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.

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!

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.