Packwoods in Edinburgh supporting Logos Hope

Travelling again

2011-03-20T23:16:00.002+01:00

After a number of weeks based at home, it's time to travel again.

Tomorrow morning I head off to the USA for 9 days to take part in OM Ships annual donor weekend. This is in North Carolina at Billy Graham's retreat centre called The Cove.

Every year OM Ships invite people who support the ship ministry and are excited about it to come together and get an update on what is happening and hear about the needs of the ministry.

So we are expecting 200 supporters to come together next weekend. I will be involved in helping to take care of the donors as part of a team called the Gold Team. I even get to host a group for a round of golf next Saturday. Now that will be fun!

So I leave Heather and the kids behind for 9 days and then 3 days after I get back, I am down to London to speak at a church in Bedford 2 weeks today.

The last few weeks have been busy with lots going on for us as a family. Liam is still playing football and they are both doing athletics. this week they started swimming again. Heather is doing lots of running as she trains for the Edinburgh Marathon and the dog always needs walking.

I will try and update our blog more regularly, i know it has fallen behind of late.

incredible changes in Middle East

2011-02-28T22:12:00.003+01:00

Before Christmas I had the privilege of visiting Logos Hope in Beirut, Lebanon. The team and I had a fantastic time in that country and everything seemed calm and peaceful there as it was across the Middle East. A few weeks later, the wave of revolution that has spread across the region began in Tunisia. It went largely unnoticed that the government in Lebanon fell just a few weeks later.

Before the Logos Hope visited Lebanon, the ship had been in Egypt - where tens of thousands of Egyptians had visited the ship. Just a few months later, the president fell to a people's revolution.

In the weeks before going to Egypt, Logos Hope had been in Libya.

It is staggering to think that this country where over 100,000 Libyan's had visited the ship in Tripoli, Benghazi and another port, is now undergoing a bloody revolution.

Logos Hope is currently in Qatar and was due to go to Bahrain this week but has had to cancel that visit due to the unrest in that country.

I have been wondering what God's purpose was for having the ship in these countries and this region at this incredible time. I believe that maybe God was preparing His people in these countries for what was to come and challenging all who came to the ship to consider their futures.

A good friend of mine who had worked for me for 2 years onboard the Logos Hope was in Tripoli until yesterday. She had been working there as an English teacher and had a real heart for the Libyan people. Last week she was in contact every day giving dramatic accounts of what was taking place right outside her window in Tripoli.

At first she was determined to stay in the country, despite the dangers, because she didn't want her Libyan friends to think she was abandoning them. But eventually it became too dangerous and her friends, as well as her governments embassy, told her to leave.

She is broken hearted at having to leave the country and hopes she will be able to return soon.

It is a great reminder of the impact the ship can have on people's lives, both in the countries we visit and those who are part of the crew.

where is this year going?

2011-01-26T17:24:00.005+01:00

I know. It's been over a month since I updated this blog. While we were on the ship I was quite good at updating it every week. Now I suddenly find that Christmas and New Year has been and gone, the thick snow that we thought would be hear all winter has disappeared and the end of January is already just around the corner. Woosh - just like that, my favourite time of year has been and gone.

We had a fantastic Christmas holiday season, in our own home for the first time in 4 years.
Having snow just added to the excitement - I took the kids sledging on Christmas Eve.
My parents came up and joined us for Kara's birthday on the 22nd December, through to 27th. On Christmas Day itself, Heather's parents were here for the day as well. I love cooking the Christmas dinner and tried to make it extra special with a number of different recipes that I had discovered for this year.

We also had several parties both before and after Christmas, another thing we have missed during our time away.
What a thrill also to have Kara singing solo in the Christmas morning service at church as well as both of them involved in several Christmas plays at school and church. Liam also sang in his school choir at the Edinburgh Usher Hall recently.
Being able to take quality time with the family for 2 whole weeks was a real blessing and after a lot of travelling in the few months up to Christmas, my constant presence was much appreciated by Heather and the kids.
It may have had a negative effect in some ways, because when I went away for a few days on my first full week back at work, Liam got quite upset at me not being there. I continue to try and find the ballance between time at home and time away. Liam is going through a difficult stage of life as he turns 11 and tackles issues such as swearing, anger, friendships and wanting the latest gadgets that his friends have.

So now we are looking ahead to a new year which is already shaping up to be a very busy one for us all. We really do need to book a holiday!

Christmas and Beirut

2010-12-29T22:21:00.007+01:00

This is already the last post of the year - hard to believe how quickly time has gone the past few weeks.
My trip to Beirut seemed like a blink. The team arrived in Beirut on a Thursday night, with just one hiccup - a 30 min delay at immigration while our only American team member waited to be allowed in the country.

It was a fantastic sight to see the ship again and was so great to be welcomed by many old friends onboard. Unfortunately, our visit co-incided with one of the worst storms to hit Beirut for a long time and an end to the recent run of hot dry weather. We had almost non stop rain from Friday afternoon to Monday afternoon. This dramatically reduced the number of visitors coming on board and meant we probably didn't see Beirut in the best light. However, the team were still very encouraged by their experiences both on and off the ship.

Highlights included 4 of the team going to a local hospital to be a blessing to children through a programme that included stories, baloons and making origami animals, all the team getting to go out to different churches on Sunday with Logos Hope teams, and a number of us visiting a work among the ostracised Turkman children in a suburb of the city where a young American guy regularly feeds the street children.

The visit to Beirut gave me the chance to catch up with a number of old friends as well as lead the team and help them understand more about the ministry of Logos Hope, but it was too short a time to really get together with many of those that I would like to have met up with.

Once home, there has been yet more disruption from the snow, but that is finally going and we have had a slow thaw since Christmas day. Thankfully despite heavy snow falling in my parents town last weekend, they were still able to come up to Edinburgh in time for Kara's birthday and to join us for Christmas.
We had a great weekend, with services at our church on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Both sets of parents were at our home for their Christmas dinner and we all had a wonderful time. It was so good to be back in our own home for Christmas and able to cook what I wanted to cook for dinner.
Heather and I both have a good break over the Christmas holiday and are able to spend quality time together as a family.

The Logos Hope has now left Lebanon and is heading through the Suez canal and on it's way out to the Gulf region.

snow

2010-12-01T12:05:00.005+01:00

Anyone that knows me knows that I love snow, always have since I was a kid. It is a love that I have passed on to my own kids.
So you can imagine my joy when we had our first snow fall of winter on Friday night - still November. But since then it has hardly stopped snowing and we now have something like 50cm of snow in our garden. I have never seen anything like it in the UK except up the mountains.
Normal life has ground to a halt. The schools have been closed for 3 days. There is no post or other deliveries, the local shops run out of basic items like milk. It is all a bit mad.
The first few snow days were fun, but now the reality of starting to miss out on planned activities is hitting home. Liam is supposed to be singing in his school choir on Sunday at the city's Usher Hall, one of the top concert venues. They were supposed to go there to practice today but the school is still closed. His German Market that they have worked hard towards for weeks will also almost certainly be cancelled.
We have a lot planned for the weekend and just hope the snow lets up so we can get out.
If you doubt the amount of snow we have - check out the pictures.

Today Edinburgh airport is shut all day and there are some passengers that have been there since Sunday (it's now Weds). The Forth Road Bridge has also been shut all day so far due to a whiteout. Trees are starting to fall over from the weight of snow. I mean this is Edinburgh not the Cairngorm Mountains.

On the positive side, I've had some great walks with the dog through the trees alongside the river. It is stunningly beautiful there. Also given a good excuse to put the Christmas decorations up. But then when we went to get our artificial tree out of the loft, we found it had disappeared and been replaced by some strange "space saving" half tree that looks awful. So we ordered a new one online but of course nothing is getting delivered so who knows when we will get it.
I just hope I can fly out to Beirut next week.

However, all this discomfort and minor inconvenience is nothing compared to many very needy people who are really suffering, like the homeless, elderly and frail. It has been good to see a real sense of community spirit coming out around us as people look out for their neighbours. Lets hope it continues.

Heading to Beirut

2010-11-26T16:30:00.003+01:00

Well winter has arrived here in the UK with many parts of the country already experiencing snow and Edinburgh expecting it this weekend.
It is a clear sign that Christmas will soon be here. We are very excited about the prospect of our first Christmas in our own home for 4 years.

Last week I was over in Northern Ireland again and was so encouraged by the meetings that I had with pastors, mission leaders and business men. I love going there as everyone is so friendly and there is so much potential. It's also great to get around so many people in a relatively close area.

Now I am gearing up for taking my first team to the ship. In 2 weeks I am flying out with a group of 6 others to Beirut, Lebanon. 2 men from Northern Ireland, a man from South England and a family of 3 from Essex. The idea of the trip is to give them an experience of the ship ministry and really see for themselves what God is doing there. Lebanon should be exciting as there are many opportunities for the ship to get involved in lots of different projects.
I am hoping to do a video blog and post daily updates of the trip.
I'll let you know how you can see those posts before I leave.

More travelling - spreading the word

2010-11-08T22:16:00.003+01:00

For some reason, it seems to have got much harder to write this blog in the past few months.
No idea why I struggle more to put words on the screen, but it is frustrating and I need to be more intentional about it.

The last 2 weeks have involved more travel and meetings. It is exciting being able to meet lots of different people and share about the ministry of Logos Hope. Last week my travels took me to Cornwall, Devon and Dorset to meet up with pastors and leaders as well as long term supporters of the Ships Ministry. One of the highlights of this trip was to be able to spend a night with my uncle and aunt in Bournemouth. I haven't seen them for 8 years, since my nana's funeral, so it was great to be able to have a meal with them and my 2 cousins.

I also had a full day of meetings at a Baptist church in Slough near Heathrow airport. It was a real privilege to be asked to speak in both morning services and the evening service. This is a church that has been financially supporting the ship ministry for many years, so it was great to be able to say thank you.

This past week we have struggled a bit as a family as both Liam and Kara have gone down with a nasty sickness bug. Thankfully it only last 24 hours but it's not nice. We are hoping that Heather and I don't get it.
Also this weekend, our dog, Jaz has injured his paw while out running after a ball, so we had to take him for an emergency vet appointment this morning.

This coming week, I'm back to Northern Ireland again for a number of meetings. After this week, the next trip away will be to Beirut, Lebanon to take a team out to visit the Logos Hope. I'm really looking forward to that trip.

Latvia, Lithuania, Essex?

2010-10-25T20:36:00.006+02:00

Foreign travel resumed last week with a trip to Latvia to visit one of our church missionaries.
Having taken over responsibility for missions again at our church, Carrubbers, I went out to Latvia to spend time with Dave. Dave is working with the youth of Grobina, a small town some 2 1/2 hours away from the capital Riga, not far from the Lithuania border.

It's funny how so many people here in Scotland use the expression "it's Baltic" to describe cold weather. Well when you have been to the Baltic countries, you understand better what that means.

Each day I was there, I put on another layer to try and stay warm, and that was in the flat where Dave lives above the church! The heating has been broken since the spring and the cold in the kitchen just seeps through. Thankfully Dave has a good heater in his room so he isn't perpetually cold but I have great respect for him living in difficult conditions and investing his whole life in trying to bring the Good News of Jesus' love to the young people, particularly through music which Dave is very gifted at. Dave is trying to help a young lad who is a new Christian, learn the drums.

As the border with Lithuania was so close, it seemed like a good idea to do a road trip and go there for lunch. Another young lad from Carrubbers was also visiting Dave for the week so we all piled in Dave's old Golf and headed for the border. We had a great lunch (steak for £5) and then went to the beach and experienced the true Baltic effect, as the wind blowing off the sea meant it felt like -10c.

The journey home was a bit of a trek as involved a 3 hour bus journey to Riga through snow, there were 5 cars in the ditch on the way there, then a bus journey to the airport, a 3 hour flight and then a 3 hour train journey back home. It was so great to see Heather, the kids and Jaz the dog coming to meet me across the field by the station.

Earlier this month I had my first full day of meetings at a church that supports the ship ministry - Rayleigh Baptist in Essex. This involved over night stays on the Saturday and Sunday nights at the parents of Doulos friends that live nearby. It was a great day with the opportunity to speak for 30 mins in the morning and 45 mins in the evening and I spent the afternoon with a lovely old couple who support friends in the ship ministry.
I really enjoy taking these meetings and letting people know all about what is happening in the ship ministry, but it is a shame that it has to involve more time away from the family.

Home life is getting more frantic now that Heather is working 4 days a week and the kids have so many activities. There are also lots of challenges associated with the missions work at Carrubbers. Last Sunday night we had an update night with all our missionaries around the world. This was a great chance to speak to them by phone and find out what was happening in their work and then pray for them. It is such a blessing to be involved in a church that is so involved in missions.

The coming weeks are busy again with 2 days in Carlisle this week at a seminar, speaking at a church in Edinburgh Sunday night, 3 days in the South West of England next week meeting pastors and supporters and then another full day of meetings in Slough the following Sunday.
At least we don't get bored!!

Great reports on the kids

2010-10-13T23:35:00.002+02:00

Last night we went to the first parent / teachers meeting at the school since we came home. After 3 years of living on the ship and Kara never having attended normal school before we went to Logos Hope, we have been somewhat concerned about how Liam and Kara will fit in to their school.
We were both overwhelmed by the positive comments from both of their teachers, both about their school work and their personalities. They have both settled in really well and are well liked by teachers and classmates alike. Kara was described as mature and caring and Liam is showing real leadership tendancies without being pushy or demanding.
We remember the first 6 months of our time onboard when they seemed to change teachers every few weeks and we had real concerns about whether we had done the right thing bringing them to the ship. Now we can see so many positives of that time.
Liam played for the school again on Saturday this time in goals. They had a great first half - it was 2-2 at half time, but the second half didn't go so well and it ended up 8-3. Still it's all good practice.

On Sunday, I had my first large scale meetings at a church in Rayleigh, Essex. It was great to be able to share in the morning and evening services about the ship and I got a great response. I challenged the church about their involvement in missions, the pastor to come and visit the ship next year, and the youth pastor to bring a Vision Team out to Logos Hope. Overall a very good day. Was also fun to stay with parents of a great friend from the Doulos days, who lived nearby.

The coming weeks are looking busy and next week I am going to Latvia to visit one of our church missionaries. Heather has just started a new job working at a travel clinic 2 days a week, so life is very demanding for her, particularly when I am away.
Winter seems to be approaching fast and the days are getting colder and shorter - sometimes we really miss the Caribbean sun!

Belfast and London

2010-09-28T18:06:00.005+02:00

It's funny how hard it seems to be to be consistent writing this blog now we are home. On the ship I was pretty faithful and keeping it updated every week to 10 days whereas since we came home, weeks go by before I realise I need to write and do an update.
Of course the danger then is that people stop checking for updates.
So I will try a lot harder to write more regularly.

Last week was my first trip to visit contacts for the ship ministry. I spent 3 days in and around Belfast. it was great meeting up with supporters of the Logos Hope who had been involved in the visit to Belfast last year. I also caught up with a number of friends who have been on the ships in the past. One of my goals for this visit was to find out how much appetite there is for supporting the ship ministry on an ongoing basis and whether we can raise some teams to come out to Logos Hope from Northern Ireland.
Another key objective was to try and get some people excited about coming to Beirut in December to see the ship in action.
Overall it was a very encouraging visit and I certainly found a number of people who are very excited about the ship ministry. It was also great to stay with my Aunt who lives in Ballymena and to be visiting for something other than a funeral.
After getting back from Northern Ireland on Thursday, we welcomed ship friends to the house on Friday for tea (dinner / supper depending on where you come from) Becky and Alison were on a tour of various ship friends around the country so it was good to catch up with them.

Then on Saturday morning, we were off bright and early to the airport to fly down to London for a wedding. Chris had been the chief electrician on Logos Hope throughtout the project years and he was marrying a fellow Londoner, Sara, who had worked for me in the business centre onboard.
It was great to see many ship friends at the wedding and we all enjoyed the day, despite a bitter cold couple of hours spent outside on the lawn. The kids did very well and kept dancing until the newly weds left at around 10.30pm.
On Sunday we take the opportunity to meet up with Heather's cousin who just had a baby a couple of weeks ago. Once again we saw that Liam and Kara just love babies and are always keen for a cuddle. Doesn't mean we will be getting one though!

