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drew on tour
wednesday, 7th october, 2009 |
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At the end of June I (Drew) left my second ship to travel to my third. The time had come for my stint with Operation Mobilisation (OM) on the M/V Logos Hope. The reason for this seven-week secondment was two-fold: to get more time and experience at sea, and to see first-hand the work of OM's ship mission.
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After delays leaving Cotonou, missed connections in Paris, and a quick catch-up with my parents in London I walked up the gangway of the Logos Hope, docked in the shadows of Canary Wharf's skyscrapers. Though tired from the overnight travel I was excited to be aboard, especially in such shiny surroundings! I was also thrilled 36 hours later to rise at 5am to help let go the lines, before we manoeuvred through a lock and out into the Thames to sail down-river - past the Millennium Dome, through the Thames barrier, under the M25 bridge, and eventually out to a fog filled North Sea. Our destination was Cork in the south of Ireland, three days sail away, and the ship's last European port for some time.
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After a five-year transformation from a car ferry, the Logos Hope was brought into service in February 2009 and had visited nine other European ports before London. After Europe the ship would travel around the Central American Islands, and then maybe to Africa. For what purpose? Well omships.org can explain it better than I, and you can go there for plenty more information. But here's a bit copied and pasted... "[OM Ships] goal is to bring knowledge, help and hope to the people of the world. We do this by supplying vital literature resources, encouraging cross-cultural understanding, training young people for more effective life and service, providing needed relief, and sharing a message of hope in God wherever there is opportunity."
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Mercy Ships brings hope and healing... OM brings knowledge, help and hope. Both do it on a floating hunk of steel, and both need a technical crew to get it from A to B, and C, then D, before E and F - you get the picture. I want to continue helping with those moves (and the multitude of work in-between), and my time with OM was a step in the direction of being able to do that as an Officer. The time wasn't wasted - I learnt a lot from seeing how another ship operates, and seeing how a different organisation runs it. They were also very gracious in scheduling me to rotate through all the watches on our Atlantic crossing from Ireland to St. Vincent, so I was able to learn from each Officer, and also the Captain when he stood relief watches. I was given challenging responsibilities and offered opportunities to do many new things.
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So what of my other aim: seeing OM's work first-hand? Well, with Mercy Ships there are many opportunities to volunteer for extra ministry opportunities, whether it's visiting patients in the ward, doing construction work, visiting prisons, or taking the Jesus Film out to villages. For most people this is a voluntary use of their spare time. It's a little different with OM in that the whole crew are scheduled to be involved in the front-line work. So as a Deck Hand each week I worked five days of Deck duties and one "Experience day" or "E-day", as it's referred to. On one of these E-days I helped to give tours of the ship, on others I helped out on the visitor experience deck - welcoming, guiding, explaining, and taking any opportunities to "connect" with people.
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As crew are there longer the E-day options increase - some go out on the streets to perform, some visit churches to give presentations, some put sports teams together and play matches with locals. Whatever the activity, the aim is to make connections, to be more than a passing acquaintance... to meet people and have the chance to see where they're at, encourage them along, and (if appropriate) share the message of hope. The fact that the whole crew is involved (from cook to Captain) brings a sense of togetherness and joint ownership of the vision.
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As well as doing a lot of work, I also met a lot of great new people. The remarkable thing about working in a volunteer organisation is that pretty much everyone wants to be there, so good attitudes are found in abundance. On OM Ships most people are onboard for at least two years, so newcomers are noticed. The Logos Hope crew is a family, and they welcomed me into it like a new brother. And more than one or two of them made me laugh 'til it hurt - good times. The family analogy is apt because it's not all perfect - there's a weird cousin or two and the odd sibling rivalry - but mostly it works. It's a safe place to be yourself, and an environment in which you can fail, but have Mums, Dads and big brothers and sisters to pick you up and dust you off.
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Another bonus was being able to catch up with old Mercy Ships friend Eric Thibodeau. Back in the day he was my boss on the Anastasis, now he's Third Officer of the Logos Hope. He was always a good leader, and he taught me thing or two this time as well, not least of all the pleasure of eating a Caribbean chicken roti... delicious - thanks Eric.
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People inevitably want to hear comparisons of OM and Mercy Ships. I'm not keen to make judgements, but here's a few observations... there's a lot more gap-year late-teens/early-20s in OM, MS has a more mature crew already with training and specific skills. OM has a lot of community-wide training and teaching, MS encourages you to be a self-feeder. Because most in OM are long-term the community does achieve that family-feel, the frequent comings and goings in MS make that a challenge.
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Both have great visions, and affect a great number of lives in need. Neither are perfect... but what is? Both are very special places to live and work - I'd recommend anyone wanting to give of their time, energy and resources to get involved with either of these ship ministries.
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