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.

One thing I have learned from the story of Jonah is that God will use even the most unwilling missionary to acheive his purposes. This week I had the opportunity to reach out to several people in the course of my own affairs.

One thing that made the Dutch Caribbean special for me, was that we were allowed to go onshore by ourselves, and in Aruba we were berthed near a lovely shopping strip. So knowing that my opportunites for such things would be limited in the future, I put on a hat and grabbed my wallet and left the ship, telling only the watchkeeper that I was no longer on board.

Where would I go? What would I do? I didn’t know. I simply walked down the street and begain to look at some souvineers for sale at a stand. A lady was calling out for island tours and another lady – a tourist – was partially interested. I went over to get some more information. The tour seemed relatively cheap and I though to myself “why not” so I agreed to come and so did the other lady. Waiting for the bus to pick us up we chatted breifly, she was from Germany and was holidaying on a cruise ship with her husband. I shared breifly where I was from and the name of my ship – which to her seemed like another cruise ship.

The tour guide took us to these amazing rock formations in the middle of the island for some photos where she took some photos of me with my camera. Then we went to this amazing little catholic church. While we were there she asked a little more about my ship and I explained how I work on board the ship and that everyone is a volunteer and we work for two years without going home – she was amazed – so then I explained what we do in a port, and then the reason being that we want to tell people about Jesus and pass on the blessing he has given to us. She was suitably impressed and said she might come visit one day, since her ship is next to mine.

On the way back to the town, the tour guide pointed out at the ocean and said “That ship there is the Logos, the book ship” – and saying this pointed straight to a very similar looking ship called Freewinds. The Freewinds is actually a vessel owned by Scientology, and is a training vessel. So I helped him to understand that the Logos Hope was actually berthed in the cruise ship terminal. Then he said “we usually like to visit the logos because we can get cheap books, but this government minister has stopped them selling books”. This was true, but 3 days after we arrived we settled the matter and were able to sell again – so I explained this all to him and the others in the bus, so he said he’d come and visit in the next few days with his family.

After I left there, I went to Taco Bell, the famous American fast food chain for mexican food. Having never been there before I figured it a good experience to eat there once. So I ordered a Quesadilla in a combo with chips and ice tea. When they called out my number for my order they called it out in Spanish so I just looked blankly at her until another lady said “That’s your order!” and I took it. We both left the counter together and she seemed friendly so I asked if I could sit with her. She was from Venezuela holidaying in Aruba for a few weeks with her husband and daughter. She was very surprised to hear of someone from as far off as Australia so I was able to share all about the ship and it’s purpose and my time on board again. She was very interested and said she would come check it out soon.

Leaving there I went in search of an internet cafe and along the way purchased a fantastic T-shirt with the map of the caribbean on the back. I found my internet cafe and watched some youtube videos and news videos from ABC – Video is blocked on the ship due to bandwidth restrictions. Then I tought to head to the cinema, though I was a little early.

Along my way I walked past a small museum that I had heard about from the line-up team. I went inside and paid a small fee to browse the museum. Inside I found many historical cultural items and learned a little of the island’s history – especially surrounding slavery and racism.

When I left the museum I was given a free soft-drink by a vendor associated with the museum so I saw it fit to sit and chat with them for a while. They found out I was from the Logos Hope and were excited to hear that it was indeed open for business and they resolved to visit it soon.

Then I headed for the cinema where I saw Avatar in 3D. It was a mind-blowing cinema experience, and I understand why my friends back home encouraged me to go see it if I had the chance. 3D has definately made some advances in recent years, and the cinematic effects in the movie were amazing.

After the movie I realised that it was already 7pm and I’d need to buy dinner as well, which was fine with me – so I went to a Chinese restaurant and ordered Mongolian Beef. That meal made me very happy and I thanked the owner and waitress for their wonderful food and service. As I was paying they asked me where I was from (obviously a foriegner). I was able to share again that I was from the Logos Hope – and immediately one of them recognised the name Logos from previous visits. They also resolved to visit in the next few days.

