In the Gospel of Mark ( Chapter 5 ) we read the story of Jesus healing a Demon-possessed man. There is a lot of
begging and pleading going on
in this story; ' And he ( the demon possessed man )
begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area'. ' The demons
begged Jesus, " Send us among the pigs."' The people began to
plead with Jesus to leave their region'. ' As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed
begged to go with him.'
I experienced
begging or
pleading on board the MV Hyundai Success but in a much more positive, exciting way.
I was greeted and welcomed by the Myanmar crew on board and lunched with a few crew members. Leaving the ship I was approached by a crew member who asked me if I was a Christian. When I confirmed that I was he begged/pleaded with me to help him by putting the Myanmar Bible and the ( NIV ) English Bible on a USB stick. I promised him that I would do my best. The next day I brought him a USB stick with both translations on it. He was overjoyed! He did, however, have a Myanmar Bible and so I asked him why he wanted the Bible on a USB stick so badly. " It is very difficult to go to places with a big Bible like this ", he said. He plans to buy an E-reader and read the Bible in a more discreet way. Then I asked him why he wanted the English version as well. He then mentioned the name of Adoniram Judson, the American missionary to Burma who labored for 24 years to translate the Bible into the Burmese language publishing it in 1835. The Myanmar Christians are still using the same translation as there has never been a new translation since. There are words the Burmese people do not understand anymore and therefore the crewman wanted the English translation. He told me that he reads the whole Bible in eight months - every year - since he became a Christian in 1998.
He then asked me if I could pray for him, so we prayed together. What a wonderful time of fellowship!
Today I visited him again and gave him a Q and A. about the Christian faith and an old Blue Psalter Hymnal.
They will leave tonight for South Korea - wonderful
begging!
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| The crew member standing is the bosun. He first came to Roberts Bank in 1990; a long time ago when there was no seafarer center at this location. |
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| The cook on board the Hyundai Success. The crew told me that he is a ' success(full)' cook |