This week it's back to a bit more normal work at the computer but in another week I'm back down south for a full day at a church in Essex.

The kids are now fully involved in lots of clubs and activities after school and in the evenings and are loving it. Liam is learning to Street dance as well as diving, running, athletics and Boys Brigade. Kara is also running and doing athletics and Girls brigade. She is doing swimming in school while Liam is doing cycling.

Heather has been offered work as a nurse at a travel clinic, a job she is well qualified for and she is very interested in that idea. So we'll see what happens regarding hours etc.
On Sunday, she is doing her second big race in a month - the Kilamathon. 26.3km from Edinburgh, over the Forth bridge and back. She hopes to do a full marathon next year.
Well that's all for now.

a reminder of the Caribbean

2010-09-13T11:31:00.003+02:00

ok, if you have a bit of time and want to escape from whatever drudgery or rainy day you may be experiencing, here is a little slideshow of some Caribbean beaches.
I appreciate that this will give totally the wrong impression of life on Logos Hope. It was actually hard work and we only got one day off a week, but many of those days were spent on beautiful beaches and we often went to more than one in a day.
So enjoy.

Caribbean Beaches Slideshow: Packwood family’s trip from Edinburgh, United Kingdom to 12 cities Montego Bay, Antigua, Curacao, Netherlands Antilles (near Willemstad), Nassau, Tobago, Saint Kitts and Nevis (near Frigate Bay, St. Kitts and Nevis), Saint Lucia (near Marigot Bay, St. Lucia), Bequia island, Grenadines (near Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines), Bermuda (near Tucker's Town, Bermuda), Barbados (near Bathsheba, Barbados), Aruba (near Santa Cruz, Aruba) and Grenada (near Grenville, Grenada) was created by TripAdvisor. See another Jamaica slideshow. Create a free slideshow with music from your travel photos.

Finding Normal

2010-09-06T22:15:00.006+02:00

The past few weeks have been all about trying to find out what normal life is all about.
After 3 years living on the ship, it is taking time to adjust to life back here in Edinburgh.
We are back in our old house and going to the same church, but Heather and I are both doing different jobs and still trying to get used to different routines.
It's funny how you can forget how much time it takes to go food shopping, cook, clean up, keep a house and do all of the other "normal" things that most people take for granted.
Of course, it doesn't help when you have 6 weeks of school holidays, a month long mission at your church and all the other disruptions that the summer holidays bring.

The final week of Room 65 saw a Californian band called "Least of These" playing every night. They were excellent and Kara really took to them, especially the female lead singer, Katy.
So here we are now in September, the nights are drawing in, the kids are back at school and life is taking on some routine.

It has been great to have a number of ship friends visit over the past few weeks and it is always a bit surreal having people in your house that you have only known on the ship. Rob from Australia, Dawn from Scotland and Johann and Jael from Netherlands.
We also had some friends of friends visit - 2 Aussie girls traveling around Europe for a few months. It was fun introducing them to some Scottish culture.

Meanwhile, the Logos Hope has left Africa and is now in the Canary Islands. The time in West Africa was very signifcant with many lives changed by the visits to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ghana. The ship will soon be heading into the Mediterranean and then later on towards the Gulf region.

one final thought on life at home - it is harder to blog! On the ship, we were changing ports and countries every few weeks and there was so much going on. Now we are settling down again, there is the question, what will people want to hear. Ah well, I guess we need to find that out too!
Time will tell what makes good reading.

Exciting days on Logos Hope

2010-08-20T12:43:00.004+02:00

A major milestone was reached as the one millionth visitor climbed the gangway to visit OM’s ship Logos Hope in Monrovia, Liberia, this week. Francis Mulbaha, a local university student, was welcomed at 1300 local time on Wednesday 18 August by Director Gian Walser (Switzerland) and Captain Dirk Colenbrander (Netherlands). The ship’s mascot El Capitano was on hand along with crewmembers in national costumes. Excited, as well as somewhat overwhelmed by all the attention, Mr. Mulbaha said he had heard about the visit on the radio and was keen to come on board to find books for his studies as well as his family. To mark the occasion, Mr. Mulbaha was presented with a gift of books and a discount voucher for the onboard book fair.

I“To reach a million visitors is a wonderful testimony to God’s grace and faithfulness,” said OM Ships International CEO Peter Nicoll. “It is our privilege and a great responsibility to welcome so many people in these past eighteen months and we have seen so many lives changed as a result. This is only possible because of the faithfulness of partners around the world who support this ministry financially and in prayer.”

Just a few days previously, Logos Hope was honoured to receive the President of the Republic of Liberia, Her Excellency Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. “Knowledge is the one thing that propels any person, any group, any nation,” said Her Excellency. “So when you come and get us exposed to the books you have, you contribute a whole lot to our rebuilding process.” After a short welcome programme, the President mingled with local citizens on the Visitor Experience Deck, especially the young ones. The President has a passion for children, books and education and was very appreciative of the value of the visit of Logos Hope to her nation, still striving to recover from the devastation of civil war.

Despite living in Edinburgh now, our hearts are still very closely linked to what is happening onboard the Logos Hope.
Last night, I took my first meeting in a small local Baptist church, sharing about the ship. Hopefully this will be the first of many.

Room 65

2010-08-11T16:06:00.009+02:00

One great thing about being back in Edinburgh this summer is to be able to get involved in our churches annual outreach during the Edinburgh festival - Room 65.
Edinburgh hosts the largest arts festival in the world every August and around 1 million people from all over the world come to our city during this time.
Over 10 years ago our church, which is located on the famous Royal Mile in Edinburgh, began opening it's doors to visitors, inviting them in for a cup of coffee and to listen to some live Christian music.
The outreach has grown over the years and this year we are open for the whole month of August. A band will play live music on stage, the church is very attractively lit inside and out, and we serve free coffee to everyone that comes in. Then we have the opportunity to speak to people around the tables. Each week we have around 1000 people come in and many great conversations. This year we are giving everyone a copy of Mark's gospel as they leave.
I am back doing what I enjoy most, standing out on the street and inviting people to come inside.
Check out www.room65.org

Most weeks the music is provided by groups from our church, but the last week we have a band coming from California. Check them out below

So far this week we have already had over 500 people come through the door and we expect it to get busier towards the weekend. So we are looking forward to some exciting nights ahead.

The beauty of the iphone

2010-07-29T22:37:00.010+02:00

For the past couple of years, many friends at home talked about their Apple iphones.

On the ship, we were removed from all the hype but the leadership team onboard did get Nokia smartphones to use and I soon began to rely on it for my email, calendar, internet even my Bible.

When I came home, I really wanted to find out what all the iphone fuss was about. As I need a mobile phone for my job, I asked OM if it would be possible to get the iphone and was very pleased when they said it was no problem.

So a few weeks ago, I got a brand new iphone 4.

It has been incredible to find out all the things you can do with this phone. The GPS maps mean you don't need a seperate SatNav system. you can even have a speed camera app that tells you where all the cameras are so that you know which are the dangerous roads - haha.
Yesterday I found a radio app that allows me to listen to our favourite Christian radio station in Florida any time I like. I can check my bank account, read the news, talk on Skype, even write this blog!
So I am now an iphone convert and the best part is that I don't even have to pay for the phone.

Hopefully most of you will know that you can help us out whenever you want to buy anything from Amazon by going through this site first. If you just click on the Amazon link, we will get a small commission. Please do remember and use this site, as it doesn't cost you anything but could be a big help to us. Check out the widget next to this entry - I'll add on a new song each time I update the blog. This first one is called The Show by Lenka and is a great happy tune that our friend Beth sang on Logos Hope one night in a talent show.

so what do you do?

2010-07-22T19:17:00.011+02:00

The past few weeks I have been trying to work out exactly what my new role is with OM.
My title is Development Manager - OM Ships. That means I am responsible for developing relationships with churches, supporters and donors of the ship ministry in the UK. As this is a brand new role, it will take some time to develop this but what is becoming clear is that I will be at the heart of the marketing and publicity for the ship ministry. This week we are looking at how we are going to promote the ships for the rest of the year and what we want to raise finances for.
For years, the ships have increasingly relied upon the booksales in each port to cover the costs. We want to move away from that and see more support coming from different countries around the world, like the UK.
So in the coming months I will be working hard to find the Christians in the UK who are excited in the ship ministry and let them know about the needs that we have.

Right now, we are enjoying a couple of days visiting Heather's brother in the North of Scotland. Liam & Kara love playing with their cousins and it has been great for them to get together again. Yesterday they actually were swimming in the sea which doesn't sound much if you live somewhere with warm summers, but here in Northern Scotland, the sea is freezing.

So wetsuits are the order of the day but the kids had fun, particularly jumping off the harbour wall.
Back to Edinburgh tomorrow to see how Jazz survived without us.

returning to "normal life?" what's that?

2010-07-07T23:09:00.008+02:00

After nearly a month back in the UK, I guess we should be getting back to normal life. However I'm not sure we know what that is anymore.
By far the biggest change in our life since coming home, apart from being in a house in Edinburgh rather than a cabin on a ship of course, is bringing dogs into our lives.
Before we went to the Logos Hope, we had agreed that we wanted to have a dog when we came home - specifically a labrador.
Then 2 weeks ago we heard that Heather's uncle was trying to find a home for his golden labrador because he could no longer cope with walking him. We were excited at the opportunity to give Jasper, or Jaz as we call him, a home.

So 2 weeks ago, my parents came up to Edinburgh for a visit and brought Jaz with them.
The whole family has fallen in love with Jaz. But one dog isn't enough.
Before we came home, our closest friends asked if we would look after their 9 month black lab put while they went on holiday for 2 weeks. So just a week after getting Jaz we also took in Rocky. Now we have 2 dogs dictating our lives for us - walks, more walks, barking, hairs everywhere. But it is worth it and we are loving having them.

However, with the dog walks comes some risks as we discovered on Sunday when we lost Kara for over an hour in woods. We were very concerned and called the police who came to search ther site and brought in a search dog. Thankfully she was found back at the place where we had left the car over half a mile away, but it was a very worrying time for us.

The kids had a great 3 weeks in school before finishing for their summer holidays. Typically just as the schools finish, the weather changes from the lovely warm sunshine of our first 2 weeks home, to wet and windy weather.
Heather is slowly getting used to working back in the NHS and moving between different doctors practices. It is a long way from working in the Logos Hope clinic.

I started my new job with OMUK last week with a visit to the headquarters down at Oswestry in Shropshire. This week I am working on putting together a visit for a team to the ship later in the year and a proposal for a mailing to supporters.
The office is in Glasgow so it means about 90 mins of travelling 3 or 4 days a week initially.

So we carry on adjusting to life in Edinburgh and enjoying the opportunities that "normal life" offers.

back in Edinburgh - back online

2010-06-28T23:30:00.012+02:00

Well it's been over a month since we left the Logos Hope in the Caribbean.
It's been the longest period since we started this blog that we haven't written so we will try and get back into the habbit of keeping you updated on what we are doing.
After leaving the ship, we travelled to Florida where we spent a great 2 weeks on holiday with Heather's parents. We certainly needed the break and it was great to get quality time with Heather's mum and dad before coming home.
We enjoyed a few days at the theme parks and lots of time relaxing by the pools and eating out.
On Saturday 12th June, we flew back into Edinburgh and moved back into our house for the first time in 3 years. Friends from our church had worked hard to ensure the house looked great - they even decorated the kids rooms - giving Liam a jungle theme and Kara a Hannah Montana room. The kids were so excited.
We were given a great welcome back at our church on the first Sunday and it was so good to see many friends again.

The kids started school on their first Monday back. Kara had never been to a proper school before but they both loved it. Liam came home and said that he had been treated like a celebrity.
On the Friday it was school sports day and they both were involved in races - running and the sack race. Kara won her race which made her mum very proud.

Heather also started back at work, returning to nursing in doctors practices in our area of Edinburgh. She had been on a career break when we were on the ship, so she has returned to the same hours and same work. Hopefully after the school holidays she can look for more / different work.

I start out in my new role with OM UK tomorrow. I am starting with a visit down to the UK head office which is on the Welsh border in Shropshire. 6 hours on a train tomorrow - yeah! I hope to start getting a better idea of what the new role is going to entail and what my days and weeks will look like.

The biggest change for our family since we have come home has been getting a dog. Jazz is a beautiful golden labrador. He belonged to Heather's uncle who could no longer look after him. So on Friday my parents brought him up from Manchester and we are loving having him in the family.

It is great to be back in our own home again and picking up our lives here. However, we are still very much part of the ship ministry and excited to be able to continue to support the work from here in the UK.

our final post from the Logos Hope

2010-05-26T23:08:00.003+02:00

Well the day has finally come, our last day onboard the Logos Hope.
Tomorrow morning we fly to Florida to meet Heather's parents for a 2 week holiday.
The past couple of weeks have been a bit of a blur. We have been in 3 different islands since the start of the month. We have had a number of different farewell get togethers and dinners, given our farewell speech and packed all our bags. So now we are ready to go.
Tonight we will have an open cabin to let people come and say goodbye, then at 9am tomorrow morning, we will travel in a ship van along the windy, bumpy little road that forms the main highway between the capital and the international airport in this amazing island of Dominica.
Tomorrow evening we will stay overnight at a friends house near Miami airport and then on Friday drive up to Orlando to meet Heather's parents at our accomodation.

So this is the last post from the Logos Hope. We will probably revamp our website when we get home and start to use that again but I'm sure we will also keep blogging so please do check again in a couple of weeks - we get back to the UK on 12th June.

Bye

Final voyage / Final port

2010-05-18T05:09:00.018+02:00

In just a few minutes we will be setting sail on our final voyage - 15 hours sailing from St Kitts to Dominica. We have had just 5 days on this small island with a population of 36,000 and seen 20,500 visit the ship! It is amazing how people here just love the ship.
This week we are going to enjoy a few Sabbath days, when the ship's community pauses to reflect and have some extra time to hear from God and rest. It used to be a week, but due to the tight schedule before leaving the Caribbean, we have just 3 days.

Then it will just be a few more days before we are getting on a plane and flying to Florida.
On Friday night, we enjoyed a wonderful farewell meal along with a number of other long termers onboard the ship. The chefs cooked a delicious buffet and we all gathered in the lounge for dinner, followed by a time when those staying behind could say nice things about those of us leaving. It was so encouraging to hear the great things that were said about Liam and Kara.

They also had a farewell at the school from their teachers and class mates.

Saturday night we had a Brits party in the cabin which was a lot of fun - we ate custard and Cadbury's chocolate and played a few games.

Also on Saturday, Heather worked her final shift at the Service Desk and did her final on call shift as duty nurse. So everything is slowly coming to an end.

Of course on the Logos Hope, you are always saying goodbye to people as there is always someone leaving, but this next week will obviously be hard as we say goodbye to so many friends. We just trust that we are going to see some of them again at some point.

Today was our last day in St Kitts and we managed to get off the ship for a few hours and found an amazing spot along the coast where there are monkeys that come down and feed right in front of you. After visiting so many islands and the jungles of Guyana, this is the first time that we have seen wild monkeys close up. It was a great experience.

The beginning of the lasts

2010-05-10T01:27:00.009+02:00

It feels like we are entering a season of "lasts"
We will soon have our last voyage, our last ship family outing, our last day out with good friends. The date of our farewell speach is set for 8 days time and we are busy chosing which pictures to show in our farewell presentation.
Tonight Heather and the kids are dancing the Scottish dance in a Cultural hour programme which may be the last time.
Of course every season comes to an end and our time on Logos Hope is rapidly nearing completion, yet we struggle with the bitter sweet reality of saying goodbyes and looking forward to going home.
On Tuesday we plan to send home our last few boxes and then it will just be the bags that we are taking with us left to pack.

