Sailing south to the Arab Peninsula for the new year brings fresh culture and people. I have been able to walk the city streets and meet the local Arab people and the many foreign workers from India and other countries. I even got to visit the local fishery and see how the fish are prepared after they are caught – I couldn’t take the smell!
On board I really enjoy sitting in the cafe and talking with various people both locals and migrant workers. They tell me all about their work and their home and I can tell them about life on board a ship with people from 51 different nations and visiting many different countries. There are some local fellowships here amongst the ex-patriots and it’s fascinating to hear their stories. One man that I met in the cafe even gave me a lovely lapel pin shaped as the country’s coat of arms. I am really excited about fostering peace between the west and the middle east by interacting with individuals and sharing the positives of our cultures.

With a 10 day long journey from our Christmas port the middle east, on the way to the Arab Peninsula, this year’s new year holiday had some fascinating scenery. Just after Christmas we set sail south where the ship sailed through a man made canal. Either side of the ship there was land and we could watch as the scenery passed us by. With the book store closed and no events on board, the workload of cooking, cleaning and running the ship was distributed evenly amongst the crew for a lighter workload over the Christmas break – and with no opportunity to go off the ship for 10 days we used the time to draw together and connect with each other. On new years eve we had a reflection service where we remembered where we had been in 2010 and revealed where we would be going in 2011. We celebrated new years eve gathered together for a countdown and an irish and american dance hall after midnight. We have spent time learning about the countries we will visit soon, time drawing closer to our Father and time having fun together playing games and watching movies. I feel like I had a great holiday and I’m super excited about the 8 months that I have left. Please remember me this year as I travel.

‘As I walk around I don’t recognise any of you until I look closely’. Such was the transformation of the ship’s community for our Christmas celebration. Everyone was dressed elegantly for our Chrismas Eve dinner. What made this dinner really special wasn’t the suits and ties and dresses, and it wasn’t even the meal itself – though it was delicious. It was that the regular galley staff were seated with the rest of the crew in our ship-family groups and the 3 course meal was served to us by the ship’s leadership team. Yes, our wonderful leaders served us hand and foot for the evening as a show of love.
After dinner we enjoyed a fantastic carols service and then we all exchanged small gifts.
On the 25th we had another amazing meal, a full brunch. This time buffet style without the formalities and sitting with friends. Then we had a fantastic musical play performed by the kids from the Logos Hope School. Their performance was amazing and there was much applause at the end. Finally we took a photo with all of the ship’s crew on the bow of the ship.
Truely this was an amazing celebration filled with meaning and joy.

“You and your team are very professional”. The man who said this to me works with the band Stronghold in his spare time, whilst working as a systems administrator, producer and studying. Stronghold is quite famous in Lebanon and tickets to the event were sold out long before the ship arrived in port. Of course this event was more than just a concert – our drama group performed a drama about a lost son and a crew member from Australia shared his testimony of why he was on the ship and how he had chosen to follow God. Many youth decided to make this same commitment to seek God’s will in their lives.
We also had the pleasure of hosting Bill Drake for a concert only a week before. Having listened to his CDs that we sell in our bookstore it was great to meet him in person and experience a live performance. Just like Stronghold, Bills band didn’t perform a show for the audience, but rather led them into a place of worship.
The AV team on Logos Hope has been really glad to have some professional bands to work with and create a great sound. Personally I had the pleasure of doing the lights for both these bands and I was pleased that many people commented that the lights were really good for the drama and the bands. I enjoy putting my best effort into these events and using my creative abilities to add depth to the atmosphere.

As in many other countries, here in Beirut, Lebanon the Logos Hope is happy to receive visits from many local schools. Thousands of students visit the ship each day to browse the book fair and to experience a drama. Since it is Christmas time we have put aside our regular program and have made space for a local production company called Just For Kids to present a Christmas musical.
Without giving too much away, the musical centers around two pirates who put Christmas in a box and try to hide it from the world, and three silly characters who find the box and discover Christmas. What they discover inside the box at first is only superficial but as they look deeper they find something more meaningful.

