Port:Harmac East
Crew: 23 Vietnamese
Names of Ship Missionaries: Gerard Guimbatan, Frank Sciarpelletti, Jerry Kopec
Result: 8 heard the gospel
Items taken on & given out: 23 gifts, 1 Vietnamese bible for the captain 10 Vietnamese tracts, 4 laminated bible verse posters
We arrived at the security gate at 6:00 pm. The Paladin security guard issued us passes and then we drove to the ship and walked up the gangway. We were met by the Captain, and this is the third time in a year that we have visited with him.
The Captain led us to the crew mess where we took off our shoes, as is the custom on this ship. There were 8 crew there, 8 more were outside lashing down the logs, and the rest were sleeping.
Earlier in the day I, Frank, inquired with copilot (Microsoft version of chat GPT) on witnessing to the Vietnamese seafarers. As per the suggestions given, we presented Jesus as Dao, “the way.” In John 14:6, Jesus said that He “is the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through Him.”
In doing this, we create a bridge between their culture and Christianity.
Jerry presented that God is a loving God, and Gerard had the captain read out various verses in the bible in Vietnamese including John 3:15-18. I said that God the creator is Holy and can’t live in coexistence with sInful man, so he provided a solution allowing His Son to die on the cross. In 2 Corinthians 5:21 it says, “He exchanged Jesus righteousness for our sins.” The Captain accepted the poster and will have it taped in the crew mess. He was moved by our approach which showed that we respected his crew and in a way we were cultivating a relationship for ongoing ship visits. Gerard stressed Psalm 90:10; that “eternity” is what Good wants to spend with us, he also illustrated that the captain needs a map to plan his journey to China, in the same way we need to plan for our eternal destination.
Afterwards, all three of us prayed for the crew, for their voyage, safety and families. They took a lot of materials compared to other visits that we’ve had on this ship. The captain took 4 laminated posters and was going to have them put up around the ship. The captain also initiated some picture taking and even had more pictures taken outside where the logs were on the deck.
A further comment about “Dao.”
“Dao” means “the way” in Vietnamese and they believe that humans turned away from the creator—Dao (the way of harmony). When “the way” broke, fear entered and people tried ritual offering to get rid of the fear, but the fear never left. The parallel is that our creator, God, has the solution to restore people by having Christ redeem us back into a restored relationship.
We praise God for such a good visit, and especially for the deeper connection through this research. Please pray that the breakthrough of the similarity of their Dao and Jesus (as “the [true] way”) will connect with them and that they will read the materials that we gave them.
Report submitted by: Frank
