End of 2008 [Doulos]

I finally went to the Doulos ship today. Finally. After many days of procrastinating, I finally visited the world’s largest floating bookstore. Or something like that.

After a few minutes roaming around the bookstore and feeling like to faint because of lack of oxygen and too much heat, I was starting to get immensely bored - until an Austrian crew member invited my sister Esther and I to tour the ship. Yes! Air-conditioning! It was quite interesting to see the interior of the ship, but the most special part of the tour, I think, was that our tour guide, (I think her name was Bea or something like that) shared about how and why she joined the Doulos ship for 2 years. She had just finished high school and didn’t know what she wanted to do. When she heard about Doulos, she felt led to join, but she was scared and wanted to do other things. But after hearing a preacher talk about Moses and how he had said he was not good enough, our Austrian host felt convicted to join, so she did. And she enjoyed it immensely!






I wonder how it’s like to stay in a ship. For two years! So many people (350 altogether) of different countries all over the world speaking one language (English) and believing the same God! (They’re all Christians). Sadly the ship is going to be dismantled, stopped and summarily destroyed soon because it is too old. (Over 90 years old!! Only two years younger than the Titanic…) So there’s no option for me to join in any way any time soon. But I wonder, if I were to be called to join another ship with the same mission (to give knowledge, help and hope), would I survive it? It looks kind of difficult. Without family but surrounded by new friends; with Internet and laptops and all kinds of food and book and books and sea-sicknesses… Who knows?