This week was another busy week. The container loading on Tues / Weds went remarkably well with 13 containers loaded onboard in 1 1/2 days. It was great to get so many of the ships community involved in the work and see everyone pulling together. It felt like the book hold must have expanding walls.

As well as the containers and packing, the kids were at school camp which they really loved and had a great time. I was acting director while Gian, our full time director was in Germany for meetings. I also helped with AV for a youth night on Friday which was packed to capacity with around 450 young people in the theatre. Heather is still very involved in drama and the Scottish dance, on call nurse and working at the Service Desk.

I am really looking forward to having my friend and old boss, Mark here for our last 2 weeks onboard. He has not been to the ship since we were in London and we have not seen him since his son died last August. I hope that we can get some good time together over the next couple of weeks. He was responsible for us joining the Logos Hope project and 10 years previously, joining the Doulos together.

A memorable voyage

2010-05-02T20:04:00.007+02:00

Last Monday we set sail from Bermuda for a 4 day voyage south to Antigua.
Shortly after letting off the pilot and heading out to sea, the Logos Hope received a message from the Bermudan Harbour authorities, asking us to alter course to look for a missing yacht. A solo sailer was overdue in Bermuda and had not been heard from for several days. A radar contact had been picked up and we were asked to investigate.
We arrived at the position of the radar contact and discoverd that it was the yacht, badly battered from a storm. The sailor had lost all his sails, his engine room was flooded and he only had a very short range radio. He had just been floating for 24 hours hoping a ship would pass within range.
Logos Hope was able to provide communication between the yacht and the shore and help organise a rescue. We stayed on station for a couple of hours. lighting up the yacht with our searchlight until a rexcue boat arrived.

Once we got under way, we soon found ourselves in rough seas and for 24 hours, the ship bounced around with large waves breaking over the bow.

As this was our last significant voyage, it made it more memorable. The kids had to have school down in the lobby because their school on deck 8 was moving too much.

Despite the rough weather, due to turning on an extra engine, the ship still arrived in Antigua ahead of the original schedule. The ship opened to the public a few hours later and in the evening held an Official Reception with the Prime Minister as Guest of Honour.

Also on Friday, the kids went off for school camp. They will be ashore for 4 days staying at a campsite in the middle of the island. We saw them today and they are having a great time with a swimming pool and adventure playground on the camp site.

This week we need to load 13 containers onto the ship on Tuesday and Wednesday. It is going to be a busy time. Also the ships director is away so I will be standing in as acting director for the last time.
Less than 4 weeks to go now before we leave the ship.

running

2010-04-26T01:59:00.005+02:00

Today, Heather took part in a 20km road race here in Bermuda along with a number of others from the ship. She had been training for it over the past few weeks and spent the last couple of days eating much more than she normally would, to give her energy for the run.
Heather really wanted to set a good time but found it to be a very tough course with a number of long hills. However she did manage to finish in under 2 hours.
At the moment it feels like time is running away as we get closer to leaving the ship. We are about to set sail on our final longer voyage - 4 nights. The forecast is for strong winds so we will see if we actually get a rough voyage before we leave.
We are visiting 3 ports in 4 weeks in May so time is going to fly by.

We have really enjoyed our visit to Bermuda. It is a beautiful island and the people are very friendly. It is a shame we weren't here in summer when it's a bit warmer and we could enjoy the incredible beaches.

It has been exciting to see people coming through the Journey of Life and responding to it. Yesterday I spent a few hours down there just observing people's responses. It was great to see parents telling their children the story as they walked through.
Now we need to work on developing a film to go at the end of the Journey.
ok time to run - off to Antigua.

Journey of life - years in the making

2010-04-20T15:21:00.035+02:00

This past week has certainly been one of the busiest and most intense that I have experienced during my time onboard.

Monday 12th, a team of 10 arrived from the States to begin the installation of the Journey of Life exhibit along with many other additions to our visitor deck. I have been working on this project for 8 months and it was exciting to finally see it all coming together.

Concept designer Patrick Marsh

The original plan had been to work at night and still have the deck open during the day. However,customs authorities here in Bermuda had told us that we were not allowed to have our International Cafe open here to sell anything not bought on the island. So we took the decision to close half of the deck to allow the work to be done during the day time. The team actually worked two nineteen hour days to get the job done.
This was clearly a Divine intervention as it became clear in the subsequent days as we worked more and more hours,all through the day and well into the night, that we would never have got the job done just working night shift.
It was exciting to see the walls going up, the paint going on and then the story starting to appear.

Textiles from around the world

Half way through the week, we began preperations for the annual ships donor weekend which was to take place here in Bermuda. With my upcoming role in Partner development in the UK, I wanted to be involved in this weekend as well, so I accepted a role as transport co-ordinator, which proved to be a significant challenge.
On Thursday, I moved over to the hotel on the other side of the island where the donor event was taking place, and left someone else in charge of seeing the Journey of Life completed, in time for all the donors to have a tour on Friday afternoon.

Friday was intensely stressful as I had to oversee the transport for nearly 200 people by bus, van, taxi then boat to get to the ship, quickly change and MC the programme for them all in our theatre, then run up and stand at the beginning of the Journey of Life to explain it to everyone as part of their tour. After grabbing a quick bite of lunch, we took groups on a tour of the whole ship, ending up in our cabin for coffee.
I had less than half an hour to then race around the ship and find the installation team to say goodbye, as they were leaving next morning and I would not see them again.
At 4 pm it was back to the chartered boat to take everyone across the bay to the jetty where the buses would transport them back to their 2 hotels. It was well over an hour before we got everyone back to their hotel.

I realised that sometimes you just say yes to too many things and push yourself beyond your limitations; Friday was one such day.

The donor weekend went very well with all of those attending, mainly North Americans, excited and challenged by all that they saw and experienced of the Logos Hope. We were very encouraged that many of them gave significant financial gifts at the end of the weekend towards the ongoing work of the ship.

Now after a couple of days to recover, it's back to more normal work, trying to continue to push forward the development on deck 4 and do some training with the team on how to maximise this new tool for the gospel.

New interactive bridge display

Father & son reconciled

Finally - check out the latest video clip from the "ship shots" collection - the crowds in Kingston - go to www.omships.org/shipshots

A great visit to Nassau

2010-04-08T22:09:00.014+02:00

At midnight we sail out of Nassau and say goodbye to another port.
It has been a great visit to the Bahamas and quite an eye opener.
Before we came, I thought Bahamas was just an extension of the USA and was a very rich and modern country. I didn't realise that actually it is only the tourists and the big businesses that are rich, and many people here live in similar conditions to other Caribbean islands.

We have seen it all this past 2 weeks. From the incredible luxury of the 5 star Atlantis Resort on Paradise island,and the massive cruise ships and private yachts that fill the harbour to the back street shacks of the poor Bahamians that provide the workforce for all the hotels and tourist attractions.

We have been very blessed with a chance to catch our breath after Jamaica, enjoy a few rest days but also experience great ministry opportunities, particularly over the Easter weekend. On Easter Saturday, we held our first ever full International night onboard - called Hope Night. For anyone that has been involved with OM ships in the past, you will know that International Nights were a highlight of most ports.
Involving many of the crew, there would be cultural dances, colourful costumes, music and drama and a clear message of the gospel in many ports.

Heather, Liam and Kara all took part in the Scottish dance and in the Finale, and Steve helped out with the AV.

On Easter Sunday, we showed the film, The Passion of the Christ, in our theatre for both locals and the ships community. I hadn't seen this film since it first came out in the cinema a number of years ago. It was a real challenge to watch it again and realise how much our Lord suffered for us.

Also during this port, the ship has been blessed by a Christian foundation called WinShape, part of a Christian owned American quick service restaurant company. A team came and provided customer service training to the crew, a whole range of activities and outings for the kids over the Easter weekend and a night away from the ship at a hotel for all the couples.

Another great thing about our visit here has been linking up with some of the locals and one lady in particular has been very kind and generous, taking families out and treating them. But for her it has also been a blessing to be a part of what God is doing through the Logos Hope and attending a number of the events onboard.

On the voyage to Nassau we had a world champion unicycler sailing with us. He gave a demonstration of his skills on our top deck one evening at sea and chose Liam to help him in his show.

As you will hopefully be aware, we had many thousands of school children come onboard in Jamaica. Please take a few minutes to watch this video that has been produced all about our school programmes onboard.

big numbers and big ships

2010-03-26T23:44:00.005+01:00

Many months ago I read several articles about the launch of the largest passenger ship in the world - Royal Caribbeans "Oasis of the Seas". After she began sailing, I looked up her cruise schedule and was excited to see that she would be in the Bahamas at the same time as the Logos Hope.

This morning, a few hours after we arrived in Nassau, this monster of a ship sailed in behind us to take up one of the multiple berths here in this port.

Despite visiting ports all over the Caribbean for the past 8 months, we have never seen anything like the spectacle of 5 other huge cruise ships lined up one after another next to us like we have today.

Of course these ships normally arrive in port and pour out thousands of their passengers into the surrounding area. Quite the opposite of what often happens with the Logos Hope. We see thousands of people coming onboard our ship from the port.

Last weekend, after moving berth in Kingston we were just overwhelmed by the number of visitors. On Saturday we opened the gate at 10.00 am and in less than an hour, we already had to stop the line due to the numbers on the deck. By 7.30 we had to stop anyone else joining the end of the line because we had such a queue. We had a total of 7140 visitors on Saturday.

Sunday was always going to be the biggest challenge because so many people come in a relatively short time between 2 and 6 pm. We opened the gate an hour and half early and by our official opening time of 2pm had already seen over a thousand people come onboard.

By 6pm on Sunday afternoon, we had such a long line, around 1200 people outside the gate and another 300 inside, that we needed to call out the ships control team to manage the crowd.
We put ships personnel in place every 10 - 15m along the line to stop people queue jumping and then at 7.00 I shut the line.
It was well after 9pm before the last people were on the ship, with another 6357 visitors.

By the time we said goodbye to the last visitor on Monday night, we had welcomed over 135,000 people onboard in Kingston and over 220,000 altogether in Jamaica. No wonder we all feel so tired.
Thankfully we had a few days at sea this week to recover a bit.

On Tuesday, I hand over responsibility for my division to my replacement, so I have only 2 jobs to do for my final 9 weeks onboard instead of 3.

moving at last

2010-03-18T02:19:00.003+01:00

After a month at the coal berth of Carib Cement company here in Kingston, we are finally moving.

Not far mind you, just a few miles along to the commercial port where we will spend our last weekend.

The past few days have been crazy as we have tried to avoid moving from this location, where everyone in Kingston knows us, to another berth buried in the port where we have never been open to the public before.

We knew the ship was coming last week but kept praying it would be delayed long enough for us to finish the port here. But we also made plans to move and last week I was involved in a meeting with the captain and the port authorities to try and sort out all the details.

We thought we had everything sorted and then on Friday afternoon we heard from the port that they had changed many of the terms we had agreed.

Typically, we could do nothing over the weekend but then Monday is supposed to be a day off for many of us. So once again I found my day off being disrupted by work. I have to be honest that I was not happy about having to spend all Monday morning and part of the afternoon on the phone, email and meetings, trying to decide exactly what we were going to do about the move.

Eventually I could do no more so about 2.30 we got off the ship and took the kids to Port Royal.

I heard about Port Royal in the Pirates of the Caribbean films and it once had the reputation of being the "wickedest city in the world" Much of the city was destroyed by an earthquake in 1692 which caused 2/3 of the island to disappear into the sea.

A further earthquake in 1907 caused much further damage to the British Naval Garrison stationed there - this used to be an armoury.

Despite all it's violent history, Port Royal now is not a particularly exciting place to visit so I wouldn't go out of your way to travel here to see it.

Yesterday we made the decision that we definitely had to move berth, and we were expecting that to be on Thursday night as that was the time the coal ship was due. A number of us spent much of the day racing around trying to sort out the communication and publicity for the move. I also found myself going to another meeting along with the captain to try and address all the issues that had changed from last weeks meeting.

Thankfully it was a successful meeting and we came to a good agreement.

Then this morning we discovered that the coal ship was actually going to arrive on Thursday morning and we had to move a day earlier. Further chaos and rushing around trying to do in 1 day what we had planned to do in 2.

So at 1am we leave this berth behind and we just need to see what the coming days will bring in the other berth. Yesterday we welcomed our 100,000th visitor onboard for this port so it has been very busy.

We are all looking forward to sailing to Bahamas next week!

We are all on a journey of life

2010-03-10T16:50:00.013+01:00

A significant amount of my time over the past few months has been taken up with managing a project to complete a major part of the vision of Logos Hope. Ever since the idea of having an entire deck dedicated to our visitors became a reality, there has been a desire to have an area set aside to sharing the gospel message in a clear way for every single visitor.
The space between the bookshop and the International Cafe on the port side of the deck was designated for this area and the term "Journey of Life" was used to try to describe what we wanted to present.
In September last year, in Trinidad, a design team from the Creation Museum in Cincinnati, part of the Answers in Genesis organisation, visited the ship to help us take this project forward. Over the course of a week, the concept of using the story of the Prodigal Son in picture format developed.

I just read in a Tom Clancy novel the statement - "All of Christianity in a single story" describing the Prodigal Son .
So over the past months, we have been working on developing this concept, producing and refining the art of the background and the story. In just a few weeks, in Bermuda, we will install the 2metre high story panels that will bring this powerful story to life for every visitor coming to the ship.

Only God knows how many peoples lives will be challenged by this powerful story of healing and forgiveness in the years to come.

Also this week we saw the first public performance of a "Scottish Dance" in the ship's cultural hour in our theatre. Heather has been working for many weeks with a group onboard to learn the "eightsome reel" in order to use it for public performances as we show the different diverse cultures onboard.

On Saturday and Sunday evening we had 3 Cultural Hours where many hundreds of those on the deck came down to the theatre to experience the Logos Hope cultures as well as hearing the good news of the gospel.

On Sunday, we once again saw a long line of people waiting to come onboard. For most of the afternoon and early evening we had around 1000 people waiting to get onboard.

In order to entertain and minister to them, we have set up a stage on our car deck up on deck 6 so that everyone waiting on the bridge can see and hear those performing. It's great to have so many different ways to connect with the thousands that are coming to the ship here in Kingston.

We have already had over 70000 visitors here in Kingston.

Logos Hope selling a Bible a minute

2010-03-01T01:32:00.005+01:00

Yesterday (Saturday) we had nearly 6000 visitors to the ship here in Kingston Jamaica. During the 12 hours we were open we sold over 730 bibles, which is more than one every minute. We are so excited by how many Jamaicans want to get a copy of God's word.

This week I was in Florence, South Carolina. I have been talking for a couple of months with the Director of the ships Partner Ministries Division about a possible role in the UK representing the ships to supporters and churches. Hans asked me to come over to visit him for a couple of days to discuss further. You are so close it makes sense to visit he said.
So at 6am on Tuesday morning I was heading to Kingston airport for a flight to the States. 12 hours later, as I drove in to the street where I was going to stay for 3 nights, I really wondered how on earth I had agreed to the trip. 12 hours travel! I could have flown home in the same time.

Anyway, it was a great visit and really good to see the US office of OM Ships. All of our literature operations have moved to Florence as well as Partner development and several of our Marine Operations team.
One highlight of the visit was to catch up with 2 friends that I had served with onboard the Doulos nearly 25 years ago. We had reconnected via Facebook last year and when I let them know I was coming to South Carolina, they both agreed to come and see me as it was just a couple of hours drive.

Kitty and Joel hadn't seen each other either for 22 years despite living a few hundred miles apart. So we had a great evening catching up on each others lives. They have both been through some very hard times in their lives and I realised just how blessed I have been and particularly how grateful I am for my marriage to Heather and my wonderful kids.

It was also good to do a bit of shopping in Walmart which is always one of my favourite stores and to catch up with some other friends in Florence, including Richard - who has visited the ship a few times. Heather and I have enjoyed playing practical jokes on him when he comes.

