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.
----------
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.

Day 39?

Ack! I have so much to write about piling up that I'm not sure I can say or remember all the good stuff I want to. Let me make a quick list for myself...

• e-day to school
• princess visit
• speaker on Sunday
• STEP outing
• faith trip
• other e-day
• friends, cabin mates etc.
• general reflections

OK, I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff, and I probably can't cover all that.

So the E-day. I said I would figure out what the deal was with the anti-proselytizing warning we were given concerning the "World Vision" school we were going to visit. I talked to the Line-Up department, the people that go ahead of the ship to each port to arrange everything, and they explained that these are public schools where World Vision is involved. As public schools they are naturally Buddhist. Line-Up said that we could share our testimonies and mention our beliefs but we shouldn't preach to them or be to forceful in our speech. This sounded a lot more reasonable and I was glad to clear that up before we went. In the end though I was dissapointed with the day. One problem was that we had no translator of our own and had to depend on one of the teachers whose English was not much better than the children's. This made things confusing and awkward. We played some games, and did some skits and talked about the ship, but in the end I don't think anything was mentioned about Jesus or Christianity. I think we left a positive impression; the kids had some fun and maybe learned some stuff and the teachers were thankful toward us, but I think we could have done better.

This would be a good time to talk about the next E-day. This time, the schools came to our ship rather than us going out. We performed a program 3 times with about 150, 300 and 350 students and teachers. The program involved introductions of the Douloi involved (Douloi is apparently the plural of Douloid), demonstrations of various cultural greetings, a video about the ship (it is really cool, you should see it) a powerpoint quiz about countries of the world and a skit called "Work, Eat, Sleep" or in this case "Study, Eat Sleep". This skit involves one person saying the words "study...eat...sleep" repeatedly while beating a drum. Meanwhile other people mime these activities. The "study...eat...sleep" cycle is occasionally interjected with, "party", "sports" and "shopping". The words and beat become faster and faster until the mimers can't keep up and the last word is "death!" Then the drummer/speaker asks, "Is there more to life than this?" The short answer is of course "Yes: Jesus!"

This skit came at the end of the program and on our first run through, when the MC was explaining the meaning of the skit to the students I couldn't help but notice that there was no mention about Jesus or God or anything useful like that. I thought, um, is there some more rules I wasn't aware of that we can't share the gospel to these students? Then I thought, this is ridiculous, they are coming to our ship, if they don't like the message they can leave and they have seen the whole program by then anyway. I already know what the Line-Up had said so I talked to our leader and the MC and aked that we kick it up a notch on the giving glory to God. For the next run, the MC did mention that he was a Christian but that was it. I hoped the last time would be more bold but actually he went back to just talking about how the decisions we make in life can effect others. I was really dissapointed about this and gently said so to our team in our debriefing. The longer term Douloi where like "Yeah, well, you know...this and that..." I was not convinced.

If you are one of my non-Christian friends reading this you may be glad that we didn't try foisting our religious baggage onto these perfectly happy Buddhist students. But if you are somebody who loves God and wants other people to know him, you will understand what a big let down this is. Doulos is one giant opportunity to share the gospel with whoever comes near it or us. We had 800 people come to our program yesterday to hear whatever we had to say and the most meaningful thing that was said was "Consider the decisions you make in life". Besides being next to useless, such advice only reinforces Buddhist beliefs. They already have their Eightfold Path with its Right Thoughts and Right Action and Right Efforts etc. They need to hear that there is a God out there that loves them, and sent his Son to do everything right for us and pay once and for all for our sins. I'm noticing that a lot of us get scared and intimidated when we here rumours that we should be careful what we say to these schools. So scared apparently that we say nothing of value and our message amounts to a bunch of bland fluff. I remembered afterwards that I was given the opportunity to be the MC but I thought somebody else could probably do a better job. I don't mean to insult the guy who was our MC, God bless him, but I think that was a lesson to me that I should step up and take opportunities to speak when they are presented.

Well, that is two items off my list. I have vastly overshot the 30 minute time limit for computer use here, so I will bid you adieu for today.

Prayer requests:

• pray that I will be man and take opportunities to speak when they are presented to me

Day 33 cont.

OK, please don't miss my previous post, but in all the excitement I forgot to tell you about something else that is happening today. While the princess is visiting, us commoners have to be off the ship, right? So at the same time many of the STEPpers will be at the center of Bangkok singing in a choir and performing skits and such. I forget if I mentioned it, but we had a STEP choir when we led prayer night a few weeks ago. Prayer night was such a success that we wanted to take our show on the road. The princess visit was an obvious time when we could all do it and Center Point, Bangkok is an excellent, if bold, location. There is a large mall with a huge plaza.

