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