The strangest thing happened to me last night – and it all has to do with the amazing culture of Egyptian people. You see a friend and I went for a walk after work to get some fresh air. Along the way we met one of our collegues and her 4 year old daughter. So we decided to go for a walk on the beach and enjoy the sea breaze (I don’t ever really crave the sea breaze since I live on a ship, but it’s still nice). And as we were strolling on the beach we met a local man and his daugher, who was also 4 years old. And then the two parents talked together and the kids from different countries (neither speaking each other’s language) played together. Then another man invited us to sit down with his family who were having a picnic. So there I sat with my friends from Germany and China and an Egyptian family on the beach watching the sun set and listening to the waves break on the beach, enjoying His creation. We talked about the countries that we had been to so far, our faviourite places and people, and our experiences. We talked about what we do on board and that we work for two years as volunteers, in fact our families and friends pay for us to be here – How blessed we are. We talked about the things we like about Egypt and our experiences so far and they told us about their resteraunt businesses and their experience of Egypt. I’ve never experienced this in Australia, and my friend said this would never happen in Germany, but how nice it is to be welcomed by friendly local people when you are a guest in a country. I hope I would do the same if I had a picnic and met some random strangers. Thankyou to all my friends and family who enable me to meet such wonderful people.

This week God has directed my attention away from the things I usually think about – tasks, deadlines, responsibilities – and towards the object of his affection and attention – people. People are the reason that he led me to leave my home and join this ship. People are the reason this ship sails from port to port. People, nay each Person should be at the center of our focus wherever we go and whatever we do. Here in North Africa, we each prayed that He would give us a good friendship with one person in each port. This week I had the pleasure of making friends with a young man we’ll call Steve. We met in the international cafe when he invited me to sit at a table with him, and for a long time we talked about language. He spoke very fluent English and enjoyed practicing his English with the ship’s crew. He was kind enough to teach me many Arabic words and write them down for me so I can practice them. I may never be able to speak Arabic properly, but at least I can say hello, how are you, nice to meet you, how old are you and say some things about myself. On other days I saw him again and spent time with him and his friends and my friends talking about language and culture. When Steve shared with me a difficulty he was going through, I was able to share with him that I had gone through a similar difficulty and that his feelings were quite normal. I enjoyed coming alongside someone and encouraging them.
This week the crew of our ship have been encouraged that ‘we are not just a community of like minded people, but rather a family’. If we are all children of God then we are all one family together, brothers and sisters with each other and with Him – and we should love each other accordingly. As a ship’s crew we are all in close contact and we learn to live together not just tolerating each other, but loving each other – and the same is true for local fellowships. We are not just a gathering of people in a building one day a week – we are indeed a family.

sal?m ‘al?kum is how you say hello in Arabic – it means ‘Peace upon you’. And to reply you would say wa ‘al?kum al sal?m which means ‘And peace upon you’. This week in the international cafe on Logos Hope I had the privilege of sitting with a local man who spoke relatively good English and who was able to teach me several useful Arabic phrases like ‘Thankyou’ and ‘You’re welcome’ and ‘The people here are nice’.
But even better still, yesterday I had the opportunity to visit the ruins of an old Roman town. Like much of the ancient world this country was occupied by Rome at the beginning of the common era. It’s one thing to read about it on the internet or to see exhibits in a museum (as I did last week), but to walk the streets of an old roman town, to stand in a real auditorium and to browse what was the market is a breathtaking experience. I should thank our wonderful hosts who arranged the outing for us and provided all the transport. Truly this is a very hospitable culture and I am very lucky to experience it first hand.

Today I had the privilege of visiting a museum in this country’s capital city. There were four floors worth of fascinating historical exhibits beginning from the ancient African inhabitants and their nomadic experience, moving through Phoenician occupation and roman occupation and eventually the settlement of Arab peoples and the nation’s modern history. Whilst many of the signs were in Arabic, there was enough English signage to give us a rich history of the country.
Better still in the evening our hosts made dinner for all 450 crew members and put on a cultural show for us. The meal consisted of four courses served to us in our seats by waiters – a far cry from our usual buffet experience! A wonderful soup, a plate of salad and some savoury pastries made up the delicious starter courses (unfortunately half these things were made of potato so I couldn’t eat them, but thankfully the people who cleared the plates were ship people so it wasn’t too embarrassing). Our main meal was delicious camel meat cooked in spices and served on a bed of couscous with an amazing sauce.
The band played for us two wonderful Arabic songs which I enjoyed, and then they went on to play several western classic songs in English and Spanish! Everyone was so surprised to hear them playing ‘Country Road’. Amazing.
Life in this part of the world is about give and take. We put on cultural programmes for local people, and they put on cultural programmes for us. Often during school visits the school will go up on stage and perform a song or two for us before we begin the programme. I count myself as very fortunate to be in this part of the world to experience such hospitality and rich culture.