Friday morning it was another early start to drive to Charlotte airport and the flight back. I really enjoyed flying over the Kennedy Space Centre on the way in to Miami and then a few hours later I flew over Cuba heading out to Kingston.

After this visit to Florence, I am excited to keep moving forward towards taking on this new role in the UK after we leave the ship. We now have just 12 weeks left onboard!

crowds in Kingston

2010-02-21T21:48:00.011+01:00

Kingston Jamaica. One of the busiest ports in the world for the ship ministry and one of the worst berths! Due to restrictions on berths in the main port, the ship always ends up at the coal berth of a cement company which is not only very dirty but has very little space and is located a number of miles outside of town.

Despite this, the people of Kingston always come to the ship in large numbers and we have already seen that during our first few days here. We had over 15000 people come in just the first 3 days. On Friday night, we had to close the gate more than 1 hour early because the line was already too long and the last people didn't leave the ship until nearly 11pm. So we expect a busy time over the next 5 weeks here.

We had a fanastic break away with mum and dad last week. We spent nearly a week at a great resort on the beach near Ochos Rios and then for our last night got a free upgrade to a 5 star hotel. What a blessing. One of the highlights was to go to Dolphin Cove. We had asked a lot of our family to give money for the kids for their Christmas and birthdays and we treated them to swimming with dolphins. As they needed an adult to go with them, dad also swam.

They absolutely loved it ( who wouldn't ) and it was such a delight to see their joy. We are so privileged to have the opportunity to be in these amazing countries and do these things that would normally cost thousands of pounds. We managed to get a special Logos Hope discount for the dolphins because everyone in Jamaica knows the "bookship" and that we are volunteers.

This last week we booked our flights home. We leave the ship on 27th May - that is just 3 months!!

We are going to spend 2 weeks in Florida with Heather's parents and then be back in Edinburgh on 12th June.

On Tuesday, I am flying to the ships office in Florence South Carolina, to talk to some of the team there about a possible opportunity after we leave the ship. But don't panic - the job is in the UK, not the USA. Will let you know how it goes next week.

Time for a break

2010-02-08T03:08:00.002+01:00

This week has been a bit crazy.
We welcomed our half millionth visitor onboard since we began sailing nearly a year ago. We welcomed a brand new group of recruits - the Montego Bay PST (preship training) and we welcomed a whole bunch of people from Doulos who have come to join the Logos Hope now that Doulos has come to the end of her life.
We also celebrated Liam's 10th birthday on Tuesday - he had some great presents, a lunch with all the school, a dinner out with his family then a movie with all his friends.
Mum and dad have had a great time getting out and about but also helping out in the book fair and on deck 4. On Thursday we set a new record for the most school kids in a single day - around 4000 of them. It was totally crazy. On Friday there was another 2500.

So after all that, it's time for a rest. The kids are on a weeks holiday from school so we are off for a break with mum and dad to a hotel along the coast. A week all inclusive at Runaway Bay and on Saturday we are taking the kids for their Christmas present: swimming with dolphins at Dolphin Cove in Ochos Rios.
Will tell you all about it when we get back.

Yea man, we be in Jamaica

2010-01-29T01:42:00.003+01:00

It's hard to believe that we have been in Jamaica for a week already but this past week has just been a blur.

Jamaica is always one of the busiest countries for the ship. Everyone here knows about the Logos or the book ship as they all call us.
The first weekend we already had

significant crowds and this week we have seen thousands of school children coming onboard already. Many come for organised programmes but hundreds just show up to come to the book fair and trying to manage them all can be a real challenge.

We arrived in Montego Bay in the early hours of the morning last Weds and since then it has just been a constant barrage of challenges.
It has taken us 8 days to get our vans cleared to drive on the roads and I personally have had to get involved on a number of occasions, talking to customs and other parties to help move the permissions along. Everything seems to take longer than it should.

Finally today we had passed every hurdle and we can drive. We have had similar issues with getting containers cleared.

A real highlight of this past week was the arrival of my parents who have come out for 3 weeks. They love the ship ministry, have supported it for 25 years and have been onboard Logos Hope many times already. Today they both spent a number of hours down on the visitor deck and in the book fair, helping out. We are very short staffed at the moment as this is our changeover port so many people are leaving the ship and the new recruits don't start work for another couple of weeks.

Recently we made the decision that we will finish our commitment and leave the ship at the end of May, before Logos Hope sails back across the Atlantic to Africa. We plan to meet up with Heather's parents in Florida and have a vacation before returning home.

The day we nearly went to Haiti

2010-01-16T23:21:00.004+01:00

Sunset in Aruba

Wow, what a week this has been.
After all the challenges around getting the bookselling permission for Aruba, I had hoped for a quieter week. But the ships director had to go to Germany for Executive Leadership meetings and I was left in charge. Whenever I am asked to be "acting director" I always say I have no problem acting as long as I don't have to do any real work.
Well this week was different.
On Tuesday night, we got the first reports of the earthquake in Haiti and I immediately began to think what our response should be. We are only a few hundred miles away and will be sailing almost right past Haiti on our way to Jamaica next week. Should we go? How can we help. I sent off a quick email to Gian, the director, in Germany so he could begin thinking about it when he woke up a few hours later.
On Wednesday the ships Executive leadership in Germany discussed the issue and decided it wasn't the right time for us to go. So that was that.
Thursday morning I was in a meeting when I received a phone call from Henry, the Director of OM Caribbean. He was asking for our help to deliver emergency supplies of food and water to 2 orphanages in Haiti that they support. The orphanages were on their last supplies and desperately needed help.
So for the rest of Thursday I was involved in a frantic round of phone calls, emails and meetings as we tried to find out if it was possible for us to go. We discovered that we couldn't fit into any of the small ports around the island and that there were no charts for us even to approach and

anchor. On a number of occasions we went back and forth between no we definitely can't go, and then ok maybe we can.
I spoke to the Director of the Red Cross here in Aruba, we contacted the government, we contacted the Dutch marine base about possible security detachment.
I was in touch with our head office in Germany where the ships Executive were meeting to get their input and views.We had several guests onboard with connections to the US military and US coastguard and the Canadian coastguard. Henry was also frantically trying everything he could do to make contact with people in Haiti who could help.
We pushed every door to try and find a way to offload supplies from the ship without going into a harbour.
By the end of Thursday night, I still didn't know if we could go but we were still trying.

On Friday, we had to make a decision before lunch time if we were going to have any chance of getting an appeal out to raise the supplies we would need before we sailed on Sunday night. Early on we heard that a US Army officer had promised us a helicopter from the American aircraft carrier that had just arrived. We frantically tried to get confirmation of this.
I called a meeting of our onboard leadership team, hoping to get a green light to move ahead and make the appeal. I was surprised when one by one they raised concerns and then voted against

going. In the end I was the only one who was prepared to take the risk of going without everything in place, but I had to accept their decision.

Shortly afterwards we heard from 2 different sources that we would have to register with the US Centre of International Disaster Intelligence and get a slot to offload our aid. We were told there was no way we could get a space in the coming days.
At the time this proved to be a confirmation that it was the right decision not to go.
However, now I still think we should have taken the risk and that we would have found a way to get that aid ashore at a small port outside of Port-au-Prince.
I guess we will never know.I had kept the ships company informed along the way of the decision making process and on Friday after lunch I told them that we would not go. I think all accepted it well.

We still want to help and I hope that we can send teams from Jamaica to Haiti once things have settled a bit there and they have removed all the bodies and got the aid flowing. Will keep you informed.

Iguana's sun themselves on the rocks near the ship

Aruba has been a great port and we have loved being here but it is certainly one I will never forget. It was great to have 2 lads from our church - Phil and Euan arrive to join the ship for 10 weeks as part of our Short Term Exposure Programme.

We sail at midnight for what we think may be a bumpy voyage to Montego Bay Jamiaca. My parents come out in a weeks time for 3 weeks so we are all looking forward to that.

my day in court in Aruba

2010-01-10T03:10:00.003+01:00

For weeks we have been concerned about coming to Aruba and not being able to sell books.
The government here had publicly said that the Logos Hope was not allowed to sell books because some local booksellers had complained that we were not following the law.
I flew over to Aruba from Curacao before Christmas to try and meet up with some of the booksellers and try to win them over, but it was not a successful visit.
We arrived in the island on Wednesday and met up with the local pastors to discuss what to do. The government minister who said we couldn't sell books - the Minister for Economic Affairs, was actually the guest of honour at our official opening. It was rather bizarre that she officially opened the book fair but then no one could buy the books.
On Friday, a lawyer retained by the local pastors made a petition to the courts to have the decision overturned. So at 4pm on Friday, myself, the ships Director and the Captain were all in court along with 4 local pastors to see the case presented before a panel of judges.
Thankfully, the judges agreed that we should be allowed to sell books under the responsibility of a local pastor. So within 5 mins of the court case ending we had called the ship and begun selling books. It was strange coming out of the court and facing several TV cameras and reporters who wanted to know the story.
Today we are on the front page of all the newspapers so the ban on the ship has really helped generate a lot of publicity.

Tonight we have 2 lads from our church arriving to join the short term programme onboard for 9 weeks. It is exciting to have them coming onboard and I know it will be a great experience for them.

Happy New Year

2010-01-04T01:21:00.007+01:00

So here we are in 2010.

It's hard to believe that it is 10 years since we celebrated the beginning of a new millennium.So much has changed. 10 years ago we didn't have Liam or Kara, we had never heard of the street where we have our home - Palmer Rd, There was no Logos Hope, we hadn't met some of our best friends. What a difference a decade makes.

Even a year is a very long time. Last January we were still stuck in Denmark with the Logos Hope, having not yet sailed. We can now look back on that fantastic time when we sailed out of Denmark, then to Sweden and on to Holland. The best day of the year - sailing into Edinburgh to the best welcome the ship has yet seen. I went to the Faroe Islands while Heather and the kids stayed behind in Edinburgh. We had our furlough while the ship went to Ireland and Wales, then we rejoined in London.
From Cork, Ireland, we made the Atlantic crossing and began our time in the Caribbean.
We have now visited 9 ports in 7 countries in the region.
So now we look ahead to an exciting new year. We expect to visit a few more countries here in the Caribbean - Aruba, Jamaica, Bahamas, Bermuda, Antigua, St Kitts and Dominica. Then we as a family don't know what we are going to do next.
We either leave the ship before it sails across the Atlantic in June, or we stay on to go to West Africa for a couple more ports. But we really believe that we should return to Edinburgh in time for the children to start school in August.
We have really enjoyed our time here in Curacao. It hasn't been a particularly busy port for visitors but it has been a great blessing to the ships company to have such a beautiful berth over the holiday season. We have enjoyed swimming and snorkelling often in the crystal waters right outside our door. We met a local family that gave us a lift the first night here when we tried to hitch hike into town. They took us out yesterday to see the island and we enjoyed a lovely day with them.

On Wednesday we sail the short distance to Aruba where we are still waiting to hear if we will get permission to sell books. On Saturday, we have 2 lads arriving from our church to do the Short Term Exposure Programme onboard so we are really looking forward to that. Coming from Scotland that has been buried in snow for the past few weeks, it will be quite a shock for them.

So that was Christmas

2009-12-28T15:57:00.015+01:00

Christmas has been and gone on Logos Hope.

It is somewhat shorter than what we are used to. The Christmas holiday starts at 3pm on Christmas Eve and finishes at the end of Christmas Day. Most people were working on Boxing Day.

Of course, for those of us who come from countries and cultures where we normally have at least 4 days at Christmas, and often a week to 10 days off work, it is a bit of a shock.

Still we made the best of it and tried to enjoy Christmas as best we could.

One of our recent family traditions over the past few years has been to watch the film "Polar Express" on Christmas Eve. So we showed the film in our theatre in the afternoon but Heather had to help set up for Dinner so missed it.

The main Christmas meal was on Christmas Eve. The leaders all serve, so I had a rushed dinner along with a group of 15 others, and then we served the whole community while they enjoyed a Salmon starter, turkey and mashed potato for main course and a kind of mouse cake for desert.

Then we had a carol service followed by some refreshments.

On Christmas morning, the children slept in later than we expected - it was after 8.30 when they came through to open their presents. We had been concerned that this year we would not have

much for them, but we were so happy when they got very excited about their presents and Liam declared that this year his presents were even better than last year.

On Logos Hope, one of the highlights of Christmas Day is the Brunch - a feast of breakfast delights served most of the morning and a great way to start the day.

At noon we had our Christmas Day service which was very special as the children performed their Nativity play with Liam as a wise man and Kara as a sheep. They both did very well.

Then the highlight of Christmas Day for me was Liam singing solo the first verse of the carol "Once in Royal David's City" At the same age, I had given the same performance for my schools carol service in Peterborough Cathedral some 35 years ago. As you can see below, Liam was brilliant.

With all our family at home enjoying a white Christmas and telling us all about the snow, we had to go swimming in the sea on Christmas Day. So we all swam round to the bow and got a picture to remember this very unusual Christmas.

Curacao is a beautiful island and we have been blessed with an incredible berth where we can swim and snorkel right off the quayside. The crystal clear waters are like an aquarium full of exotic tropical fish just metres away from the ship. What a fantastic place to spend Christmas and New Year.

Happy Christmas

2009-12-24T18:10:00.003+01:00

So it's Christmas Eve at last. Here we are in Curacao in a beautiful berth with crystal clear Caribbean waters around us where we can swim and snorkel right off the quayside.
Yet everyday we get messages from home about the white Christmas in Scotland and we wish we were at home. Our first Christmas away from home and we miss all the snow.
So we are making the best of it.
We had a Brits Christmas party last night with 26 people in our cabin, mince pies and games, finally watching some Wallace and Grommit to finish the evening.
We have our main Christmas meal this evening, after watching Polar Express in the Theatre. I am introducing one of our Christmas traditions to the ships company. This evening we have a carol service.
Tomorrow we have a huge brunch then a church service before open cabins and in the evening a BBQ up on deck. I am sure we will fit in a festive swim at some point.

So we wish you all a fantastic Christmas time and a great New Year. We will be in touch again soon.

We love Guyana

2009-12-17T13:33:00.021+01:00

I am writing at sea as we sail from Guyana to Curacao where we will be for Christmas. Looking back over the past couple of weeks in Guyana, we as a family have had an amazing time and have really enjoyed our visit to this incredible South American country.

Heather spent a week on a team that ran a medical and dental clinic each day on the other side of Georgetown, the capital. The team slept onboard the ship but went out each day and provided the dental treatment and health check-ups but also prayed with every patient and ministered to all those that came.

Because of her experience with the first team, Heather joined the second medical/dental team that went to a town an hours drive away, to help set everything up. On Sunday,she took Liam and Kara along as well for the experience.

They loved meeting all the children there and had a great time while Heather worked - again providing medical and dental treatment to those that came to the outreach - located at a YWAM base in Parika. They only stayed one night because the kids got virtually no sleep due to all the noises over night - dogs, cockerels etc.

On Wednesday, Heather went back to Parika with Liam for another day and in the evening, they both went on a crocodile hunt! This may sound like a fairly dangerous activity - going up the river in a small boat, looking for crocodiles, but actually the ones in the large rivers are very small and can even be picked up when caught.

While Heather and the kids were in Parika, I headed off for my own "challenge team."
10 of us went 50 miles up the river Essequibo from Parika to a small place called Goshen, a collection of houses set between the jungle and the river with no roads or cars. We stayed in the Goshen Baptist church working with Pastor Singh. Over the week we completely decorated the inside of the church building and replaced the roof on another building. We spent the first day just building the scaffolding to get up to the rafters, using all sorts of bits of wood.

Every afternoon, the local youngsters came and played football on the playing field behind the church and basketball in front. Some of us joined in with the games. Every night we put on a programme for the kids from 7 - 9pm. As the week went by the numbers grew from around 20 to over 65 kids and teenagers. Later in the week we split them up between the younger children and the teenagers so we could communicate more on their levels.

