The MV Yna Auk and Langley Bibles for Missions Thrift Store

Last week friends of ours returned home to Vancouver after a two week Panama Canal cruise vacation. Their voyage was filled with problems including two broken main engines and avoiding docking at any Mexican ports due to the Mexican swine flu. The delays resulted in a ten day non-stop voyage, all the way to the Port of Vancouver!

One of my friends complained that ten days at sea is way too long! I told him that I had just visited the MV Yna Auk at Roberts Bank and learned that the ship's destination is Great Britain. Ship and crew will be at sea for more than 50 days without any land in sight!

I feel sorry for these men when they have to travel for such a long time. I can't imagine what it's like, especially when I get impatient taking a two hour BC Ferry ride.

This past week I also made a visit to the Langley Bibles for Missions store to pick up mugs, stuffed animals and some puzzles. I also picked up a large selection of video's, music cassette's, CD's and even a video machine and a ghetto blaster! It all went to the MV Yna Auk including a few jackets for the cook and his helpers as well as lots of vegetables. Hopefully the voyage will be a little shorter with all these gifts from the Thrift store.

The MV Yna Auk left on May 21st, planning to arrive in Great Britain around the 12th of July.

Mr. P. Commissar

Wednesday afternoon two young sailors from the container ship Xin Bei Lin walked into the Mission building. Their ship is registered in China and all crew members are Chinese citizens. They asked if I could call a taxi as ten sailors wanted to go to the Richmond Center.

One of the sailors wore a name tag with what I thought was his name in both the Chinese and English language. The Chinese name I obviously could not read, but the English translation was P. Commissar. I thought, hmmm Chinese names are rather similar to our names, until I suddenly realized that his name was not P. COMMISSAR but rather POLITICAL COMMISSAR!!

I had to laugh to my self. The political commissar was a young man with a friendly face. I asked the other sailor if the commissar was spying upon the crew? Both had a good laugh. 'No' was their answer, the P. Commissar is one of the stewards on board.

When the ten crew members were picked up by the taxi's the P. Commissar was with them. Apparently all Chinese state owned and registered ships carry a P. Commissar. How concerned the Chinese government is of controlling and spying upon the crew members I don't know. What I do know is that over the years many Chinese bibles and other Christian material have been taken on board ships by Chinese crew members.

The message of the Good News of Jesus Christ is unstoppable, no matter how many P. Commissars there might be in this world!

MV RISING SUN and 'Our Daily Bread'

When I boarded the MV RISING SUN, I was confronted by a crew member with a temperature gun! He said he had to check my temperature before I could enter the ship. Welcome to the 'Swine Flu Epidemic'!

My temperature was fine so he allowed me to enter the ship's office. The C/O told me that according to company policy no crew member was allowed to get off the ship, not even to visit the seafarer's center to make a phone call! It just happened that I had received a few bags of bread that day; left overs from the local food bank. I gave them to the cook. He was very happy with the bread as these little extras are always welcome.

When I left the galley he followed me and asked me if I could supply him with a Tagalog (Philippine) bible. 'No problem' I said. Then he asked, ' We are having a bible study on board, do you have more bibles I might have?' 'How many do you want?' I asked. He wanted 10, so I delivered ten bibles to the ship.

The Chief Engineer on the ship leads a bible study every Sunday evening. Sometimes there are up to 14 crew members in attendance! The C/E is already discipling another crew member to lead the bible study, making sure that when his contract is finished the bible study will be able to continue.

As I left the ship I thought of the prayer our Lord taught us to pray, 'Give us this day our daily bread'....... This was the bread I took with me that day. But in John chapter 6 he also teaches us that He is 'The bread of Life'..........' When you eat this bread you will never go hungry'! The bible study and the new bibles on board the MV RISING SUN are the bread.

It was a moment of praising God for having the resources to give seafarers the 'bread of life'.

Sandra's exercise machine

The 'MV SANDRA' visited Roberts Bank today, the first port on her maiden voyage.

There is always something special about a brand new ship: shiny paint, no rust, clean white ropes and just like you enter your brand new car...... that smell of brand new materials! However, when the ship leaves dry dock for its maiden voyage it is often equipped with only the bare minimum for the crew. Especially when it comes to entertainment and exercise equipment.

Two weeks ago a friend of mine had given me an almost new tread mill machine, suggesting I should use it in order to lose some weight! ( I have very nice friends who care or worry about my weight ). When I boarded the ship I soon realized that there was no exercise equipment onboard. I immediately found an opportunity to give away my 'gift', so I donated it to the captain and the crew. Of course they were extremely delighted. With it came a load of fresh vegetables, some warm clothing, a few bibles and a 'Jesus DVD'. I left a very happy crew behind. The pictures below tell the rest of the story!

Pastor's conference at Regent college

This week I attended the Pastor's conference at Regent college. The theme was The Pastor as Preacher and the conference was sold out! More than 250 pastors and one chaplain enjoyed the preaching of two 'top gun' preachers from the United States.

During the four day conference we heard 8 excellent sermons. There were also workshops on exegetical and evangelical preaching. Many of the participants were Christian Reformed Church ministers, most of them from B.C. and Alberta as well as a few from Ontario and Michigan.

There were many opportunities for me to share with them the work of the Ministry to Seafarers. I also met with several pastors from different denominations. On the last day of the conference we celebrated the Lord's Supper. It was a very moving experience sharing the bread and the wine with Christians from different denominations. After the four day conference I had to say good bye again to many nice people!

Unfortunately it was a little like saying goodbye to the crew of a ship that leaves Roberts Bank... chances are you may never see them again.

The Holy Spirit at work

A well known Anglican bishop and missionary to India; Lesley Newbiggin tells the story of being called to a tiny village where he was going to baptize 14 new believers.

Someone in the village owned a copy of the gospel of Mark. In that villager's culture it is customary that you read aloud. Curious villagers would join and listen to what was being read. Newbiggin tells the 'rest of the story'.

..... A the villagers listened, some of them became believers and wanted to be baptized. All Newbiggin had to do was come to the village and baptize these new believers.

So what is the point of his story, and why do I use this story as an illustration? … Newbiggin argues that the Holy Spirit was already at work among the people in that village and that this is often the case with any missionary work........

Saturday evening in the Mission building at Roberts Bank, a crew member from the MV King Robert walked in and asked me if he could have a Romanian bible for his Chief Engineer. I gave him one and shortly afterward the Chief Engineer himself showed up and also asked for a bible. When he saw the 4 Romanian bibles on the shelf, he asked for all of them.

Soon after a seafarer from mainland China walked in and asked for 2 Jesus DVD's, a New Testament in the Chinese language and some Chinese Todays.

Later on I saw a Philippino sailor reading with great interest, one of our brochures, God's way to Heaven.

While I had not said anything that evening... the seafarers were asking for bibles and other literature. I believe the Holy Spirit was at work!

I think there is a connection between Newbiggin's story and my Saturday evening experience. I hope and pray that the material they took with them may be read aloud and the DVD's are played loudly in the villages or cities where they come from..... hopefully there will be more believers and more baptisms!