In one corner of the plaza there are two big shrines, one with an elephant man and one with a female figure. In the West we scoff at the people in the Bible and say who would literally bow down to idols in this day and age. But here in the middle of modern, technologically sophisticated Bangkok, they take it quite seriously. Yesterday I was walking through the plaza and there was a gigantic tent set up and a huge sound system. What was the crowd watching? Transvestite hip-hop dancing. I know that Bangkok has many transvestites but I'm not sure of the reason.

So we are bringing a very different sort of message and performance to that plaza. If you read this in the next 8 hours please pray for us. Thanks.

Day 33

There are many things to write about but I don't have much time right now. The pressing matter is the Princess' visit. (Princess Sirithorn is one of her names I am told (pronounced British style), don't Google it, I don't think I'm spelling it right). The place is getting all decked up around here. It is quite fancy, but you can't hide all the flaws on this poor old ship!

Our director, Daniel Chae, from South Korea will be the one walking by the princess' side during her visit. Many others will be involved in various ways but the majority of us will be off the ship.


Two versus come to my mind in light of this event:

"When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not
worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the
Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say." Luke 12:11-12

"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves" 2 Corinthians 4:7

The first one would be for the director, Daniel. The second one, I think is just great as a theme verse for the Doulos. I chose the NASB translation because it say "vessel" and sounds best in general. I just realized I don't have a good picture of the Doulos on my blog yet, my apologies. Well, here is a picture of the princess' pad.

And for the Doulos, you just have to imagine a 95 year old vessel that has had lots of TLC but it is still 95 freaking years old and overdue for some drydock time. I touched on this idea before with the story of the Vietnamese visitors from the cruise ship in Cambodia. Outwardly, this ship isn't much to look at. But there is something - or should I say Someone - that draws people to us wherever we go. Our bookshop is not exemplary. Sure, in Cambodia and other poor and remote countries we bring desperately needed literature. But here in Bangkok I'm sure there are bookshops 20 times larger, albeit probably with a smaller bible selection. The thing that makes us special of course is that we represent Jesus. And this ship shines in a spiritual way. I heard of one Muslim man that recently visited the ship and when he first saw it he said something to his host about how glorious it appeared.

So, I don't know why Princess Sirithorn is visiting the ship except that she is a huge fan of education and literature and she visited it once before in the 80's. But as Daniel Chae said at our prayer night, "We are just ordinary people, not used to these sort of prestigious occasions" (not a direct quote). And as I have said, this is just a humble boat with a modest bookshop. God has given us a tremendous opportunity to impact the royalty of Thailand, and through them, the rest of Thailand. So please, please pray, and even fast, asking God to make this visit run smoothly, and more importantly to touch the princess' heart with his love and truth.

Day 29

So, where was I? Pictures and stuff. Here are a couple pictures. Hover you mouse over them to get the captions.

Tomorrow I have another e-day, which actually stands for evangelism day I'm pretty sure now. The odd thing is, we are going to a World Vision-run or -sponsored school and we aren't allowed to evangelize. This really irks me, especially since World Vision is supposed to be a Christian organization right, at least that's what they say in their mission statement? I need to figure out what is up with these schools. The Thai government probably puts these restrictions on them or something. But I didn't come to the other side of the world to tell people to be nice and encourage teamwork, ugh. I have been trying to get opportunities to share the gospel around here and I haven't been feeling too successful. But when somebody says I can't share the gospel that does some extreme reverse psychology to me. I want to say like Peter did to the Sanhedrin: "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard." But like I said, I need to understand what the real situation is. It would be unfortunate to undermine years of careful development by World Vision in Thailand, but . . . grrr.

So while I'm sort of on the subject. . . I have been hearing all these wonderful stories from other Douloids of encounters they have had with various people, from monks to street vendors and many of them have been led to Christ. Some people have prayed that God would give them one special conversation that day, or that they could see one person saved at each port and God has faithfully answered them (I know God is particularily fond of such prayers). Of course my heart jumps for joy with these stories but then I think, hmm, I haven't really had any opportunities like that, and come to think of it that sounds like my whole life so far. I figured God put me in the Book Ex department so I could practice me interaction with people. So of course I too have prayed for some opportunities, a bit, but so far nothing major has happened. I do feel like I am growing lots in my job and I'm giving and getting lots of smiles from people and having a few pleasent chats, but nothing that leads anywhere deep. I don't know . . .

