A Time of Many Things

Well, you may have noticed that it has been quite some time since my last blog entry. Sorry about that. There has been sooooo much happening in the last couple of weeks - some bad, some good and some amazing. Last week we found ourselves in a very stressful time that really seemed to effect every YWAMer here, myself included. It was especially frustrating coming off of such a spiritual high week having learned about the Nature and Character of God and Jesus' Ministry with our speaker Olu (who is definitely a gift that God allowed me to share in). I still plan on righting a blog about that week and about the Trinity so keep an eye out for that, but right now I think just so that I make sure an entry is made I'll just talk more lighthearted right now about some every day life stuff that's been going on.

I don't know if you have heard of OM (which stands for Operation Mobilization) or of the Logos Ships? I hadn't heard of them till a few weeks ago, I do know about Mercy Ships but not OM. They came into port here last Wednesday and as OM and YWAM have past history we had the opportunity to volunteer on the ship over the weekend. There is a team that comes ahead to put out word about the ship, gather up volunteers, get people excited and to pray over the ministry. Last Wednesday night we went to the ship for orientation. First we got a tour of this amazing ship. It is only 2 years old and is beautiful. They have done sooo much work to it. I don't know what the old Logos ships look like but apparently this one is a huge improvement (and comes with air conditioning even). The ship carries the largest moving book fair, there are soooo many books at really cheap prices for the locals to come and purchase. It's amazing! I'll try and upload a picture later. We had our pictures taken for our access volunteer cards and then a time of learning about the ship and what we will be doing for them.

There are 400 crew from ALL around the world! It was fun connecting with new people who were from your own country as well as meeting people from countries where I had yet too. Andrew, for example, comes from Sri Lanka - he is such a riot, it was so fun connecting with him and hearing about his life and his time on the ship. He is almost done and will be heading home in the early new year. Most crew come and stay on the ship for 2 years but there are shorter commitments as well.

On the Friday we had our first opportunity at volunteering; half of us went down into the book hole where they priced books and the other half stayed on Deck 4 which was open to the public. This was where I was. There were various positions in which we rotated through every 45min-1hr. White house where you sold tickets ($2 bajan), entrance where you welcomed and received the tickets, Icafe - where we had the opportunity to just connect with the locals and hear stories and witness as well, Kids Centre and exit.

I really enjoyed this time of connecting with the locals and meeting new people. God blessed me during my time volunteering in the Icafe as I first was able to join the ending of a conversation with Sarah (leader) and a local women. They had been talking a lot about God and witnessing and not having the right words and such and I was so thankful that I was able to share a few things that I had just discovered about myself with this women that I believe really helped her to not beat herself up. I'm talking about the "detailed person" and the "context person". I discovered during my time with Olu that I am the later, which may seem kind of weird because if you know me I am very detailed...when it comes to Art and Design. I struggle with having a hard time remembering where things are in the Bible or specific facts or specifics about a story but I am good at understanding the overall context of what is being spoken. I may not be able to tell you where it is specifically but I may be able to share other things and I can be honest that I don't know where it is but this is how I interpreted this but I encourage you to check it out for yourself as well... This is what I mean by beating yourself up. I think that often we put so much on knowing exacts that those of us who have trouble feel like we are inadequate and that is why we feel like we are not able to share or witness or how could God possibly use me. I can't just spill off verses like that person, I can't be a teacher, I can't be a missionary... but God doesn't call us all to be like that. We each learn differently and in that we can share his love and gospel differently.

Anyhow afterwords, I roamed around looking to see if anyone was sitting on their own, stopping to speak a hi, how are you doing, are you enjoying yourself. I then noticed a gentleman (Stephen) sitting alone, who earlier, I had seen come in with his family while working at the entrance. I stopped to just say hi and ask where is your family (his daughter was playing in the Kids centre and his wife was with her). I then sat down to chat and before I knew it we were in this amazingly spiritual conversation. Here I was thinking that I may have an opportunity to share about my faith but God had more planned in that moment. My shift was only suppose to be for 45 min...well 1 hour and 45 min later, lol, we finally said goodbye. Thankfully the shift supervisor had noticed how intense our conversation was and was able to fill my next spot with another volunteer. I can't tell you everything that we talked about but I had a lot of confirmation on items that God has been speaking upon me. He told me so many stories of miracles that happened in his life when he gave his life over to Christ. When he gave up his rights for things. He had been married once but as he stated he chose his wife for himself (out of selfishness) before he knew the Lord, it didn't not end well at all. He came into a terrible time in his life, which nearly drew him to taking his own life but then God intervened and he came to know the Lord. He laid down his right to be married and entrusted God that if and when he might meet another women it would be by God's direction and God's choosing - as he can choose the best spouse for you, better than you can yourself. This is one thing that has really been more on my mind then I ever anticipated it being while here but the last book we read was called, "Making Jesus Lord" and specifically talked about the dynamic power of laying down your rights and one of it's points was about relationships (there were many more though let me tell ya!). Anyhow I could probably go on about this for hours but I won't...at this time. I just thought wow, I can't believe that this is exactly what I've been reading about, talking about, discussing about, etc.

Another item, less personal, was about praying for Jerusalem. Do you pray for Jerusalem? I can't say I really ever had, except you know when things are really bad over there and you might mention them within other prayers. Well last week during intercession one of the staff felt called that we needed to specifically pray for Jerusalem and Israel. I thought, interesting, yeah okay I understand there is some more unrest happening but thought okay one time deal again. Then in that book I just mentioned, it talked about it again there - interesting. Well then talking with Stephen he talked about how God pressed on his heart to pray over Jerusalem every day. I was like, okay now I think God is seriously telling me something and I better listen up. Three times in one week! Psalm 122 and Isaiah 62 teach us to “Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem".

So anyhow that was just a piece of what happened for me that evening.
I then volunteered to go back on Saturday again (as it was optional on this day) as I had just such a great time there and really enjoyed the difference scenery and really just getting to spend time with local Bajans (and Logos crew too). It was definitely a blessing to be a part of the ship for a couple of days...of course the food on the ship didn't hurt :) lol, Oh man, the first time we had to wait in the cafeteria, we discovered fresh-made bread and chocolate dip (like nutella) and we were in a hay-day! We went berserk. Such a nice treat! Every time after that we made sure to have another sandwich, lol. I joked that I hoped we were not costing them more in food than our volunteer hours were worth. We also had the opportunity to join with them during dinners (and lunch as well on Sat). It was nice to have something different - especially since the one dinner was a stir fry and I was seriously craving that!

On the Sunday, we ended up having an opportunity to hang out with the children from the first community centre that we lead worship at as they were having a picnic just minutes down the road from us at Three Houses park. It was so nice to see those children again and we had a great afternoon with them playing soccer, games, in the park, etc. Though a very busy weekend it was relaxing in its own way.

Well that's it for this blog. I seriously need to head to bed so I guess pictures will come later at some point, as well as that other blog on the Trinity that I want to write. Hope you enjoy :)