Where is the Christmas tree?

26 December 2009 Posted by Martin

[Caracas Baai, Curaçao]
This is a unique Christmas for me. The first one aboard Logos Hope. For the first time I swam on Christmas day and we had a BBQ for dinner! I have tried to find a Christmas tree to decorate, but it hard to find here. After all, do we celebrate Christmas for the tree? If Christmas is for the folklore and the French Bûche, there would be many reasons to be disappointed.

Yet even if the weather is far from being Christmassy, the joy of the good news that  God reaches out to the world through her son remains a reality that I want to have in my life. And I wish you can have that joy to. This joy is eternal, not my family and friends. This is also why it was special to celebrate Christmas on board, as many of my friends are leaving the Logos Hope next month.

A week ashore

19 December 2009 Posted by Martin

[Georgetown, Guyana]The Logos Hope moves from port to port every two or three weeks. It's a pretty intense pace. But during a visit to Georgetown, I went with a team to work with a local church for a week. It was a real privilege to be away from the ship’s business and live among locals. As all team members are part of the drama club on board, we've taught some dramas to the youth group of church for a Christmas concert where we performed as well. We also visited schools and an orphanage.

Above: one of the school visit

A drama we performed at the Christmas concert, which shares the message of the Gospel.
Despite the heat and the mosquitoes, it was a refreshing experience to live one week in a house ...

In my team (from left to right)
Marsha (Netherlands), Lilian (Chile), Liz (Trinidad and Tobago), Jérémie (France), Brad (South Africa), Alison (Northern Ireland) and me.

Logoscars 2009

23 November 2009 Posted by Martin

[Vieux Fort, Saint Lucia]
We just finished a Sabbath week in St. Lucia. During five days, the Logos Hope was not open to the public, but we had teaching on the theme of the Tabernacle in the morning and time to rest in the afternoon. One of the highlight of the week was the Logoscars: a little short movie contest organized by the crew. For this evening, the engine guys had left their overalls in the cupboard, and everyone was in their best cloth
With a friend, I made a film about cultural diversity - "A Normal Day" - I hope to present it soon! The film has been welcomed very well, and we received five awards! (Best Editing, Best Photography, Best Actress, Best Actor and Best Film)

This is a small family photo with the masters of ceremony and another director.

From left to right:
Simon Zemek, Master of Ceremony (USA), Ruben Munoz, Actor (Mexico), Christine Wu, actress and co-screenwriter (Taiwan), Martin Baker, actor and director (France) BK Madu, actor (India), Samy Schubert director of a cartoon about ship’s life which won the Audience choice (Germany) and Janice McShane, Mistress of Ceremonies (Australia)

TV Ad

19 October 2009 Posted by Martin

[Castries, Saint Lucia]
In two weeks, the Logos Hope will visit Barbados. Ruben has just finished a TV advertisement which is broadcast in the island. I share it with you, and I hope that its local flavour will warm up the cold autumn.

video

Life on Board : The Book Fair

26 September 2009 Posted by Martin

[Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago] In the Caribbean, the Logos Hope is know has the book sip. And well, the Book Fair can be a very busy place! Here in Trinidad, we received 5300 visitors one of the public holidays. And you can imagine that after such a busy day, there is no much time to rest... the place has to be cleaned and the shelves restocked for the following day.

Below a presentation video of this department.


video

PST Scarborough

12 September 2009 Posted by Martin

[Scarborough, Tobago]

PST Scarborough - here they come! As each semester the crew changeover is a unique and festive event. And this year they were 96 to join the Pre Ship Training (PST) from Scarborough on the island of Tobago.

Among them, two French ... the community grows a little. All these volunteers are joining the Logos Hope for two years. They will first go through a training to prepare them for the ministry of the ship and safety at sea, then they will join their work department.

As for the IT team, this means a lot of laptop to check!!

First port in the Caribbean

13 August 2009 Posted by Martin

[St Vincent and the Grenadines]
After two weeks in St Vincent it's time to share somes pictures...
It's a really beautifull country, with jungle...

and black sand beaches, due to it's volcano (La Soufrière). The Grenadines have whit sand du to the Corals, but I haven't been there. 