In other news, it is my birthday today, and the Queen of Thailand's birthday (national holiday), and also Maurits from the Netherlands' birthday and also Kieren van Roekel whose ancestors are from the Netherlands' birthday. So, as one girl put it, only two years left before my life is over! Everyone has been really nice. I have had "Happy Birthday" sung to me 5 times (breakfast, STEP group meeting, lunch, after work, and dinner with water soaking grand finale) and numerous signs and cards posted in the main stairwells.

Speaking of the Queen of Thailand, the Princess is coming to the ship - as I mentioned before - on Monday. The port area is suddenly getting a paint job, at least in the parts that the Princess is expected to see. Apparently hiding in our cabins is not an option after all. All non-essential personel have to be off the ship. I am non-essential. This visit will undoubtedly raise the profile of the Doulos in Bankok and bring more visitors. We really need to pray for this visit and for the salvation of the Princess (sorry, nobody knows what her actual name is). If she became a Christian it would obviously have a huge impact on the rest of Thailand. This is an amazing opportunity for the Doulos and whoever those essential personel are. Please pray for them.

Prayer requests:

• if you read everything above I think you can figure something out
  
  

Days 25 - 28

Well thanks for your prayers. My cold went on for one more day with no sign of improvement and I started to worry it might drag on, but then suddenly on Monday I woke up and didn't feel horrible, which was a pleasant surprise. I have still had some minor symptoms but the sore throat is gone, my energy is good and I don't feel the need for a head and neck transplant anymore! So thanks to God for that.


Additionally, we had a big jump in visitors over the weekend. In the 3000's both days, even though Sunday it is only open half the day. There was a large line-up when we opened on Sunday, I was in the ticket booth with one other person. As the line passed through more people joined the line. By the time the line was done 2000 people had come through in less than 2 hours! We had to stop selling tickets from time to time because the bookshop was getting overloaded. This reminds me of one funny fact I have learned. We have the occasional Buddhist monks come to visit the ship. Apparently one of their vows is that cannot touch any woman. So when the bookshop gets crowded on these busy days they end up standing on the deck looking nervous, waiting for the crowds to die down so they can get into the shop. Another random observation is that a disproprtionate number of visitors over the weekend had SLR cameras. Lot's of people were buying stacks and baskets of books and the credit cards were out in force. So I think this solves another one of the prayer requests. I mentioned before that the ship finances were low coming out of Cambodia, but I think at this rate we won't have any problem sailing to our next port.

Dang. I have a lot more to talk about and pictures to add but it is past curfew so I have to slink back to my cabin post haste!

Prayer requests:

• thank God for being so good

Days 20 - 24

Seems I have neglected this blog for a few days. You can stop holding your breath now.

The airconditioning on the ship was out for a few days and everybody turned into zombies. It was better to be outside where there was at least a breeze and the air was probably fresher, though I use that term loosely here in Bangkok. I can describe my personal experience, although I'm not sure it was entirely related to the AC. For at least two days everything sucked. I felt like a depressed elderly person with asthma. Climbing stairs was hard, thinking was hard, sleeping was hard, smiling was hard. I remembered being able to sweep the bookshop much more vigorously when I was in Sihanoukville, even though the bookshop is outside and the weather didn't seem any different. It seemed amazing how important it was to have a fortress of airconditioning to retreat to. But on the third-ish day all my regular energy returned, praise God, even though the AC was still down, and even while I was starting to develop a cold or flu or whatever. I will leave the interpretation of those events up to you.

Also this week, I had another one of those E-Days. I went with 8 other guys to a place called Rahab House, a part of Rahab Ministries, to do practical work. As you can possibly guess from the name, it is a place that rescues prostitutes off the streets and gives them a new life and a safe clean place to live. That particular house was run by a guy named Alex, and his wife who I didn't meet, from New Zealand. Alex explained that most (all?) of these girls enter prostitution either unwittingly or by force. Many of them come from the countryside and come to work in bars thinking they will just be serving customers food and drinks. Others are sold into prostitution by families to pay back loans. When they come to Rahab, they are required to attend church and they basically all become Christians because Christians are the only people that have ever cared for them.

