Newsletter #2

Well, here it is. I know it's been a long time coming, and I should have finished it much, much, sooner, but it's finally done. So, to anyone who actually visits this place, here it is! =)






Dear friends and family,

I’d like to start by apologizing for my general lack of communication, both during my time on the Logos Hope and now that I’ve been back home for 2 months. I really appreciate all of your prayers and support, and I’m sorry I didn’t keep you more informed of what was happening with me. Spending six months on the Logos Hope was an amazing experience, both fun and difficult, often at the same time.

There’s so much that’s happened since I last wrote, but I’ll try to cover all the important stuff. =) Over 4 weekends in December, we had ‘Christmas Around the World,’ with 16 booths showing how Christmas is celebrated in various countries. We also had a live nativity, live dances, carol singing, mime, and other events. Over the course of the event we had over 3,000 people visit the ship, many of whom had the opportunity to chat with crewmembers. If you would like to know more about the event, you can watch a video about it here

Christmas was, for me, a time of opposites. In some ways, it was a time of great joy: All of ship’s company had an extended period of off-days, giving a lot of time to socialize, rest, and just plain have fun. There were a fair number of organised and non-organised activities, and there was a delicious Christmas Eve dinner, all of which I greatly enjoyed.

On the other side of the coin, it was my first Christmas away from my family, and, special though they tried to make it, it inevitably wasn’t the same. To further drag down my spirits, on Christmas Eve I received word that my Uncle Jim, my mom’s younger brother, had suddenly passed away. So that was hard.

Thankfully, I was able to enjoy the New Year’s celebrations. It was an evening full of programs and fellowship, culminating with a countdown to midnight on the top deck of the ship, when fireworks lit up the sky. I’ve never seen so many fireworks, for so long! You could look out 180 degrees at the city, and it was basically one long line of fireworks, and it must have lasted for an hour or so. To top off the evening, there was a ceilidh, which is basically a series of Scottish dances.

Life continued, throwing us a few unpleasant surprises, unfortunately. In early January, through an unnoticed loophole, some grey water (water from showers, sinks, etc.) got into one of the fresh-water tanks. By the time it was discovered, the damage was done: over half of ship’s company got sick as a result. Thankfully, most people were better within 48 hours, though a few were sick for up to a week. While not completely unaffected, I thankfully got off rather light: I was only sick for less than 24 hours.

Isn’t it funny how life seems to just be a series of ups and downs? Just a couple of weeks after the great sickness, we received the new ‘PST’ (Pre-ship training) group on board. These are the new people who have committed to serving on the ship for two years. When they arrived, we all lined the decks of the ship, waving our countries’ flags, and yelling our welcome. Then, that evening, we had a big party to celebrate their arrival. We like it when new people come. =)

Now comes what I regard as the highlight of my time on the ship: sailing! Over the course of my time on board, and, in fact, the past couple years, dates for sailing have been announced, then passed. Time and time again. We tried to launch the ship in our timing, and it just never worked. We were making progress, but it was too slow. When I arrived, we thought we might leave in October. Then it changed to December. Then January. Then February. In order to legally sail, there are several certificates the ship needs. One of the most crucial of these is the ‘Passenger Ship Safety Certificate’, or ‘PSSC’. In January, we had a PSSC inspection, where people came on board for a week and thoroughly examined the ship to see if we were ready to sail. Not unexpectedly, the inspectors found a large number of problems. Thankfully, most of them were minor, and we were able to fix them by the end of the week. A few, however, required new parts to be ordered, which would take a couple weeks. That was the first disappointing news. The second was about our insurance. Because we had been sitting in port for the last several months, our insurance coverage only covered us in port. In order to sail, we had to change our policy. Unfortunately, that couldn’t be done until we had all the other paperwork, and it could possibly take a couple weeks. For a while we were hopeful that we’d be able to leave in mid-February, but eventually we just had to be realistic. There were just too many delays, so we moved the ETD to early March, effectively cancelling our stop in Sweden. Obviously, I was quite disappointed by this news, as that put the date of sailing after I left the ship, and I (like almost everyone else on board) really wanted to sail. We did get the PSSC, though it took longer than we would have liked, and the time estimate for the insurance just kept getting longer and longer.

So we all resigned ourselves to the fact that it would take yet more time to sail, and then the impossible happened. On Wednesday, the 18th of February, I came down for lunch from where I was working (which just so happens to be a place where the pa system cannot be heard), and went into the changing room to wash hands. There I bumped into one of the engineers, and the conversation went something like this:

Mark: ‘So, what do you think of the news?’
Me: ‘What news?’
Mark: ‘That we’re sailing tomorrow.’
Me: blank stare
Mark: ‘Yeah, we’re sailing tomorrow. Didn’t you hear the announcement?’
Me: ‘If I didn’t know you better, I’d say you were pulling my leg…’
Mark: ‘No, about an hour ago they called everyone to the Logos Lounge, and told us that
we got the insurance, and we’ll be sailing tomorrow to Sweden as planned.’
Me: (still a little incredulous) ‘Wow!’

So, we sailed. I still get tingles up and down my spine when I think of how God just brought everything together. It was so impossible from our point of view. I think God did it that way just so there’d be no doubt. It was God.

Needless to say, this was a rather exciting time for all of us. Thankfully, we’d been getting the ship ready to sail for a couple weeks, just in case, so we were able to get it completely ready for sailing, with everything secured in case of rough weather, by the time we left. At approximately 3:00 pm, on Thursday the 19th of February, 2009, the Logos Hope set sail into ministry from Køge, Denmark.

We had a very smooth sailing to Gothenburg, Sweden. We stayed in Gothenburg for three days, which saw well over a thousand people come on board. On Monday, the 23rd of February we left Gothenburg, arriving after a smooth voyage in Harlingen, the Netherlands, on Wednesday the 25th. I left a few days later, while the Logos Hope continues it’s voyage from port to port, sharing ‘knowledge, help, and hope’.

During my time on the Logos Hope we worked hard and accomplished a lot, as evidenced by the fact that we almost passed the PSSC inspection the first time. Some of the projects I helped to complete included: the complete overhaul of the Steering Geer Room and the adjoining Stockholm Tanks; rust removal and painting in the fan and ventilation rooms; and the completion of the dry food stores.

I learned many things during my time on the Logos Hope, not least of which are the practical skills I picked up, such as how to use a needle-gun, and proper painting techniques. More important, however, are the life lessons I learned, things like the value of hard work, dealing with people, and time management. Perhaps the most important lessons, though, were spiritual. Most were things I already knew, but which I saw examples of for myself in my time on board. Things like God answering prayer, or the value of reading the Bible on a daily basis.

All this brings me to the future. The plan as it stands is to attend Taylor University in Indiana starting this fall. My time until then is a little uncertain, though I’ll be retaking the SAT test a couple times to try to improve my score. I’ll also just be here to support my mom during this time, as she had cancer and is currently undergoing treatment.


Praise God:

• For all the money God provided that allowed me to be on the Logos Hope
• For all the people on the Logos Hope who have given of their time and energy to serve God in this way
• That God enabled the Logos Hope to sail
• For my friends on the Logos Hope who supported me during the hard times
• That I got accepted to Taylor University

Please pray:

• That God would provide the money I need for university
• That my mom would heal quickly
• That I would do well on my re-taking of the SAT




Thank you so much for your prayers and support. God bless you.

In Christ,
Andrew