Last weekend, I went on a trip to this volcano with 2 friends, Ruben and Markus.

After one hour and a half, shaken in a crowded bus full of reggae music, we finally arrived in Gergetown. But the weather was pretty bad, so we drop the hike for a walk on the beach... with nices waves!

This is how I enjoy my days off, but the rest of the time (which is 6 days a week) are pretty busy as well. The Logos Hope has experienced har biggest crowds. Compared to Europe, it's amazing! 43506 visitors came on board, and they bought more books than in the 4 ports of Edinburgh, Belfast, Cardiff and London together! We have much more educational books than before, and they have a great success. As for me, I had the opportunity to take part of a church service in a prison and to meet with locals who are learning french.  

Premieres on the ocean

21 July 2009 Posted by Martin

[Atlantic Ocean]
During the Atlantic crossing, the work continues, but the atmosphere is more relax, and it's also a time full of discoveries:
Animals

• For the first time, I see dolphins, wales (let's say their water spray), flying fishes and plankton !!!!

Sport

• Playing Basket ball ! (and losing the ball during the game...)

Food

• Drinking desalinated water
• BBQ in the middle of the ocean.

Rest

• Changing time zone every 2 days.
• sleeping under the stars, and being rocked by the waves. (and we see thousands of stars here!)

Transatlanitc to the Caribbean

15 July 2009 Posted by Martin

[Cork, Ireland]
Joyeux 14 juillet!
Ce soir, le Logos Hope quitte l’Europe, et prend le cap pour les Caraïbes. On a célébré ‘ca avec Ruben, Betsy, Jérémie et Alice, les 4 autres Français à bord.

Alors que l’ on quitte Cork, nous goutons déjà à lui pluie (tropicale ;o) mais il ne manque que la température!

C’est partie pour 14 jours de mer à travers l’Atlantique. La météo nous prévoit du gros temps pour le début, mais j’ai hâte de vivre ça !

Cake Hunt

10 July 2009 Posted by Martin

[Cork, Ireland]

What a long day! To celebrate my quarter of century, several friends of the ship organized a cake hunt.

The quest was full of twists and turns: encrypted messages, hint discovery with a GPS and anonymous phone calls. After exploring the library for information and interviewing for 20 minutes the shop keeper of the shipshop  (a small shop on board), I was still empty-handed: NO CAKE.

Actually, with the cake from my work colleagues and the one from the "one year and a half on board" celebration (we celebrated it the same day with the group that joined in Kiel) my stomach was not empty. 

Finally, today I managed to get the cake, poor cake, he was in hostage in one of the freezers.

And as a gift, you know what I had? A trip to the Caribbean! Nice, isn't it? Yesterday in fact we passed  the last security audit was was required to continue to sail. We now have all the papers in our pocket, lift up the Andhor!
The departure is scheduled for July 14.

Au revoir Europe (under, the bell tower of Cork, Ireland)

Bonjour to the Caribbean islands.

Bringing Knowledge, Help and Hope

03 July 2009 Posted by Martin

[Cork, Ireland]
What is the Logos Hope about? We want to bring Knowledge, Help and Hope to the nations. Learn more about the Logos Hope in this video.

video

Download the video

London

26 June 2009 Posted by Martin

[London, United Kingdom] The Logos Hope is docked for 2 weeks in London. That's a great opportunity to visit!

But most of my schedule is shared between the IT office and the visitor deck. Indeed, if the week is fairly quiet, weekends are busy with up to 4,500 visitors a day, a good preparation for the Caribbean next month. So I went to lend a hand to the welcome desk or to give tours. And it’s very refreshing for me!

Lights and music!