Most of us did painting that day. There were also a carpenter and electrician who did some work. The painting was more professional and orderly than at the hospital in Cambodia, but still pretty ghetto compared to what I am used to. Alex had the electrician install grounding wires for a bunch of outlets because that apparently isn't standard here in Thailand.

After E-Day was prayer night, led by the STEPpers. I finally got to drum. The theme of the night was encouragement and as STEPpers we especially wanted to be an encouragment to the longer term members of the Doulos. We had spent the whole week trying to get everybody involved in the music to practice together despite conflicting schedules and scarce access to instruments. In the end we didn't have everything thoroughly practiced. I was even informed of some songs only at the very moment we were to play them! But in the end the night went really well and everybody left in high spirits. We even got to play "God of this City", here in the city where it was first performed!

Prayer requests:

• pray that this annoying cold would go away and not spread to everybody on board or to visitors
• pray for more visitors, we are getting less than in Sihanoukville, which isn't right
• but praise God we are selling a lot more at this port

Day 19

Yesterday evening there was a youth program onboard. Although it was for youth there were actually families and people of all ages in attendance. The event took place in the "main lounge", the conference area part of the ship. Tables were set up and at the front testimonies, music, videos and dramas took place. My roommate Hao and I decided to drop in to see what it was like and to meet some Thai people. At my table was a mother and brother of one of the volunteer translators for this port. The mother invited me to their church for Sunday service the next day and I said, sure why not. Hao and another roommate Sam, came along as well.

So today we went to a Thai church. It seemed like a relatively new church in what looked like an apartment building. I mean the church seemed new, not the building. And by new I mean like maybe 10 or 15 years old. It wasn't a very large congregation and the service was of course in Thai, but we had some people to translate the gist of it for us. The pastor was a woman and I believe she was also the founder of the church and Chinese. Despite all that, I was actually suprised at how normal it was compared to church as I am used to it. It started of with some familiar modern worship songs lead by the young adults. Then there were announcements and prayer then some hymns lead from the piano. Then the sermon, and a standard communion, then prayer for our translator, Eung, and girl who are going off to study abroad. After the service we had lunch with the church and in the afternoon their was a youth program that we stuck around for.

As I mentioned, Eung is going to study abroad. In fact he is going to Kentucky for 6 years. He won't see his family during this whole time. He turns 17 in September. At the end of the youth program his little brother and sister performed a song for him. His brother played guitar and his sister sang. I couldn't understand the song, but it was really touching because she started choking up and everybody helped her out on the chorus. Even the Dad behind the camcorder was wiping his eyes. Their dad, by the way, is the only one of their family who is still Buddhist, but he was at church this day, videotaping everything (Eung also performed some songs during the church service).

Another interesting tidbit about that family is that they are voice actors for dubbing movies into Thai. Eung actually did the voice of Nemo in Finding Nemo when he was younger and some character in the latest Harry Potter movie.

Anyway, it was a good day with a nice family and a nice church. Considering that this was a young church in the middle of a huge city in a heavily Buddhist country on the other side of the world with a family that had only become Christians in the last year or so, the real surprise of the day was how unsurprising it was.

Prayer requests:

• I would just like to prayer for Eung and his family. Specifically that he would handle his 6 years in America well and
• that his father would come to know Jesus like the rest of the family.

Day 17

We are now in the Kingdom of Thailand: Bangkok to be precise. Here's some "Port Orientation" for you.

Of the 65 million inhabitants of Thailand about 94% are Buddhist. There are also Muslims, especially in the south, Hindus and less than 1% Christians. Christianity has been present for a little over 100 years, I think, and it hasn't gotten far. Thailand has a proud history going back to the 14th century. Back then it was called Siam, up until 1939 in fact, when it became a constitutional democracy. They are able to boast that they are the only Southeast Asian country never to have been under the control of a European power. And in fact, "thai" is a word that means free or freedom. They still have royalty and they are revered like you wouldn't believe. Saying anything against the royalty can get even foreigners jailed for years. On August 17th the Princess will be visiting the Doulos, which is the Thai equivilent of having Princess Diana multiplied by Mother Teressa coming to the ship! Apparently all Douloids not specifically involved with that visit will have to be off the ship or in their cabins and the cleaning and preparations beforehand will be nuts, I'm sure. Also nobody is allowed to be higher than the Princess when she passes by, so they have to kneel.

