Day Last.

Well this is it. My brief journey aboard the MV Doulos has come to an end. Today I have to pack and take care of various matters such as writing my final blog post.

My last e-day was very good. We drove 1 hour out of the city, up a mountain and into the pages of National Geographic. We were surrounded by jungle and small farms with dogs and chickens and water buffalo roaming about. There was an awesome view of the city from up there too.

We were helping a family build a simple home. Actually mostly we just helped smooth out some terrain (which happened to be full of boulders) so that they wouldn't need a 4x4 to park at their house. All the while that we worked the 5 boys of the family ran around having wheelbarrow races, chasing roosters, climbing scaffolding, helping build a ditch beside the driveway and sliding around in the mud. Basically proving that safety is overrated and you don't need a Wii or an iPod to have a good time.

I did sweat quite profusely, at times perhaps faster than I ever have, but we were blessed with cooler air at that elevation and with plenty of clouds hanging around the mountains -- and even an afternoon thundershower. We tended to take breaks whenever the sun came out. The parents there were pretty casual about the work and didn't want us to do a whole lot. We were plenty dirty and tired by the end of the day anyway. (We were a bunch of wimpy book ex people).

Dang, now I got to summarize my whole Doulos experience. I had some ideas I was preparing to say but now they have all flown out of my mind. All I can remember is to say thank you to everybody who prayed for me and provided for me. I hope you are satisfied that your support was not in vain. And the other thing is that I want to give all glory to God for what he has done and is doing on this ship and in my life. Honestly. I'm not just saying that. I hope you have managed to read all my posts, and yeah they are pretty me-oriented a lot of the time since I was just talking about what I observed and felt. But I hope that through it all you have got a sense that God is so awesome and it is a wonderful privilege to be in his kingdom/family. If you don't have a relationship with Jesus, I want you to realize how much you are missing out.

Oh, I remember another thing I should say now. Before I came to the ship I didn't know what to expect. I hoped and even assumed it would be pretty neat and there would be lots of nice people to meet. But this STEP exceeded my expectations. It's funny, but even though I can imagine how things could have been better, I am nonetheless grateful, impressed and greatly encouraged by the many wonderful people I met, experiences I had and things I learned. If you DO have a relationship with Jesus I want you to know that God wants you to be involved in missions and that the Doulos (and Logos Hope and OM) is a worthwhile cause to invest your time or money in.

I feel like this was a summer well spent. I have no regrets. I could feel my restlessness building at the beginning of the year and I knew that if I put this trip off any longer I would have missed out on something big. I feel like I have learned a lot, but it's not something you could read in a book or take a test on. On the other hand this was like a holiday. I didn't get flogged or run out of town even once. Instead I got to relax on beautiful beaches, sail the seas and get stuff bought for me by people I just met. I guess next time I will have to push myself harder.

Whew, I managed to summarize after all. Once again: thank you all, glory to God.

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen. -1 Timothy 1:17

Days 57 to 63

Bernadette took me and Sam to the Mount Kinabalu national park. Along the way we stopped at her friends souvenir shop where she said I could get a good deal. I picked a few things and the asked how much it would be but the owner just waved her hand and smiled and said I didn't need to pay. The park was a refreshing non-humid 20° C, quite amazing and wonderful so close to the equator. Bernadette treated us to dinner and then Sam and I took a brief nature walk, but we didn't have much time or knowledge of the area. But it was nice anyway.

The rest of the time has still been mostly an unexceptional work and leisure routine. I have actually been getting exhausted with all the little and big activities filling up my leisure time. I haven't had any e-days besides the one when I did the painting, until today, and another e-day tomorrow.

This morning we went to an orphanage + care home that takes care of people that the government facilities don't accept. It was a Christian place operated by a husband and wife and some low-wage workers. The couple don't have children of their own but they call all the people under their care their children. I was surprised at how cheerful and affectionate the kids were and how good the atmosphere was there. Many of them are mentally or physically disabled or were abandoned or rescued from horrible situations, but in the short time I was there I sensed that in general they are spiritually healthy. We taught them some silly songs, did a simple skit and made balloon animals -- actually balloon swords mostly. I was inspired to bring some drawing pencils along to do some quick portrait sketches (I did three).

Tomorrow I will be going as one among two teams to some Habitat for Humanity project to do practical work. I expect to sweat as never before. Oh, and I just got an e-mail that our leader can't make it and wants me to lead. Awesome.

