Bangkok, Thailand

Arriving to Bangkok

Representing Lebanon in the Official Opening!

Biking for Christ

One morning, my friend Alex (Sweden) and I decided to go biking on the other side of the river where the ship was docked. Before we left we filled our backpacks with Christian tracts in the local language for adults and children and headed on our way.

As soon as we arrived to the other side of the river and before we rent the bikes, we sat for some snacks, there we met an old lady who could speak English, we saw this as an opportunity to give her one of the booklets we had, this opened the door for a good long chat with her about our faith in Christ. She seemed very open to listen to what we were saying and was agreeing to what she was listening. She even said that every night she prays, not to Buddha, but to God and she pointed up to the sky. We explained to her that this is our God, the only God and He will listen to her prayers. We finished by praying for her, encouraging her to read the tract we gave her and to seek God and she will surely find Him!

We then went on to rent the bikes and started cycling in the narrow streets of the small village we were in while giving out the tracts and sharing with the people with our limited Thai “Phra Yesu Rak Khun” and “Phra Jao Uay Pon” (meaning “Jesus loves you” and “God bless you”). We soon ran out of tracts for adults and were left with 11 for children. we carried on cycling by faith hoping that God will lead us on our way, which obviously happened, because out of nowhere and without knowing which way to go we suddenly ended up in an area with Buddhist temples, statues and a school! We immediately knew that the school was where we were supposed to give the children booklets. We stopped for a moment, prayed and entered the school. We gave the first kid we saw and then decided to go to one of the classes, we explained to the teacher who spoke no English what we’d like to do, and simply she made the kids line up to receive their booklets! Only then did we realize that there was way more kids than booklets we had left. I was hoping for a miracle that the booklets would somehow multiply, I looked more than once in my backpack but apparently God had a different kind of miracle in mind. We thought we would have enough time to go back to the ship, grab a box of booklets and come back to give everybody before we both had to start work in the afternoon! We cycled in an unknown direction, which ended up being the right direction, the bike owner agreed to hold the bikes for us until we return and the most amazing part was that God even prepared a small boat for us to take us to the other side of the river, not to the pier, but directly to the ship, waited for us as we grabbed the box of tracts and brought us back to the village! We arrived to the school, were able to give all the students, even left some extras for the ones that were on break that day. Not only that but they even made the students gather, asked us to teach them some songs and perform a drama for them, we were also able to share our faith with them while one of the teachers, who could speak English and wasn't even a Christian, was translating everything we were saying!

Some more stories here:

http://goo.gl/44BDT  

Some of the kids that gathered for the improvised program!

Doing some repairs and painting a school's playground

Enjoying some Lebanese food with a friend in a restaurant we found in Bangkok

Sihanoukville, Cambodia - February 2013

Sakura School: Having fun, sharing Hope & bringing clean water!
Sakura School is founded by a Japanese NGO and teaches around 1500 children from poor areas. A team of seven from Logos Hope visited this school to play with the kids, conduct a short program with a drama, and donate 5 water purifiers along with school packs consisting of stationery to the kids. The program was conducted to 4 different groups for half an hour each time. In the beginning we were told to be sensitive in what we share and not to be openly sharing the gospel because of the nature of the school and country in general. We started like that but each time we tried to add some more gospel material in our sharing, and in the end we were just openly sharing through the drama and the explanation without experiencing any opposition! In one of the classes after playing the drama, one of the children explained it to the class and through the translator we understood that she was sharing the gospel to her classmates by explaining the drama to them!

Two little boys all alone
One evening while working in the book fair, I was called on my radio to come down to the entrance of the ship to check something. When I arrived, the person positioned there was with 2 little kids who wanted to come in to visit the book fair. Normally, children under the age of 16 are required to have an adult with them to be able to come in. With the help of a local speaker, I was able to understand that they walked 5Km to come and their parents are back home. It wasn't busy that day and I thought I could accompany them inside so they can take a look. I went in with them and as soon as they arrived to the section with local Khmer language books they were so amazed and started flipping through the books. All our local books were Christian books; many of them were children’s Bible stories. Again, with the help of a local speaker I was able to understand that they knew about Jesus but weren't Christians themselves. Then I asked them which books they liked and bought these books for them. We continued our walk through the deck, and then they walked off the ship with children Christian books, a big smile and an exciting experience they probably never had in their life before!

Some more stories here:

http://solifebegins.wordpress.com/2013/06/07/sihanoukville-cambodia/

Hong Kong, December 2012 - January 2013

Christmas, New Year… and an extended time in Hong Kong!

Our time in Hong Kong was during Christmas, a large number of visitors came to visit the ship which was a great experience specially after being closed for public over the past 9 months when the ship was in dry dock! During our time there, a friend of mine met 2 local teenagers at the skate park, he was able to share his testimony with them and eventually they prayed with him to receive Christ! This was a start of a great friendship and discipleship! They came to visit the ship and we managed to provide both of them their first ever Bible! On several occasions we were able to meet with them, follow up and walk with them in their first baby steps with God! Our time in Hong Kong came to an end, separation and saying goodbye was not at all easy for them, but it was time to move on to Taiwan, however, God’s plan and probably the prayers of two 14-year-olds brought us back to Hong Kong sooner than anyone could imagine, because few hours after we started sailing, we had to turn back due to some technical difficulties in the engine room! This gave us another few more weeks in Hong Kong and several more opportunities to meet with them!

The queue of people waiting to come on board

Christmas on board

Homeless under the bridge

This extended time gave us more opportunities and encounters. One day while exploring Hong Kong at night with my friend Alex (Sweden), we passed by a homeless person sleeping under a bridge in front of a cemetery area. Something brought us back to him, I had some snacks in my backpack and my friend felt like chatting and praying with him. He was Eric from Pakistan; he could speak little English and was so happy to receive the little we could offer. When asked if he knew about Jesus, he pointed to a statue of Jesus in the cemetery and surprisingly to us, when asked if he had a Bible, he went to a small backpack he had and brought a book that was definitely an Urdu Bible! We encouraged him to read in the Bible, prayed for him and went on our way! We could see how touched he was by this encounter, specially that probably nobody ever stops to talk to him or to acknowledge him! Hopefully he will come to know Jesus and remember him through “these 2 strangers” that stopped to talk with him and to show him God’s love!

Drug Rehabilitation Island

One day I had the opportunity to visit a drug rehabilitation center, which was a whole island, a very beautiful and peaceful place! This center is run by a Christian organization that hosts drug addicts who want to get rid of their addiction. They live on this island, disconnected from the outside world and a typical day on that island consists of worship time, Bible teachings & Bible studies, plenty of personal Bible reading and devotion time and fellowship! We could share with them through dramas, worship and a testimony, we had lunch with them and then they took us on a tour around the island to see how they live and what they do, they also shared with us their testimonies and experiences. I met 18-year-old Khem from Nepal, who was dragged into drugs at a young age and ended up in this center where he got to know Jesus and accepted him as his personal savior. His mother who isn't even a Christian supports him during his time in the center. His desire is to see his whole family come to Christ and after his rehab he wants to be a social worker or a volunteer in an organization to help others struggling with drug addictions!

Chatting with Khem