I'm pretty vague on most everything else about Thailand. I'm not even entirely sure how to say hello, let alone anything else. Most of my observations on Thailand will actually be about Bangkok because I probably won't get out of the city. These current observations only reflect what I have seen within a 20 minute walk from the ship. Compared to Sihanoukville it is much like any large city in the West. There are much more cars, the driver is less chaotic. Most people are clearly better off than in Cambodia. There is a shopping mall nearby with a Walmart style store. There are plenty of McDonalds and Starbucks.

Prayer requests:

• In Cambodia we gave away lots of stuff, but not much was purchased from the bookstore, as a result finances are low. Pray that we can sell a lot more here in Bangkok so we can continue sailing on schedule.
• Pray that I, and the rest of my shipmates can learn the customs and mindset of the Thai so we can be most effective in sharing the gospel with them.

Day 13ish continued

So after visiting the hospital about half the ship went to the beach at the fancy Sokha hotel to relax. And that was our last day in Cambodia.






I wish I could have taken a picture of three people on a scooter: two ladies on the back sitting side-saddle in opposite directions wearing pajamas and no helmets. That would be a very typical scene on the streets of Cambodia, but I didn't think of taking such a picture until it was too late. Yeah, it is an acceptable fashion around there for women to wear pajamas at all times of the day. I heard this goes back to the time of the Khmer Rouge when people were only allowed to wear their work uniforms or pajamas. But that is just what I heard.



Another random observation about Cambodia is that they have no concept of forming a line. This made it very difficult to open the book exhibition some days. We had a roped off path leading to the gangway, but not attached to the gangway itself. This was a mistake apparently because on at least one occasion there was a huge crowd that spread out all around the gangway trying to get on, including many children with no accompanying adult (not allowed). They nearly nocked the girl giving out the tickets into the water. I had to pick up the ropes take them around the crowd to the gangway and then start winching it tight. You could talk and gesture all you wanted to the crowd about forming a line but they would just look at you for a moment with no understanding.


These are just odds and ends I wanted to get out. I got to befriend some of the Cambodian volunteers that helped on the ship as translators and other things. They were mostly 17-19 years old. I didn't get to know them very well but they seemed like a really fun bunch, I was sorry to see them go so soon and I know they were all deeply impacted by their brief experience of the Doulos. They called everyone brother or sister so-and-so, "bradda Moss" in my case. I got some farewell notes from a couple of them and exchanged email addresses. The one guy who I befriended the most was Ratana, from Phnom Penh. He is a Christian and plays guitar and drums at his church. I asked him about what sort of music he liked and he mentioned bands like Simple Plan and Metallica. I asked him if he knew about any Christian bands like Skillet or Switchfoot, but he didn't. I showed him a song by Skillet which he really liked. He had no money to buy anything from the bookshop so I bought him a Skillet and a Disciple CD.

So I feel like I only started to see a part of Cambodia and then had to go. The people I met all seemed gentle and nice. When you meet them it makes you think that they deserve just as much blessings and opportunity as anyone in developed countries enjoys. They just happen to find themselves in difficult circumstances with a horrible past to recover from. So please pray for Cambodia and thank God that he is at work in that nation and his church is growing there.

Day 13ish

We are now sailing to Thailand and I have the difficult task of summarizing my whole Cambodia experience as well as the last few days. First the last few days.

The weather was finally decent for the last few days (sorry, I will stop saying that now) and we made the admission free instead of 25 cents, so there was better turnout, though apparently not huge compared to other ports. For example, one day we had around 4000 visitors. Since Cambodia was a poor port, we had a large donation of childrens books (80,000) that we were giving away for free, first one per visitor, then we changed it to three. One of the jobs for the book exhibition was to take their tickets in exchange for the books. On these busier days the free book area became jam packed with people. In western cultures people would not be comfortable being so squished together. The job sounds simple, until you have 20 people rushing you at once with anywhere from 1 to 7 tickets and some of them buying extra books. I turned around for one mintute to count a stack of 70 books that one guy was buying and people started poking me and waving their tickets in front of my face. Gong show would be an accurate description. And don't forget how hot and humid it was too. Partly by God's grace and partly by the fact that we were just giving these books away anyway, I was able to stay calm. At least the Cambodians seemed honest about exchanging the tickets for their books.

Monday, our last day in port, was my day off and I (and many others) went to the hospital I mentioned about before. I'm glad I got to go because I felt like I hadn't seen much of Cambodia yet. There was a house being cleaned up and painted, and we could visit the childrens section of the hospital. There was a lot of us volunteering and not much time to do anything but it was still good to go. The paint job was pretty horrible by professional standards, to be honest, but I hope the people there appreciated our efforts. The hospital was small and dirty. My roomate Hao said that visiting that place really affected him. He is normally quite jovial, but when he came out of there he said he was feeling sad. I tell you his viewpoint because mine wasn't so emotional or interesting. It's getting late and I'm feeling seasick so I will have to resume this tomorrow.

