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’.
Dry dock work
So what am I doing in dry dock? Am I working in the engine room? No. I’m still working in Audio Visual, only my job has changed drastically. In place of managing a team of 5 operators and running big events I am sweating it out running cables, soldering, cutting, cleaning and otherwise making repairs and maintenance long overdue.
Working on this ship has taught me a lot about being a good steward of what I am given. People often told me to be faithful with the little things and then God will give you big things. Certainly the AV on this ship is a very big thing and I’m glad that I spent the time looking after AV in my home church first. Still I have a lot to learn about the proper care and maintenance of equipment. You wouldn’t beleive the dust that accumulates inside stuff after two years!
Like a ship out of water
As the water receded we were able to see just what Logos Hope looks like beneath the water. I even had the oportunity to go down and stand underneath the ship and see the propellers. Andy why would we do such a thing? Twice in every five years ocean-going ships are required to go into dry-dock to do routine maintenance and inspection of the hull and all of the below water fittings. It also gives us the much needed opportunity to perform maintenance and repairs while the ship is closed for business that would otherwise be very disruptive to the ship’s normal operation. And that’s what I’m doing here. I have many repairs to make that have made quite a mess. Hopefully when we open for business again all the little problems will be fixed.
When the water was taken away we could see the condition of the ship, but also when the air conditioning is switched off and the luxuries taken away I can see more clearly who I really am and how much or little I love or respect others when I’m uncomfortable. I pray that God would use this time of hard work and discomfort to break me and mould me to be more like Jesus.
Dream Event
A few years ago I was asked to describe how I want my life to be in 10 years time. I came up with something like this:
I am in a dissuesed factory in India. I am working with a team to install the audio/visual and it technology for an evangelistic event for thousands of people.
There was more to it, but that was the crux of the dream.
Two days ago I lived that dream. Over 3000 people came to the Logos Hope International Night in Colombo, Sri-Lanka. I came a day beforehand and worked hard to install stage lighting and cameras while my collegue Greg worked on the existing sound equipment. Days before-hand I had worked long into the night preparing the equipment that we brought for this event. Now I saw it going into place and working perfectly. During the event I was the video director. My job was to coordinate 3 camera people to provide video coverage of the event. Two were regular camera people from the ship, and one was from the church where we held the event. I chose which camera to put on the screen at any given time. At the end of the event I had almost lost my voice since I was speaking so much to the camera people (not shouting, just giving nice instructions), but it was well worth the long hours and hard work to see the event come together in such an amazing way. the 3000 visitors were mainly Christian so we tailored the event to encourage Christians to ‘go into all the world’. Thank you God for bringing me here to this place and including me in your plan.
Church team to remember
Digital Generation
“I was three and a half years addicted to this game … I could be someone who I couldn’t be in real life … I started to cancel appointments with my friends and I stopped playing sport”. My friend Sander from Holland told the story of how he became addicted to an online game in his teenage years and how it prevented him from building meaningful relationships and hindered his walk with God.
Young people in Sri-Lanka are becoming increasingly engrossed in the online world. A place where social interaction is often cheap and shallow and true relationship is lost. In this unique youth event the ship’s younger people gave a challange to those visiting the ship to spend time apart from Facebook, MSN and SMS and build real friendships and spend time in the Word.
As an ex-gamer myself, I found the event had a powerful challenge whist not being overbearing. Social media technologies were never condemned and neither were online games, but both were put into perspective of a healthy Christian lifestyle.
Ministry Medina
In the past it was performed for the King but now the Korean Fan Dance is performed onboard for the King of Kings. The fan dance is one of many cultural performances that members of the ship’s crew learn to perform for international events. Scottish, Russian and hula dance, mime, drama and a host of songs are among the other performances that were demonstrated at the 2011 Ministry Medina. Here the newest members of the ship’s crew browse the available ‘passion groups’ to see what they would like to learn to use on their time onboard to demonstrate our cultural diversity and our Father’s great love. I have been learning and performing Drama since I joined the ship. Some of my best memories from my time on board are of performing dramas in front of people from lots of different countries. I hope to have many more opportunities to perform for audiences in India and tell them about the Love that my Father has for them.
Chinese Fellowship Visit
“I want you to approach a member of the crew and ask them these 5 questions”. Wei-ling from Taiwan encouraged the Chinese visitors to talk with the crewmembers in the room and ‘break the ice’. Having little else to do I stepped out of my box and said ‘Nin hao‘ to a man as he approached. We were only able to exchange names and countries as he didn’t speak a word of english – but he was still very happy to meet me. Another brave woman approached me and in broken english asked me how long I had been on board and what was my favourite food. Answering her in english first, then in Chinese I could tell her I had been on board already for 1 and a half years and of course my favourite food is Chinese food! (But I also like pizza!)
Together we sung songs to our heavenly father – though I understood only some of the words. They were very encouraged by singing together and by the talk from my friend Shaun who is from China and is staying on board for a short time. I also had a wonderful time and be thankful that I could be used by Him even when I can’t barely communicate with people.
Family Resemblence
“You have got to be Chris’ dad!” is something I’ve heard a lot this week. You see my Dad and I look almost identical, give or take a few years – so it would be impossible for me to hide the fact that my parents have been staying on board Logos Hope this week. After spending a week onshore getting some much needed R&R and spending quality time with my parents, this week I am back to work. In fact this week I am starting as the leader of the AV team. You may remember that I was the team leader some months ago until the opportunity for someone more experienced and gifted with team leading could take the burden from me for a while. Catherine has done a magnificent job of bring us together as a team and sorting out scheduling and logistics and I hope that I have learned well from her example. I also feel that I have good support now from my supervisors and from my team as well. Please pry that I would be a good team leader, always looking to the needs of my team.
While my parents have been on board my Dad got a taste of what it is like to work in the AV team, and boy did we work hard. Dad helped me to set up all new music stands and a lectern for the main meeting room. He was also able to re-string a guitar that had been disused for some time – and now it sounds great! One night he had the opportunity to work with a larger team as a camera man for a youth event. Packed with over 400 youth from fellowships the event was a great success. All in a day’s work for the AV team.
Break
“The more I shop the more empty it feels” – this is what I posted to facebook last week after spending three days in some of the world’s biggest shopping centres (or malls as they are called in Dubai). This past week I have been very blessed to have a week of break time where I could stay in a small hotel onshore – but best of all my parents came to visit me! I have missed them dearly for the last year that I have been away and it was wonderful to see them and catch up on all that has happened.
With my parents came wonderful gifts and cards from many of you and some very generous financial gifts. I am very thankful for your loving support. With the money I have purchased myself a new camera to replace the one that broke in Egypt – it is a Sony HX1. I have really enjoyed taking lots of photos recently and I hope to share many nice photos with you in the weeks to come. I have been able to bless my fellow crewmembers by taking photos of them to send to their families and in their newsletters. I was also able to buy some nice respectable shirts, pants and shoes which I need for the Arab world.
During my break I was able to visit the world’s tallest building and go up to the one-hundred-and-twenty-fourth floor! What an amazing view it was from up there! I also went as a passenger 4 wheel driving over sand dunes in the desert and riding camels. Now I am well rested and ready to return to the ship and make the most of the next 7 months before I return home.
On floor 124 of the world's tallest tower!
Dad and I ride a camel