TTDIGC YOUTH MISSION SHARING

Jon Lee

5TH JULY 2013
http://www.gbaships.org/

Greetings from Logos Hope!

Sorry I haven't been able to update the church as I planned to before I came. I apologize to the church regarding that. Lately, I have been so busy that I find it a challenge to find the right balance between God, work, fellowship, involvement, and time for myself.

Anyways, here comes a full-blown update in conjunction with the half-time mark. My arrival in Hong Kong was very pleasant as I was very excited to board the ship. I was welcomed by Han Sang-Woo, a Korean. He waited in the airport from morning until night time to welcome every single STEPper. There, we both had small talk as we waited for another STEPper from Canada, Matthew Jones. Sang-Woo was such a blessing to us as he was so patient and he even paid for our cab fare to the dock where the ship was berthed. I expected the ship to be berthed at Victoria bay, near the city, but apparently, it was berthed at the shipyard, far away from the city. This was because the ship just finished its dry dock repairs and maintenance. On the ship, I met my big brother, Jireh Diaz, a Filipino, who gave me a tour around the ship and made me feel so welcomed.There's a total of 18 STEPpers, including myself; 10 guys and 8 girls. For guys, there are 5 Germans, 2 Malaysians, a Canadian, a Korean, and myself, a Singaporean. For girls, there are 3 Singaporeans, a Korean, a Filipino, an American, a French and a Malaysian. We were really thankful for the week in Hong Kong as it was just an orientation week, which meant that there was no work for us. We managed to have very good fellowship together every day, from going out to Kowloon, Hong Kong city, up The Peak, and even hiking. Thanks to this awesome fellowship, the STEPpers have really grown united and close-knit. So much so, that the ship's company even mentioned that our STEP group was the closest they've seen. Praises and thanksgiving to God for this.

There are 3 departments we could be in, namely the 'Angels', the book fair, or the Pantry and Galley. The 'Angels' basically clean the entire ship and do our laundry. The department I was put in is the galley, or kitchen, in layman terms. Having our food sale back at our church just weeks before this, it was a familiar feeling, handling food and all. What's different now though, is that we are just a team of 4-5 people, preparing meals for 400-500 people. It was also amazing that my shift leader happened to be Jireh, which meant that we could spend a lot of time working with one another and really get to know one another. Other than just cooking and preparing the food, we have daily cleaning duties and washing the cooking equipment. Whilst the pantry does only the washing of the dishes and cutlery, the galley does the cooking and their own cleaning as well. Most of the time, we will have the pantry coming over to the galley to help ease our work. Morning shift for us basically starts at 6 a.m. every morning and ends at 2-3 p.m. while afternoon shift starts at 1 p.m. and ends at 7-8 p.m. The time we finish our work may vary at times due to hard-to-clean equipment. Examples would be hamburger patties, lasagne, and bratwurst sausages where there would be a lot of grease, crust, and a large number of pans being used. During these times, we would sometimes end a lot later. Last night for example, I ended work at 8.30 p.m. and went straight to the Flash Mob practice. Work is alright for me, though sometimes I get frustrated easily and my motivation just depletes as the day goes by. One of the reasons is that my colleague is not motivated to work and wants to change department as soon as possible. Personally, it's a little discouraging and demotivating to work with people who don't like their jobs. Unfortunately, there are also people who are very role-orientated. What I mean by this is that, if it's your job to do so, then it's your job and I won't help you do it. Last week, the chef brought up that when either Pantry or Galley is free, they should help one another in any remaining tasks, and work as one body. What was discouraging was that someone actually went to the head to complain about this matter. And what was more discouraging was when I was cleaning the food line, basically where the ship's company take their food, a Swedish girl, came to help me sweep the floor. Upon seeing her wanting to help me, an African colleague, came over to tell her to stop because it was my job to sweep the floor. However, she said it was okay since she was free and had nothing to do. Prayer for patience and loving one another, to be united in one body in Christ in our workplace.

Our first sailing was an interesting experience. It wasn't my first time sailing as I've been on a cruise ship before. However, on a cruise ship, due to its immense size, you don't really feel the rocking of the waves. The Logos Hope used to be a car ferry and is huge, but still much smaller than a cruise ship, and as such, it got pretty rocky from Hong Kong to Philippines. It got so rocky that you couldn't even walk a straight line down the corridor. Everyone was literally swaying left and right as they were walking. Even the curtains kept moving on their own. Many people got seasick as well and it didn't help that we had a 'abandon ship' drill in the middle of the voyage. Thankfully, I wasn't affected much by the constant rocking. Amazingly, it helped to continuously eat and fill your stomach with food, much to my misconception that filling yourself with food would just make you more likely to throw up. When you're sitting down though, that's when you really feel the ship's rocking motions. However, when you go out to front of the ship while sailing in daylight, it's just an amazing place to be. Despite the front going up and down and you're leaning off the front edge of the ship, it's just a fantastic feeling. It was there that we saw the dolphins on two separate days. Also if you look around, it's just scary how there is absolutely nothing for miles into the horizon and you can't help but imagine yourself being in the middle of this vast ocean alone. At the same time, the ocean is just so majestic and such a beautiful creation of God. Also, at night, it's amazing when the ocean reflects the moonlight and you're just looking up into the sky, admiring every outline of the clouds illuminated by the moon. Praise God for his beautiful creations and thanksgiving for safe journeys.

