This is a special cassette in which I'm
sharing about the ministry of the O.M.
ships Lagos II and Doulas.
I've just returned from Doulas in Cyprus.
I must confess those four or five days
on the ship there were times of great
blessing and times in which my own vision
for the ship ministry has been rekindled.
And I'm sharing this burden that's on my
heart while that visit is still fresh upon
my mind.
I'd like to first of all just pray,
Lord you know my heart, especially as we
think of these 25 years of ship ministry
within O.M. We are extremely grateful.
Yet we know this vision has to be,
in a sense, born again and again in
our hearts and our minds that we can
have the commitment and the faith and the
energy and the passion and the love to
go forward in this challenging year that lies
ahead of us.
Lord, I really pray for each one who
somehow takes the time to listen to this
cassette that they will, yes, hear my voice,
but somehow, God, they may hear your voice
and they may capture something of this challenge
to reach the world with the gospel in
our generation and to see the church throughout
the world coming into greater reality and integrity
and maturity so that day by day we
can operate together in building your kingdom in
the power of your Holy Spirit.
We ask this in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
I share with what's on my heart right
now with a conviction that if people would
take even a short time to attempt to
understand the ministry of the ships that many
more would get involved in praying, in telling
others, in giving, and in going.
At this particular time of the ships ministry
and the history of the ships ministry, we
really need some new people to join the
ships and to get involved with us both
short term and longer term.
We're well aware that there are so many
challenges coming to Christian young people across the
world today.
We're aware that in many ways the priority
is to see church planters raised up who
will go out among the most unreached people
of the world to see men and women
won to Christ and then of course to
see them gathered into churches and worshiping and
multiplying.
We're convinced however that it takes time to
train and prepare someone for church planting ministry
especially among the unreached.
We're convinced it takes time and it takes
training to prepare anyone for their lifetime ministry
whether it's back in their home country in
marketplace ministry or what some people call full
-time ministry or whether it's out on the
mission field in some forgotten place where the
church may hardly exist.
And that's one of many reasons why I
would like you, those of you who are
hearing this message, to consider the possibility of
actually spending a year or two on one
of our ships.
A lot of people apply to get involved
in the ship ministry when it's in a
sense a little bit late.
They're already married and they have a family
and the ship is extremely limited in terms
of space as to how many families and
how many married couples they are able to
accept.
I however would urge you whatever your particular
situation is to not at least hesitate to
write and in a sense push the door.
If that door closes then you have to
leave that in the hands of the Lord.
We however at this time especially need single
men and women who are willing to get
involved in this on-the-job training evangelistic
church renewal thrust that takes place based on
the two ships.
Dulas which at this very moment is headed
back toward India and Lagos II that I
was able to recently visit in southern France
when the two ships were together which in
fact right now is in Vigo, Spain and
will soon be sailing to Belfast.
I think it's really exciting that Lagos II
is going to be around Europe for the
next year.
It's going to be in a number of
British ports and I hope that some of
you who hear this message will at least
go and visit the ship if it's anywhere
within range.
This summer there may come some special opportunities
on at least one of the ships for
people to work for a few weeks in
one way or the other and that information
you can find out by writing to either
your own local OM office or to the
ship's office in Germany.
But my bigger concern is for young men
and women who would really seek the Lord
and really pray about the possibility of joining
the ship for a year or two.
I believe this is such a tremendous training
program whether you're planning to go into what
some people call full-time Christian ministry or
not.
We've had many people many thousands of people
go through the ship training time serving on
the ship whatever way you want to describe
it and they are working today around the
world in dozens of countries in all kinds
of different ministries.
Most of those people look back on their
time aboard the ships in the ship ministry
as a time of laying a solid foundation
in their lives.
That doesn't mean because they necessarily found it
easy and probably you will not find it
easy living on a ship with over 250
people as it is with DULAS or 170,
180 people this includes the children on Lagos
too.
Why do I consider being on the ship
such a tremendous training experience?
I can assure you I'm not saying that
just to get you to join OM.
There I try to evaluate all the aspects
of OM's ministry.
I don't like to get into comparing but
it is interesting that quite a few of
the people who are serving long term in
other important aspects of OM's worldwide ministry got
their start in one of the programs on
the ships.
