Dominica. + Goodbye Caribbean!

Dominica.
Land of nature, people with the longest life expectancy in the world, and some great smoothies. I think a couple of those may be related..

Dominican Flag.

Also, it was the last land we would set foot on until we sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to Africa.

Needless to say, I think we made the most of it. We started off the visit with a few days off, "Sabbath Days" if you will of teaching and community events. One of those included a photo scavenger hunt in the town where among other things, we invited ourselves into a house, danced in front of a music store and took a picture in a tree!

It actually worked out great that these few days preceded the ship opening. A lot of relationships were built (even by going into someones house to take a picture!) and so when we finally did open, a lot of friends came to visit!

Like (most) thing do, the Caribbean visit of the Logos Hope ended here in Dominica. After a week or so in this little island, we were ready to set sail! My second Atlantic crossing!

Spending nine months in the Caribbean was an interesting experience. It definitely is an interesting culture, and I especially see that the effects of slavery have had a long lingering power here. I've made a couple of friends, learned a lot, got a few more stories to share. Thanks God for the adventure!

My 'ship family' and me!

Life.

What makes somebody alive?

Well in the literal sense, blood pumping from your heart, electrical synapses in your brain, and oxygen enriching the cells of your body are all a good start. But what about when someone is alive to you? Not in the sense that they are a living human being, but that they are a living person to you? A person worth listening to and that has an impact on your life?

I guess in a sense it’s contact and communication. If a good friend of your all of a sudden stops talking to you, or even takes it to the extreme and just ignores you for say 20 years, the personality of that person is in a very real sense ‘dead’ to you. Even without a negative connotation this is true. Try to think of a friend you had 10 or 20 years ago that moved away and contact just faded away. That person is proving their ‘life’ to you very little.

Or if you’re one of the lucky enough ones to have just come back from summer camp (hope Doulos was awesome!), think of the friends you made there. I hope you made some great relationships that encouraged you and brought you closer to the Lord. But think about the friends you met at camp last year, or even a few years back and haven’t talked to since. They may have impacted your life in a big way, but have they recently? In a sense they are ‘dead’ to you.

Of course we don’t need to be so negative: these people are impacting others lives and are very alive to their families, close friends, churches, etc. In a way, I suppose as limited humans we only have so much ‘life’ that we are able to share with people.

I guess what brought this all up is that I realize I haven’t written in a month.


The good news: I’m alive.


The bad news: I’m afraid I might have given a different impression to those of you who follow this blog. Apologies all around.


The geographical news: We made it to West Africa! Posts coming about the voyage. Promise.


The internet news: Imagine a 56K Modem. The one that dials through a phone we were all using ten years ago. That’s how fast our internet is. Now imagine you split that between 400 people living on board. That’s how fast my internet goes. So sorry if there is a lack of pictures on my blog or if the formatting gets a bit funky. I will see what I can do.

See? Doin' fine! : )

St. Kitts: Five Days. + Radio!

What can happen in five days? I guess depending on the five days quite a lot. I suppose you could die if you didn't drink any water. Or become rich if you play the stock market right. The five days around when you get married are probably pretty eventful.

So what can God do in five days? Let's see!

The flag of St. Kitts and Nevis.

That's how long we are in St. Kitts (and Nevis for those of you know your Caribbean geography) for. While probably one of our shortest ports, we are still getting tons of people on board every day. I've already had the opportunity to go on a radio program with one of my co-workers in the Training Department. We were on the state owned radio station ZIZ (Zed Eye Zed for you Americans :p ) with a minister from one of the local churches here who also happens to be a volunteer on board.

It was a great opportunity: we talked about life on the ship for a while, and then we were able to talk about the story of the Prodigal Son (we have a display on the visitor deck of the story). We were able to talk about how both sons didn't have a real relationship with their father at some point: one because he rebelled and was far away, and the other because he wasn't interested in a relationship, no matter how physically close he was. We all have to turn and enter into a relationship with God to truely be reunited with our Father.

Please pray for our last day tomorrow in St. Kitts! God has much more in store!

Book Review: An Emergent Manifest of Hope.

I have been thinking a lot lately about church and the way we 'do' it around the world. Being able to visit different cultures and seeing how they 'do' church is an interesting experience because it helps me to begin to ask questions:

- Why do they do that?
- Is that from the Bible?
- Does this help us worship God?

And then I find that it's quite impossible for me to turn right around and ask those things about 'our' Western way of doing church. One thing is for sure: the majority of our 'churching' would not make much sense to early believers like those in Acts. Regardless, this train of thought has gotten me researching and exploring different communities of believers and how they operate. One that is quite up front right now is what is called the Emergent Church, of the Emergent Conversation.



An Emergent Manifesto of Hope is a collection of essays from many leaders and participants within this movement. By reading these essays, one thing is obvious about the movement: it is not convergent. It is not a group of people with a specific goal or set of beliefs. There are essays on many things ranging from parenting, monastic living, buying organic, and kissing from a variety of authors that are postmodern thinkers, Presbyterian pastors, and Catholic priests.

