Book Review: Robinson Crusoe

I have continued to explore some of the classics of literature available on the ship with this book: Robinson Crusoe.

I don't know what I was expecting with this book, but it was much better than that. It is a story about a shipwrecked young man that would match and Castaway or Survivor of today. In fact many people attribute the survival genre to Daniel Defoe. Defoe offers a great view not only into the adventure going on on Crusoe's island, but also in the island of his mind.

And this is one of the aspects I was surprised about in this work. There is every bit as much theological adventure as there is physical adventure going on with Crusoe. As he deals with a lack of food, or a the need for shelter, or the fear of cannibals, he always has some commentary on God and his religion. While I definitely wouldn't believe everything the Crusoe (or Defoe for that matter) believe, it definitely is food for thought that I thoroughly enjoyed.



So there you have it: whether it's survival and adventure, or theology that you're into, there should be something for you here.

Prison Team.

This past Sunday I had an interesting opportunity to visit a prison to do some ministry. I had never really done any ministry like this so I was a little nervous, and didn't really know what to expect. God definitely worked in lives though, even if it was only mine.

After driving to the prison, we met the church members we were partnering with and got ready to go into the prison. At first they wouldn't let our team in. Some red tape came up somehow. Me and my friend Jonathan decided to sit down and pray for God to act and open the doors for us. A few minutes later a gaurd comes out and motions for us to come in. Praise the Lord!

Inside the prison was not at all like I expected. It was like walking into a city. There were different housing blocks, a store, and we finally made our way to an actual church building, inside the prison! There were only about 20 prisoners there out of a prison of hundreds.

Then came my part. I gave a short sermon about what God had been teaching me recently. Awkwardly enough, God had been teaching me a lot about confinement and how He uses that lack of freedom we sometimes experience in our lives. You can imagine how strange I felt: preaching about confinement to a group of prisoners. What did I know about confinement compared to them? Nothing. But it is what God had placed on my heart, so I went ahead. Unfortunately, our time was up and so we didn't have much time for one one one conversation with the inmates.

As I was leaving, I thought about the choice these inmates had made. They were a small percentage that had decided to at least try to find God. I imagine this is a pretty unpopular choice. Please pray for those in the prison who have made a choice to live for GOd, that He would protect them and that they would be bold in joining Him where He is working.

Book Review: Fixing Abraham.

Imagine this:

God tells you to sacrifice your son.
God tells you to marry a prostitute.
God tells you, an immigrant woman, to lay at the feet of a man your not married to at night.
God tells you to believe that a friend of your cousins was healed of cancer at a church revival.
God tells you to marry your fiance, who is pregnant and not by you.
God tells you to walk around town naked for three years.

Would you do it? Would your church and family stand behind you? Would you even entertain the idea of following Him? All of these things are things that God told people He has relationships with in the Bible. (Abraham, Hosea, Ruth, his disciples, Joseph, Ezekiel) Would He do these things today?

Fixing Abraham takes a look at the way we make our Bible heroes politically correct. He looks at how we expect God to act a certain way and not be crazy and not do scandalous thing. Basically not to do things we see Him doing over and over in the Bible. He takes a look at the difference between Biblical Principles and God's Instructions in our lives. Will God's will for our lives always include us sticking strictly to Biblical Principles. It's a fair question. And a question that is tackled by Chris Tiegreen in his book.


Now to be fair, he doesn't tackle this question theologically head on. While he no doubt has the ability to (the footnotes will be great for those of you interested in that side of things), he instead takes a more reader friendly direction. He uses stories. He uses real stories of how God worked. God doesn't change. And so why do we expect Him too? Tiegreen draws some wonderful parallels between the biblical characters and modern equivalents of what God might ask you to do. This book is one that might leave you with a few questions, and will probably leave you feeling like you know God a little less than you thought you did. But if we figured out God what would we need Him for?

Family!

I had another one of the best experiences of my time away this past month as well. Not because of any exciting ministry. Not because of a thrilling new location. Not because of any giant challenge to overcome in the engine room. But soley because I got to spend it with the people I absolutely love most in the world: my family!

Zemek family photo!

Mom after falling into a small abyss in the cave.