So there is a sense where people who
are thinking even longer term within OM or
some other mission agency would do well to
consider the positive factors of a time of
training and on the job exposure and spiritual
growth on either one of the two ships.
I believe today so many people have a
ghetto mentality.
So many people can't see beyond their own
country.
Sometimes beyond their own church and when you
end up living on a ship with people
of a couple of dozen nationalities that in
itself is a tremendous stretch, training, exposure, life
-giving kind of experience.
It's so easy for us just to get
caught up with people in our own culture
and in the end of the day that
can be a hindrance even in our own
countries because most of our countries are becoming
more multi-ethnic, multi-national and we need
to learn how to live with these people,
reach out to the people and understand them.
Even today my neighbor in a little shop
around the corner, a Hindu man was telling
me about the temple that he and his
organization are building somewhere outside of London and
almost asking me to make a donation toward
that temple.
This man is not living in India, this
man is living across the lane from me
and I need to learn, though I've been
in this kind of work a long time,
how to relate to people like that, of
other cultures, other backgrounds.
Yes, who I long to see come to
Christ but I need to learn just the
basics of relating to them in the first
place and that isn't always so easy.
Another thing that makes the ship such an
excellent preparation and training experience is the fact
that you go to a number of countries
during your time actually on on board.
The ship is in port for a good
part of the time so even if you
may have a fear of seasickness, which many
people never get, other people get over it
quite quickly, you'll discover that on these particular
ships you are generally in port ministering to
people, serving people or working in some capacity
on the ship in teamwork so that the
task of evangelism and church renewal and other
ministries can all go on simultaneously.
It's not easy to decide even if you're
planning to go into some kind of missionary
work which country, which place, even which organization.
We had the joy when I was on
the ship in Cyprus a few days ago
of having a last minute visit from a
dear Christian leader from Greece and as he
was sharing I just thought what a tremendous
opportunity it is for us to hear from
men of God.
This particular brother's name was Costas Makris and
some of you know about him and his
ministry.
Often people, pastors, missionaries, come to even stay
on the ship for a few days.
I heard that last year the famous founder
of the Red Sea Mission Team, Lionel Gurney,
in his sunset years spent many months aboard
the ship.
So the opportunity for exposure to different nations,
different Christian leaders, different ministries, as well as
living among people from all over the world
is a fantastic situation for learning, for growing,
and becoming more mature.
I had to confess after a short time
in Mexico and then some time in Spain
that in some ways as a young missionary
I was an ugly American.
There were things that I had to unlearn.
I had to learn to listen much more
to people of different cultures.
I had to come to face that some
of the things I thought were were sinful
weren't necessarily sinful and worldly.
As I saw people from different cultures and
then of course different denominations have different emphases
and it was a phenomenal experience in my
own life that enabled me I believe to
press on in the ministry God was giving
me and of course this is before God
ever gave me the vision and the idea
concerning ships.
Another reason I believe it's so valuable for
people to have an opportunity for this kind
of ministry is because often so much of
our education today is highly academic.
We need that academic emphasis but we also
need practical training.
Many theological colleges, seminaries, and other colleges are
confessing and acknowledging this more than ever.
After a couple of years of any kind
of academic study to be thrown into something
that is obviously work and ministry oriented as
a ship ministry I believe often brings a
needed balance and a needed dimension into people's
lives.
I think of Lindsay Brown who I first
met at Oxford University many years ago.
When he finished at Oxford and got his
degree he ended up on the ship Lagos,
our first ship.
He told me during that year or maybe
it was at the end of the year
that much of his time he was just
down in the holds moving books around and
yet he testified that this was a phenomenal
character building experience.
Preparing for his becoming a leader in the
work of UCCF and then of IFES and
today is the international secretary of IFES and
I'm sure some of you know him.
I could give story after story of people
from all walks of life who have ended
up on these ships for a year or
two and have found it such a powerful
life changing experience.
Now of course when some people first come
depending on their expectations they may be disappointed.
They may discover that people, even people in
Christian leadership, have their warts, have their problems,
have their failures.
I'm convinced that even when things aren't going
as well as we would like on the
ships and sometimes that's the case it's still
such an ideal place as almost daily you're
in the Word of God as there are
constant times of of prayer.