Our first port after Hong Kong was San Fernandos. This port was such an amazing and unforgettable port. The reason for it being an amazing port was the port volunteers we had on board. Port volunteers are basically volunteers who help out with the different departments on board while the ship is at the port. 3 of the STEPpers signed up to be their buddies and it wasn't mere coincidence that they were friends and went to the same church. We could really see God at work in our meeting, fellowship, and friendship. They invited us to their church on the first Sunday we were at San Fernandos. After that, they took us to eat Halo-Halo, a Filipino dessert which was absolutely delicious. From there, our friendship with the volunteers grew more and more. We ended up spending lots of time together at the port. On one of the nights, we went to the night market and had amazing street food, ranging from chicken heads, chicken blood, pork intestines, and most importantly, BALUT! They even invited us to their house for lunch, where we had awesome home-cooked Filipino food, and we had very good conversation with the volunteers' grandfather. Also, the others had a sleepover on one of the nights, but I didn't go as I had morning shift the day after and my body really needed some rest. We were scheduled to stay for only one week, but we extended our stay for another week due to generator problems. This really allowed us to spend even more time with one another. Some of the STEPpers also developed a very good relationship with the owner of a local restaurant, Rose Bowl. His name is Peter Nang, and he gave his life to Christ during the time that we were there. On one of the days, he took us to a poor fisherman village at another town where we connected with the locals. We had the opportunity to pray for a few of the villagers. One of them even gave us a whole fish after we prayed for him. Knowing their living conditions, we gave him some money, although we didn't know the price for the whole fish. After that, Peter took us to a restaurant called Riverfarm, which was right beside the river. The restaurant was very far and took quite some time to get there. There, we had the opportunity of fishing for our own lunch, and the 5 of us each caught our own fish, which they grilled for us. In addition to that, they grilled the fish we got from the fisherman and we had the biggest lobster I have ever seen in my life. We also ate on a platform which was floating on the river. The food was delicious and the fellowship was amazing. Peter was also kind enough to pay for the meal, which was very costly. Even though we didn't get to see the bill, we knew it wouldn't come cheap. On the way back, we could really see God at work when we passed by a surfing area, where Peter explained about how it turned from a place full of drug addicts to surfers who are against drugs. That allowed Matthew to share about his testimony, which involved him being a former drug dealer. This really encouraged Peter, as a newly born-again Christian.

Here, I managed to sign up for Bar Ministry, where I went from bar to bar, talking with the prostitutes. This really opened my eyes to new experiences as I never expected myself to have conversations with prostitutes. However, while the experience was a positive one, I had negative opinions. While I was chatting with one of them, I found that at first, she wasn't really willing to open up. Even when I asked something simple such as her age, she was reluctant to answer and just smiled instead. Also, when I tried to hand her the free Gospel of John, she mentioned that the group from the night before had already handed her a copy and talked to her. However, as we had more conversation and I asked again, she told me her age. This shows that you really have to establish a good foundation relationship if you really want to reach out to them, and it doesn't help that every night we have different people in the Bar Ministry. In my opinion, if you really want to reach out to these people, you should have a dedicated team of people in the Bar Ministry, where it's the same team of people every night. That way, if you put yourself in the shoes of the prostitutes, you would think, 'Wow, this person actually bothered to come every night to visit me and talk to me'. What better way to show them Christ's love than that. Also, it must be exhausting having to talk to different people every night and having to share your story over and over again. However, this is only my opinion. Seeds have been planted in the hearts of these prostitutes, and we must pray for God to work in their lives for a harvest. This experience really opened my eyes to the need of dedicated Bar Ministries in countries of need.

