MV Doulos – Sihanoukville Step – 15 July to 20 September 2009

Thus far the greatest time of my Life.

I went to the Doulos with unknown expectations as not much has been said before hand, and also partly going with an open heart and mind to allow God to show me things and to keep my pact with God.

Initially the days seem to crawl by and at times it was lonely as you did not know anyone well yet, and although there were many people around me and many hellos were exchanged, I still felt very new and foreign there.

But as time went by, time stared to grow wings and even an engine and flew and even zoomed by too quickly. I was working in the bookshop shift 2, and over the two months, we grew really close and to me, shift 2 was family. They taught me how to work, how to have fun, and how to care for each other. It was working there, and seeing others work in departments like catering and Accom did I truly learn that my joy should not come from my circumstance, but because we are all working for God.

To me every port was different as the people were different, thus resulting in different dynamics, and also the strategy for the different ports were also different.

For Cambodia, it was to preach the gospel and to offer aid to the people, give out free books. Yet my highlight was the HIV hospital which we went to paint, where I was able to see the actual work of our hands and know that it would be a great blessing to the people.

In Thailand, active sharing was still allowed and we were to be the fragrance of the Lord to the local people. My E-days in Thailand were mostly on board except for a school visit but the highlight for me was a church visit to New Song Church. Going to a local church really helped me to feel the spiritual climate of the land and to connect with the local Christians to see what they are doing in the country. After that we had dinner with some new friends and spend a very lovely evening just chatting away over a nice meal.

In Malaysia, our strategy was different and we were there mainly to encourage the local church and to open doors for them, so many of our E-days were church related events like prayer meetings and cell groups. In Malaysia, the highlight was the breakfast which the Lord so graciously provided through a very nice lady who just happened to sit across us. It again showed of God’s provision and a lesson on faith for me.

Over the last 2 months, I had a more than fantastic time on board and I have really built many good friendships which I know I will keep for life.

But more than that I have learned their lifestyle and attitudes and 3 important lessons the Lord has taught me.

1. That truly your work is worship when you give God the glory and you work with excellence for God.

2. Although you are in a christian community doing God’s work, you still can get caught up in a routine. So we must be aware. “Don’t get caught up with the things of God, that we forgot the God of all things.”

3. Be available to God. All 3 highlights were not scheduled but volunteered activities and God always more than rewards a willing heart.

It has been an amazing time for me and I will forever remember this time of my life. After coming back with my eyes opened any my heart transplanted, I re-learned what are needs and wants, what is important vs what is eternal.

At our re-entry training, the training director said this, that he had changed his prayer, from ‘God I am here, use me”, to “God don’t forget me and do not leave me out of your salvation masterpiece”

And that is my prayer too. God is at work, whether you are in it or not, he could just pass over you, or he could use you to do mighty works for HIM! To God be the Glory!

My day started off very well with getting up and finishing up some last min stuff and going out to lunch with some of them. We had a very nice time just chilling and talking. The feeling is so different, when you are just chilling and slowly getting to know people more, compared to knowing that you are leaving and it just seems different.

Yea and after work we got washed. Haha, finally it came our turn and we also willingly went to the spot to get washed as it is bookshop tradition. Haha.

Actually that has summed up my day, tomorrow will be interesting, so we see how it plays out.

Good nights,

Clarence

So I did not know what to expect when I was doing my quiet time in the morning, and I was reading Ps 14, where David himself recgnoise that he himself was sinful and no better than a murder because sin is sin, so I felt God depositing in me to go with that attitude.

So we met at in the main lobby and left with a very blur picture. But it was all cleared up when we met the the gentleman who was bringing us there, he explained on the drive there that we were not going to a prison, but rather their office, which also functions as a halfway house for ex-offenders. So they have all served their term and are living and working at that house.

What they did for work was to pack chilli and tomato sauce along with napkins into small plastic bags for KFC, which will be given out when people order a take away from KFC. So we were shown to a small room where everyone was working to pack sort and seal the bags.

So we spent the whole day just helping them with their work, and just chatting with them. They were all also christian too so it was great. We had a great time of fellowship over lunch too. In fact the lunch they provided for us was so much more expensive than what we had earned for them, so I really felt that they were doing it to bless us more than we were able to bless them. All in all it was a very nice last e-day for me, probably not the best and most exciting one but definitely one to remember.

After we came back, I took a bath and hung around the bookshop, before going for prayer night, then going back to bookshop again. It is my last days here already so I am stealing every second to spend time with people.

3 more days……………

Now that I am into my final days here, I am like back in the army, going around to do my signing my clearance, getting approval from the different department heads to say that I owe them nothing.

I think I will also give my laptop back to IT for them to remove all the programs that they have installed and stuff, and I think I will do it soon to avoid the choke up of all the steppers going at once. I am on e-day the whole day tomorrow so I don’t think I can do it, so means only friday. Which also means that I may not update the blog on the last few days, but I don’t think you guys will be bothered with that once you can see and grab me right. Haha.

Work was ok, but now I am trying to squeeze out time to spend with people, because some of us are in different departments so we have different schedules, it is quite hard, so we will see how.

Anyway work was fine, we had the new guys join us but they are all very quiet, hopefully they will soon break out of their shell if not it will be so boring for them.

Yup, so thats about it.

Good nights.

I wanted to go for a nap in the afternoon, but Rachel was leaving for an overnight off the ship so I wanted to send her off, thus forcing me to stay awake because she was leaving at 3pm. But it was also good as I managed to do up some cards for some friends on board which I will send to them before I leave.