It's an ideal place to learn what spiritual
warfare is all about, what Christian living is
all about, in some ways what living in
general is all about.
It's a challenge.
It will be difficulties.
Our faith will be tested.
It does seem to me that sometimes when
we're young and even when we're not so
young our faith is not been tested.
It's textbook faith.
It's something that's been handed down to us
by our parents or we've heard over the
pulpit year after year or maybe we've sung
these tremendous choruses, faith is a victory, Jesus
is Lord, onward Christian soldiers, be bold, be
brave, but in fact these things are not
a dynamic pulsating reality in our lives.
That's a serious situation.
That's why I believe many people over the
years have written to me after reading some
of my books especially Hunger for Reality and
acknowledged that spiritual schizophrenia was creeping into their
own lives.
To get involved in the ministry of the
ships is to take a plunge into active
frontline spiritual warfare.
Another factor in all this however that I
believe has really helped a lot of people
is that often when you come into the
ship ministry you are not immediately pushed into
evangelism beyond what you feel you are able
to handle.
Oftentimes you are given a job in the
book exhibition, in the pantry or galley, in
the engine room or on the deck in
which you're basically doing hard physical serving and
the evangelism comes in a lower dosage as
you're able to find time as you volunteer
for one-day trips or to take meetings
on a Sunday.
Soon you might be just giving your testimony.
Six months later you might be asked to
give a message in a meeting.
People who have talent in the area of
music and mime and other skills along that
line find the ship often an outstanding place
to develop those skills and to see how
they can be used in building the kingdom
and ministering to the church.
We have had a lot of people come
to the ship who have not been that
mature in their faith.
They weren't great skilled talented evangelists, street preachers
but two years later they left the ship
with at least some experience in those areas
and usually that includes some classroom type of
approach.
There are study programs, there are small groups,
there are seminars and there's just so much
happening.
It's hard of course on one in one
message to share it all with you.
Just before leaving the ship I went up
to the library and I was just so
impressed with this small but amazing and adequate
library and I know that quite a few
of those who are on the ship spend
time in the library listening to tapes, studying
books, following up on some of the messages
they may have heard from someone.
I think I must have ministered personally about
seven or eight times to the staff and
crew during my brief visit to the ship
and then others are regularly coming to the
ship.
People of different backgrounds, different parts of OM
and people outside of OM, pastors and teachers
to share, to teach and many of them
are also available of course to meet with
people on a personal basis.
The whole challenge of pastoral care is something
that we're very concerned about in OM at
this time, not just on the ships but
in every aspect of OM.
I think we've seen pastoral care on the
ships from the very, very beginning but we
feel God is putting in our heart to
improve in that area.
We know that sometimes people come with unrealistic
expectation but in our teaching and on our
tapes we try to deal with that kind
of difficulty.
It's very, very challenging.
Another reason I believe this ship ministry has
such potential for preparing and training people is
because we actually do get in evangelism.
Thousands and tens of thousands of people, most
of whom don't know Jesus, come flocking to
the exhibition or come to one of our
film shows or into the coffee bar and
this endless opportunities for evangelism.
Let me just say that often unless you
on the ship are taking the initiative you
will miss out on some of those opportunities.
We're trying to accept people as mature young
adults who are going to develop initiative in
the area of prayer, the area of evangelism,
the area of serving and of course the
area of hard work because no ship is
going to continue sailing safely unless there's a
group of people willing to work hard.
The emphasis on prayer, the nights of prayer,
the prayer emphasis days also I believe can
be a life-changing experience especially for those
that really want to learn and really want
to grow.
Generally these days everyone who comes on the
ship is given a copy but one way
or the other gets a copy of the
book Operation World and they often spend time
going through that book praying for the nations
of the world.
There's the constant focus and challenge even when
the ship is not in an area of
the world that is so unreached because the
ships go all over the world there is
the constant challenge to emphasize the unreached.
We don't believe the ship is God's great
answer to world evangelists.
The ship and the ship ministry is just
a tiny part of what God is doing
in the world today but isn't it wonderful
to be a tiny part of what God
is doing?
For 25 years we've seen answers to prayer
even in crisis moments like the terrorist attack
in the Philippines a number of years ago
when two of our crew members, two women,
were taken to heaven through a hand grenade
attack.