Day 10ish

My E-Day turned out pretty good. We were able to cancel the stuff we were supposed to do in the morning on the ship in order to plan for the afternoon. We had basically no idea what we were going to do at the school when we met at 9am, and our leader, Sarah, didn't feel confident about doing a children's program. But God provided us with ideas and we soon had plenty of stuff planned. It was ironic that the theme of our presentation, determined by the school, was "depending on God first", because we really had to practice what we preached! Sarah shared with our E-team group the story of King Jehoshaphat and how God defeated the armies of the 3 kingdoms that came to attack Judah. We decided to share that story also with the kids at the school.

I don't know much about the school except that it is a Christian school with an adjacent orphanage. It looked like a really nice place where these kids were getting well nourished in many ways. It felt like we kind of rushed in and out of their pretty quick, but I was able to interect a little bit with the kids, young and old. The little kids were really exuberant, even rowdy. The older kids sat over on the side and seemed a bit like they were too cool to be involved, but I think everyone enjoyed having us.


At this point I would like to say that the my experiences here are only a small and cautious slice of everything that is going on with the Doulos. It is hard to explain everything that the ship does in the ports it visits. A lot of what goes on isn't part of any official program. There are lots of passionate people onboard that will share Jesus's love in whatever way they figure out. And yes, that includes helping people in practical ways. Some of the other E-Days have built houses, visited orphanages and slums with gifts of food, clothing, etc. On Sunday and Monday, which is most people's day off on the Doulos there will be some outings to a hopsital to repair a building for use as a hospice and to visit the chidren's ward with fresh baked goods and games.

But of course the most imporant thing is that people get to know Jesus, and that is happening through many, many encounters between Douloids and whoever they encounter.

Prayer requests:

• that God would increase my faith
• that I would boldy share that faith with those who don't know God
• that I would have more energy (after only one week it is getting very hard to get going in the morning, even though I'm getting 8 hours of sleep)

Some pictures.

I don't have a lot to say about the last few days so how about some pictures. I do have one concern though which I will mention below.

Tomorrow I have an "E-Day" which I think stands for Event Day. These give you a chance to do something besides your regular job on the ship. Like going out to schools to teach English and play sports with the kids. Or visiting churches or just going out to meet and talk with locals somewhere. My E-Day is supposed to involve doing something on the "car deck" in the morning, where customers go by on their way out, then going to a school in the afternoon to do skits/games/speaking/etc. for an assembly. The problem is that our leader doesn't have much of an idea what to do and we haven't practiced or prepared anything. This is partly because the E-Day teams kept getting changed around. So anyway, I really hope that tomorrow isn't a big mess. It is my first chance to really do some outreach activity here.

Prayer requests:

• Pray for my E-Day to somehow be a success.
• Pray for more visitors to the ship. The rain has stopped but for some reason attendance is still low.

Day 6

So I bet you would like to know what happened to those Vietnamese visitors. I bet you would. . .


Well first off about 10 of us met at 11:30 to pray about this visit, then we went outside to wait for their arrival. They didn't show up at the appointed time of 11:45 which wasn't so suprising. But lunch ended at 1pm so at 12:30, with no sign of them yet we went in to get food ourselves. They never showed up for lunch, but I hoped and prayed they would still come eventually.

At 2pm I went to work. I was posted at the info desk in the bookshop for the first while. It wasn't too busy and I made friends with one of the local volunteer translators, Ratana, from Phnom Penh. He plays guitar and drums and I said maybe I could show him some things on the drums some time.

Then I was moved to the cashier position, where my brain exploded trying to learn how to use the machine, converting between USD, Khmer riel, and "Doulos Inernational Units". To make matters more exciting, the computer system for the cash registers was messed up so half the items wouldn't scan correctly and couldn't even be entered properly manually. Most of that time involved the head cashier telling me everything to do step by step and correcting my mistakes every other step while my mind had a traffic jam. Fortunately the head cashier and customers were patient with me.

