Logos Hope Sails!

The Logos Hope, which is the newest addition to OM's ocean-going ship ministry, finally set sail from Køge, Denmark on February 19^th, after nearly 5 years of conversion and outfitting. The first port of call will be Gothenburg, Sweden, and then ports in the Netherlands, UK, Faroe Islands and Ireland. International Co-ordinator for OM, Peter Maiden said: “As Logos Hope sails from Køge a great day has arrived in the history of OM Ships and, I believe, in the history of OM. It is both encouraging and challenging to think of the huge number of people who will meet with God on this vessel or through teams sent from this vessel in the years to come.” The Logos Hope will bring knowledge, help and hope to people in port cities all around the world, in the form of literature resources, aid supplies and an all-volunteer crew and Staff.

Ready, Set, GO!

Through the years that Sue and I have been together, we have had several times that really stick in our memories – times like going to the Urbana Missions conference together, driving across country with our family from NY to Yellowstone Park and back, the wedding of our daughter Melinda. We have now added another such memory in our trip to Germany to attend the OM GO! conference. The GO! Conference is OM's major training and orientation program for new members as they head out to their various fields and assignments. It's a time of transition, from the comfortable environment of our own home and culture, to another place, often foreign and uncomfortable, but guided by the Lord's hand on our lives. The conference deals with understanding who we are, both as individuals and cultures, and where we are going. It's a time to asses why we are following the Lord into His work around the world, as well as thinking about some of the specifics of what we will be doing.

For us, this was a time to meet people from around the world, and make new friends – a time to break out of our cultural boxes, and even sometimes to laugh at ourselves. It was a time to really get serious about our commitment to God and what He has called us to do, and to think seriously about the price we are willing to pay to see His Gospel carried to every people and tongue.

There were somewhere around 120 participants at the conference (not including staff), from around 20 different sending nations, headed out to 15 or 20 different fields and projects. Of course, some of them were headed to the two ship ministries of OM – the Logos Hope and the Doulos.

We have many stories from the conference, but a couple of the things that really impacted us were the many people we met there, and the day of prayer.

How do you spend all day praying?

Well, that was probably the question on the minds of a lot of the people at the conference on the one day which was set aside almost totally for individual prayer. However, at the end of the day, we all wondered where the time had slipped away. The main conference room was set up with a dozen or so different “stations”, each with a particular focus in prayer. One spot focused on the fears we faced going into ministry. Another focused on freedom from different sins that may have been hounding us. Another focused on praise and worship, and had recordings of the Psalms. Another focused on forgiveness and releasing others who have wronged us. In another area, there were stations covering different unreached nations, or issues like the continued slave trade and the exploitation of children and women, or different world religions. The day was spent in quiet prayer and reflection, with people moving from one area to another at their own pace, stopping to learn about all of the different needs, and then praying. Part of the day was also spent in more collective prayer, with one large room divided up into a dozen different fields represented at the conference. Everyone would pick one of the areas (there was room for about five or six people at each place), and then spend about five or ten minutes hearing about that particular nation or region, getting a list of specific prayer requests, and then spent another ten minutes praying together. Then we would get up and move to another area, and repeat.

What I felt during the day was a sense of beginning to get close to God's heart, not so much for big countries, or broad ideals, but for the very real people who were represented by each of these times of prayer. It's all well and good to have loud, exciting times of praise and worship as a group, but the real foundation of our Faith is built in the quiet moments we learn to spend with God.

Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers...

One thing that really hit us was the number of people, from college age to retired couples, who were there, ready to leave behind their comfortable homes and jobs, to say goodbye to their friends and family, and to head out to every corner of the globe. Many were headed to the two OM ship ministries, the Logos Hope and the Doulos, but others were headed to countries like Ireland, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Vietnam, South Africa and India. The excitement was palpable, but it was more than just the emotions of going off to see new places and learn new cultures. They were filled with a desire to see the Good News of Jesus brought to the people of these nations, to serve them through medical missions, youth outreaches, teaching, sports programs, and any number of other activities, to build relationships with people, and to see the Gospel make an impact on their lives. Probably very few of them really knew what they were going out to face, but they were ready to follow the Lord, wherever He might take them.

The OM "GO!" Conference

Well, we just got back from the OM "GO!" conference in Mosbach, Germany. This is OM's training and orientation conference for new members as they get ready to actually head out to their fields. There were about 120 people from at least 20 countries, headed for around 20 different places around the world.