Because there is such a variety of material and authors, the content is mixed in quality. There were essays that were poorly written that I could wait to be done with. That being said, about one third of the chapters we very well written and really made me think. A few of them I've read twice.

I don't know if I'd recommend this book as an introduction to the Emergent church. It doesn't set forward really what makes a church Emergent. But maybe I should. From what I can see, the Emergent Church is less about doctrine and belief (although still present) and more about method and heart. And that is made clear in this book. They do not present themselves for sale like any other business (or denomination for that matter) would, with goals, mission statements and products all listed out. But I guess that's kind of what they are all about.

Bermuda Triangle. + Antigua.

AS it turns out, our voyage leaving the island of Bermuda has been the most exciting one that we have had in a long time. Could it be the Bermuda Triangle we were sailing through? Or just that the odds caught up to us after sailing for a year with out any bad weather? Whatever the reason we got some decent rain and waves, some crashing over the bow of the ship. I have a video of some of them, but until I can find a way to post it online, you'll have to be content with this picture here. Pretty awesome!

This was a fun picture to take!

We were even able to help rescue a sailor in the middle of the ocean. His yatch's sails had torn and he was waiting out the bad weather, but couldn't contact the Bermudan authorities. We were able to help establish communication and the boat finally got towed into Bermuda safely. It was quite a voyage!

However, we did turn on an extra engine and cranked up the speed and managed to make in to our next island on time. Which is the beautiful island of Antigua. You don't pronounce the 'u'. We are back in what we call the 'real' Caribbean again. Which means markets, people in the streets at all hours of the day and night, loud music, and people being late. : ) We only have two more islands like this in the Caribbean before we cross the Atlantic again, so I better make the best of them!

The flag of Antigua.

Bermuda. +6K.

Well, after a quick time in the Bahamas and a break in America, I continue on island hopping around the Caribbean. This time I am up in the chilly north! The island's name: Bermuda. And much like the temperature is completely different, so is the culture on this island. Actually, as far as I can tell, I would guess we were in a city in Europe or even America. Bermuda is a banking center and is actually one of the richest countries in the world. Which means it's expensive too. 12 pack of coke at the grocery store: 17 dollars. No thank you.

Bermuda Flag.

It's definitely not a loud or colorful culture, and the people are reserved in a kind of way, but they are so friendly as well! I almost always get a "good evening" when passing someone on the street. I think the difference is the people here on the island aren't trying to get something out of you. All they are expecting is a friendly conversation and some relational exchange. Which is perfect, because that is exactly what we are all about! If you take away the books, the help ministry, the whole ship, we as a group of Christians are supposed to become involved in peoples lives and show them love! Let's pray that we can connect with those people who are ready to take a little step closer to God through their conversations with us.

Bermuda will always be special to me for another reason: I ran my first race since coming to the ship here! Okay, so maybe it wasn't a 'real' race. We didn't have numbers. The timer didn't work. It was 6 kilometers, which is a distance I had never heard about before. There were only about 30 people there, and about 20 of us were from the ship. But, it was still a race! We were actually running for a charity raising awareness for water shortages around the world. The idea being that many women and children in Africa and Asia have to walk 6 kilometers every day to gather water that very well may end up getting them sick because it is not clean. For more information about this cause, visit LiveEarth.com.

Getting ready to run! And hand out tracts!

Oasis of the Seas.

One thing is for sure about following God's call into the mission field is for sure: you lack interesting experiences. I've been to some of the poorest countries in the world, visited huge prisons, been ferried by lifeboat to a church, and now this past week I spend a morning on the largest cruise ship in the world! Who'd have thought??

An ex-OM worker is now an officer on the Oasis of the Seas, the newly built largest cruise ship in the world. It was really just by chance that my roommate was in the lobby when our Captain was invited for a tour. Thankfully he had to stop by the cabin to get something before he left and I managed to chase after him and get in on the action.

Walking up to the ship.

So this ship is big. It's ridiculously big. It's bigger than any building in Las Cruces. It has it's own living park on board. With real trees. There are countless restaurants and clubs. There is a Broadway sized theater with performances of Hairspray every other night. There is even an ice rink with it's own little zamboni. Rock wall. Jogging track. Surfing machines.

Our Captain, Jay, and I chilling out on the Oasis.

It was really quite a sight to behold! But as much as it was fun to see and experience the ship (especially lunch!), our friend told us that living on board, just like on board our ship, could be difficult. A cruise ship is basically a spiritually dead environment. Which isn't too much of a problem for those visiting, but for those who work on board, you can imagine it is quite a challenge.

Our friend put it something like this (to paraphrase): This ship has no purpose. We basically pick people up, drive them around and then drop them off again. The Logos Hope has more than a hundred times the purpose this ship has.

Please pray for our brothers and sisters on board all kinds of ships all over the world. Pray they will stay strong in their walk chasing after God.