On Friday we got a day off the practical work and went on a guided hike through the jungle which was amazing. It was incredible to go swimming in the creeks and get a boat ride through the narrow creeks where we had to duck under branches as we passed.

Saturday we went to another church building up the river that was planted by Pastor Singh a few years ago.

There we worked with a good number of the Goshen church members to paint the building inside and out. Seems like a great idea for a Sunday School Outing - paint your church!!

Looking back over the week, it was amazing how we were able to connect with so many of the kids and young people, mainly Amerindians. We also were greatly blessed by the fellowship and hospitality of the church members.
Washing in the river, being woken by a cockerel or the screeching of parrots, having snakes,frogs and tarantulas share our living area, travelling everywhere by boat - what a memorable experience.

Overall, Guayana was very different from what we expected. 180 of the crew went out on 21 teams and everyone was greatly encouraged by their experiences.

So now it is just a week to Christmas. As the UK has it's first snow of the winter, we are heading to a little bay where we will be able to swim off the quayside. What a contrast to last Christmas.
I will try and get in another blog before Christmas but in case I don't I wish you all a very happy Christmas.

Guyana, South America

2009-12-03T23:51:00.011+01:00

Guyana was always going to be different. For Heather and I, this is our first time in South America, and for Logos Hope, this is our first experience of a 3rd world country.

As we sailed up the dirty brown river that runs past the capital, Georgetown, we could see that there were many deprived areas very close to where we would be berthed.

Having been in India, Africa and many other poor countries, we are no strangers to poverty. I have been surprised that although Georgetown is dirty and has some very poor areas, overall it is not nearly as bad as we expected. The People are very friendly and most of those coming to the ship appear to be well educated and well dressed.

We had expected big crowds here based on previous visits, but it appears that being berthed out of town has significantly cut back the number of people coming to the ship. To try and encourage people to come, I put up some big banners out at the port gate and on the main road past the port.

Another special thing about Guyana is that we are sending out lots of teams into the country to work with local churches and organisations. Many of these are "help" teams - bringing practical help to the people. Heather has spent the past 4 days going out on a medical / dental team each day, bringing care and assistance to those who struggle to get good medical or dental care. They also have shared the gospel with those that come.

On Monday morning, I leave for a week's team 100km inland, up the Essequibo river. We will help with building extensions on 2 churches during the day time and have youth meetings in the evenings. Heather is also looking into the possibility of going out on another medical team next week as there is a need for someone who has already had experience in setting up a clinic.

My calendar says that it is only 3 weeks to Christmas but it is really difficult to get your head round that if you are used to the cold and dark of a Scottish winter with lights and decorations everywhere and the frantic shopping, parties, dinners and carol services. Life is very different here both on the ship and in Guyana. We are trying hard to embrace Christmas with decorations and lights in our cabin and Christmas music playing, but it just isn't working yet.

Heather's birthday

2009-11-26T13:04:00.009+01:00

Welcome to our 150th Blog post - another milestone.

Sunday was Heather's birthday and we wanted to do something different to celebrate. Last year we were in Denmark and we spent the day at Tivoli World's Christmas festival in Copenhagen with snow on the ground and freezing cold. Obviously this year would be very different.

St Lucia is famous for its Pitons, twin peaks that rise majestically out of the sea. So along with our ship family and a group of others we drove to climb the Gros Piton. As well as Heather, one of our ship sons, Rob, celebrates his birthday on the same day. Although both the Gros Piton and Petit Piton are similar heights, Gros Piton is much larger and more accessible.

It was a challenging climb in the heat, despite being shaded by trees the whole way up. Unlike Scottish or Welsh mountains where the path snakes its way up a gradual incline, the second half of this trail was nearly straight up.

We had several guides, that we are required to take to show us the way. After 1 hour and 40 mins, we reached the first summit. Liam and Kara were about the first ones up, despite the concerns some had about whether they would even make it. After 10mins enjoying the view and some lunch, we headed through what can only be described as jungle, on the top of the Piton, to the other look out point with its amazing view of the Petit Piton.

The climb down was as hard as the way up as it was slippy and very uneven. Several of our group sustained twisted ankles. Kara got very tired part way down and one of our guides actually put Kara on her back and ran down the rest of the way with her. These guides are incredible, doing this climb several times a day - one of them had done it over 2000 times.

After the climb, we drove down the hill in between the 2 Pitons to one of the most incredible beach locations in the world. There is a hotel there which must rank as having some of the best views on earth. We were able to spend a few hours there, soaking our weary limbs in the sea and enjoying a nice drink before heading back to the ship. It was dark by the time we left and the drive back out on pitch black, windy roads up very steep gradients was not something I would want to do very often.

Early the next morning, we left St Lucia at the end of our Sabbath week and headed for Guyana. We had a fairly bumpy 2 day voyage before arriving here in our first ever South American port.
We'll tell you about Guyana very soon.

A week of very hard news

2009-11-20T19:39:00.002+01:00

The Logos Hope is currently in St Lucia for our annual week of rest & spiritual refreshment or Sabbath Week as we call it.
We have been looking forward to this week for a long time - a chance to relax a bit, have some quality Bible teaching and recharge our batteries.
However, it has proved to be a difficult week with 2 pieces of news particularly hitting very hard.
On Tuesday, we heard the news that STL - the largest Christian retailer and distributor in the UK, where I worked for 7 years, was effectively bankrupt and had been put up for sale. A year ago they installed a new computer system that proved to be a disaster and have seen much of their business collapse. The global economic downturn has just made the situation worse and they have now run out of money. We still have a number of good friends who work there.

Then on Wednesday came the news that our sister ship the Doulos, my home for 5 years, will not be able to sail after 31st December this year. The Doulos is in drydock and has been undergoing a special 5 yearly survey to get the certificates required to keep sailing. However the work required to get the certificates has proved way to much and would require some €10m and 6 months of work, so the decision had to be taken to end the ministry of the ship.

This news has profound impact upon us on Logos Hope and we will have to see what it will mean in the coming weeks and months.
We would appreciate your prayers for everyone at STL and on the Doulos at this time, as well as for us in the Logos Hope leadership as we see how to respond.

Here in St Lucia, we have faced challenges this week in getting water, as the town ran dry, but after a couple of days without showers and laundry, we managed to organise regular deliveries by trucks.
We are looking forward to a ship outing to the beach tomorrow, and then on Sunday it is Heather's birthday. We plan to go to climb the Gros Piton - one of the famous peaks here in St Lucia, with our ships family.
Then on Monday we sail to Guyana - our first ever visit to South America, where around 180 of us will be involved in teams onland - more to follow on that.

just a small ship in a big pond

2009-11-12T00:30:00.005+01:00

One thing that I have come to realise this past week is that we are just a small ship in God's big ocean. Time and again we have found ourselves in situations where we just have no control over our circumstances or the decisions that other people are making.

Here in Barbados, the Cruise Ships are king and they rule the waves and the port. After them come the container ships, the grain ships and other cargo ships. Then somewhere, a long way down the list, comes Logos Hope.

We may be God's navy but here in Barbados this week, it has been hard to understand why some things have been happening the way they have.

So we spent 8 days at anchor and then the past 2 days moving around different berths, trying to juggle loading water, fuel, book containers, technical container, off load sewage etc.

We still can't get into the berth where the public will be able to come onboard the ship. We have even tried to take books off the ship to sell onshore, but have not been able to do that either.

We are all having to learn lessons about trusting God and what we can and can't do in our own strength.

One good piece of news was that yesterday we were able to come into a berth and get off the ship. This meant many of us were able to take a day off and go to the beach.

We went with our friends, the Muller family, to a bay where we hoped to be able to see turtles.

I was told to look for the tourist boats, who feed the turtles. Sure enough 3 of the came into the bay and there were around 100 people in the water looking for turtles.

We swam out to the boats and soon actually got to see and swim with 3 turtles. It was an amazing experience, despite all the other people around. Sadly Heather and Kara weren't there but for Liam and I it was a great experience.

So now we hope and pray that tomorrow we can load our books, vans and everything else and at some point in the next couple of days be able to go back to the flour mill berth and open to the public. On Monday we sail for St Lucia for a week.

bobbing around off Barbados

2009-11-08T00:12:00.003+01:00

This entry is written somewhere off the coast of Barbados. The ship is currently sailing 12 miles out from shore in order to dump all our waste water, sewage and food waste. We will then pick up about 50 tons of salt water to convert into fresh water.
I know you are probably wondering, why on earth are we doing this. So I will tell you.

After arriving in Barbados on Wednesday 28th October, we first went to a commercial berth, where we loaded 3 containers of books and off loaded our ship vans. This berth is in the main cruise terminal port and there is very tight security due to all the cruise ships arriving daily.
We then sailed around to another berth at a flour mill where the public are allowed onboard. However, this is a very small berth where we can only put out a couple of our gangways and are unable to unload vehicles or load the books.
We opened to the public before the weekend and had a great response with a good number of visitors and encouraging book sales.

The flour mill berth is not very well protected from the sea, and on Saturday, a storm somewhere out in the Atlantic started to send larger waves to Barbados and the ship started to really move around in the berth. As the weekend went by, the situation got worse, to the point where the cables attached at the bow and stern became so tight, they damaged the ship with their movement.

Early Monday morning, the captain took the decision that it was not safe to remain at the berth and the ship was taken out to anchor. On Monday, the ship was rolling up to 11 degrees each way while at anchor.

Gradually the weather improved and by Wednesday the seas were calmer, however, a grain ship had arrived and they then proceded into our berth at the flour mill.
This was a situation we had expected, but we didn't think it would happen after we had already spent 3 days at anchor.

The grain ship needs 6 days to unload it's cargo so we are not able to get back into our berth until Wednesday morning. We had hoped to be able to go into one of the other berths in the commercial port over the weekend, but were told there was no space.

So the ship has now been sat at anchor off the coast of this beautiful island for 6 days. We now have to go out to sea to get rid of some stuff that has built up and get more water because we are about to run out.

It is obviously very frustrating when you come to an island for 18 days, hoping to be able to minister to the people and have the bookfair open each day, and then end up at anchor for 9 days.
We just hope and pray there are no further delays in getting in to port.
Thankfully, because the seas are now calmer, we were able to launch a lifeboat today to shuttle people to and from shore, so teams were able to go out and do ministry ashore, as well as some people having their day off.
Sunday we will send teams out to churches on the boats.

On Tuesday, we plan to go back to the commercial berth to load more book containers, water and fuel. Then we expect a very busy last 5 days when we reopen on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, we are trying to make the best of our time out at anchor. Tonight we are having a movie night up on deck - Titanic would you believe?!

Of course being at sea means only the satellite internet connection so no pictures today I'm afraid.

An action packed week in St Lucia

2009-10-26T15:36:00.010+01:00

This past week has been full of activity for us as a family and for the ship in St Lucia.
The number of people coming to the ship has actually been lower than we expected but we have still seen lots of great fruit from our visit.

A team from the UK made up of rap and hip hop music artists have visited the ship this week as a result of our time in London. They have been involved in many events onboard and onshore, using their music to connect with the youth of St Lucia.

Friday nights youth event in the Theatre saw a number of them perform alongside local bands to a packed house. It was also exciting to see the theatre fully functioning after all the cameras and video equipment were finally installed in the past few weeks.

The programme was a real challenge to the young people and around 20 made decisions of faith at the end.
On Saturday night the team took to an outside stage on the quayside to perform to the crowds waiting to get on the ship along with other local performers.

We also had an open cafe in our Logos Lounge, inviting those leaving the visitors deck to come and relax in a cafe atmosphere with live music, just like Room 65 at our home church Carrubbers. Over 1100 people came in to the open cafe in 5 hours.

Last week was a school holiday and Heather and the kids had some great days out at the beach. One day they met a family that live on a small yacht and have spent 5 years sailing around the Caribbean. They came and visited the ship on Thursday and had a tour all around, then on Friday afternoon we all went back to the beach to meet up with them and visit their boat.

It is hard to believe that a whole family, and 2 cats, can live on such a small boat for years without any real purpose. We live in a relatively small cabin but have so much space compared to them. Felt a bit sorry for the kids who have no real friends but at least they had good fun with Liam and Kara for a few days.

St Lucia is home to the sailing ship that was used as "The Black Pearl" in the Pirates of the Caribbean films. So it was very exciting to see it close up this week as it sailed around the bay next to the ship and later in the week when we were on the yacht. I had thought we could maybe go for a sail onboard but at $110 per person for the day, it wasn't going to happen.

St Lucia is really a beautiful island. We have seen some of it in the 11 days we have been here, but it is great that we are coming back in a few weeks to have the ship's Sabbath week down at the south of the island.

St Lucia - time to take a breath

2009-10-18T21:58:00.010+02:00

After the crazy business of Trinidad, it has been good to catch our breath this week.
We sailed from Port of Spain on Wednesday afternoon, and after sitting at anchor for a few hours to take on fuel, got underway for St Lucia.

On Thursday, we were at sea during the daytime for the first time since we crossed the Atlantic and enjoyed fantastic weather and dolphins. We passed St Vincent around lunchtime and within a couple of hours could already see the mountains of St Lucia. It is a very beautiful island and the berth is probably the nicest we have visited so far in the Caribbean.

The visit has started off quite slowly, with less visitors than we are used to this first weekend, but we expect it to get much busier in the coming days.
It is sad that we have not been joined here by our good friend Mark Knight, who had always planned to visit in St Lucia but continues to mourn the loss of his 18 year old son Mike. Please pray for Mark and Kathy and the rest of the family as these are difficult days for them. Read Mark's blog at http://www.mkknight.com/

The kids are loving the bigger cabin and often have their friends in to play now. It is great to see how much fun they all have in the bigger room.

Christmas is coming - help us by shopping from Amazon

2009-10-18T21:51:00.002+02:00

Hopefully many of you are already aware that we are Amazon associates and that you can buy anything from Amazon and help our financial support.
You will see on the right hand side of this blog, several small banners for Amazon which are links to the Amazon.co.uk website.
If you plan to do any online shopping this Christmas and are considering ordering through Amazon, then please use this link on our blog to access their website.
Then anything that you order will generate a small commission to us.
If everyone who reads this blog and shops with Amazon, does this, it will generate some good support for Logos Hope.
A special thanks and mention must to to Graeme McCartney in Edinburgh who over the past year has managed to get the school where he works to place orders worth Thousands of pounds through our site, generating over a hundred pounds in support income. Thanks Graeme and we hope others will follow your example.

A grand finale in Trinidad

2009-10-14T03:14:00.008+02:00

The past few days have seen an incredible response to the ship visit here in Trinidad with around 25000 people coming the past 5 days and the highest book sales we have ever seen.

On Saturday and Sunday, we took over a large warehouse next to the ship, cleaned out all the pigeon muck, set up a stage and had a full programme of music, drama, dances, magic, puppets and mime to entertain people as they waited as well as giving them the gospel.

We even had Stunt Unicycling and the Airdancer donated to the ship by Carrubbers. At times we had over 700 people waiting in the warehouse and another 400+ outside with people waiting up to 2 hours to get onboard.

We also set up drinks stands and popcorn, had unicycles and clowns to keep people happy.
Heather did a mime on Sunday evening to a full warehouse. and she and Kara also helped sell drinks.

It was great to see how excited all the visitors were with everything that was going on and the books.

So now we have finished our visit to Trinidad and have seen over 96000 visitors come up the gangway. We are all looking forward now to sailing to St Lucia tomorrow and enjoying a slighly slower pace for the next couple of weeks.

Time for a move

2009-10-06T00:42:00.005+02:00

We have now been living onboard the Logos Hope for nearly 2 years. Ever since we came onboard we have lived in a cabin up on deck 8. We have really enjoyed being up there and it has been a great cabin and a great part of the ship to live. But the children's room is quite small and has never really given them space to play in their room. So when a number of families recently left the ship, we decided to move.

On Thursday and Friday we packed up all our belongings and transfered them down to our new cabin on deck 5. It's funny that compared to living in our house, the cabins are very small. But going from a small cabin to a somewhat larger cabin (approx 50% bigger) seems like a huge change. The first morning we woke up, Heather said from the bed - Wow look how far away the door is! Now it is about 6 metres away instead of 4.

