Evelyn Tan
3RD JULY 2013
http://www.gbaships.org/
http://www.gbaships.org/
Hello again!
We arrived at Puerto Princesa yesterday morning at 11am. There were a bunch of people waiting for the ship's arrival. Many of the crew members went out to the highest deck (deck 9) with their flags to greet the people as we entered the port. Puerto Princesa is apparently the cleanest and greenest place in the Philippines.
The sail here was amazing! At some points, it was quite rocky but most of the time it was a smooth sail and the weather was good. On our second night of sailing (Monday night), the night sky was amazing! Can you believe that the sky here becomes almost fully black at 7.30pm? there were already many stars in the sky. Later in the night, around 10pm, many people went out to Deck 9 because the weather was good. It was a clear sky, literally FILLED with stars! I cannot even begin to describe how beautiful it was but it was a very breath taking sight! I also saw many shooting stars! That night, many people slept in their sleeping bags on deck 9(yes, it is allowed).
On Monday night (1/7/13), there was Worship night. It's a weekly thing. Worship night on Mondays and Prayer night on Thursdays. The main theme that seemed to be recurring throughout the night was unity and surrendering all to Christ. You see, from the outside, the Logos Hope with it's 400 member crew look like a bunch of 'Super Christians', missionaries going out to share the Gospel, people who 'have already got it right with God'. The truth is, everyone on board is struggling in one way or another. And I personally believe that this ship is under very heavy spiritual warfare. Though there is unity on the ship (nobody here is trying to kill each other), sense of true unity, compassion and love for each other may sometimes be forgotten. And this is due to the struggles that each one is facing. It is difficult sometimes to live as a community with a lot of different cultures, nations, personal habits and principles. So during this prayer night, many people were led to surrender everything they were facing , all their struggles and doubts to God. Many people even went up to share spontaneously because they felt the need to. After the Worship night, i saw many people praying with each other.
One of the members gave an illustration - our hearts are like containers, stored with everything in the world - all our desires and worldly things. All our sins. And God wants to come into us but He is holy and therefore cannot come into our hearts if it's filled with everything else. If it's filled with sin. She went on to say how we need to continually empty this container, which means to continually empty our hearts by surrendering everything to God so that He can come in and fill us.
Then a thought came into my mind. I work in the Angels and I clean everyday. Most times, i clean the things that had already been cleaned the day before even tough at times, these things don't look dirty at all! But I thought about it and if we didn't clean these same things everyday, the dirt would build up and when we actually decide to clean it, it would be very difficult.
In the same way, we need to clean our hearts daily so that the sin within us doesn't build up.
So for everyone who is struggling, doubting, having something that's hindering their relationship with God, I hope that you can fully surrender it to God. Even in this seemingly great community, we struggle. But it really helps to surrender it to God and to trust that He will be faithful in pulling us through. :)
Have a blessed week!
Talent Night!
But what made it even more moving was the fact that how the son wronged him first and utmost where the father had all "rights" to disown him as son but, he didn't. He in fact went all out and ensure that his son could walk back on his 2 feet once more.