Even when we lost Lagos our first ship
after 17 years in ministry and God protected
in his mercy and sovereignty all of the
people from any injury at that time.
These are life experiences.
This is how we grow.
This is how we become mature and people
who are attempting to be mature in Christ
in hot house experiences sometimes overly protected back
in their little hometown, though we know Satan
can break into those situations as well, I
believe are often missing this kind of stretching
experience that especially leads us to becoming world
Christians.
Our first burden isn't to get everybody out
in the 1040 window or among the unreached
people of a particular part of the world.
Our first burden is to see people coming
into the fullness that is in the Lord
Jesus Christ by the power and the reality
of his Holy Spirit and of his Holy
Word.
We want to see people become more Christ
-like.
We know that begins at conversion.
We know that continues through many different experiences
but we're reminded of the words of our
Lord who said, if any man come after
me let him deny self, take up the
cross and follow me.
Another major positive factor about this ministry is
that it's so involved with literature.
Both these ships represent the two largest floating
book exhibitions in the world, both educational and
Christian books.
They get a lot of good publicity.
Some of the books are on a real,
a real bargains.
As we saw in Cyprus, people just flock
carrying away arms full of books.
Of course this means a lot of extra
work for the staff and crew.
We've seen sometimes how one country closes, which
is what happened, Tunisia closed, and another country
like Cyprus just opens up last minute.
Again, this can be a test of faith.
Again, it exposes us to the different ways
that God works in the midst of this
great task we have of trying in the
power of God to take the gospel to
every person in the world.
People fail to understand that a good part
of the ministry of the ships is for
God's people.
With the ships, unlike some of our land
teams, we don't only go to the more
unreached parts of the world.
We are limited to the ports of the
world.
And we go to countries where sometimes a
church is relatively strong, like Brazil.
When we come into that situation, our greater
emphasis is training believers, working with young people,
helping the church in evangelism, working toward greater
biblical maturity and reality and renewal within the
church.
Some of the speakers would be coming from
that country.
It's not a matter of us importing some
great OM challenge from across the waves.
We work together with the church.
Teams go ahead in advance and prepare with
the churches and, of course, with the government.
One of the challenges I would share with
you is the need we have for people
who will go into that kind of advance
work, that kind of preparation work, sometimes referred
to as lineup, going ahead with a small
team ahead of the ship to the port
to prepare the way.
It's another very stretching ministry and challenging experience,
and generally, of course, people have to have
some experience on the ship first before they
have the privilege and the challenge of getting
into lineup.
I might mention also at this point that
the ship ministry is not just short term.
Quite a few people have spent 10 years
of their lives on the ships because when
they got into it, they saw this was
something that they could really throw themselves into.
However, we discovered with all the other challenges
within OM and around the world right now,
it's not so easy to get people to
go longer term in the ship ministry, and
that's a specific burden of prayer.
For some of you who are listening to
this cassette and will mainly be involved in
prayer and perhaps in financial support, would you
pray specifically for people who will, in a
sense, take long term ownership of this project
and get involved with us to keep the
whole project going?
If it had not been for long term
engineers, long term deck officers, as well as
captains, and of course, the chief engineer, this
project would have never succeeded over these past
25 years.
I wonder if you know any seamen or
people with particular skills in connection with ships
that you could contact on our behalf, maybe
even share this cassette tape.
That can be a ministry in itself.
We have videos presenting the ship ministry.
We have more materials than ever.
In fact, a new full color book has
come out, like a souvenir book with tremendous
photos.
We need ship ministry mobilizers.
People, maybe you've been on the ships before,
maybe you've just heard about the challenge, who
will, in a sense, unofficially represent this vision,
sharing videos, sharing literature in our ship office
and most of our other offices.
And I personally, right here in the International
Coordinating Team in London, would be happy to
supply you with materials that you could use
in helping spread this vision.
It wasn't easy to get the ship ministry
started.
It was four or five years of prayer,
looking for crew members, finding finance, getting people
to take ownership of this vision, before we
got that first ship, which we actually purchased
for only $170,000.
An amazing story.
The vision of the ships needs to be
reborn.
We have looked very critically at the ship
ministry over the last couple of years.
We have made changes.
We are very aware of needed improvements.