Thankfully we have not accumulated too much "stuff" during our time onboard, so it just took a couple of trips with a trolley and some crates, and we had it all moved. By Friday evening we were all unpacked and settled.

This week was also the start of the new school year onboard so Liam and Kara started new classes with new teachers. It has already been noticible that Liam's homework is more difficult than it was a couple of weeks ago when he was in the year below. We have been blessed with an influx of 5 new teachers in the group of new recruits that joined a few weeks ago. Sadly, Liam also had to say goodbye to his teacher for the past year - Miss Kath, who has been a great blessing and encouragement to him.

On Thursday evening, the children got to sing in the ships prayer night. Liam and Kara both have lovely voices and enjoy singing which is great.

This past weekend was another very busy and exciting time onboard the ship with nearly 9500 visitors coming over Saturday and Sunday. The Trinidadians just love books and are buying them by the thousands. 10% of our sales each day have been bibles.

On Sunday afternoon the queue to come onboard was so long that I timed somebody from when they first joined the line until they came up the gangway. It was one and three quarter hours.

To help with the wait, we had music and various programmes taking place on our outside stage and we also distributed water and sold cold drinks to the crowds.

Sunday proved to be a very long day as I was up at 6am to leave for a church team. 5 of us from our ship family all went to the church whose service started at 7.30 am. I don't normally get up until 9 on a Sunday so this was a bit of a shock to the system. However, as they have a second service, we were only there for 2 hours and were actually back on the ship by 10am, just in time for a couple of hours sleep before lunch and the start of a very busy afternoon.

Today we joined about 50 other ship people to go to one of the few beaches in Trinidad. It's a 45 - 60 min drive each way but it was nice to get out even though it did rain and was very cloudy most of the day. However the great surf made up for the weather and we spent most of the day in the sea.

Last week we went to a park - this is Kara hanging upside down from the cross section of the Rugby posts.

So now we start preparing for our last weekend here which will no doubt be absolutely manic.

A very busy port

2009-09-29T03:03:00.008+02:00

Wow, Port of Spain Trinidad is proving to be a very busy port. Last Thursday we had over 5600 visitors and had the second highest days booksales in 40 years of OM ships.

It has been an incredible week with 2 public holidays this week and thousands of people coming every day. We are distributing thousands of bibles as well as educational and Christian books.
What a great opportunity to see many thousands of lives being changed and impacted by these books.
On Thursday we also set up a stage on the quayside and had a whole program of activities for the waiting lines of visitors. Everyone was very excited by the opportunity to do something on stage. It was great to see so much activity and excitement about connecting with the Trinidadian people.

Of course when you sell 22000 books in a single day, it does create a lot of work. We have already loaded 8 containers of books in the past 2 weeks and expect another 4 in the coming weeks as well as 3 containers of food and stores. The holds team are starting at 5am each morning to pick all the books to restock the bookfair.

This week has been quite a challenge for me as I have been coping with an infection under my are which has been very painful and required the doctor to cut into my armpit SO I have spent the week knocking back painkillers and hoping the infection would heal up soon.

The kids started their new school year this week as well and they both have new teachers. They got their report cards for last year and both are doing very well. We were really encouraged by their reports.

Back to Port of Spain

2009-09-21T16:55:00.004+02:00

As I stood on the quayside in the rain helping unload book containers this week, I had a real sense of deja vu and the surreal fact that only 15 months ago I was in this very same place, loading containers of books to send from Logos 2 to the Logos Hope.
When I came to Trinidad last year to help onboard Logos 2 for her last weeks of ministry and then to clear out the ship, there were no plans to bring Logos Hope to the Caribbean. Of course all that changed and we are now here for our 4th port of the Caribbean tour.
Trinidad historically has been the busiest port in the world for OM ships in terms of book sales. We have already got off to a very busy start with our highest ever book sales on Saturday.
By the end of today, we expect to have sold more books here in 5 days than we sold in Tobago in 3 weeks!

We were so thankful that last week we were able to stay behind in Tobago for a few days of break before coming to Trinidad. We were actually able to stay at a beautiful hotel that gave us the local rates because we were from Logos Hope. Liam and Kara are on a weeks school holiday so it worked out perfectly. Pauline gave us a lift to the hotel Monday morning and the ship sailed in the evening. We enjoyed 3 nights in Tobago before getting the fast catamaran ferry to Trindad on Thursday evening. On Wednesday we experienced our first real tropical monsoon storm with torrential rain, thunder and lightning lasting all day - it didn't stop the kids going out in a canoe and swimming in the pool though.

Then on Thursday evening, our good friends Alex and Beth and their family arrived onboard. We lived with them in Mosbach 2 years ago and now they have joined the ship - Alex will be Hotel & Catering Director. Alex and Beth were our best friends on Doulos 12 years ago and our kids all get on very well so we are so happy to have them onboard.

Trinidad is so different from the other Caribbean ports we have visited so far. It is a very large island with a population of around 1.3 million. It is industrialised and over run with cars as well as having a high crime rate. It is considered quite a dangerous place so it does mean that we will be much more restricted in what we can do here as a family.

all change on Logos Hope

2009-09-12T01:07:00.011+02:00

It is hard to believe that we have just received our 5th intake of new recruits since joining the Logos Hope. On Wednesday 95 people arrived on the ferry from Trinidad after completing their Pre Ship Training (PST) to join the ship. The arrival of a new PST is always a milestone in the ship's calendar but this one is extra special because it is the first PST to arrive while we are in full ministry and it is the first time that we have reached our minimum manning requirement.

The whole group were given a very noisy welcome as they made their way along the quayside through a tunnel of flags and greetings.

Later we all ate dinner in our ship families - we have 2 new family members - a guy from the Netherlands and a girl from Malaysia.

Then it was on to the PST party, organised by the last group to come onboard back in Denmark.

The impact that 95 new people have is amazing, particularly as our numbers were down to around 300 so this group now form about 25% of those onboard. It has also been sad to say goodbye to many of those that we have shared the past 2 years with. On Sunday, we will say goodbye to Mike and Ann which will be hard as we have served together now on 2 ships for a total of 5 years.

Last Sunday I had the opportunity to go out on a church team and found myself at a little pentecostal church along with 3 other ship people. The service was the longest I can remember - 4 hours and very loud with enough speakers and sound for a room 10 times the size. But it was a blessing to be able to go and challenge the church about missions and share about the needs of the lost in the 10/40 window.

This past week, I played cricket again for the LH team - we got well beaten by a very good local side but I was able to share with them about why I was on the ship and what God has done in my life.

Last night, Heather was asked to do some training in mime for a small group of locals - then 21 of them turned up. Heather had a good time with them and they are coming back on Sunday to perform in our Sunday service.

On Monday the ship sails for Port of Spain in Trinidad but we are staying behind for a few days break here in Tobago and will then catch the fast ferry across on Thursday.

celebrations and thanksgiving

2009-09-02T02:41:00.016+02:00

So here we are in the beautiful island of Tobago, our 3rd Caribbean port which the locals call the capital of paradise. Once again the kids dressed up in their kilts to be part of the official opening.

When you live on Logos Hope, you get used to people coming and going. We often have to say goodbye to people that we have come to know and love onboard.

This time of year can be particularly difficult as many people finish their commitments and leave.

Yesterday we had a special farewell celebration for our ship's director and family - Mike and Ann Hey who are leaving after 4 years with the Logos Hope project. They have been instrumental in leading the formation of the Logos Hope community.

So last night we had a great Indian meal, a thanksgiving time in our lounge with worship, pictures speaches and gifts and then we all went up onto deck 9 and watched a fantastic fireworks display which included one of the loudest finalies I have ever heard.

It was great that this coincided with Independence Day for Trinidad and Tobago.

Then we were back to the dining room for icecream.

The locals were just getting started with their party when we were heading for bed - the music out in the streets was incredibly loud and actually kept us and Liam awake as the bass shook the whole cabin and went on until the early hours of the morning.

This morning, our new Director, Gian Walser from Switzerland, took over as director with his wife Evelyn. They will now lead the community and the Leadership Team forward into the next chapter of Logos Hope history.

So far Tobago has been quiet for visitors but we hope it is just because everyone has been involved in the Independence weekend. We opened the ship for a few hours yesterday afternoon, expecting to have a lot of visitors because it was a holiday, but very few came.

The Preship Training for the 94 new recruits is currently taking place over on the other island of Trinidad. We are looking forward to having this large influx into our community next week. Meanwhile we are seeing people leave every day and will be operating only greatly reduced numbers next week until the new recruits start work.

I have been asked to take on another responsibility, as project manager for the completion of the visitor experience on deck 4. This work was not completed before we started sailing due to lack of finance, but thanks to a recent large gift we can now move this forward and look forward to the day when we have an exciting, interactive exhibit area on our visitor deck.

snapped lines and a new berth

2009-08-25T01:44:00.009+02:00

This week was very unusual. The cruise ship berth that we have been at here in Grenada is very exposed to the sea and in the middle of last week, we started to experience the ship moving a lot as swells caused by hurricanes in other parts of the Caribbean found their way to Grenada.

On Thursday afternoon, the ship was really rocking and moving around and in the middle of the afternoon, one of our mooring ropes snapped as the pressure of holding a 12000 ton ship against the quayside became too much. At the time the ship had around 500 visitors onboard, and we were very concerned for their safety. So we had to stop anyone else coming into the ship, and we held all the visitors onboard until more lines could be put out. But the first extra line put out also snapped.

So the captain had the engines started and used them and the bowthruster to keep the ship against the quayside so we could get all the visitors off the ship.

Having lost 2 mooring lines already, the captain took the decision to take the ship out to anchor so we spent the rest of Thursday out at anchor. We contacted local radio and tv stations and asked them to tell the island what had happened.

On Friday, we were able to come back into the berth as the swells had reduced and reopen again in the middle of the morning. But on Saturday morning, the ship was moving again and the forecast was for it to get worse. The captain was concerned we might loose more mooring lines and if we had to leave the berth, we might not be able to come back in to load our vans and gangways.

We prayed about it and asked the port authorities if we would be able to go into the inner harbour where there is a container berth. Would we also be able to open to the public?

The response came back to say yes we could use the other berth and the public could come on the ship. So at 10:30 am Saturday we sailed around to the inner harbour and by 1pm we had all the gangways set up again and were ready to open to the public.

Saturday and Sunday were very busy with many Grenadian's taking the opportunity to visit the ship on our last 2 open days. Despite only being open in the afternoons on both days, we had over 8000 visitors.

Tomorrow we sail to Tobago where 94 new recruits will join us in a few weeks after they have completed their pre-ship training.

Before that we expect a very busy couple of weeks with absolute minimum manning as many of our team finish their time onboard before the new recruits arrive.

We are also having several leadership changes in the coming weeks, including our ships Director, Mike Hey. Last night the leadership team went out for a lovely evening to say goodbye to Mike and Ann and 2 of the other divisional directors who are also leaving.

So it will be all change over the next few weeks.

Grenada - the Spice Island

2009-08-17T01:38:00.015+02:00

On Weds night we sailed from St Vincent for the short overnight voyage to Grenada.

We woke on Thursday to the sight of another beautiful island rising out of the sea with mountains and golden beaches.

This is the view from our porthole here, which is stunning.

Friday morning we had our official opening and I was asked to be the MC with the Prime Minister as guest of honour. It went really well with lots of TV and radio media there.

Carnival is the biggest event of the year in the Caribbean islands. Although many of them started out with Christian input, they have become an excuse for drinking and evil behavior. The churches here all have nothing to do with them.

In Grenada, the carnival was at the start of this week and the local churches prayed that God would dampen it down. So on Tuesday there was rain, thunder and lightning and everything quickly came to a halt. The big carnival parade was rescheduled to Saturday. As a result, the ship was not very busy yesterday but it rained in the evening and dampened the spirits of those out in the streets.

Today, Sunday, we all went as a family to our first Caribbean church. We were invited by the pastors wife who had met Heather at the official opening. Although we had not intended to take part in the service, because a ship team were already going, we ended up being involved when one of the team pulled out.

The kids helped with a presentation regarding the needs of unreached people and I gave a testimony and book push.

Afterwards we enjoyed a great Caribbean lunch at the pastors house and the rest of the afternoon relaxing there.

In the land of pirates

2009-08-08T01:47:00.016+02:00

As most of you are well aware by now, Liam absolutely loves the Pirates of the Caribbean.

So imagine the excitement at actually going to visit a location that was used for making the films.

Yesterday we went on a very windy road around the coast to a place about 45 mins drive away called wallilabou which was the setting for Port Royal in the films.

Sadly, much of the film sets have been destroyed over the past few years by the weather, but you can still see where many of the well known scenes, particularly in the first half hour of the first film were shot. you can see the difference between what the sets looked like and what it looks like now.

This week is school holidays onboard so we have been out a few times with the kids to ensure they get the most out of their time. On Monday we traveled on the ferry over to the beautiful Grenadine island of Bequai which is an idylic tranqul little island with white sandy beaches and few cars. As the ship was closed Monday, many of the ships company had gone on an outing around the island, but we had been too late to sign up so went to Bequai instead. It seemed like most of the crew who weren't on the outing had the same idea. On the ferry back to the ship, there were at least 50 of us onboard!

Of course life here in Saint Vincent is not just about going out and exploring the island. We are here for a Divine purpose.

It has been exciting to see all the islanders coming to the ship - over 25ooo so far, and many books being sold. There have also been teams going out into a local orphanage and the local prison. This weekend we have sent teams off to other parts of the island and one of the Grenadine Islands.

There has also been a fantastic training programme going on this week to equip local believers to bring the good news to children more effectively. A couple from the States are onboard for every Caribbean port to train locals. They then get those who have done the training to come on to the visitor deck to put into practice what they have learned. It has been amazing to see the response with many of those spoken to making first time commitments or recommitments.

We are also busy developing our visitor deck further to maximise the opportunities to share the good news with all that come onboard. We hope to have a new design in place before next port.

Tonight, Heather joined a group of girls to play basketball against a local team of 14 - 18 year olds. This was very brave considering she hadn't played for some 20 years. I think the Logos Hope team got completely slaughtered but they were able to invite them all back for their supper and spend time sharing with them.

Tomorrow (Saturday) I am going to try and play cricket with a Logos Hope team against a local team. I don't know if I will even make the team with all the young Indian and Aussie guys onboard but it will be fun trying.

We are expecting a very busy last weekend and then we are sailing from here on Wednesday for Grenada and our next Caribbean adventure.

First Impressions of Saint Vincent

2009-08-01T19:41:00.013+02:00

So after 14 days of sea, we woke up early on Monday morning for our first view of a Caribbean island, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines or SVG as the locals call it.

It was cloudy over the island but very warm. The kids dressed up in their Pirates of the Caribbean costumes.

As we approached the harbour, we could set the cruise terminal jetty where we were due to berth. A good number of people were waiting to welcome us, including a full steel band. As we docked, the heavens opened and we got absolutely soaked.

Monday was spent getting the ship ready for opening, which for me meant lots of work on the visitors deck setting everything up again after the voyage. At lunchtime we had a bit of light relief as we were able to jump off the quayside and swim in the warm Caribbean water. Sadly that didn't last long as just a few hours later, we were told by the port authorities to stop.
The first days we have been open here in Saint Vincent we have been very surprised by the number of visitors and the booksales. Yesterday(Friday) we beat our previous visitor record set in London, with nearly 5000 coming onboard. We also had our first event in the Caribbean in our new theatre, a fantastic youth event with over 370 young people.

Today is a public holiday here in the Caribbean. 1st August is Emancipation Day when everyone celebrates freedom from slavery. We have been expecting large crowds to come to the ship, but strangely, the ship is actually very quiet.
Kingstown reminds Heather and I alot of Africa. The roots are the same and the sights and smells are similar. There is a lot of poverty here and yet there are also many people who clearly are wealthy. It is exciting to be back in a developing country.

