"Be joyful always; pray continually;
give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
1 Thessalonians
5 v 16-18
Paul and Aniina Rogers came to the School to tell us about a ship called the Logos Hope. The ship is part of Operation Mobilisation and it goes to countries all over the world. At each port the ship stops at, the ship is opened for visitors to come aboard and look at all the books and talk to the staff. The staff try to support churches in the areas they stop. The ships provide literature and help people in need.
Paul and Aniina worked on one of the OM ships and told us what living onboard was like. Whole families live onboard and so there is a school for the children. Aniina was a teacher at the school and Paul worked as an electrician.
Paul
also shared with us the amazing story of how he became a Christian. He told us
how he was in Thailand when the tsunami happened in 2004. He told us how he
almost died, and how he felt very grateful to be alive afterwards. He started
to notice all the animals and plants and realised they couldn’t have come about
by chance. Whilst he was still in Thailand, a Greek man talked to him about God
and Paul asked Jesus to forgive his sins and come into his life. Paul went to
work on the ship and met his wife Aniina. Now they are planning to go and live
in Thailand to help a church there. In the future they hope to be able to reach
out to locals and tourists by opening a café run by Christians who will talk to
the customers when they come in.
It was a very interesting and inspiring visit and in the future we hope to make contact with some of the children on the ship.