But at the same time, through discernment and
study and feedback from all kinds of people,
we are convinced that the ship ministry is
as much on the cutting edge in world
evangelism and teaching and training as perhaps anything
could be.
And we just give God all the praise.
And we humble ourselves that somehow we may
be even more faithful in doing God's will
and doing God's work.
I wish there was more time to share
with you some of the things that have
happened in various ports of the world.
Though I only get to the ships about
once or twice a year, each one of
the ships, I'm constantly listening to port reports.
I'm constantly reading other reports that come in.
And it is absolutely amazing what's happened in
the last couple of years in Latin America
and in the West Indies with Lagos too.
In South Africa, where we had that tremendous
refit and conversion of the doulos with a
new electrical system.
And then over to Mozambique and up into
the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.
And of course, the things that have happened
all over the Far East, even in places
like Japan.
It's just amazing.
I hope you will be willing to write
in and get some more material.
Don't be afraid to ask hard questions because
we want people to know as much about
this ministry as possible before they commit themselves.
Often people come on an OM summer campaign,
like Love Europe or something similar, before they
make the longer term commitment to go on
the ships, which may start six months later
at one of our January conferences, which is
going on right now over in the Netherlands.
This gives people the opportunity to get a
greater feel of OM, of the vision, and
of what God is doing.
We at OM are linked with a movement
known as AD2000 and beyond.
We have a major consultation on world evangelism
in Korea in May with some 4,000
coming together.
Somehow in God's providence, I've been asked and
have taken on the responsibility of being chairman
of the track for the mobilization of new
missionaries.
We're crying out to the Lord together for
the whole body of Christ, whether they're linked
with AD2000 or not, to see another 200
,000 workers raised up in the next five
or few more years.
Humanly speaking, that's impossible.
But certainly in the ship ministry and in
the rest of OM ministry in general, we
are committed to the mobilization of new missionaries.
That has to involve also training as well
as recruiting and many other aspects of preparation.
This is an exciting challenge, and we believe
the people coming into the ship ministry in
the next few years are to be a
part of this great mobilization thrust as we
share this vision from port to port and
as we share this vision with churches all
over the world.
Some of you may be aware, because it's
important to understand this, that the faster growing
missionary sending fields, in some ways it's still
small, are places like Korea and Singapore and
Southern Africa and Brazil and Argentina and the
Philippines.
That's why we're seeing a total internationalization and
globalization of the world missionary team.
The privilege of being on the ship working
with a truly international team, with all the
strengths and yes, some weaknesses that brings, is
the experience of a lifetime that I long
for more people to be able to have.
We're wanting people not to just drift into
the ship ministry, and I don't think that
happens much.
We want people to sense that God is
leading them.
On the other hand, we've learned that you
can't steer a ship that is not moving.
And if you in your Christian life are
not at least moving toward discovering God's will,
toward that which is going to enable you
to be a more mature and world Christian,
not worldly by the way, but world Christian,
then I don't think you are necessarily going
to find God's will for your life.
Isn't it better to have a little more
training, a little more exposure, a little more
experience, and yes, a little more maturity before
you make some of the big final decisions
in your life about who you're going to
marry, about what your job is going to
be for the next 20 years, and other
things along that line.
I know some people don't like to hear
this, but I fear, I fear that many
young men and women today are missing God's
best for their life.
And I believe this is one of the
reasons the Lord has raised up fellowships like
Operation Mobilization.
Men and women who are serious about the
Word of God.
Men and women who want to lay aside
the differences because we do have differences, in
order to major on the major emphasis of
the Word of God.
In order to really focus on the Lord
Himself and give extra time in the Word
of God to discern His plan and His
purpose for our lives.
I think one of the greatest things that
happens in the ship ministry is people giving
their lives to Jesus Christ.
Those who come into this ministry often have
the first opportunity in their life to lead
another person to Christ.
Others may not have that actual experience, but
they have the experience of sharing their faith
with many people of all different nationalities and
religions.
That generally gets them a little more interested
in studying some of these religions and trying
to understand, for example, Muslims and how Muslims
think.
Because one of our greatest burdens through our
whole ministry is to see the gospel going
out to what is described as the Muslim
world.
In bringing this to a close, I also
want to just give this challenge to those
of you who are listening to this tape
and you already sense you're in God's right
place and that He's not necessarily leading you
to the ship.
