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

Day 1

Trust in the LORDwith all your heartand lean not on your own understanding;in all
your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. -Proverbs 3:5-6

Well I might as well make another post while I can, even though I am still not in Cambodia yet. My departure from Vancouver was delayed 2 hours so 4:45am not 2:45am. Actually well left the ground at precisely 5:29am. The first person I talked to in the airport, while my family was still there, was a lady in the line behind me returning to Kota Kinabalu, which just so happens to be where my journey on the Doulos ends. It also just so happened that she new about the Dolous and she invited me to come to her church when I got there (she said they rent out a five star hotel). I helped her carry her luggage and she gave me her phone number and email address.

When I got to Hong Kong I couldn't quite make the connecting flight so they put me up at the very nice airport hotel and gave me meal vouchers for their lovely buffet. It is nice to have an extra day to adjust to jet lag. I was going to be showing up a day early to the ship but now I will actually be on time.

This morning I got up before dawn and then took the "Airport Express" train to actual Hong Kong then took a steep tram up to Victoria Peak which overlooks the city. It was pretty cool, although if it wasn't for silly jet lag I would have gone up the previous evening and got some more colourful sunset and night pictures.

Anyway, my trip has been entirely pleasent and relaxed so far. I have a feeling the last half won't be so pleasent. Thanks to everybody who is praying for me.

Day 0

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." -Matthew 9:36-38

I have thought about doing a short-term mission trip for awhile now (like most things I think about doing), and what do you know, now I'm doing it. I figured that while I am young, healthy and single I should use these gifts to serve God in some crazy way.Incidentally the requirements for STEP state that you must be single, in good shape and less than 40 years old.

For those of you who stumbled upon this blog accidentally, I will be volunteering on a ship called the Doulos (which means bondservant in Greek) for 2 months. During my stay we will visit Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia. That link in the previous paragraph can tell you a bit about what I will be doing. Beyond that I don't have much of a clue what to expect!

Cambodia is my first stop so I have done a bit of research on it. Here are some facts about it, if you are interested:

• Population: 14.5 millionish
  
• Median age: 22.1 (compared to 40.4 years in Canada)
  
• Buddhist 96.4%, Muslim 2.1%, other 1.3%, unspecified 0.2% (1998 census, CIA World Factbook) or
• Theravada Buddhism 95%, Islam 3% and Christianity 2%, according to Wikipedia
• 73.6% literacy rate
• Type of government: democracy under a constitutional monarchy

Cambodia was once the center of the Khmer Empire from the 9th to 13th centuries and it's capital Angkor was apparently the largest pre-industrial city in the world. The Khmer Empire fell to the Thai and Vietnamese and Angkor was abandoned producing the famous temples in the jungles with trees growing on top of them. From 1863 to 1953 Cambodia was a protectorate of France. Soon after gaining Independence the Khmer Rouge came to power in the wake of the Vietnam War. Under the leadership of Pol Pot millions of Cambodians were forced from their homes, executed or died of starvation and disease. The Khmer Rouge was eventually taken out with much violence by the Vietnamese during the 80's. In 1991 a peace settlement was ennacted. Cambodia has only recently reached a relative stability and begun to see decent financial growth. The country is very poor still especially in the rural areas.

That is just a sterile surface-scratching introduction about where I'm heading. I hope to be able to have some regular, more bite-sized updates during my trip, but I can't guarantee anything.

Prayer requests:

• that I get to the ship
• that God would prepare me for what's in store
• that what's in store would be challenging and awesome
• that God would fill me with the same compassion that Christ has for the Cambodians, Thai and Malaysians