Next was supper and then "gangway in" which involved greeting the visitors, ripping tickets and clicking a counter (we had 1726 in total that day). During that time Daniel and Jack (the guy with the crazy life story) came out saying they had heard that the Vietnamese guys had come and they were looking for them, but I didn't know anything about it. A little after that a large group came and they looked a little different from the locals so I asked where the were from. They answered that they were from Jupiter and I was like "whaaa?", but they clarified that it was a cruise ship, some of them were wearing uniforms. Later on I recalled that the cruise ship I had seen sitting offshore since my arrival was in fact the Jupiter.

When I got off work I talked to Jack and Daniel - hehe "Jack Daniel's" - and found out that the Vietnamese guys finally showed up! And guess what, they were the ones from the Jupiter! Aaand, apparently the visit went really well. At least one of them, a girl said she felt God in her heart and wanted a picture of Jesus. I wasn't there so unfortunately I can't give the best description but I think most of the others responded postively too. Daniel and Jack were happy about it anyway.

Some of the Vietnamese said they wanted to come and work on the Dolous, and I don't think that was because our ship is so much fancier! They were told that we don't get paid, which suprised them a bit but they were still interested.

Prayer requests:

• Praise God that the visit with the Vietnamese went well
• Pray that I would focus on Jesus and be attentive to his will, not divided in my pursuits

Day 5

Yesterday was Sunday service and my day off. After lunch I went with some other STEPpers to an embarrassingly nice hotel - probably five star - where Douloids can use the swimming pool, gym, access the beautiful beach and get 20% off at the restaurant. The 20 minute trip there from the ship revealed a much more developed side of Cambodia and showed that Sihanoukville was larger then it first appeared.

The wheather was nice all day and when we got back to the ship there was a sizable crowd waiting to come to the bookshop. Some people in our group got the idea to go out and talk to people that were milling about. I approved of the idea and we quickly went in to drop our stuff in our cabins and I procured some Camdbodian tracts. When we went back out however, the crowds had vanished! Another time I guess.

Here's some nice news though. Yesterday 10 Vietnamese guys came to the ship. After visiting the book exhibition Daniel, one of my roommates who was on gangway out, gave them a paper explaining how to become a Christian. Unfortunately it was in Cambodian which they didn't understand. They said they kind of understood the pictures but they wanted to get an English version and learn more. Daniel invited them to come to lunch the next day (today). A bunch of us are going to pray before they come and then talk with them and explain the gospel as best we can. So if you read this before about 1pm Cambodia time, you know what to pray for! Also, it is looking rainy today. . .

Day 4

OK, I will start with the more bite-size posts now.

Yesterday (because I am a day behind on these posts) I recieved training for all duties involving the Book Exhibition, because that is the department I was assigned to. (The other departments are Accommodation (cleaning around the ship), Catering (cafeteria), and I feel like I'm forgetting one other one. . . . Some people were assigned to special things like engine room and carptentry. So book exhibition is good because that gives me the most interaction with people which is what I need the most practice on. I think God knows what he is doing. The training was another whirlwind of information. In the afternoon we started working alongside the experienced Douloids (yeah that's the term). I got the easy tasks of "gangway out" (saying goodbye to the visitors and giving them a parting tract) and then the ticket booth which was also easy because it was a wet day and not a lot of people came during my shift.

Which brings up a good point. The weather is a huge factor in how many people come to the ship. On these rainy days the visitors number in the low hundreds, but on sunny days there can be 4000 or more at this port. So...

Prayer requests:

• Pray for sunny wheather!
• Pray that I would do well and get better with my people skills while I am working in the Book Exhibition.

Day 3

OK, let me first address some of those leftovers from yesterday.

First impressions of Cambodia:

Like the poorest parts of Mexico but with a lot more rain and humidity. (I know the south-eastern parts of Mexico are wet, never mind those). If you haven't been to poor parts of Mexico you'll just have to use your imagination for now. Actually I can say a bit more. I knew to expect lots of bikes and scooters and crazy driving but it really is something to see first hand. For the main road in Phnom Penh going by the airport imagine something like Broadway or Hastings in Vancouver, minus 95% of the traffic lights and erase the lane markings. Change a bunch of the cars to two wheelers with an average of two people on them. Some with helmets some without. And just because they only have two wheels doesn't mean they can't carry as much as we carry in our SUVs. To cross the street as a pedestrian or vehicle involves waiting for a lull in traffic and then slowly moving onto the road and hoping the traffic will stop or move around you. If you really need to, you can drive in the wrong direction for short distance to get where you need to. Passing can be done at any time in any place, even with oncoming traffic, even when you are a bus. The oncoming traffic can move over on the shoulder a bit.

