pastor de dutchie

You might not even remember the song - "Pass the Dutchie on the left hand side" but I always think of it when I am in the Netherlands.

We are not in Holland but Friesland which is part of the Netherlands but not part of Holland. Almost as complicated as working out the United Kingdom.

Harlingen is a beautiful little fishing town with canels through the middle and big 3 mast fishing boats moored alongside the shops.

This week we have enjoyed our first full week in a ministry port. It was great to have one of the pastors from our church, David Anderson, come out and visit the ship. He spoke a few times and had a great opportunity to see the ship in action. It is always a joy to have friends visit and experience our life on board.

In the past week we have had around 3500 visitors and today, Saturday, another 1000.

We are told by OM here in the Netherlands that 80% of the Dutch visitors will come in the next port so we expect it to be busy. We are finding that there are still many things that we need to work through and get right. This week we have seen our International Cafe and the Tours being very busy but other areas of the deck quite quiet.

On Thursday, OM's founder, George Verwer came for a couple of days and it is always encouraging to hear him speak. Although he is now 70, he is still full of passion and enthusiasm for life and the ships. He came to speak at a special Thank You dinner held Friday night for many Dutch partners to say thank you for their generous gifts to the Logos Hope project. The Netherlands has given more money per capita to Logos Hope than any other country.

We hosted a table and as often happens, God gave us people we could connect to - a young couple who were a nurse and an ambulance driver. They really enjoyed a late night tour of the clinic.

Our excitement continues to build about sailing to Edinburgh. On Tuesday we sail to our second Dutch port, our last port before Edinburgh. Today we recorded a short video clip to be shown to the local organising committee this week. For all of you who are in Scotland, make sure you get down to the ship sometime between 2 - 13th April.

In the Netherlands - and not a cow in sight

After a fantastic weekend in Gothenburg, the Logos Hope sailed again and made the 2 day voyage around the top of Denmark to northern Holland, Friesland or the Netherlands, whatever you want to call it.
Whereas sailing into Gothenburg was ice cold but you could see for miles in the clear air, the fog was thick coming into Harlingen and we couldn't see a thing until we were virtually in the port.
We spent some time manouvering our way around a number of jetty's and corners, waving at many supporters along the quaysides and eventually found somewhere to park about 1.5km from the town.
It was great to get a real welcome with a crowd, banners, flowers and tv crews. Everyone was very excited and before long they were all onboard, handing out tulips to everyone in sight.

Harlingen is a small town and we are still seeing this as a training port. We are still trying to fine tune many aspects of how we do ministry and deal with people coming to the ship.
Today we had an alumni event with many ex ship people and ex OMers onboard, enjoying being on the Logos Hope for the first time. It was good to catch up with old friends again.
Yesterday (Saturday) Heather and I both worked on the visitor deck all day - I was back in the book fair again and Heather talking to people in the cafe. It was great to be part of the ministry there and meet local people.
So far Harlingen is proving to be a hit for tours but not for book sales.
This week we are really looking forward to having one of our pastors onboard - David is coming to speak to the ships community so it will be great to spend time onboard with him.