Port: Harmac East
Crew: 21 Chinese
Names of Ship Missionaries: Frank Sciarpelletti, Grant Sandeman- Allen
Result: 4 heard the gospel
Items taken on & given out: 21 Christmas presents, 5 Chinese- English New Testaments, 21 Chinese tracts
We boarded the ship shortly after 6pm and the ship was so low in the water that the gangway was level! They initially took us to the ship’s office and seemed to ask what we wanted. We asked if we could meet with the crew in the mess room, so they gave us a crew list and took us up to the mess room.
There were a couple of seafarers in there and they got us drinks and I sensed that we needed to hand out the Christmas gifts to encourage them to come and see us. The C/O began calling crew members down and I gave them their gift; to which they were very thankful.
After all of the excitement of gifts we had 4 seafarers across the table from us to listen to our message of the gospel. Today the Lord reminded me that I have a video from a pastor in Vancouver sharing the gospel in Mandarin. I showed them the video on my iPad, which included two songs by the pastor as well. Afterwards, we had the opportunity to ask them some questions about what the pastor said. Frank suggested that we could use the Chinese-English New Testaments by finding the scriptures in English and having them read them in Mandarin. The messmate did the scripture reading and all of the communication with us. I had him read from Romans 3 and 4 as well as Revelations 22. I used the translation app in my iPhone to the scriptures and further explain the gospel message to them.
Frank also used the translator to speak to them further about the gospel and, when asked, they said that they were interested in eternal life. Interestingly, they then asked us what “eternity” meant, so Frank showed them a picture of infinity (a never-ending loop like a pretzel). They seemed to understand this and thanked us for sharing this message with them. We shared how to seek God through prayer and reading His word, and asked the messmate to contact us through email so that we could minister to them further. After we were finished our meeting, the messmate said that he would read the tract that we gave him to the whole crew the next morning at breakfast.
We left the ship praising God that we were able to break the language barrier using technology. It was so nice to see them, especially the messmate, so excited about the gospel. Please pray that they will read their Chinese-English New Testaments, the tracts, and that they will pray for Salvation.
Report submitted by: Grant
