Wow, the time went so fast. It’s been 4 weeks since my last up-date. I am very sorry for that. Well, it’s time to let you know a few things that I was doing in the last 4 weeks.
Since I started on Logos Hope I have been drawing closer to God. Wow, what an amazing experience!
I changed departments from being an “Angel” (in the cleaning/laundry) department to working in the “Hopestar Shift” in the book fair. This is a great place to meet local people and interact with them. Malaysia is such a multicultural country. Indians, Muslims, Malaysians and Chinese live all next to each other in peace and tolerance. Enjoying each other’s food culture as food is soooo important here! So you can imagine that it is a colourful mix of people visiting the ship, from beautiful colourful saris to traditional muslim dresses and head scarves to very colourful dresses covered with lots of shiny accessories and funky asian pop style to amazingly dressed business people. The great thing is that every single one carries a story. That amazes me the most I think.
Some of my tasks include welcoming people, selling tickets (1RM – not even 0,20 Euro cents or about NZD 0.50), informing people about the ship by wearing a life jacket and showing a dvd, making announcement at the information desk in the book fair, pricing books and restocking, container unloading, cash desk, deal bag area cash desk or customer service which can be anything from putting back books that have been misplaced or talking to people or explaining the “Journey of Life”. Journey of Life” is a great area or a story or the lost son and making choices in life. You can imagine how I love the different positions and interacting with people. Sometimes I have been even able to sit for a couple of hours and do some colouring with children at the kids corner in the café.
How did I draw closer to God?
A wonderful person in the book fair challenged me during my first week working there and asked me “Barbara, do you know where you are going after this life?”
Wow, I could not give him an answer that convinced him nor ME! He lent me a book called “Experiencing God” and that has been the best part of my time on board. I have been able to be challenged and started reading, exploring how to get closer to God, how to hear his voice clearly and how to build a personal friendship with Jesus. It created such a hunger for more in me that I enjoy reading! And for all who know me more on a personal level, that is a miracle by itself – Me reading! Yes, I enjoy it and every day I wished I was not tired already to read more and more.
So I have been very busy doing my studies and reading another book beside that one as well. I also enjoy to be surrounded with like minded people and talk about God openly and often. We pray before and after work, have morning devotions 4x per week and it’s just can certainly blow your mind when you hear from what kind of background some people come, from drug addiction, crime, gang leaders, homeless person, street child, insecurity, shame, depression,… to very well protected Christian families. It is very encouraging for me, as I am sure you know yourself, sometimes we feel like our background or problems are hard to bear and carry.
Some pics of book fair.
Well, next up-date just below :o)
Barbara
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