Returning to the ship for the night I thanked God for a fun day out, for the freedom to do as I please, but also for the opportunity to encourage people to come and visit the ship and to share with tourists about the work that Christians are doing on the island. I prayed that those people would indeed come to visit the ship and find on board ‘More than books’.

It was a beautiful Sunday morning in Georgetown, Guyana as we travelled to Church. The pastor of this small church plant and another leader had come to the ship to pick up myself and four others in two cars. As we left the city area the landscape became very rural. Cars shared the dusty dirt roads with pedestrians and horses slowly making their way, and either side of the road were fields and houses. As the car pulled to a halt we looked out the window, all I saw was a house with a two storey wooden house with a white picket fence, but beyond that I could hear the sounds of people singing praise to God.

As I entered through the gate in the fence I found myself in a makeshift church building complete with wooden pulpit and a number of wooden pews and some speakers and microphones and a piano keyboard – all contained within the front veranda of the house behind it. Much care and effort had been spent to dress up the inside of the church to make it a fantastic place of worship.

We were ushered to seats at the front of the church on what appeared to be a stage area – since it was slightly raised and sepearted from the seats and sat behind the pulpit. The service was beginning and a lady was opening the service in prayer, not the kind of prayers you’d find in an aussie church but a prayer of praise and worship – a motivating prayer accompanied by the keyboard playing. At this time there were very few people in the church – in fact there were more on the stage – and I was wondering how we would do our demonstration that required 20 volunteers. But slowly and surely, just like in my home church, people began to arrive as we sung songs of praise to God. God’s spirit was there and the people gave Him praise, and being there I put aside what I considered to be poor musicianship to praise my heavenly Father. If we in Australia struggled musically and technically as much as this church did then we would find our church empty, but these people don’t need good sound or singing in key to praise God.

We were each looked after like royalty and given a large bottle of water each (which came in very handy). When it was time for us to speak we each introduced ourselves with our name, country, work and reason for coming to the ship. Then it was my turn. Anne and I presented a missions presentation. I had only done this presentation once before in Barbados, and I had done the easier part, now I was doing the hard part – facts about Islam, Hinduism, Budhism and China plus an evangelistic and mission challenge. For a moment I froze on stage because I didn’t have any notes – thankfully Anne handed me the notes and as I read and the church was very encouraging I gained confidence and spoke more dynamicly and from the heart. It was a great experience.

After this, Hannah gave her testimony and Campbell preached a sermon on missions.

After church we went to a leader’s house to have lunch. They cooked a wonderful Guyanese meal for us and allowed us to rest and some of us to sleep on the couches. We were very encouraged and recharged by their hospitality. The pastor told us about his work in the interior of Guyana where there are many Amerindian tribes and very simple living.

After lunch we went to a Sunday School party at the church. Hannah did clowning and the girls sung a song ‘My God is so big, so strong and so mighty’, then they called me up. I was going to tell a story called ‘You are special’ by Max Lucado. I sat on a chair facing a semi-circle of kids and began to tell the story. I asked my friend Campbell to be the God character in the story and I invited two kids from the audience to play the parts of other characters. At one point I had one little boy sitting on my knee listening to the story. The kids really liked the story and applauded long at the end. I hope that it taught them to not worry what other people think of them, but just remember that God loves them no matter what.

After the sunday school the pastor took us to a wedding of some Indian friends. They had arranged for us to come and try some Indian food, so we came in were seated and each given a large leaf to use as a bowel. Then we each received a portion of rice and seven unique ingredients like chicken, mango and many things I didn’t recongnise. It was called ‘Seven Curry’ and you eat it with your hands (we were given water to wash our hands). It was a fantastic meal like I’ve never had before. And they sent us off with some sweet cake-like stuff when we left. I dont understand why they were so nice to us when it felt like I gate-crashed a wedding, but that’s just how nice they are. Then afterwards we returned to the church and they gave us some of the ice cream and jelly they gave to the kids. So many blessings! And that’s how it seems to go with Church teams, you go to be a blessing but you are blessed in return.