Back to the Ship! Drydock!

Thanks to the generous support and contribution of many and because of the great progress the Lord Has shown in raising my support, June 18^th I was able to make it back to the ship. It is still in dry dock, out of the water, making it very different from the ship I left 2½ months ago! The whole front part of the ship is closed because of lack of ventilation in that section and being the part where the maintenance is taking part. The floor all over the ship is covered with thin sheets of plywood and our Logos Lounge was transformed to a mess/dining room... different cabins, different cabin mates etc. and because the ship is in maintenance phase, meaning it is closed for public, so instead of being in the book fair, I’m currently helping in the Galley/Pantry, cooking and cleaning dishes.

Prayers would be much appreciated to be able to survive the dry dock phase, a tough period of life on the ship, heat, long workings hours and early morning starts! Prayers for protection to all those working in the maintenance of the ship and that works will be accomplished as soon as possible, so the ship could be back in the water and ready to sail to our next destination!

Subic Bay, Philippines

In a rural area, one hour drive away from where the ship was docked in Subic Bay is a small church that was vulnerable of collapsing due to the landslide that occurs every year during the raining season. To prevent that from happening in the following years, a protective wall was necessary to be built next to the church. For a whole week, teams from the ship were going to the church to build the wall; I was part of the team that went there on the first day and we did the foundations of the wall mixing and layering cement and steel bars for the wall to be built later.

Manila, Philippines

In Manila we visited some of the poor neighborhoods with a pastor and his wife that serve among the people that live there in underprivileged conditions. We first went to their “Church”, which happened to be a small space in the entrance of a building, where they had gathered some of the kids and their mothers. We did a small program for them with some songs and games and gave them gifts and Christian booklets. Then we installed a water purifier at the pastor’s house, which will provide clean drinking water for this community because the water they receive in their homes is not clean and undrinkable. This situation put those people in front of two decisions, either to drink the infected water they receive with all the health risks it caused them and specially their children or buy clean drinking water, which was an extra cost for them that most find hard to afford. By having the water purifier they can now have clean drinking water freely.

Smokey Mountain is a large garbage dump in Manila and it is home to around 30,000 individuals that live in the dump area and make a living by scavenging through the garbage for plastics and other material that they can sell. With an organization called “Young Focus” we were able to go and visit the families that live there in extremely poor conditions. This organization sponsors some of the kids in the slum and provides good education to them as well as a place to study and teaches them some basic craft work that they can sell to support their families. Apart from the garbage that is everywhere around and in their tiny and modest wooden homes, they also produce charcoal to sell, breathing with their children the smoke all day long. We were the first team to go and many teams from the ship followed later and were especially involved in feeding ministries in the slum area.

Cebu, Philippines

In the Philippines we had the opportunity to visit and be part of a youth group meeting in an organization called “Christ for Asia” which takes care of street kids by providing a home for them as well as education. I was leading the team of four people and we prepared a short program to share with them during their youth meeting. We were surprised by how well they were prepared for the meeting. They had their own worship band that lead us in a time of worship and prayer. When it was our time to share, we felt that we weren’t prepared enough because of different expectations we had, but by God’s grace all went well. We did a short Christian drama, some games, one of the team sang a Korean blessing song for them, which they loved, and there was a short message at the end. The meeting was a real blessing for both, them and us. They didn’t want us to leave in the end and were so excited to visit the ship and see us again later.


Since we arrived to the Philippines, one of the biggest ministries we had was with the street dwellers especially the street kids. Many teams went on feeding programs to offer them food and on daily basis there were teams interacting and playing with these street kids. I was able to join one of those teams and went out to a nearby park, where many of the kids gather. We played and talked with them, told them stories from the Bible and had fun with them. Most importantly we were able to offer them our love and care which is something they rarely receive during their time on the street which is their home where they eat and sleep. Most of the kids got to know us and many other crew members by name and we built real friendships with them. Towards the end of our visit to the port, all the kids were invited to attend a one-day special program held in our theatre that told them about the “Greatest Treasure” which is the Bible. After the program they were all able to enjoy a good meal in our dining room and they left with a small souvenir of some Christian booklets and coloring pencils as well as a nice smile on their face.

Singapore

After having very busy days in Malaysia, where around 8,000 people would visit the ship daily during weekdays and up to 12,000 per day during weekends, we arrived to Singapore which was like a resting port for us. It wasn't very busy and everything went smooth. The ship was docked directly in front of a very big mall so visitors would come in randomly after doing their shopping.

Singapore visit was during Christmas period so we celebrated Christmas and New Year in a very nice way on the ship.
Christmas was a family time spent with each one’s “ship family”. A ship family is an actual family living on board who would adopt a certain number of the volunteers on the ship and treat them as their kids, taking care of their emotional, and spiritual needs.

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

During our sailing and even before we set sail from Kuching, we didn’t have a sure place to berth in the next port we were heading to. However, we had to leave the port in Kuching and we set off in a journey of faith to the unknown. During the whole 2-day sailing everyone was praying that the port authorities would agree to give us a suitable berth for the ship, otherwise it meant we had to go on-anchor at a distance from the port, resulting in not being able to open for visitors and we would be stuck on the ship! This is where we saw God at work, few hours before reaching the port, a temporary berth had been given to us, but this meant we had to go on-anchor after the temporary period was over. After spending few days in that temporary berth, we were given another temporary one, so we moved few meters and docked there. We stayed in that “temporary” berth the whole time we were supposed to stay in that port and we never had to move again or go on-anchor.

Our God is amazing!


We had the opportunity to share with a group of Filipino youth who are refugees, and most Filipino refugees in Malaysia are Muslims. We went to a Christian lady’s house who takes care of these youth. She had gathered them in her house and we shared with them about the ship, we played some games with them and one of our team members shared his salvation testimony. Many of them showed real interest while hearing the testimony and some had a lot of questions afterwards. They were so friendly and wanted to talk to us and get to know us more in comparison to the little interest they showed when they first saw us.

Port Kuching, Malaysia

In Kuching we served in 4 different schools located in a rural area, 2 hours away from where the ship is docked.
The program in the first school was at 7:30 am, so we had to be ready and leave the ship at 4:30 am, a very early start for a long day to come! The programs in all 4 schools went very well and the kids really enjoyed them and were very responsive. Though timid at the beginning, but after breaking the ice they enjoyed interacting with us, singing and running, learning about the ship, lifejackets and life rings as well as learning our flags and countries and matching them to the correct person. Most of them have very little experience of anything beyond home and school, thus meeting us, foreigners from 4 different countries was a big excitement to them! After this long amazing day we headed back to the ship on a longer than expected journey due to bad weather and heavy rain. It wasn't until late at night that we made it to the ship, but thank God we made it safely!

I was also given the opportunity to join a building team that was going to build a toilet for a widow’s house. We took some shovels and gloves and some other tools and put on our working clothes and headed to the widow’s house. When we arrived we saw the modest conditions that she lived in with her daughter. On the previous week another team from the ship had finished building the toilet, and we worked to lay concrete in the backyard to connect a drain with the house.