I would like to add to the stuff I was saying in my last post about life on the ship. That haphazard paint job we did at the hospital in Cambodia is pretty representative of a lot of what gets done on this ship. Some of my e-days have had very little planning beforehand, the rest have had none at all. In the bookshop I have noticed a lot of inefficiencies, annoyances and disorder. I have chosen not to complain very much about these things since I am only a lowly STEPper and I assumed, often correctly, that some issues would have a reason I didn't yet understand. But concerning the bookshop, lots of improvements are under way thanks to a new bookshop manager and a visit from the guy that handles all book shipments to the Doulos and Logos Hope (sorry, I don't know what his title is off hand, but his name is Huug if that helps). Since there are now radical changes underway and they said they were open to suggestions I have started to be more outspoken. I am happy about the changes being made so far.

The point of that last paragraph was supposed to be that even in practical matters the Doulos has much room for improvement, but I am confident that God is still using this ship (and her sister ship) for great things.

Well, just four more sleeps and I'll be heading back to Canada. Sounds crazy to say that, or...feels crazy to type that... Anyway, as I suspected, this was too short a time. I am jealous for those who get to continue on. I don't know how it feels for you people back home, but it seems like I just got here. Don't worry, I'm not cancelling my plane ticket. But I think I would like to stay involved with the OM ships in the future somehow. I might come back to the Doulos to work in IT at some point but it sounds like the Doulos's days are number due to new international ship regulations.

In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.
--Proverbs 16:9

Day 56

Things are still pretty slow in the news around here, but I guess that is OK for the Doulos because this is a time when many people are finishing their 2-year term on the Doulos (most people come for two years) and 64 new people are just beginning next week.

That lady I met at the Vancouver airport (Bernadette) came by the other day. She asked if there was anything she could buy for my in town. At first I thought, no that's ok, but then I remembered that earlier that day I had resolved to make fruit smoothies for the book ex department. (Some people keep trying to make fresh "juice" for us apparently by squeezing the juice out of some fruit, throwing it away, and then blending the remaining pulp with some ice.) So I mentioned my smoothie idea to Bernadette and she promptly took me on an all expenses paid shopping spree at multiple markets buying large quantities of various fruits and also cake and other things. And on top of that forced me to take 100 ringgit. I gave the cake away for birthdays and such and I got to make my ultimate smoothie yesterday (two pitchers full) and distribute it to people in the book ex and other people sitting around. This smoothie contained banana, yogurt, strawberries, mango, papaya, dragonfruit, star fruit, peaches, kiwi, watermelon and plastic spoon. That last one was unintentional. It came from one of the yogurt lids. But everyone thoroughly enjoy the smoothie nonetheless.

That's all I can think of saying as far as recent events. I suppose I should answer a question my mom asked a long time ago about friends and getting along with people. I'm in a cabin with 10 guys, all STEPpers. We all get along great. This is obviously a work of God. Our ages range from 18 (I think) to 40-something. Some have been Christians for 18 months, some for 20 years. Our backgrounds are so different (and some aren't very pretty). We come from Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, America, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, and Northern Ireland. We have a wide range of personalities and gifts, different levels of spiritual maturity and different tastes and interests. Some of us don't understand the difference between paper and plastic garbage. But despite all these differences we get along great. Some of us are fast friends, some of us don't talk much but the general atmosphere in our cabin is loving and joyful. In this picture just above, you can see (front to back) my cabin mates Hao, from Taiwan; Sam, from Switzerland; and Clarence from Singapore. Hao and Sam are my closest companions here since we all work in the same shift in the bookshop. That's a bit about my cabin.

I have noticed one interesting thing on this ship. As I have been meeting hundreds of people onboard I have been suprised at how consistently cool and/or nice people are. I think I'm not used to being around such a high ratio of passionate Christians. I have noticed myself making assumptions and pre-judgements about people when I first see them, but when I actually talk to them I realise I was all wrong. I'm used to people having a lot more issues in the "real world".

Perhaps this all sounds too rosy. Well, sure nobody here, like anywhere else in the world, is perfect. Some are more passionate than others, some are more mature than others. I have been dissapointed with some of the movies I have seen people watching and shocked by some of the songs on the shared music libraries on the network. It seems that there is a problem with theft on the ship. I have observed occasional tension between people and some people aren't always smiling or even very awake. But for the most part things actually are quite awesome around here.

I am late for work now. Sorry, no prayer requests.

Day 50

Sorry for not posting for awhile. I am still alive and well. We have been in Malaysia for almost a week and there isn’t much to report yet. By the way, I carefully examined the list of words we aren’t supposed to say in our electronic communication, and “Jesus”, “Praise the Lord”, “Hallelujah” and “Amen” weren’t on the list, so I guess I will continue to say such things as often as I like.

Interestingly we have arrived here at the beginning of Ramadan, which means the Muslim’s here won’t be eating during the daytime. I can hear the call to prayer at noon time or whenever they do it, coming from somewhere in the city. Apparently Ramadan is the time when a lot of Muslims have visions and dreams of Christ, so, something to pray about.