This morning we received the shocking news that the 18 year old son of my friend and boss Mark had died in his sleep overnight. Mike Knight was a young lad who loved to worship and had just been accepted to study worship at a Christian music college. He was so excited and his parents very proud. His sister Akila is here onboard and we are trying to be a support to her at this time. It is so hard to understand why the Lord would choose to take Mike at such a young age but we need to trust God. Please pray for this family and for us onboard at this time.

The voyage continues

2009-07-25T01:56:00.009+02:00

10 days out of Cork and only 3 days sailing to go before we arrive in Saint Vincent.

Many had dreaded the thought of 2 weeks at sea, but I think there are few onboard now who have not thoroughly enjoyed the past week as we have sailed further south and west.

The average day time temperature this week has been 30c and we have been blessed with clear skies and gentle seas.

On Monday evening, we had our weekly worship night up on the top deck and it was fantastic to praise God as we watched the sun set over the ocean.

The whole ships company is undergoing 2 days of training, split up over either Tues/ Weds or Fri/Sat. The training has included Caribbean orientation, Aids/HIV training, Crowd control, a presentaton on missions for church teams and ways to connect with visitors on deck.

At the same time, many of us are working hard to prepare for the changes that this new region will bring, with larger numbers of people expected to visit the ship. There have been numerous meetings as well as a lot of practical work to get ready, ie preparing a ticket box for the quayside, making new stands to run crowd control ropes, and building wooden partician walls for a new layout on the ministry deck.

It hasn't all been hard work. Some of the technical guys managed to use scrap wood, metal and plastic to make a small salt water pool up on the top deck which has been a big hit, especially with the kids. Liam and Kara were in the pool for at least 3 hours this afternoon & evening.

They have been having Pirate week at school and on Wednesday they all went up for a swim in the pool underneath a "Jolly Roger" flying from the mast.

Yesterday was our 16th wedding anniversary and I managed to keep a surprise from Heather for once, organising to eat out at a private table up on deck with a delicious M&S Indian meal that had come from Cork for the occasion.

Tonight we had a fantastic seafood bbq up on deck with tiger prawns and full size salmon that had been donated in the Faroe Islands. To get us in the Caribbean mood, we had Christian Regae music playing while we ate.

Some of us were left wondering whether we should feel guilty to be having such an amazing experience. But we have a wonderful Father God who likes to bless us so we need to appreciate it while we can.

On Monday morning, we sail into Kingstown, Saint Vincent to a whole new adventure which in many ways in unknown with this new ship. We will no doubt soon be very busy but it is great to have had the chance to relax and recharge our batteries a bit on this voyage.

At sea for a looooong time

2009-07-15T22:53:00.006+02:00

So we have finally sailed from Europe and are heading towards the Caribbean.
Last night we began our 14 day voyage and within minutes of leaving the sheltered waters of the harbour, we were already moving a lot in the swell. The forecast was for gales through the night and today, yet miraculously the wind and waves died down this morning and we are now sailing through very calm seas, despite all the forecasts saying we should be in the middle of a storm.
Today we even saw a whale and dolphins swimming near the ship.

Our last days in Ireland were exciting, with Heather's parents coming out for the final weekend, many visitors coming to the ship, making preparations for sailing, and myself taking a flying visit to Paris to see the greatest band in the world, U2 in concert.

It was hard to say goodbyes to Heather's mum and dad last night as we prepared to sail across the Atlantic. Although we hope they will come out for a visit sometime in the next 6 months, it is a long way away. Along with a crowd of some 50 people. they watched us pull away from the quay, turn around in a very tight space and head up the river. They drove up to Cobh, the 2nd largest natural harbour in the world, which was the final port of call for the Titanic, to wave a final goodbye.

Cork has been a great port for the ship ministry with nearly 12000 visitors in 9 days and many lives being changed among those who came onboard or who came into contact with the ship.
We enjoyed meeting the people and the town's hospitality but the weather sucks - it rained nearly every day we were there.

So thanks to the wonders of satellite, I can write this blog from a position about 250 miles south of Ireland. We are all looking forward to some quality time together as a ships community and some extra peace and quiet.

our last European port

2009-07-05T22:47:00.010+02:00

So here we are in Cork, Ireland - our final port in Europe.

we sailed from London, without Heather, on a beautiful sunny morning. I managed to get up at 5.30am to say goodbye to the large number of people who were leaving the ship, some after 2 years and some just after the weekend.

Our first day at sea was beautiful and the warm sun shine and flat calm reminded me of voyages years ago around the Indian ocean and Pacific on Doulos.

After attending her granny's funeral and having a couple of days in Edinburgh with her family, Heather flew to Dublin on Wednesday morning with our friend Colin and his daughter Emma.

They drove down to Cork to try and be on the quayside for our arrival. As we sailed up the river into a rainy Cork, Heather was still racing to be here but in the end we were just tying up when they pulled up on the quayside.

It was great to have Colin here for a few days before we head off to the Caribbean. We had a few great days and got out to see a bit of Cork together and taste the Irish hospitality.

Cork is surprisingly multicultural and it has been a real revelation to see all the ethnic faces and hear many different languages as people have been coming onboard these past few days.

Although not as busy as London, those who have come onboard are certainly buying plenty of books.

I have now taken on my new role overseeing the whole visitor experience deck and part of that responsibility was to welcome our guest of honour, the Lord Mayor, to the deck as part of our official opening on Thursday. Heather is back into nursing and back doing on call duty again.

Next weekend Heather's parents come to Cork, staying with friends onshore ,while I am heading to Paris to see U2 in Concert.

So we are looking forward to another exciting week on the Logos Hope.

Farewell UK

2009-06-29T01:15:00.001+02:00

Tonight is probably my last night in the UK for at least a year. Tomorrow morning the ship sails out of London and sails to Cork in Ireland before heading across the Atlantic on 14th July to the Caribbean.
Sadly Heather is not sailing as she has had to return to Edinburgh for the funeral of her granny.
Granny Orr saw her hundredth birthday and 10 days later went to be with her Lord. It is a difficult time for the family as everyone loved her dearly but it is a blessing that we are still in the UK and Heather's brother Billy is also here on a visit from Canada with the family.

The time in London has been fantastic and very busy for us. The crowds have not come to the ship that some expected but we have had many significant events onboard.
This weekend has been a very special time as we have had our offical London Launch into ministry with hundreds of people coming from all over the UK and the world to celebrate Logos Hope beginning it's ministry and sailing from Europe.
As a family we have enjoyed visits from Heather's brother Billy and his family from Canada who stayed onboard for 3 nights. Also my parents, my brother and his family and my aunt who have all been onboard. It was also great to have a few former RBS colleagues visit.

So now we say goodbye to London, the UK and soon Europe as we head into the next great big adventure - the Caribbean.

Back on Logos Hope in London

2009-06-19T21:02:00.013+02:00

Well it's been a pretty hectic couple of weeks which is why this blog entry is so overdue. Apologies to all you avid readers who have been wondering when normal service will resume.
I will try and get back into the Friday night update routine.

So we are back onboard the ship and at Canary Wharf in London.
We flew down on Monday and within 10 mins of arriving onboard, the kids had disappeared to find their friends. When we wanted to go out a couple of hours later and see a bit of London, we remembered how hard it is to find your kids onboard. Aaaagh, where have they disappeared to?

The berth in Canary Wharf is amazing, right underneath some of the tallest buildings in London, at the heart of the business district.

The view out of our cabin window

We have already had some very sucessful events
in the past week and it was a massive highlight to have a youth concert in our newly completed theatre on Tuesday night. We had Hillsongs London as well as 5 other local bands performing and it was amazing to see and hear just how good the new theatre is. What potential for the future!

Yesterday we had a lunch for business men which I was the MC for and a one of the top Christian business men in the UK, Brian Souter, was the speaker. We were expecting around 60 people and 140 turned up so we were frantically putting out more tables and chairs and the galley were rushing to make sandwiches but it was a nice problem to have.

Last night our friend Colin was down in London on business so we met up at Westminster and went on the London Eye for an amazing view of the city. Thanks Colin.

We now have Heather's brother and family visiting from Vancouver, Canada for the first time in 5 years. They are staying 3 nights onboard so it will be good for the kids to get to know one another for the first time. We hope to get out and see some of London while they are here.

The coming week will continue to be very busy with visits from my parents, brother and family and aunt, former Royal Bank work colleagues and ex Doulos friends.
The kids are off school so the teachers can help out with the visitor deck so Heather will have her hands full. I will be getting much more involved in my new role as co-ordinator of the whole visitor deck. This is not instead of my previous job but as well as.

Time at home just flying away

2009-06-04T15:13:00.005+02:00

Wow, it's hard to believe that it has been nearly a month since the last blog update. Hopefully those of you who regularly read the blog will forgive us for such a long break, while we are at home from the Logos Hope.
The past 4 weeks have been a fantastic time of meeting up with family and friends and having some good R&R.
The first week we were all together, we went up to Crieff Hydro for a few days courtesy of our best friends Colin & Alison. Crieff is a lovely country hotel and we had a great lodge in the woods. Our kids all enjoyed the kids club and swimming in the pool every day. I enjoyed cooking great meals for us all and the highlight of the week was going quad biking for an hour through forests and streams, up hills and into quarries. It was brilliant.

We then had a week with lots of appointments with doctors, dentists, hairdressers, a hospital and other mundane activities. We also enjoyed lots of meals at friends homes, sharing about our time on Logos Hope and just catching up.
Thanks to a very generous gift from friends, we were able to take off for a weeks holiday in Portugal.

We just went to get some sunshine and sit on the beach, but unfortunately the sun chose not to shine on many of the days we were there so actually it wasn't nearly as warm and sunny as we hoped. Still it was nice to all just get away together as a family.
As soon as we got back home, and the washing was done, we were back in the car next day to travel down to Steve's parents in England.
We had a fantastic few days in Merseyside as it was hot and sunny and I enjoyed sharing my birthday (30/5) with my nephew who was 12. This is the first time we have been together for our birthdays and we had a lot of fun. Along with the grandparents, my brother's family and ourselves, we went to something called "Ariel Extreme" a very high ropes assault course which most of us really enjoyed except sister in law Gill who didn't want to go on becauase she was terrifed but ended up going on to help Kara who was on her own on the bottom level. Of course, once she got on, Kara perked up and took off, leaving Gill behind and not enjoying it at all.

We rounded the day off with a fantastic bbq in the sun.

We are now visiting Heather's brother and family in the north of Scotland for a couple of days before returning to Edinburgh where we will be staying put until we return to the ship in London on 15th June.

We hope to catch up with many other friends from the church in the next 10 days and then we will be waving goodbye to Edinburgh for the next year.
The kids have enjoyed being away from the ship but Heather and I have not enjoyed trying to do home schooling and have great appreciation now of all teachers.
Hopefully I will be able to add some pictures in the next couple of days to brighten up this entry so if you are reading this with just text, look again soon to see the pics.

Back in Edinburgh

2009-05-08T23:27:00.002+02:00

It's Friday night and that is normally blog night.
The past 2 weeks have just flown by and my time in Belfast has come and gone and I'm now back with the family in Edinburgh.
There was just one busy weekend in Belfast with a good number of friends and relatives coming to visit. It was great to catch up with old Doulos friends, Carrubbers friends, Edinburgh friends and also some of my mum's family. I really enjoyed showing one of my aunt's and my cousin around the ship.
On Friday evening, it was time to have a farewell for a number of my team leaders who will leave in the next couple of months. I have left the team in the safe hands of my IT manager Rob for the next 6 weeks.
Early Monday morning, it was off to the airport and the flight back to Edinburgh.
What a fantastic feeling to see Heather, Liam and Kara again after these 3 weeks.
A good part of Monday was spent on the internet, finding a cheap holiday to the sun in a couple of weeks time. We are looking forward to going to Portugal in 10 days.
The past 4 days have been spent with friends, relaxing at a lovely country hotel called Crieff Hydro. It was great to go swimming every day, enjoy cooking our own food, visit the gym, go quad biking and just unwind.

So now we have a few weeks to enjoy a break from the ship and spend time with each other.
The blogs may be a bit less frequent now until we get back to the ship on 15th June but will probably write a couple of times while home.
In the meantime - keep up with all that is happening at www.logoshope.org

Farewell Faroes

2009-04-26T20:28:00.011+02:00

Wow, how to begin to describe the past week. It has just been amazing.
The Faroe Islands are just like no where else I have ever been, both in their geography and the people who are the most generous and hospitable you can imagine.
Every day we have seen crowds coming to the ship and buying so many books. For them, the books are very cheap because they normally have to pay a fortune for all the imported books.

Yesterday, Saturday, we saw the highest book sales we have ever seen in a port in Europe in the ships history. This is a real blessing for us at this time as much of our other giving and donations are well down.

Sunday evening, the leadership team onboard all went out for a meal with their wives to say farewell to 2 members who are leaving. Sadly, Heather was the only one not present. We had an amazing meal - 4 different kinds of meat. But as good as it was, some of us were disappointed to discover that our host is known as the king of lobsters because he has an export business for lobsters and the guy in our team organising the meal asked for meat. We felt cheated of the chance for a lobster meal. On talking to this guy, Mani, I discovered that we actually had been on Doulos together in '88/'89.

On Monday, nearly the whole ships company got to go out on various outings as the ship was closed and for most it was a day off. I joined 4 others and took a ship van up to a remote part of the island where we were told to go to a small cottage to have some coffee and cake.

We had no idea what to expect. So we found ourselves in this little 15o year old, grass roofed, wooden hut drinking coffee and eating cake, when suddenly Mani arrives and he has brought crates of live lobsters along with many other delicious food items.

So a few of us actually got to try out some uniquely Faroese food. I won't go into details but you can email if you want to know. Then we had as much lobster and strawberries and cake and cheese and salad and bread and fruit as we could eat. Now missing out last night didn't seem so bad.

After this amazing lunch, we had a fantastic tour of the island, visiting many beautiful places -a village completely cut off from the outside world before a tunnel was cut through the mountain a few years ago, and the top of a mountain where there is still snow lying, twisty mountain roads that are better quality than most roads in Edinburgh but lead to a village of 4 houses. It was an incredible day out.

On Thursday we sailed from the capital Thorshaven to another port called Klaksvik. In the morning, before we sailed, I was asked if I would like to go and have coffee with the Prime Minister. He had been on the ship the day before and wanted to invite some of the leaders for coffee. Most were busy so myself and our Faroese chief mate went to see him. He has his office in a beautiful old, grass roofed building, right across the harbour from our berth with a great view from his window of Logos Hope. He seems a really nice guy and had previously sailed as an officer on the ship when she was the Noronna.

Instead of sailing to Klaksvik, myself and a friend drove there across several different islands, over mountain passes and through a sea tunnel so we saw the ship sail out and sail into the new port. As the ship was coming in, a fierce squall blew up and it poured with rain and the wind blew hard, soaking the hundreds of people on the quayside waiting to welcome Logos Hope, including me. We had another quayside welcome and within an hour, the ship was open again to visitors.

Although Klaksvik has a population of only 5000, in 2 days and 1 evening, we had already had over 5500 visitors!
While here in the Faroes, there have been so many invitations for people to go out for meals, sightseeing trips, sailing, hiking etc. We have also received so many donations of food, clothes and other items including 800kg of Salmon and 2 tonnes of other fish, and cakes, every day cakes.

On Saturday night, we had our first ever large onshore event. Historically, OM Ships have always held "International nights" where we perform cultural dances and other items to crowds of people. Until now we have resisted this on Logos Hope due to the large amount of organisation required. But as a special thank you to the Faroese, we put on a performance in a local sports hall which nearly 2000 people attended. it was standing room only.

During the event, the Faroese Christians were challenged to send more people to join Logos Hope and continue to support us around the world. Then at the end of the programme, there was more cake - more tray bakes than you have ever seen.

