In Vieux Fort, St. Lucia the Ship’s company was able to participate in a Sabbath week. The ship was closed to the public so many people who work with visitors were able to help out in other departments so everyone worked only one or two days in the week. The focus of Sabbath week was to regroup, refocus, and reconnect with God – not that we should ever be disconnected. A guest speaker came to teach us about the Tabernacle of old testament times and the bronze alter and basin and the holy place with the showbread and the golden alter and the most holy place – the holy of holies, where the high preist would enter once a year to make attonment for the sins of the people. We learned in detail how these elements of worship, submission and approaching God were a foreshaddow to the work of Christ and the relationship we now have with the Father. The crew were encouraged to move into the Holy of Holies, since Christ has torn the veil and ushered us in so we may worship the Father.
My team and I worked a little more than some others, but we were able to attend all the sessions and really refresh ourselves, and we were a big help in blessing the ship’s company.

A tabernacle is set up in the Hope Theatre for a demonstration

“More than books – a whole new experience” is the motto for Logos Hope in the Caribbean. Little did the crew know that the recent visit to Barbados would prove just how true the motto is. For many on board, being forced to go to anchor due to bad sea conditions was more than frustrating. It prevented people from coming on board for more than half of the port stay. However, it also opened up new avenues to build relationships with people on shore and gave crew the chance to see their commitment differently. A renewed vision seems to have been born for the ports Logos Hope visits, as people were inspired to pray when they couldn’t act. As a result, those on and off the ship saw God working in ways they never could have imagined.
— Logos Hope communications team.

Do you recognise the style of building in the photo above? That’s right – it’s a nightclub. It’s probably one of the best equipped facilities in Barbados for clubgoers, and not only that, it also has a reputation among locals for all types of immorality. So what am I doing in this place? Am I doing club evangelism? Not exactly no.
Recently, this club ran into financial difficulties and had to shut down. The owners contacted a Christian missionary couple who had some contact with the club while it was running. They offered to sell the facility and it’s rights to this couple. Thinking of the absurdity of owning such a place, they said no. But in praying about it they felt God urging them to buy it. They received a number of confirmations from God. So they purchased the club and re-opened the doors. They are continuing for the most part to run it as it was before. Music is still played and alcohol is still dispensed. The owners pray consistently for the patrons and recognise that as owners they have some authority over the place. They will try, I suppose, to reach people within this framework.
On Friday nights they have a ‘Christian night’, where they only use the main auditorium and have christian artists come to perform. This particular night there was a youth event run partly by the ship and also featuring many local Christian artists. There were an OK number of people there, but more people would be better. Please pray that more non believers would attend the Friday night concerts and hear the Gospel, and also that people would be impacted by the different atmosphere of the club under Christian management.

I awoke one morning to the sound of the public address system. It was the captain’s voice. “Good morning ship’s company” he said. And you know that if the captain is speaking it’s going to be something important. He went on to anounce that we would be leaving the port immediately (and it was around 6am) and going to anchor a few kms off the coast. Bad weather nearby had caused large swells and the ship was being damaged in port. I went back to sleep since it was my day off.
It occured to me later that we would stay at anchor for a few days – in fact it turned out to be a week and a half – and for all that time we could not have any ministry onboard and we were very limited on what we could do onshore. On the first day the captain allowed the use of our rescue boat (up to 6 people) to take people to and from the shore – only on business. Then later we hired a service to pick people up, and this weekend we were able to use the 80 person lifeboats to do ministry ashore.
While we were essentially stuck on the ship we had an extra prayer night and movies and nintendo on the big screen to keep us from going crazy. I participated in a leadership training course to help me in my new position. The AV team was able to relax a litte as there were no onboard events and only a few more community events.

As I entered the church the music had started and the pastor was praying. Smartly dressed lady ushers stood at the door to welcome me as I entered the small church building carying a box of props for a missions presentation. We were guided right to the front pew of this traditionally furnished church building to sit in the front row. Though traditional in it’s furnishings, the band was lively and loud and the pastor was almost shouting his prayer above the music. Adorned in my sunday best, complete with purple tie and my white skin, I – along with 3 others from the ship – stood out like a sore thumb. The worship began. What surprised me most at that moment is that it was an old chorus from 60 or 70 years ago! They performed it as if it was brand new and there was no missing the presence of God’s Holy Spirit. As we continued to sing it occured to me that we had been singing for quite some time, and had repeated many verses over, but still I was delighted to worship the Lord in such a way. And then finally the time came for the very reason we had visited this church.

We had come to give a missions presentation and share our testimonies using volunteers from the audience and various props. The aim was to show them how much of the world has been reached with the gospel, and what is being done to continue it’s advance.
If the world were represented by ten people, then only one of these ten people would be born again, bible believing Christians who place their faith in Jesus Christ, whom they confess as their Lord and Saviour. Another two people would be nominal christians who may attend church occasionally and call themselves christians, but are not saved. And a further three people would have heard the gospel of Jesus but for one reason or another not responded to it. These are ‘reached non-christians’. So the gospel has covered approximately 60% of the world’s population. Of the unreached, one person would be Muslim, one would be Hindu, one would be Budhist and one would come from China. Though there are many more nations and religeons – these are the big four.
If the world’s christian missionaries were then represented by ten people, then only one of these 10 would work in the unreached world where people have not heard the gospel even once. 3 would work amongst the reached non-christians and 6 would work amongst nominal christians. “The harvest is plenty but the laborers are few, therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out more workers into the harvest field”.

