...Here's an entry from Dave's Journal...

At 6 a.m. in the bowels of the ship I was awake. In my bunk, in the dark (remember, I'm in the bowels of the ship) I could feel a definite rocking and hear the sloshing of water. Then came the announcement: In 10 minutes we are casting off the lines and moving off shore to stay at anchor. To stay longer at berth would result in damage to the ship. "All shore leave is cancelled."

So much for our plans that day to be on shore in Barbados. No sandy beaches, no warm blue sea. No contact with the local people. At anchor we "enjoyed" the swells which turned us into staggering drunks. No walk was in a bee line. Looking out the window it was always a changing blue. The horizon would appear, then disappear into blue sky. Appear, then disappear into blue sea. Rock-a-bye-baby. Blue up, blue down, blue up, blue down. Some people developed green gills . . . but I didn't hear any projectiling.

Our next 5 days were completely on board Logos Hope with no opportunity to go to shore to do ministry and no opportunity for people on shore to come to us for ministry. Happy people that we are we set about doing all kinds of practical and needed things on ship. One day 3 of us worked in the engine room (see photo). Hard to imagine, but Elanor LOVES that place!

Time to cover their butts -- Our two women mended torn overalls and sewed curtains for 3 days.....the progress was noticeable. Joel worked in the mess a couple of days. 20 pounds of cutting onions is a mess. Hey, there's 390 people on board that need to eat. A lot of time was spent working in the book hold....pricing books, clearing space for the next shipment, and sprucing up the book exhibit. The book exhibit is the big draw to the ship. They say that in Trinidad a bible was sold every 40 seconds! All of us had great interactions with the ship company.

When Lee discovered there were 46 nationalities on board he bought a world atlas (in the book exhibit) and got people to show where they lived. Counting up the nationalities so far encountered we realized we still hadn't met the lone representatives from Israel, Kazakhstan, Belgium, Austria, Croatia and Paraguay. It became a treasure hunt. I found the Israeli girl right away and discovered the Kazakhi and Croatian guys. Lee was amazing. He got people to sing their national anthems. Without hesitation most put their hand on their heart, closed their eyes, and sang their anthems. The true United Nations.

I will be busy for several weeks following up with churches of the OMers we met and worked with on the ship. In the longer run this will prove to be the most valuable outcome of the trip for me.

Despite the disappointment of not being engaged in direct evangelism the team had a great attitude and all said it was worth the trip, something we should do again....together!

I'm intrigued

Dave (and Connie)