That's right. My family flew all the way to Jamaica to visit me! I was able to take the week off and spend it really just hanging out. The days were awesome. Most we slept in. We visited the ship, but not too often. We drove around Jamaica and played with sea urchins. We explored a cave and my mom fell down a hole. We went to the beach and snorkled. I saw a manta ray as wide across as my arms can reach. We ate jerk chicken and AJ ate a fish bigger than his head. We ate on the top of the ship and my real family met my ship family. Everyone told me they loved my mom (of course). And when everybody left I rode a bus from Montego Bay to Kingston.

It was amazing.

Sometimes ministering to people can be the most relaxing, most fun, most carefree thing in the world. When you know and love people so much, that just being yourself around them ministers to them, you've become something great. You've become family. Love you guys!

Book Review: The Magician's Nephew.

In the bookfair we had for sale a box set of C.S. Lewis's Narnia books. I know that I really enjoy Lewis' writing, but I hadn't read his Narnia books since I was a little kid. So I decided to buy them and start reading again. I love reading because of all the ideas that I can get and and play around with in my head, but I really enjoy reading fiction. To me there is something amazing about someone who can not just state their ideas, but make their ideas come alive not through one or two interesting illustrations, but through a complete, involved story. And so often I will read a fiction book inbetween other books that I am reading. The Narnia books are perfect for this because they are so easy to read!


I think The Magician's Nephew was one of my least favorite book of the series when I was a kid. It uses fairly dark imagery throughout the book. It is basically the story of how the magical world of Narnia was created, but it also deals with the sin of humans and the great evil that we have to deal with. But coming back on reading it now that I'm older, I really enjoyed it much more. I love especially noticing all the connections Lewis makes with the Bible that I missed so long ago. Listening to Aslan create the world, or seeing how evil entered even before the world was finished being created allows us to look at those same issues in the real world in a new light.

PST Mobay!

So a month ago I was able to participate in one of the best experiences that I have had since coming to the ship: being a part of the training team for a new PST. So a little background. The Logos Hope accepts people to come on the ship two times a year: once in February and once in August. When these new recruits come, they don't come to the ship immediately, they go to what is called PST (Pre-Ship Training) for two weeks. During these two weeks, the training team from the ship gives training on ministry, and practical matters about ship life, but most importantly it allows the new recruits to bond and get to know eachother before going to live in a box of 350 people.

The PST trainers!!

This PST I was invited to go and help with some training and putting on the event. I had a few little training sessions, which were great! I enjoyed so much getting up in front of people again and teaching. I also was able to get to know a lot of the new people which was great too! I realize that I've become a significantly more social person since coming to the ship. But by far by favorite thing was to work on a small team again. I hadn't really worked on a good team for a long time, and it was a great experience. I didn't really have to much to offer up front, but I still felt that I was needed and important. It was a great two weeks in a beautiful camp up in the mountains!

Please pray for the new recruits (who aren't so new anymore) That they would be able to continue to be a part and add to the community.

Book Review: Mission to Oz.

When I first started reading this book, I really didn’t give postmodernism a second though. I mean I had learned about it in school, and heard it mentioned in passing at church a few times, but it had never been anything to give serious thought to. However, this book was a catalyst for me to go into a much deeper study of post modernism and what it means to my faith.



Basically the book introduces us (the average Christian) to the idea of postmodernism in our culture today. It does this very reader friendly way with lots of examples and stories. The chapters are short enough and interesting enough to keep your attention, even if the references to Oz become a little tiresome.

The actual content is very good, explaining the history and current state of postmodernism. Still, it was strange to read and halfway through the book I realized why. This book was describing me. It was describing many of the ways that I look at the world along with my friends. And so it was strange to look in on myself from on outside perspective. Depending on when you grew up, you will either be fascinated by an inside look at postmodernists or be fascinated that some people need a book to understand the way you think.

Either way, it is an excellent introduction to popular thought today, and I would recommend it to anyone looking to understand their culture better. Like I said, it is only an introduction and quite short, and if you are interested in the subject it won’t satisfy you. It does some generalizing and still tends oversimplify some concepts, but if you are looking into understanding postmodernism and how it relates to Christianity, this is a good place to start.