13 June 2009 Posted by Martin

[London, UK] Every morning, the ship's company gather for a time of devotion. But this morning had a very special flavour: for the first time we gathered in the Hope Theater. This is the biggest conference room on board.
When I join the Logos Hope a year and a half ago, the welcoming party took place there, and at that time, it looked like that:

Today, after many hours of work, we had the first evening and 400 young people came:

In a few days, we will welcome school visites, youth groups, churches, and various conferences. It's exciting to have this new tool, but this opening is also another step in the renovation project which is clearly coming to an end. We are grateful for all the work that has been achieved by hundreds of people who gave their time and talents to build this place. Through them, we have seen God's provision for us.

On the diet

31 May 2009 Posted by Martin

[Cardiff, Wales] After Belfast and Dublin, we are now in Cardiff, the captial city of Wales.
The arrival was impressive as we had to go through several locks before coming alongside, at the heart of Cardiff bay.
And some places were tight:

really tight!

About one meter on each side of the ship.

But we all arrive safely! Congratulation to the Captain and the deckies!

In the Jaw of the Whale

28 April 2009 Posted by Martin

[Torshavn, Feroe Islands]Short visit in the sheep island -The Faeroe Islands - where twice as many sheep as people live. The hospitality of the inhabitants warm up the fresh weather (I have seen snow!). Before being a floating library, the Logos Hope was a car ferry - the Norröna - linking the Faroe Islands to the mainland. We felt feeling of ownership of the population for this ship which marked their history of the past 30 years. Overthe 10 days of visit, 14 800 visitors came on board, which represents 25% of the population! Here are some pictures of this fascinating country.

Hiking in a wonderful landscape.

Some cliffs are more that twice the heigh of the Eiffeil tower!

 The piece of wood on what I am lying down is in fact a whale jaw.
If we can't find giant whale in our plates anymore, the pilot whale hunt is still a big aspect of the culture here.
Notice also the grass on the roof!

The sound of bagpipes

15 April 2009 Posted by Martin

[Edinburgh, Scotland]We celebrated Easter in Scotland and many visitors came on board over the weekend. Last week, the Scottish welcome was impressive. At the sound of bagpipes, the Logos Hope entered the lock that marks the entrance to the port of Edinburgh. The rest of the stay was also special. The Scots are warm and friendly and thanks to George from Lyon and his flat mates, I visited every corner of Edinburgh, and tasted the Haggis, a regional dish. You can admire the castle, which overlooks the city.

Thank you George for your Hospitaliy!

Cultural discovery

30 March 2009 Posted by Martin

[Harligen, Netherland]

One month of visit in the Netherlands comes to an end. For this first month of operation, it is nice to see the book fair full of visitors and to participate in various programs such as evenings for young Christians from local churches or thank you dinners for donors who support the Logos Hope.

Like any new port, the discovery of the local culture is required. On the menu: the stroopwafel, delicious Dutch wafer filled with caramel, or the raw herring dipped in chopped onions (and of course raw)

... I'll let you guess what I prefer!

Life on board: The Deck Department

09 March 2009 Posted by Martin

The Deck Department works under the Captain and the officers to ensure the security and the good shape of the ship. They watch over us at night,are trained to fight the fire!

video

Life on board: The Engine Room

02 March 2009 Posted by Martin

The engine room is the heart of the Logos Hope. It provides electricity, air, hot water, and power to move the ship. Let's visit one of the hidden place of the Logos Hope.

video

Life on board: The Angels

23 February 2009 Posted by Martin

The angels are the people from the Accommodation Department. Their role is to make sure that the Logos Hope is a pleasant place to live. as a result, they know every corner of this ship...

video

Snowy Gothenburg

22 February 2009 Posted by Martin

[Gothenburg, Sweden]Our stay in Gothenburg is short, only 4 days! But it has been rich in experiences. The Book Fair was open every day, and I presented the Logos Hope in a church. One evening we had a snowstorm. The snow was perfect to make an awesome snowman.  People even stopped to take picture (which was great because I forgot to take my camera ;o)

And here is the result with Ruben, the other snowman builder

Another discovery: walking on the ice…

Shall I go or shall I stay?

And without hands!

nice berth isn't it?