It was a great time of teaching, worship and praise, prayer, and a time to get to meet and interact with different people from all kinds of different cultures and backgrounds. There was a wide variety of ages, though the majority of the people were younger. I sort of felt like the "parent" as I was talking to all these young people, but they all made Sue and me feel welcome and appreciated. We made some friendships that I think will last a life time.

The schedule was pretty insane, and not surprisingly, a lot of people were tired and struggling with colds. We managed to keep healthy during the conference itself, but the cold/cough/fever that was going around finally managed to catch up with us on the day we got home. Thankfully, we can take a little time to crash and get some rest!

I'm still "processing" as they called it there -- thinking through and internalizing all the ideas we were exposed to there through the different sessions, so I plan to have more posts here as time allows (and when I'm not suffering from coughing fits! :-/).

Remembering Alex Elyjiw

(Last weekend, one of my best friends from growing up -- Alex Elyjiw -- was killed in an auto accident. I wrote up a little memory piece I'd like to publish here, in his memory.)

Oh yes... Boys growing up. Those pre-teen and adolescent days can be rough times, but it sure helps when you have best friends to spend them with. I had a lot of friends when I was growing up, but Alex was definitely one of the best.

Actually, I remember the entire Elyjiw family as a special part of my growing up. I always liked to come over to your house. Your parents were always fascinating, and I loved the art and craftwork you always had around your house—especially the Easter Eggs. It was a special place of respect for a heritage that you were fighting to maintain and protect.

I remember spending hours and hours together with Alex and George (and even Ken and Peter sometimes), building everything from hot air balloons to model airplanes and rockets. I remember lots of quick-setting “5 minute epoxy” and Popsicle stick patches. I wonder how many rockets we lost on top of the School 46 roof. My brother Ken reminded me of boomerangs (I never was really good with those) and firecrackers. We flew hot air balloons, heated over alcohol burners made out of tin cans... kites... bike races around the little parking lot at the school. We rode our bikes down the water culvert that ran along side of Browncroft Blvd into the Ellison Park valley. I remember playing with toy soldiers in the sandbox and woods next to Andy Smith's garage. ("Bombs Away!") Races down Doorchester. (What IS it about little boys and races?) I remember playing hide-and-seek after dark. Alex was creative, competitive, energetic, friendly, kind, and just a great friend to grow up with!

I think I remember the model airplanes the best. We would build control-line planes (the kind that you hold on to the wires and fly in circles) that were about the same size, and tie long streamers to the tails. Then, we would both start them up, standing at the center of the same circle, and fly them around together, with each one trying to clip the other's streamer with our propeller. It was some CRAZY flying, and we spent a lot of time laughing together as we tried to not get our lines too badly tangled! I think we had more than a few crashes, and we went through many tubes of quick 5-minute epoxy glue to fix them right there in the School 46 field, and then get them back up into the air.

I seem to remember one model plane that Alex (or George?) converted from a stick-and-tissue-paper design to a control line. I think he put too big a motor on it though. He started flying it, and before it had gone around the circle a half dozen times, the body (and gas motor) sheared off from the wing mounts and went spinning off into the air. We were rolling around on the ground and laughing for quite a while after that one.

I still have some of those model airplane parts down in my basement. I haven't touched them in years, but I don't quite have the heart to clean them out because they have so many great memories associated with them.

I remember the rockets too. We started out with kits from Estes, but quickly moved to designing our own rockets. I tried a couple of rocket sleds (strictly against the rules), and had at least one which turned out to be negatively stable. We had big ones and little ones (the “Mosquito”). We had big, important sounding count-downs, and then racing off on the bicycle to try to figure out where the wind had carried the rocket and its parachute, and wondering HOW we were going to get the fool thing out of the tree it had landed in. (Rake handles never seem to be long enough.)

I remember trying to do clay-mation movies with his 8mm camera. I know we spent hours, one frame at a time, slowly moving the clay figures and toy cars. I don't know if we ever saw the end results of that movie, but in a way I guess it didn't matter. It was the process that was important.

One thing I remember about Alex though was that, even though he was really competitive and played his hardest to be the best, in the end it didn't really matter who won or lost. We were just friends having fun together.

It's been a long time since I've seen Alex, and I have often wondered how you guys were doing. Though these are lousy circumstances under which to get back in touch, it's still nice to be able to look back and remember the really great times we had as kids, and to hear from you again. I'm glad to hear that, at least in the good ways, Alex didn't change a lot from back when I knew him.