God had a special treat in store for us that morning. Along with the 95 other new crew members we sailed from the island of Trinidad where our training took place to the island of Tobago where the Logos Hope was berthed. A high speed catamaran ferried us to our final destination and it so happened that the ferry would pull up right beside the Logos Hope. As the ferry reversed in I noticed that most of the ship’s crew had come out to the quayside and up on deck and were waving flags and banners and cheering for us. We responded in kind with cheering and our new group chant “Scarborough: can we do it? Scarborough: yes we can!” – Scarborough being the name of the port we joined the ship in and therefore the name of our group.

After putting our bags through customs we lined up to enter our new home. As I walked up the jetty, crewmembers gathered on either side of the line into the ship and said hello and made tunnels with flags. I saw many people who I knew from the last time I was aboard the ship, some who I did not expect to see. I was so delighted to see so many old friends.

The first room we entered when boarding the ship was the Hope Theatre – the only two deck theatre space on board where the big events happen. Last time I was on the ship, the hope theatre was a storage area and a worshop for the carpenters, now it was a fully equiped audio-visual space with lighting and sound that I had only dreamed of. Better still, I looked up to the lighting booth and saw my best-ship-friend Ravi and he saw me and ran down to embrace me. It was so good to be reunited after a year. But not only was my friend there, I was with a group of friends who I had come to know at the pre ship training and I felt like I was exactly where I wanted to be and where God wanted me to be.