The opening weekend when we arrived here was really busy (7000-some visitors one day), but now the weekdays have been very slow (under 500). I had an E-Day on Monday. There was a painting competition on the quay-side held by one of the sponsors (a paint store) for the Doulos here in KK. Me and another fellow were supposed to assist as needed, but they didn’t need our assistance. So then I mentioned to the sponsor guy, it’s funny, because I work as an artist back home. That is how I ended up painting a picture that day. It wasn’t a great painting but I got first place in the Doloid category!

Despite being under a tent the whole time, I managed to get sunburnt. Then the next day I went out to the beach, and even though it was cloudy and I put sunscreen on once I got to the beach I still got even more sunburnt.

Remember that lady I met at YVR who was returning to KK and knew about the Doulos and invited me to her church at the 5-star hotel? Well anyway, my cabin mate Jack (his name should be familiar to you by now), met a lady in Australia the day before he came to the Doulos, and she was from KK or leastwise she new the pastor of the hotel church and gave him his contact info. Interesting eh? I’m looking forward to going to this church, but I haven’t heard from the lady I met yet. If I hadn’t slept in and missed devotion on Tuesday I would be telling you about the amazing testimony of the president of that hotel/resort which he came to share that morning.

I figure that since we are restricted in our ministry here in Malaysia our main focus here will be to encourage the church, and nearly all the E-Days appear to be going to churches. So far it kind of feels like our STEP will be ending on a—not a low note, but a quiet note, let’s say…

Prayer requests:

• Keep praying for the Doulos in KK, that we could bless the people somehow
• Pray for the Muslims during this month of Ramadan

Days 42-46

I forgot to add prayer requests on my last post. So, please say a prayer for Hau (who just needs to make the final step of faith), and the others who were touched by our little STEP choir outreach.

Time for the next story. These are coming horribly late. I am actually sailing to Kota Kinabalu as I type this and have been for the previous 4 days as well. You would think that on a 5 day voyage I would have plenty of time to catch up on my blog but actually I have been busy working in the IT department (hi five Ben!). Also, strangely, I was really sea sick on our first full day of sailing until I took a Kwell tablet in the afternoon, then zonked out for 3 hours and then I have been fine ever since. The voyage has been quite smooth the whole way, incedentally.

Right, so time for the last story about Bangkok.

On Thusday the 20th we had a faith trip. What is a faith trip? It's a one day excursion with a small group of people with no money or food. In Cambodia some people were taken with our vans an hour or so out from the ship and left to find their way back. In Thailand they drive on the wrong side of the road, so we couldn't use the vans, and there are free buses all over, so that sort of faith trip doesn't work. Here we just had to meet in the morning, pray, talk briefly and then go out for the day and see what God wanted us to do.

I honestly hadn't considered what we might do until all three groups of people doing faith trips that day met in the morning. Suddenly I thought (or should I say, "God told me"), we should go to the slums. I hadn't done anything like that in Cambodia or here, but I knew there was a slum nearby. When we broke into our individual groups I suggested it. It was the first and only suggestion because another girl, Birte, had thought about the slums when she was praying the night before. So it was decided. We wandered out onto the streets and after a few wrong turns we were on our way down some train tracks under the expressway.

As we were walking it occured to me that we have enough trouble communicating with people in downtown Bangkok, how are we going to find people who understand English in the slums? A little ways in we saw two ladies: a doctor and a nurse, or perhaps two doctors or two nurses, attending to someone. One of them spoke English well but she didn't understand and wasn't prepared for our faith trip. We asked if we could help but she didn't really answer us. So we walked on, saying "Sawatdee-kap" (hello, "Sawatdee-kaa" if you're a lady) to the people we passed. I guess we were looking for somebody that wanted to talk to us, a Canadian, a German, a Finn and two Taiwanese.

Not too much further on a shirtless man in his 60's hailed us and asked what we were up to. This got us all talking to him and his English was quite good, though his accent was strong. His name was Narong and he used to be quartermaster on a ship for 30 years, sailing around the world. He had had an accident on the ship or in a port and lost the use of his left arm and some of his left leg. We prayed for him, including asking God to heal him but there were no miracles of that sort that day. We also shared the gospel with him and tried to teach him how to pray. He actually asked to know how he could pray and wrote down what we said in Thai as we explained it in English. At the end of the day we went to the ship and got him a Thai New Testament and brought it back to him. He said he would read it and I said I would visit him a few more times before we leave Bankok. The rest of our faith trip day was a lot more wandering around and not really worth writing home about.