Then for the second part of the eday we were supposed to go to a chinese prayer meeting in a local church to talk about prayer and intercession. So we opened with a sharing of testimony, then a short word about intercession, then we shared some prayer points for the church to pray with us, then we prayed. I was not scheduled to do anything, but ended up closing the whole prayer session for our doulos session with the closing prayer. We then joined the church in praying over their prayer points that they had and had a great time of prayer. After that, many of the church members wanted to take us out for supper, so we had to be split up into pairs so that we could spread ourselves out to more people. Haha. But we had a nice time of fellowship over supper.

I think the fun atmosphere here on board, the American and European culture, and just being out of my comfort zone has really made me more spotting, like I have been in too many random and funny and dumb videos that I have lost count of, and these videos are shown to the whole ships company. Haha.  And just being able to say yes to anything, like agreeing to do a drama just without thinking, or just dancing in the bookshop with crazy people who I love. Haha. But I think this change is for the better, haha.

Well 5 more days to go…….haha

Good nights.

So after service, when the announcement was made that they were arriving, everybody got their flags and national costume and formed two lines leading to the ship, we still waited quite a while but everybody’s mood was still very upbeat. When the finally arrived, we all cheered as they walked through to the ship. They all seem kinda mild, and probably still new to the culture, so they strolled through the line, nothing exciting from them. Haha.

But after that I got went to work, so I was not able to go see their welcome, and the party thrown for them after dinner, real bummer. I could not see the video which I star-ed in, ok played a small role in. haha.

Yea so work was normal…………………….. missed out on all the fun in all the parties but I had my fair share of experiences with them. Like before they arrived, their luggage arrived first, and we had to help them carry it to their cabins, and they really need to learn how to pack light man, some of them probably brought their gold bars with them as their bags were so heavy….

then at dinner, all of them were naturally on time waiting for dinner, so the dinner line was extremely long, but as I was working, haha, I walked pass all of them and cut the queue all the way to the front. Haha. Yea, and the dinning room was packed. Mixed feelings again for me. But I am leaving soon too so O well

Tomorrow is Stepper outing and we are going to the island for BBQ it would be the whole day event again so hope it not be a boring day. Haiz, just heard news that probably not everybody is going so that would be sad if like the people I knew better were not there, then it would just be a boring day…..

Good nights.

And after the party, we had to leave to go for a gathering organized by a local’s cell group who wanted to host us to a party, so we went there and I finally had some real food. We had chicken curry, fried noodles, sweet sour pork and many others. Haha. So nice. Haha.

After dinner, we sang two songs and two of us shared our testimonies with the locals and it was soon time for us to come back to the ship as we have curfew.

Very long day, although it took the whole of 3 pragraphs to talk about it, though not jam packed with emotions and events, it was a eventful and nice day.

I am working tomorrow. So please continue to pray as I enter my last week here and fly back to you.

 Good nights.

The lady sitting opposite him heard us praying and started a conversation with him, it was just instances of introduction and nothing deep as we were also talking within our own group. But when she finished her meal, she called over the boss, and told her to calculate the bill for all the 8 of us, then my friend got shocked, and asked. She shared that she was a Christian too and she wanted to buy us breakfast since she knew that we were from the ship and were missionaries. WOW nice.

But what was even nicer was when my friend shared with me that he also had only 1RM in his pocket and was praying for something, and miraculously his breakfast was paid for, and actually we also had left overs to take back to the ship. Amazing. 

But it was also another lesson for me, that my first reaction was to find an ATM to draw money, but his reaction was to pray, and so he did. You can say that we both are in different situations, like they really have little money to spend, and I had a bank account to draw from, but it just shows again how God answers prayers, how he provides, how real a God our God is.  So small yet so amazing,

I heard another story from a friend during devotion today, that when he came back from being away from the ship doing ministry for a few days, he wanted to continue that wonderful time of ministry and not just settle into ship routine again, so he prayed. And when he was his duty, guarding the gangway like security like at 1am, there was just a man sitting by the quayside, just sitting there, and he was able to talk to him. Amazing, a random guy just sitting on a remote quayside, past midnight, as though waiting for you to talk to him, haha.

Well after that wonderful breakfast, it was back to work and I went out for a walk after dinner before coming back for tinkiling practice.

I think it is God reminding me that he is here, that although we are unable to openly share, he is showing himself to me.

A friend shared with our shift this devotion today,

“Lets not get too caught up with the things of God, that we forsake the God of all things.”

Always, always keep your focus on God!

But after dinner we went out supposedly just for an ice cream, but we ended up sitting there talking for 3 whole hours. Haha. Really fun time talking about everything from eyes to friends and we had a very nice time just chilling there. Haha

Tomorrow there will be more people leaving, so another sad day for many people. Really sorry that the entries are so boring, but it is like a routine now, my next eday is next week, so definitely something more exciting next week.

Good nights.

After dinner I just spent some time on my computer, before going to eat some instant noodles for supper and here I am now. Haha. Actually a lot of stuff happened today, like everyday on the ship, talking to different people about different and deeper things. Yup.

But the ship was literally empty after dinner tonight. Seriously. I think it is because so many people are leaving, so many of them are out with friends for dinners, so leaving the ship empty. Haha. Which is kinda nice and peaceful but a tad boring. Haha.

Yup, so tomorrow is another working day.

Good nights.