Besides that, I had a few good Connect Day (C-Day) events in San Fernandos. One of them was going for door-to-door evangelism at a poor fisherman village. Initially, I didn't like the idea of going for door-to-door evangelism because my expectations of it was us going to each door and immediately sharing the gospel or preaching. However, I had a very good time and experience on that day. We started the day off by having a small worship at one of the houses, where many children attended. After that, we were assigned to a volunteer who helped us translate. Our volunteer, Joseph, had already been helping the village by giving bible studies and music classes during the summer, so he was already familiar with the village layout. When we went to different houses, the people just humbly invited us in where we just sat and had a chat with them. We first introduced ourselves, then talked to them about their life and their struggles. It was amazing how the locals just immediately opened up about their struggles and challenges, which allowed us to pray for them after every visit. We had 4 house visits but our first house visit was the most memorable one. One of them opened up and told us she was very worried about her husband's job as a coal transporter. During the entire time, she looked very sad and depressed. She was mainly worried that his job isn't a stable job and he might lose his job at any moment. She even started shedding tears while she was sharing, showing that she really cares a lot for her family. The houses in the area were all proper cement-walled houses, and she explained that a year ago, a very kind and generous man donated lots of money to help build all these houses. Before that, it was just simple huts with only roofs. We ended by praying for her, thanking God for his provision of the houses and shelters, and also praying for her husband and 2 daughters. After that, we could see that her face was totally changed and she was just so happy after the prayer. She even followed us to each and every house we visited after that. We could really see God working that day, filling her with such joy even though she was so troubled just moments ago.

Other than that, I was also sent to help in a church building team for the Bread On Waters Church. Team 1 had already knocked down the walls of the church on the first day. I was in Team 2 and we had to expand the church by helping to build a concrete stage and also lay concrete for the floor. It was really exhausting and challenging to manually mix the cement, pebbles, sand, and water. All of us were just drenched in our own sweat the entire day. Thankfully, the church members cooked amazing Filipino food for us and took a lot of effort to refresh us during our breaks, providing us with passion fruit juice and fresh corn. We completed a lot more than we expected, hopefully making it easier for Team 3 the next day. I was told that the church members and pastor were so thankful that they came to the ship everyday to express their gratitude and even had tears in their eyes. They even made more balut for us, which was delicious! We could really see God working in this event as we were actually scheduled to be in the next port by then, but this church building was made possible due to the broken generators and extending our stay by one week. Praises to God for his will to be done, and his perfect timings.

On other days when I don't go on shore for C Days, I have 'Deck Experience', where I would be at Deck 4 (the place opened to the public, consisting of the book fair and International Cafe). There, we would just connect with the visitors on board and have conversations with them. If a good relationship is built, we would even ask if they would want to have a tour of the ship, which we happily give. If a really good relationship is built, we usually invite them to come again on another day to have lunch with them and spend more time with them. So far, I have yet to build close relationships to people through Deck Experience. However, I have fun ballooning for children, and singing worship songs and talking to people at the International Cafe.

After San Fernandos, we made our way to Subic Bay, which wasn't planned at all. Many of the ship's company dreaded this trip as the ship had already spent 9 months at this port last year for dry dock repairs. However, it really was God's plan for us to come back to this port, as many of the ship's company managed to visit their friends they had made last year. This allowed for them to see how God had worked in their lives even after the ship left. The number of visitors on the ship for this port was the lowest we had as the trip was made last minute, which allowed most of the book fair personnel to rest and relax. Deck experiences were also very relaxing as there were barely any visitors.

After 2 weeks, all of us were very happy that we finally got to leave for Puerto Princessa. Our supposed stay of 2 and a half weeks at Puerto Princessa was shortened to one week after all the delays and repairs of the generators. On our way there, some of the STEPpers decided to go up to the highest deck to stargaze. I must say, it was one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen in my life. With minimal clouds and the moon at the horizon, you could really see the sky painted with stars and we just laid down on the floor, admiring the majestic beauty. At one point, all of us just decided to sleep there, and we got our sleeping bags and blankets up. We managed to see a couple of shooting stars from time to time. I ended up falling asleep at 2.30 a.m. because I just couldn't close my eyes when such a beautiful sight is right in front of my eyes. I just thanked God for this amazing beauty and for his creations. I just marveled at how something that is so amazing for us, was so easy for Him to create. I woke up 2 hours later, to watch the sunrise. Despite the clouds in the horizon hindering the full view of the sunrise, having to see the sky slowly change from darkness to light was amazing, and to see the orange glow of the sun pop up from the clouds like an egg was beautiful. The entire night and morning left me in such an awe that I spent some time just thinking about God and other things. This led me to share about death and eternal life during my galley devotions a few days after.

I shall continue on more updates in my next email. Once again, I apologize for not updating after so long. It's 11.12 p.m. now, and I have C Day tomorrow at 8.15 a.m. I'll be heading to a prison to help prepare for the opening of the library. Thank you all for all your prayers and support!!! I apologize for attaching only one photo, it takes forever to upload.

Many blessings from Logos Hope,
Jonathan.