When we left Narong in the morning I wasn't so sure how much we got through to him. When we came back with the Bible in the afternoon he seemed more enthusiastic and I felt more positive about things. He said he would read the Bible and I suggested that he could then tell the rest of his neighbourhood about what he read and he agreed.

I visited him a third time with some different people to see if he had read his Bible so I could answer any questions he had. He hadn’t read much, he said. Jack shared his testimony with him and prayed for him. Some kids showed up and played with the other Douloi. We bought them some lollipops.

Finally on our very last day in Bangkok we brought out a whole choir to sing to Narong and the others in the slum and to hand out Gospels of John and some books for the kids. I think Narong might be depressed because he said he enjoyed the music but he just kind of stared blankly to the side when we sang. We moved the choir a little further in to the slum and got more of a crowd. We sang some children’s songs with actions and it was funny to see a tattooed man in his twenties sitting on a couch and happily mimicking the actions. I was very happy with how our last day turned out. I think we were really able to bless those people and share some joy and love with them. I am just concerned for Narong and I hope he reads and can understand his New Testament and that he will get in touch with the church we tried setting him up with.
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There you have it. Thailand was an open country as far evangelism goes. Now we head to Malaysia where there are actually laws against proselytizing Muslims. This definitely changes things. I complained before about how we were too timid in Thailand, but that was because I was sure our teams weren't close to pushing any boundaries. In Malaysia as an entire ship we do have to be careful what we say or we may have to find an unscheduled port somewhere else. Apparently that happened in one of the previous 42 times that the Doulos has visited Malaysia. It won't get any easier for the Doulos if they go on to the Middle East, as they plan on doing.

This also means that I am supposed to be careful what words I use over the internet, as eletronic traffic is often monitored. So my blog may sound a vague at points from now on. Not sure how much difference it makes, but those are the instructions. So here is my last chance: Jesus, Jesus Jesus! Hallelujah! Praise the LORD! Amen.

And some Bible verses from Matthew 5 which I am memorizing, and which I will be contemplating in Malaysia:

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt should lose it's taste, how
can it be made salty again? It's no longer good for anything but to be thrown
out and trampled on by men.

"You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden.
No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket but rather on a lampstand and it
gives light to all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine
before men, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in
heaven."

Prayer requests:

• for Narong and the others in the slum, that they would read the New Testaments and Gospels we gave them and that God would show his mercy to them
• for the me and the rest of the Doulos in Malaysia

Day 36 also

At the same time that the princess visited our ship a bunch of us STEPpers and a few others went to the downtown to sing some songs. At first we started in the large plaza in front of the Central World mall. We had asked one of the security guards for permission beforehand but two different guards came to as after a couple songs and asked us to move away. So we shuffled over to the stairs leading up to the plaza, and of course a few minutes later they shooed us onto the sidewalk where the tuk-tuk driver’s invited us. It was kind of an awkward location and being a Monday most people didn’t have time to hang around but there were some good things. We gave a Gospel of John to one man who said he would read it right there and ask some questions later. Our “STEPdad” Leonard had a long discussion with him. His name, according to Leonard, was Hau. He said that in his life he doesn’t feel much joy and peace, but when he hears us singing he does feel good. In the end Leonard clearly explained the gospel to him and he understood the truth but he wasn't ready to change his heart just yet. There was another poor looking woman who took a Gospel from me and sat down and quietly read it the whole time we were singing. There was also another man who was probably a bit crazy who was laughing and clapping with us, he stuck around through all our songs. There were a bunch of smaller encounters with passersby too. Perhaps our location and timing weren’t the best but I was happy with how it went. It is nice to have a group of people who are all willing to be fools for Christ.

Day 36

If my last post seemed overly negative I apologize. I didn't mean to say that the whole day was a write-off. It was a good day actually, I just felt I needed to share about this one thing that was bothering me. I can't access the comments page currently, but to answer my mom's question, I have only noticed this shyness in Thailand with these schools, but I will be on the lookout.

I bet the next thing everybody wants to know about is the princess' visit. Well, I haven't heard much about it so what can I say? I can show you some photos that were taken.

I'd also like to show you the the good side of the ship...

...and the not so good side.

That's about it. But thanks for praying. Did I mention the theme verse of the line-up team for Bangkok? Sorry if I am repeating myself. It's the one about being the fragrance of Christ to those who are perishing. One of the line-up guys made a lovely point during our port orientation. He commented about how our sense of smell, while not the most noble of the senses, does have a reputation for triggering memories. And we are just passing in and out of Bangkok like a fragrance on the breeze, but we hope to leave such a positive impression of Christ here that sticks in their minds so that when these people encounter other Christians it will trigger good memories and encourage them to draw closer to God.