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)