Many in the church were amazed at the imbalance of missionaries in the unreached world, I hope and pray they will seek God as to how they can help. Maybe it is by going, maybe it is by praying or giving or mobilising. The other three gave their testimonies to the church and the pastor concluded the service.

After church we were invited to someone’s house for sunday lunch. It was a fantastic time to chat with local Christians and fellowship with them. I thank God for a great experience and the chance to encourage others to join the mission.

This weekend I headed up the AV team for two big events. It was certainly a big weekend for the whole team.

The first event was a 3 hour epic youth event featuring a local band and a number of vocal acts from a UK Hip Hop group that is visiting the ship. I headed a team of 9 people: Sound, Backstage, Lyrics, Lights, Spotlight, 3 camera operators and a video switcher. Everyone did a fantastic job and we created a fantastic atmosphere. The message was ‘Reach for Life’ motivating young people in St. Lucia to make good life choices and to give their lives to Christ. There was a drama that demonstrated that you can’t sit on the fence, you must choose Jesus or Satan. At the end of the event, 20 youths gave their lives to Christ, and that’s what it’s all about.

The very next day the AV team got to work bringing the quayside stage out to entertain the innumerable visitors waiting in line to get into the book fair. The UK artists sang up a storm and a number of local youths stepped out of the queue to listen and cheer. The next day a local band came to play and entertain guests. They were a fantastic worship band that everyone liked. The plan was to have testimonies and dramas and puppets and all sorts of different ways of communicating the gospel. Unfortunately a huge storm cloud came overhead and it poured down rain. I rushed to cover everything and a number of people helped out. I was completely soaked but nothing was water damaged. It was a good opportunity for me to test out a new sound system that I built the previous week from left over gear, and people really enjoyed the show while it lasted.

The classroom was hot and dirty and nearly a hundred high school students had packed into the room to listen to what I was about to say.

I had nothing written down to help me, but I had remembered a song with all the information about the ship. I had their full attention and without a microphone I managed to project my voice in order to tell them all about the ship, it’s people and it’s purpose in five minutes. I was part of a team of five from the ship who visited a local high school to present a one hour gospel program. One person shared their testimony and one gave a sermon. Others played some songs and I played a part in a drama.

The students were very interested in what we had to say and many came to talk to us afterwards. Some appeared to be very touched by the message we gave. I also had the opportunity to chat with one of the students before the program and paint a picture of having a relationship with Jesus. It was a short conversation but I think I may have planted a seed at least.

Later in the week we had the opportunity to provide an all day program for people waiting in line to get onto the ship. We put a stage up outside the day before with some help. On the day we hauled all the speakers and sound equipment from the store room to the quayside. It took us half the day to figure out how everything connected together but it was very worthwhile when we had it all together. There were mimes, jesters, dances, dramas, testimonies and more happening on the stage and the people in line really enjoyed it.

From the first day I was on board the ship until today I have been undergoing extensive safety training on board the ship, thankfully it has been far more exciting that the week and a half in Holland and the week and a half in Trinidad. I have been chosen to train in the prime group – 25 of the fittest men and women who speak fluent english – to train in lifeboats, firefighting, crowd management and general ship safety. This means I will be a signed on member of the ship’s crew in addition to simply working onboard.

On Monday I donned a sporty looking lifejacket over my long sleves and long pants and joined the other 25 people out on a platform on the port side of the ship (the opposite side to the dock).  I approached the edge of the platform – which was around 3 or 4 metres above the water – and prepared to jump. With my heart in my mouth, I casually stepped off the platform and plunged into the water below. The lifejacket is of course quite boyant so I floated straight to the top and floated freely. We all climed into a lifeboat to see what it was like inside. It was hot, stuffy, smelly, wet and I felt awefuly seasick inside. I prayed and tried to keep my eyes on the horizon whenever I could see outside and I made it through, but I certainly wouldn’t want to be in there for long. After this we got out of the liferaft and they flipped it on it’s head, to simulate how it might appear if it were deployed in an emergency and two by two we climbed onto the bottom of it and practiced pulling it back over. Interestingly the raft lands right on top of you and you have to slide out from under it. I really enjoyed that.

Then on Thursday I got to go to a special training ground to learn how to use fire extinguishers (this was following a theory class on fires the previous day). The instructor lit large fires in special fire pits and had each of us try out different types of extinguishers on the fire, noting the different effect that CO2, Dry chemical, Water and Foam extinguishers had on an oil fire. It was quite exciting.

All this training has been fun but also quite tiring and it almost seemed like I’d never get to work in AV with all this training. Thankfully however, it’s over now and I started work today. This morning I did AV for a small event with 1 microphone but with powerpoints and dvds and cameras. I did quite well so I am starting to settle in.