It has been raining most of the time I've been here and not terribly hot, almost cool when it is raining, but it is terribly humid when you step away from the air conditioning, except in the early morning.

I haven't spoken with a lot of the locals yet.

First impressions of the ship:

Inside the Doulos is a ridiculously confusing maze of narrow hallways with all sorts of different people going to and fro encouraging each other or being playfully sarcastic. There are lots of papers posted throughout the ship for anything from schedules to reminders to encouraging suprise notes for indivuals on the ship. My quarters are shared with nine other STEPpers deep down in the ship with no windows.

The people:

There are 39 people in the STEP program for this round. The biggest STEP they have probably ever had. There are lot's of Germans, a bunch of Aussie's, 4 or 5 Taiwanese, a few Americans, 2 from Northern Ireland, 2 Swiss, 2 Finns, a Romanian, a New Zelander and many more. I'm the only Canadian in the STEP. The age distribution is similar to college or university. Our coordinators are a super cheerful American girl, Abbey, and a crazy smiley Kenyan, Leonard.

Some introspection:

Well the atmosphere here is really neat. I can tell I am going to enjoy ship life. People here are either nice or super nice. It is pretty awesome being able to meet people from such vastly different places and feel an instant kinship in Christ. Even so, it is hard work getting to know hundreds of people all at once, and I have found myself at times just wanting to stare at the wall rather then introduce myself to yet another person. On top of that there is a steep learning curve in the first few days, so my head is spinning, partially from that and partially from the constant rocking of the ship. But I think within a week or so that will all settle down.

Day 3 finally:
Our first full day on the ship began with orientation for all the STEPpers. Stuff like safety procedures, computer and internet setup and introduction to various department heads. In the afternoon we got some drama training. After that we began taking turns sharing testimonies which was inspiring stuff as usual. One Scottish/Australian guy who is actually a roommate had a particularly wild testimony. In brief it involved child abuse, drugs, auto theft, the army, the Khmer Rouge, successful business, marriage, divorce, alcohol, golf, emptiness, JESUS!, and now Doulos! He really seems passionate for the Lord and is very humble about his testimony.

Prayer requests:

• Pray that I would keep up the social interaction, ask people lots of good questions and appreciate the practice.

Day 2

So I'm finally on the ship, and actually the whole trip was pretty comfortable and airconditioned. I arrived in the tiny Phnom Penh airport and went through customs and visa application at a decent pace. There were a number of STEPpers that had been on the same flight and another flight that came in at the same time. We arrived too late in the evening to catch the bus to Sihanoukville so we were put up in a hotel that was probably pretty good by Cambodian standards.

The next day we took the 4 hour bus trip to Sihanoukville and contrary to Josh's warnings it was actually comfy and spacious - it was like a Greyhound bus and, the road must be fairly new because it was in good condition the whole way.





After a quick taxi ride from the bus station we were suddenly on the ship and things have been going 100mph ever since (metaphorically I mean, the ship is still in port of course). Doulos is a wild and crazy place, let me tell you, but in a good way! Cram 350 people from 40+ nationalities all with passion for Jesus on a 95 year old ship and you got a recipe for interestingness.









After some brief orientation, unpacking and dinner, there was weekly prayer night. Apparently everybody on the ship has crazy cheers for each nationality and department and they get pretty exubarant. After some alternating announcements and prayer there was a big object lesson "game" to get us thinking about poverty. We had to cram 7 people each on mats the size of small tents. This represented an average slum family in an average slum home. Then they showed us how to make paper bags out of newspaper and flour-water glue. This is an actual occupation for a lot of poverty stricken people. The game then consisted of trying to make enough paper bags and selling them to shop keepers so that we could buy food and pay rent to our horrible land lords or else we would be sent under a "bridge" with a gang until we could pay back our debt. The goal was to make enough money in the end to be able to send one child from your family to school. Despite stealing from shopkeepers my team failed, maybe because we refused to sell any of our women into prostitution. This whole object lesson was followed by some quiet prayer time around different stations that had information about poverty issues like sanitation, prison, child prostitution etc.









I'm afraid this is already getting way too long and I haven't even mentioned half of what could be said. What about the people I'm meeting? What about my living quarters, schedule, and duty on the ship? How about some introspection? First impressions of Cambodia? I think I will have to spread some of this out to the following days.

Prayer requests:

• That I could process the vast amounts of information and people that my brain is being confronted with.
• That I wouldn't miss opportunities during these early stages