Arrival: Hamilton, Bermuda.

Yesterday afternoon we arrived at our destination knows as "Little England". We are literally planted directly in downtown! Being here brings back memories of Oranjestad, Aruba and Willemstead, Curacao but a lot less touristy which is a wonderful thing. My work schedule in the engine room will be 4pm-12am all week with ministry on the weekends. I'm scheduled to speak at the Salvation Army church on Sunday about missions. Because I work in the evenings this week, my days are free for exploring. I took a walk this morning and found the temperature to be a tad chilly...which is a great change from the previous 8 countries. The terrain is very hilly and the scooters here are surprisingly ubiquitous . It was lovely to see plenty of tranquil parks and gardens tucked away throughout the city inside what seemed to be ancient stone walls. We will be serving here for two weeks before heading to Antigua.

Adventure Learning Centre, Bahamas

As posted before in my first installment after arriving in Nassau, I wasn't involved in much ministry off the ship due to engine room scheduling. However, one place I did make it to and thoroughly enjoyed was the A.V.C. camp. One of our ministry directors on board who is from Indiana, started missions work for the local Bahamians over 15 years ago. His vision was to build a camp for youth to attend, learn, and hear the Gospel while having a wonderful time. I'm not even exaggerating when I write that nearly 100% of all school kids on this island have spent some time here. Since it was founded, many additions have been added such as: horses, a surprisingly large petting zoo, rock climbing wall, a massive pavilion where over 100 of ship's company had dinner, and it's biggest attraction: an impressive planetarium. Although I didn't ride the horses (long line), the train was surprisingly fun! There were quite a few employees on site to host us and demonstrate what all goes on for the kiddos. In the planetarium, the teacher's main focus was to teach about space while giving the Gospel of Christ (think of Louie Giglio). I was very impressed with how well done and professional everything was. The construction phase is never actually over as they are continuously adding beds, class rooms, and activities. I urge you to check them out at: www.alcbahamas.org

Nassau, Bahamas arrival.

Our first sunrise over the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island.

Thursday morning at 4:30am we tied the mooring lines to settle in our next port: Nassau. One of our leaders has had a local ministry here for the past 18 years called Adventure Learning Centre. It is a camp focused on sharing the Gospel to local youth. I'm hoping I'll have the opportunity to help with construction projects while I'm here, but because of scheduling, I'm planning on spending a lot of time working in the ship's engine room. We have morning devotions 5 days a week, and one time, a lot of us went outside to pray for Haiti and Cuba as we sailed between them. Also, please pray for the group of three girls from the Logos Hope who went to help in Haiti.

Logos Hope saw huge response in Kingston, Jamaica.

An estimated 2,000 people in line the last Sunday night to board the Logos Hope.

Kingston was by far the busiest port the Logos Hope has visited in it's one year of ministry. The picture above explains just a little bit of the immense amount of people excited to come aboard. We were allowing 100 people on every 5-10 minuets that night and the wait was still almost 3 hours from the end. The line, which stretched far down the road in the most industrialized part of the city, had to have at least 25 people from the ship for crowd control.

-Visitors: 135,758
-School kids: 19,000 in programs, and around another 7,000 straight to the Book Fair
-Books sold: 341,666
-Bibles sold: 14,150 (on two Saturdays we sold more than 1 Bible per Minute that the Book Fair was open!)

International Cafe on board:
-32,000 Popcorn sold
-27,000 Ice Cream sold

Christian Fellowship World Outreach, Kingston.

Cara, me, Juki (Germany), An Na (S.Korea).

After being in Jamaica for 2 months (Montego bay-4 weeks, Kingston-5 weeks), this would be my last church team while staying on the island. I was team leader and delivered a presentation about the ship and also talked about my own personal journey from life in Arizona to living on the Logos Hope. Juki told a ship story when she lived on O.M's other ship Doulos, and An Na gave her testimony which included a beautiful song. The church leaders had us sit up on the alter during the entire service with the bishop and deacons facing the congregation; Cara and I having special throne-like velvet chairs. There was also a youth choir that sounded great with an exceptionally talented lead female vocalist.
When service was over, one of the leaders took all of us out to eat at Island Grill for some Jerk chicken, Jamaican rice, and festivals; which are warm dessert bread sticks that taste like a doughnut. The food was incredible, and I was glad that Cara had the opportunity to taste authentic Jamaican food before leaving the next day. It was sad to see her leave early Monday morning, but such a wonderful blessing to have her on board for 10 days.

Mountsalus New Testament Church of God, Jamaica.

Top Row L to R: John(U.S.A), Tom(Eng), Cara(U.S.A), Me
Bottom Row L to R: Rebekka(Germany), Gina (U.S.A), church lady, Flavia(Italy), JinHee(S.Korea)

It was a very special church team last Sunday because Cara is visiting me for 10 days. I wanted her to experience a true Caribbean church and was eager to bring her along with me. After driving over an hour into the mountains on a windy and narrow road, we miraculously arrived (...stopped to ask locals for directions at least 6 times) to our destination. We walked into the church hearing very loud music with people dancing up and down the aisles... this was going to be interesting. I, the team leader and M.C. of the event starting off by introducing to the congregation a flag game by which they had to guess the corresponding flag to each missionary. After that, we had testimonies from Gina and Rebekka; three people did a missions presentation involving interaction with members of the church. John delivered the message from Romans. They were sincerely happy to have us as guests, and even gave each person a thank-you certificate for being there. I was terrified about the thought of driving back, but one lady from the church wanted us to drive her to a friend's house who lives near the ship. This meant perfect navigation from the church, all the way to the nearest highway which took us straight home.
Oh yeah, did you notice the dog in the last picture??

Preaching at Harbour View Gospel Chapel.

Julia (uk), John (Sweeden), Me, Beth (Lebanon), Beth's mom is visiting (Lebanon), the senior pastor.

This was the second time I preached a full message since the ship was docked in Barbados. Harbour View was a very traditional Brethern Church; a breath of fresh air from the countless Charismatics I've been to week after week. This was definitely more my style, and the worship was quite lovely. I spoke on Colossians 3:15- Having the peace of Christ rule and direct your hearts. I was surprised by how incredibly nice the people were and the vast age difference among the congregation was also encouraging. It has been rare for me to see young men (16-25yr old) in churches throughout Jamaica. They were not only present at Harbour View, but helping out a lot with worship and communion too. The other members of the ship team spoke on ship life and gave an interactive missions presentation that showed people the current situation today involving evangelism and its world view. Beth's mom is on board here visiting and tagged along to experience what church teams do every week, and of course, to watch her daughter speak.