"Christians that unite and stand together, are strong Christians"
I read this earlier from a 'Daily Bread' booklet on Colin's dinner table this morning.
I can confirm that this weekend has totally rocked any other public holiday weekends that I can remember! Caroline and myself took off on a road trip to Cork to visit her brother, his wife Sunhwa and their son Aidan.
Colin works full time as a missionary on the boats that dock in Cork. Mainly on bulk vessels and container ships. I had met the guy that previously worked as a missionary on the boats. Walter Burrel. As time caught up, Walter could no longer operate his work, and the post was offered to Colin. Colin courageously steps on board (with the appropriate permission) to speak to the ships crew, and spread the Good word. When I heard of this at first, it sounded to me that it was an easy job. Go onto a few ships a week, give a short talk to the crew about God and what he does for us, then leave.
On our trip to Cork, Colin showed us a few of the boats that he had been on before, and asked if we would like to come on board with him. Immediately I am aware how hard this guys work is. Not everyone is so glad to hear about God's word, so they get angry at Colin talking. He told us that its not uncommon for captain and crew members to shout at him until he leaves. The first obvious difficulty is hatred. Are they fearful of what they hear? Do they fear to be ridiculed for having a Bible on board?
The other difficulty would be the language barrier. To help, Colin tries to speak a little language to see how well they can communicate. He carries a child's colouring book with him, to demonstrate that without God in our lives, our books are empty. But with God in our lives, it can become colourful and illustrated.
Luckily the ships that we were on, they were not angry for us to board, but they seemed to have little or no time to listen. The good sign is that we were able to spot a few stickers on board that indicated that there have been other missionaries on board before.
This caused me to take a good look at my own life. These guys spend months on end out at see, they maybe never think or receive the word of God. But yet I have this all around me with friends and family being quite involved in the Church and activities. This trip has really opened my eyes on the lengths that people will go to answer and to deliver God's word. If I have this all around me, why cant I make this step, before its too late? More and more Ive been thinking about how precious and vulnerable life itself is. The things that God has done for us, you don't have to step far from your front door to realise this beauty, its in everything!
There is something I have to do. Tonight. It cant be left any longer. I'm wasting precious life by not.