I might just insert here that the ship
isn't just for young people.
Older people come, people taking early retirement, but
all of that takes correspondence.
It takes a coming together.
OM is a relationship centered movement.
Sometimes things don't go quite as fast as
some people would like as we get to
know one another.
And because we've been a little cautious in
some of those areas, we also have some
basic rules and regulations that, of course, are
absolutely essential when living together on a ship.
We haven't had too many people leave totally
disappointed or dissatisfied, and that's a great encouragement,
especially as we meet them in different parts
of the world.
But I do want to say a word
to those of you who perhaps have this
vision, you've caught a little bit of what
I've attempted to share, and you'd like to
get involved financially.
We have a phenomenal need to see more
people raised up who will give regularly.
We believe in this ministry, it's God's ministry,
and we believe that God is going to
put it on the hearts of more people.
In connection with Operation Fuel, in connection with
helping us buy Christian literature as well as
the education literature, which of course is partly
a tent-making project, people who will help
in other aspects.
It looks like an expensive ministry, but when
you multiply the total expense by the number
of people trained, the number of people sharing
their faith, much less the number of people
being reached with the gospel, it is not
an expensive ministry.
Of course, it is a big ministry.
OM didn't start big, and maybe some of
you, when we were back in the days
of only three of us or 50 or
100 or 200, perhaps you would have been
more interested in supporting us.
We know once a movement is bigger, with
both the positives and the negatives of that,
people sometimes just don't get involved financially.
Maybe they don't think their gift is significant
enough, because maybe they heard that every once
in a while we get larger gifts.
The fact is, a high percentage of all
of the finance that comes into the ship
ministry is largely smaller gifts.
Every person on the ship, they have to
raise their own support from the captain to
the newest recruit, and that is a major
factor in keeping the whole ship ministry going
forward.
We of course also need people who will
work in our home offices.
All the home offices of OM around the
world have as one of their tasks supporting
the ship ministry.
So as you work for other aspects of
OM, that flows into what God is doing
for the ships.
We need people also who are willing to
work in our ship coordinating office in Mosbach.
Dale Roton is the coordinator of the ship
ministry, with Berndt Gulker of Germany, working as
his associate.
They have a small team there in Mosbach,
and they're actually, especially Dale, many times away
or on the ships, who are going the
extra mile again and again to keep this
ministry flowing.
Some of you know the name of Mike
Poynter, our overall marine superintendent over both ships,
who's been in this project from almost the
earliest days, perhaps 23, 24 years ago.
Without people like Mike, and Carol Ann, his
wife, I don't know where this ministry would
be.
Without chief engineers like Elon on Logos 2,
and Johannes on the Dulos.
People like Dave Thomas, who spent over 20
years in this ministry, now helping to coordinate
the work here in the British Isles.
Without such people, there's many more I would
love to name.
This kind of ministry doesn't happen.
It doesn't go forward.
It's teamwork.
Would you consider becoming part of this team?
Would you pray, push some doors, write to
us for more information, try to visit the
ship, and see if God is not wanting
you to get us involved, get involved in
this ministry?
I don't want to paint any false pictures.
There will be the disappointments.
There'll be probably some heartaches.
Learning how to live together with different people
of different personality, different backgrounds, is no simple,
easy affair.
And yet, as you learn how to live
with others, as you allow the Spirit of
God to knock some of the rough edges
off your life, you may discover that's a
valuable, a valuable preparation, whether you're headed into
missions, or you're headed into marriage.
Sometimes both.
I've often said to people, the preparation we
need for missions is similar to the preparation
we need for marriage, because it involves hard
work, it involves living together, it involves many,
many, many beautiful, challenging situations.
The Bible says, Satan is a roaring lion,
seeketh whom he may devour.
And no doubt, if you make a decision
to begin to move toward an evangelistic opportunity,
toward this kind of challenge I've been sharing,
Satan will counter-attack.
Satan often tries to tell people they're not
worthy enough.
They don't know the Bible enough.
They're not spiritual enough.
Or they've had some failure in their life.
How could they, if they failed at home,
ever serve God overseas?
What's subtle?
Intimidation.
Life includes failure right through to the end,
including the most mature man or woman of
God.
