow and share in his glory ‘If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.’ and ‘In this world you will have trouble but take heart, I have overcome the world’.