No electricity, no running water, mud hits with thatched roofs and two unique languages. This is the church that I visited yesterday morning. The pastor of this church was a truck driver before he was saved, and felt called to pastor a bush church. The church itself was several miles down a crazy dirt road – quite a distance from the city. The people here enjoy a simpler living. They grow produce and sell it at the market at the junction with the highway. The pastor encouraged them saying ‘Think about where you are. You are not in the city, you are far away in the bush, yet God has brought people from all over the world to visit you this morning – he has not forgotten you’. I was introduced as the senior pastor of the group and we were praised as wise white people. I made sure to take some time during my ship presentation to remind them that we are all regular people, and we are from many nations including African nations and we all have the same Holy Spirit inside us. Another in the team shared a message, and yet another shared her testimony. After the service they gave us many gifts of coconuts, cacao, and oranges. It was an amazing experience.
Tag Archives: church
The harvest is plentiful
“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few” I read aloud as I motioned to some volunteers from the congregation. Four people represented 40% of the world’s population who have not been reached with the gospel, and one man represented the 10% of Christian missionaries working with these people.
At the Franklin Town Church of God we were asked to take the service after worship. “G’day, my name is Chris and I come from Australia, the land of Kangaroos and Koalas” I said as I addressed the church. After our introductions I gave a presentation with the aim of mobilizing Christians in Jamaica to be a part of world mission. Jamaica and the surrounding Caribbean has been reached by the gospel by brave souls who came before us and now it is time for Caribbeans to go into all the world.
Others from the team presented a mime-dance and a testimony, and one gave a powerful sermon. Afterwards we were able to sell books for people who couldn’t make it to the ship.
I always enjoy the experience of speaking to a church body and helping them to understand the need for following the great commission.
AV on Logos Hope
From the first moment that I considered serving on board the Logos Hope I have had Audio Visual (also known as Production) in mind. It is a passion of mine to see a message communicated and a time of worship facilitated without distraction and with the utmost clarity and cultural relevance using the technology available to me. To me this means to have microphones on at the right times, no feedback ever, song words always up on screen before you start singing them and clear recording. I have really enjoyed managing production for Grace Community Baptist for a number of years and I pray that it would continue to advance in quality in my absence, but in my heart I desired something bigger, something where my skills would be challenged and where I would learn new things. I have certainly found that here.
We have two main venues on Logos Hope, the Logos Lounge and the Hope theater. The Logos Lounge is our meeting place for internal events for the crew such as the Sunday worship service, worship night, prayer night, port praise and more. This venue has a slightly raised stage and a ceiling around 2.5 meters high. We have two large rear-projection screens either side of the stage and 8 LCD televisions coming from the roof to make sure people can see what is on the screen. We have also 2 main speakers and 8 delay speakers accompanying the televisions so everyone can hear properly. In the Logos Lounge, sound is absorbed heavily by the surrounding surfaces such as carpet, curtains and soft ceiling. We also have 2 huge sub woofers. To help people to see what is happening on stage, we have 3 dome cameras mounted in the ceiling which are remotely controlled from a room at the back. For audio mixing we have a Yamaha ls9 digital mixer which contains all the effects units and signal processors you could ever need. My aim is to learn everything about the technology that I am using and I have been making good headway so far.
The hope theater is an absolutely amazing space for events for the public. It is two decks high so there is plenty of space for a decent stage and some very nice lighting equipment. So in addition to the same lighting desk and some slightly bigger speakers we also have 5 Mac 250 wash and 5 Mac 250 kryptons (which are moving head lights), a number of profiles and fresnels and two massive UV spotlights for UV dramas. The venue may need up to 10 AV people for large events.
This week I had the privilege of doing lighting for a youth event for local youth. It was an amazing experience and it was fantastic to work with such talented people and amazing equipment. I really enjoyed operating the lighting desk and building the atmosphere for the event. I look forward to doing more big events like this in the future.