The bigger mistakes in mission work are not
being made by the new recruits.
The bigger mistakes are often being made by
those of us who've been out in the
work a long time.
It's better for us to get people when
they're young, and to be able to see
them molded and conformed into greater Christ-likeness
and biblical maturity.
We're not expecting people to come to the
ship with their whole act together, with all
of their emotional problems sorted out.
We're expecting people to come who want to
grow, who are willing to be team players,
who are willing to go the extra mile,
and who, above all else in life, want
to focus on the Lord Jesus and on
the task He's given to take the gospel
to every person in the world.
I believe the next five years may be
the most challenging, stretching and challenging years of
the ship ministry.
But right now, we are short of people.
One of the reasons I'm sharing this is
because Dale Roton and I, when we had
supper together some weeks ago after the EBE
board, it's EBE that owns and operates Lagos
II, it's GBA in Germany that owns and
operates Dulos, Dale shared with me that one
of the problems they're having right now is
a shortage of people.
When there's a shortage of people, the stress
increases.
Certain things just cannot be accomplished, especially in
terms of the outward ministry on shore.
Keep in mind, the ship is not just
one or two or three ministries.
It's about 10 different ministries.
I haven't taken much time to talk about
the conference ministry.
I haven't taken time to talk much about
things like the open air ministry, the international
nights, the literature distribution that goes and takes
place on shore, the church visitation ministry.
So much is happening at once when that
ship sails in and backed by prayer, tens
of thousands of praying people around the world.
That's what brings the cutting edge breakthroughs.
I'm just so excited about what God is
doing on Dulos and Lagos II.
When I came back from Dulos and having
time with different people, including George Barathon, who's
standing in as director, I had lunch with
the regular director of Dulos, Mike Hay, and
also his wife, Anne, who are just temporarily
having a break here in London.
God has raised up this brother.
God has raised up Peter Nichols and his
wife and family to lead Lagos II.
You can write to these people, and maybe
in God's timing, you'll soon be working with
them for the accomplishment of his great purposes
across the whole world.
Let's pray together.
Dear God, I just thank you for this
chance to just open my heart.
I thank you, Lord, for what you're doing
through these two ships, even right now, as
I'm sharing.
And I pray that somehow this message I've
shared will be circulated, will be listened to
in cars and in homes, and copies will
be made by others, and it will go
out and get into the hands of the
right people, the people that you want to
pray, the people who you want to give,
people who you want to go.
You know our burden.
We commit it to you, and we pray
specifically in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Amen.
I hope we'll hear from you.
You can write to me personally at Fox
17, Bromley Kent in England, BR13JP, or you
can write to any OM office, or contact
them by phone, or better yet, go and
visit them.
It takes time to process applicants.
There often need to be interviews.
There often need to be little get-togethers,
weekend conferences, where you go through such things
as how to raise your support.
That's a big mountain.
We now have books, like People Raising, and
Friend Raising, that I'd be happy to send
any of you who are having difficulty understanding
the challenge of raising support, and this kind
of living by faith.
We believe the man working in a factory
has to live by faith.
But in this kind of living by faith,
this way that we have chosen, many other
faith interdenominational missions have chosen, we've got to
see finance come in, in answer to prayer.
We believe, however, we've got to get out
there and clearly communicate what the need is,
what the vision is, be willing to answer
the hard questions.
It's so exciting when people are actually sent
out by their home church, as it was
in Acts 13.
That's the ideal way.
We want to work together with your church,
and answer the questions they may have, in
order that this can be a united thrust
of your church.
We like to think of the first ownership
of any missionary being his own home church.
In some countries that's rather complex, but that's
the ideal.
And if you have this vision and this
burden to get involved with us, after prayer
and sharing with close, intimate friends, you need
to be sharing this with your church leaders.
And often, and OM sometimes is very small
in certain countries, but often we can help
in terms of working with your church and
actually seeing this happen.
It's not easy to become a missionary, even
a short-term missionary, in our day.
A summer, well that's much easier.
Even that, some people find a real battle.
But we're talking one or two years.
And I hope that you will, as it
says in Luke 14, count the cost, and
then go into this with serious commitment.
And through teamwork and prayer, I believe we
can make it happen together.
God bless you.
We hope to hear from you.