Today is our last day in the Faroes. Many of the ships company are out at churches and crowds are again visiting the ship. I had been told of an incredible opportunity to take a helicopter ride from here to a few other islands and back for a very good price, so a group of us headed up the hill to the helicopter pad. When we got there, they actually charged us only half of what we were expecting, about £13! However, we didn't quite get the trip we were expecting as instead of taking us to other islands, they gave us a sightseeing tour around the area with several flights right over the ship. It was a fantastic experience and more than worth the cost.

So tonight we say farewell to this country that calls Logos Hope their ship. We will close the ship at 10pm then have a farewell celebration on the quayside at 11pm. We hope to sail after midnight. Tomorrow, most of us will be off and many will be hoping for a smooth voyage down to Belfast.

Just 1 more week and then I fly home to the family whom I am missing very much. It has been great to be here but would have been even better to share with Heather and the kids.

people, people, people then leaving it all behind

2009-04-18T23:10:00.025+02:00

This is Steve writing from the Faroe Islands, where I am on my own after leaving Heather, Liam and Kara behind in Edinburgh. They have remained there rather than sailing up to the Faroes and back to Belfast. I will return to Edinburgh on 4th May.

Wow, what an incredible time we had with the ship in Edinburgh.

The visit flew by with so many highlights. Heather and I personally hosted 175 people onboard in 12 days.

After the incredible welcome on arrival, we enjoyed visits by a group of former project workers from our church, one of our home groups, many of our key financial supporters, our church prayer night and on Easter Sunday, most of our church onboard for their evening service followed by a joint ceilidh (Scottish dance) combined with the ships company.

We even had our own bagpiper - well done Andrew

It was also great to have our parents around. My mum and dad came up for a week and enjoyed helping out in the cafe and chatting to people.

So many people told us how excited they were to be onboard, how great the ship was, and that our cabin was bigger than they expected! It seemed like nearly every day was spent giving tours and talking with friends, neighbours, former work colleagues etc. What a blessing and a privilege to be able to come into our home port with the ship.

I took my team up Edinburgh's famous extinct volcano in the city centre, Arthur's Seat, and we took our ship family out for a Chinese buffet.

Overall, the visit to Edinburgh was an incredible success. Around 15000 people came onboard and many Christians brought their non Christian friends to visit the ship and share the experience.

It was a very different departure to our arrival. We left at 6am with Heather and her mum, and Pauline's sister and friend to wave us off from the quayside. A couple of others came just as we were slipping out.

The voyage to the Faroes was great, nothing like the rough seas many of us had expected. This is the farthest north many of us have ever been.

We arrived off the Faroes on Thursday night, having past the new Noronna, the replacement ship for this vessel. We anchored in the bay and the sea was completely still.

On Friday, we awoke to a beautiful sunny morning surrounded by islands and hills.

At lunch time, the immigration officials came out by boat to clear us and then we were treated to a special tour up one of the fjords nearby. A local Christian paid for the fuel required and we enjoyed a fantastic 3 hour sightseeing tour.

Then we sailed back towards Thorshaven harbour and a host of small boats came out to welcome us, waving flags and blowing their horns. There were even rowing boats out there.As we came into port, we could see hundreds of people on the quayside waiting to greet us.

Once alongside, the ship was welcomed into port by the Prime Minister of the Faroes and the Mayor of Thorshaven. The ships director, captain and a number of officers along with ships crew in national costumes went down to the quayside to take part in the welcome ceremony.

Logos Hope is considered by all Faroese to be their ship, so everyone wants to see her.
After a short ceremony on the quayside, the ship was opened to the public.

Unfortunately, because we couldn't get the gangways set up in time, we had to bring everyone, including the prime minister, onboard through a small door, leading through the fuel bunker station and a gents toilet before bring them up to the visitor deck!!

So now we are pleased to be welcoming many of the Faroese onboard and being offered many opportunities to go off the ship and enjoy the local hospitality.
I am enjoying the time here but do really miss the family too. They are enjoying themselves back in Edinburgh, staying at Heather's mums.

What a welcome to Edinburgh

2009-04-02T22:21:00.017+02:00

Logos Hope is in Edinburgh! What a fantastic experience to sail into our homeport, in the sunshine to a massive welcome.

We had a beautiful, smooth voyage from the Netherlands - leaving early on Monday morning and entering Scottish waters on Tuesday morning. After lunchtime, we started seeing familar sights along the coastline and around 3pm we entered the Forth river estuary.

It was incredible to sail up towards Edinburgh, seeing Arthur's seat and the bridges gradually getting closer.

We had to enter through a lock into the enclosed port area. As we entered the lock, we could see people gathering on the balcony of the shopping mall next to the berth. We could also hear the music floating across the water as we moved towards our berth next to the Royal Yacht Britannia.

It was fantastic to see around 150 people waiting for us with flags and banners. Many of them were friends from our church and Heather's parents were there with a massive banner -Welcome Packwoods. Our friend Colin had organised the welcome event with a bag piper, a band, singers, Scottish Dancers and lots of excited people.

When the ship was alongside the berth, it wasn't long before the side door was open, the ship was cleared, and we were able to get people onboard. It was so great to see everyone onboard in the Cafe on deck 4. A special bonus was having our pastor and his family come onboard. They were leaving early next morning for a holiday in the States. If we had arrived as planned on the Wednesday morning, Wayne would not have been able to visit the ship.

So now the ship is open to the public. We had an official opening this morning with the Lord Provost of Edinburgh ( The Queen's official representative in Scotland) as our guest of honour.

Liam and Kara took part in the Parade of Nations - a very proud moment.

So for the next 2 weeks, we will be spending a lot of time welcoming friends onboard. It is going to be an exciting time.

Edinburgh here we come!!

2009-03-29T17:32:00.002+02:00

It is our last day in the Netherlands. We have had 5 weekends here in 2 ports and seen around 23000 people come up the gangways and visit the ship. As a family we have welcomed and hosted many old Doulos friends and really enjoyed the opportunity to connect again with many great people. It is amazing how many of them have come onboard and expressed a desire to get involved with the ship again in the future. These weekends have just been a taste of what we expect next port.
One old friend that has been back onboard many times in Gerard, an award winning photographer here in the Netherlands who was with us on the Doulos. He has taken pictures of many of the families onboard and we are really excited to see the pictures he took of us.
When we can get a decent internet connection, we will upload them for everyone to see.

And now we are getting ready to sail. The last visitor went off the ship and the deck crew have been loading the vans and the gangways.
At 7am the ship will sail out of the harbour to begin the voyage to Edinburgh.
Last week it looked like the weather was going to be really bad and the captain asked us all to pray. Now the forecast is for a lovely day tomorrow and for Tuesday when we arrive in the Forth.
We know there will be a big welcome on the quayside on Tuesday afternoon, prepared mainly by our good friend Colin and our church.
We are so excited. It will be very strange as our 2 worlds collide. The ship is now our home and living onboard feels normal. But when we go back to visit Edinburgh, we return to a different normality but it still feels quite natural.
Now our ship lives are going to come together with our home life. We will sleep and work on the ship but be surrounded by our home town, our friends, our family. It is going to be strange.
But we are so looking forward to it.
We hope to see many of you onboard if you live in Edinburgh or Scotland.
Come and say hi.

A busy time in Holland

2009-03-22T19:36:00.006+01:00

Well it's the end of our second weekend in Scheveningen and life onboard is pretty crazy. It is great to see lots of people coming to the ship.

We have been involved in a number of different events onboard. Heather did mime in a youth event last night and Steve hosted groups of people for a partner dinner and a mens breakfast.

It is exciting to be able to share in these different programmes and be part of the ministry onboard.

One of the big challenges we are facing at the moment is the fact that Heather is the only nurse working onboard. She now has to be on call every other day which makes it really difficult to get off the ship a lot of the time. We are hoping that another nurse joins in Edinburgh to release Heather.

We have enjoyed beautiful weather here in Scheveningen since we arrived and last Monday on our day off we visited The Hague and then went to the beach. It was so nice to be out in the sun. If felt like winter was finally over.

We are now just 10 days away from sailing into Edinburgh and are very excited. The ship will arrive early morning on 1st April. Our church is organising a big welcome on the quayside and we expect lots of visitors over the 2 weeks we are there. At the end of the visit, Heather and the children will stay in Edinburgh and I will sail on to the Faroe Islands and then Belfast from where I will fly back to begin our 6 week furlough break.

Nice Parking Captain

2009-03-15T12:08:00.017+01:00

Ok, I am currently very frustrated with Blogger and not being able to get it to format this blog properly or show the map of this port or our friends on the left column. But anyway - on with this weeks blog!

We are now in the most popular seaside resort in the Netherlands, Scheveningen. To pronounce it properly, you have to do this funny Dutch thing at the beginning that sounds like you are trying to get something out of your throat!

The berth here is amazing because we have only a couple of metres at the front and back of the ship. The Captain had to turn the ship sideways in the very narrow waterway and then parallel park the Logos Hope in the tightest of spaces. Very impressive.

The Logos Hope is berthed just a hundred metres from the beach so it is great for the kids to be able to go there and play and for us to run.

It has been great to already meet up with a number of old ex ship friends and catch up with them. On Saturday there was an ex-OMers and ex Ship reunion onboard and it was a great pleasure to host old friends amongst the hundred or so that came.
It was also great today to meet up with an old Doulos friend who is now one of the top photographers in the Netherlands. He is coming back this week and we will hopefully get some great family pics. So look out for a new picture on the top of our blog soon.

OM Netherlands has been one of the greatest supporters for Logos Hope and actually the Dutch have given more money per head of population than any other country. So it is fantastic that we can come here and say thank you.

We are already getting very excited about sailing into Edinburgh in 2 1/2 weeks. It is incredible that it is now our next port.

pastor de dutchie

2009-03-07T20:13:00.008+01:00

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

2009-03-01T17:35:00.003+01:00

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.

We are in Sweden on the Logos Hope

2009-02-21T16:20:00.005+01:00

The statement that we are in Sweden this weekend is an incredible understatement of the miracle that has occurred in the week since I last wrote our blog.

This past week has been an amazing roller coaster ride of emotions, rarely experienced in our lives or in OM ships.

At the beginning of the week, after celebrating getting the PSSC, we were trying to understand what still needed to happen to sail. After completing our ISM audit on Monday, we knew that the last big hurdle was likely to be getting a Bunker Convention Certificate, a piece of paper that said we had insurance in place to cover us in the event of an oil spill.

Without going into details, the process to obtain the BCC was incredibly complicated and we were told it could still take weeks. Then we heard that it might be possible to sail without it because Sweden and Netherlands, our next few ports, didn't require it.

However, on Monday afternoon, as soon as we received all our certificates from the ISM auditor, a member of the Danish Maritime Authority came onboard and declaired that the ship was detained because we didn't have the BCC.

On Tuesday morning, our office in Germany thought they had exhausted options to get the ship released wihout having a BCC in place issued by Denmark and we were told the best case would be another week.

Now 2 weeks ago, we had sent a "line up" team to Gothenburg to prepare for a possible visit if we could sail in time from Denmark. On Tuesday lunchtime, a decision was made to cancel the visit to Sweden as it seemed impossible that we could get there. All the events and programmes in Sweden were then cancelled.

On Wednesday morning, I was sat in a leadership team meeting when we received a phone call from our head office to say that incredibly, the Danish Maritime Authority had decided to issue us with the BCC. We were to get ready to sail next day.

The whole ship community was called together and given the news and the whole place erupted in cheers and tears. What an incredible feeling to be told we could sail the next day.

Wednesday afternoon was a rush of activity to get the ship prepared for sea, loading gangways, vans, bikes etc.

Thursday was sailing day. All over the world, people excitedly logged in to the Logos Hope website to watch the webcams and see us sail.

Everyone was out on deck, the snow was falling and the Chief Executive of OM Ships was on the quayside to lift the last mooring line.

At 3.20pm the ship began to move away from the quayside and reverse out of the berth and the port after 8 months in Koge.

It is hard to describe the feelings of elation and excitement at finally setting sail after such a long wait. It was freezing cold as we waived goodbye to Denmark and finally turned around and begin making way out into the open sea.

The voyage overnight was smooth and on Friday morning we were back out on deck to see the approach into Gothenburg. At 7.30 am it was minus 15 degree centigrade plus wind chill. I don't remember the last time I was so cold.

But it was a beautiful sail in through snow covered islands and as we came up the river, we saw more and more inlets completely frozen over.

The berth that we were headed towards had been completely frozen solid the night before but an the ice had been broken up in to large chunks by a tug earlier in the morning.

For most of us it was a first to have to break through ice to reach a berth on an OM ship. As we came alongside the berth it was snowing and there was only the 2 line up guys and one other couple to welcome us. Yet this is our first ministry port and for everyone of us, the excitement was incredible that finally we are sailing and bringing Knowledge Help and Hope to the nations.

and now we celebrate

2009-02-16T14:46:00.021+01:00

After all the hard work of getting the ship ready to sail and achieving the PSSC last week, on Saturday it was time to party.
I had volunteered a few weeks ago to organise the party - I love organising parties!

So we had an evening full of remembering, Praising God, fun, humour, and dancing from around the world. Many people were involved in making it a great night. The whole ships community came together and we really did celebrate from 7pm through to 11.30. Our kids made it nearly to the end!

Heather was one of the stars of the night, performing a mime called "Thank You" specially adapted for the occasion.

Here are some pictures and video clips from the night.
Enjoy.

Here is a link to the amazing "thank you" mime that Heather performed for everyone as part of the PSSC celebrations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf9IxOIZpa0

Here is some of the dancing from Saturday night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjOI4yvNRt4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0KB30qBHrU

PLEASE KEEP SCROLLING TO THE BOTTOM OF THE BLOG TO SEE HOW YOU CAN HELP LAUNCH LOGOS HOPE INTO FULL MINISTRY

Logos Hope has the PSSC, we are getting ready to sail

2009-02-12T22:26:00.016+01:00

For the past year and a half, 4 letters have never been far from our thoughts - PSSC.

It stands for Passenger Ship Safety Certificate and it is what we have been working for all these months. It allows us to sail the Logos Hope with all the staff and crew onboard in normal operations.

So finally today, the surveyor was happy with the ship and signed all the papers. YEAAH!

On Monday we have the ISM auditor returning to have a final look to ensure we are ready for sea and the the issues he raised last week have been resolved. We expect to get his agreement that we are ready. Then we just need to get our insurance changed over from port to sailing cover.

There are a couple of other little outstanding issues that also need to be resolved - we need the Damage Control Booklet to be handed over and the Bunker Convention Certificate (you can Google that one). But we are trusting God that everything will come together for us to sail out of Koge on Thursday for a very short visit to Gothenburg, Sweden.

Last weekend, Heather and I were doing our Basic Safety Training in order that we can be part of the ships crew, as opposed to passengers.

We had our fire training on Saturday, including putting out fires with different extinguishers.

We also had a surprise exra bit of training when we had to put on full fire suits with BA (breathing apparatus)

Heather just had to put the gear on and off again, but my friend Alex and I were told we had to do a drill. We had to make our way down a stairway, through a closed fire door, find an open cabin, go in and find a casualty lying in there and carry them out - wearing the full BA suit and BLINDFOLDED! This is to stimulate heavy smoke.

Well never having had any training in this or worn one of these suits before, it was a challenge but we did it.

On Sunday afternoon we all headed to a local swimming pool and had our pool training including, righting an overturned life raft, jumping off a 5m diving board with a life jacket on, making a flotation device out of our clothes and getting into several different protective suits.

It It was all good fun but we hope we never have to use it for real.

So now we have got our BST and can be part of the crew in future.

The kids are on school holiday this week so we took them back to the pool for a swim this afternoon.

Another busy few days coming up with Steve sharing in devotions Friday morning on Teamwork, then doing a half day workshop. Friday night we are visiting local Danish friends for dinner and then Heather is doing a "thank you" mime at a dinner for all those who have worked to get the PSSC.

On Saturday evening, we are having the big PSSC celebration - it is going to be awesome. Will tell you about it soon.

So our busy lives continue and are about to get busier as we set sail next week.

Will try and write a blog while at sea next Thurs night - the wonders of satelite communications.