Port: Nanaimo B dock
Crew: 20 Filipino
Names of Ship Missionaries: Frank Sciarpelletti, Gerard Guimbatan, Grant Sandeman-Allen
Result: 16 came to meet with us
Items taken on & given out: 20 Christmas gifts, 15 Tagalog New Testaments, 10 copies of the gospel
I finished work and checked through dock security then drove up to the ship. Frank and Gerard followed a few minutes later and we board the ship. The deck security officer checked us in and took us to the crew mess. Gerard was talking to several crew in the hallway and said that Chief Officer would call all available crew to come and meet us before they had dinner. Soon they came pouring into the mess and sat down in two rows.
I explained that we have two different versions of the gospel: Honour-Shame and Fear-Power. They identified that the Fear-Power (ancestral worship) was most appropriate. I had initially wanted to pass out the message and have them read it and give us some feedback, but Gerard said that their reading of English isn’t very good. So Gerard had the youngest seafarer read the Fear-Power gospel to them and I realized, by how much difficulty he had with reading many of the words, that this was too hard for them to understand.
Gerard started sharing more details of the gospel with them and then I took over and shared a message parallel to the written one. I focused it around the definition of a Christian, which is “Christ in you.” I talked a lot about how God wants us to be like His Beloved Son, Jesus. I told the story of Lazarus and how Jesus raised him from the dead, signifying how God sees us as spiritually dead, and only Jesus can raise us to new life. I also talked about how becoming a Christian is a process that involves agreeing with God and confessing that we are sinners, believing in Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins, repenting of our sins and beginning to read His word. They must seek God’s forgiveness and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit until God answers their petitions.
Frank shared about the Pharisee and the publican and how the publican (tax collector) went home justified. I prayed for their searching for God to save them, their families and voyage. Gerard prayed to bless them and then we handed out Christmas gifts. They started having dinner while we talked with a few before leaving the ship.
I’m very glad that we had this visit tonight because I could see just how the wording of this gospel message was beyond their understanding. I found this message in a book about a gospel message that fit for the different spiritual cultures around the world. Although it seemed like a failure, I would rather find out now that it was beyond their understanding. Now I can use some of the concepts from fear-power but the wording and scriptures that we said to them afterwards.
We thank God for a good visit with this crew and the cooperation of the Chief Officer who is a Christian and can follow-up with crew members who may have questions. We had a very good turnout and they were very attentive to everything that we said. Please pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to minister to them as they read the materials in their Christmas gifts while they travel to Asia.
Report submitted by: Grant
