Then... and NOW!

Going for my old school's Awards Night has brought back soooo many memories!

People look and act different.

Most (maybe all!) of the then juniors/middlers are now taller than me! :)

The then little girls all look like grown up ladies now.

And all the then little boys now talk to me with cracked voices.

People who i couldn't get them to do stuff are now leaders that I admire and respect.

But its good to know that somethings never change yeah?

Have a look...

then...

and now!

*more about Awards Night after my exam!*

Doulos 2

Now i will share with you a little about what the 350 people from 50 different nationalities do on the ship. Remember that they are all paid a salary of ZERO (even the captain!). In fact, they have to pay to serve! But from the time i was there, i can see that they all do it with JOY!

The ship has quite a number of departments, but there are five major departments:

THE DECK DEPARTMENT: the majority of this department consist of guys. this where they work to clean the outside of the ship. They take care of the ship when everyone sleeps. They also get to drive the ship when its sails! Pretty interesting job.

the deckies praying

Jun (S.Korea) standing guard!

THE ENGINE ROOM: I salute the guys who work in the engine room. Not only is it dangerous, they have to constantly work in hot (yep, i sweat sooo much when i wash the engine room toilets!) and dirty conditions, and they also have to bear with the constant loud hum/roar/noise of the engine. And they all finish work covered with oil and grease, but they do it coz they love Jesus! :) *i don't have photos of the engine guys! but when i do find one, i'll upload it!

THE KITCHEN: This is where they prepare meals and wash dishes. They prepare over 1000 meals a day. Not an easy task!

Jong Pill (S. Korea) building muscles by throwing rubbish!

matthew (S'pore) washing cups

Oliver (Switzerland) washing plates

Sam (S'pore) grating cheese

THE BOOKEX: This group of ppl work in the book exhibition, where they have to welcome guest, carry books, man the cashier, and to pack-up/pack-down whenever the ship sails and arrives at a new port.

Daniel (Malaysia) and his books.

Anael (Switzerland) helping visitors

ACCOMODATION: woohoo! Acomm for short. This is the department which i worked in! We clean and clean and clean! Toilets, walls, stairs (basically the inside of the ship). We work in the laundry too. And we also take care of the International Cafe where we serve lil snacks. Haha, will share with you stories from Acomm one day!

Janice (S'pore) vacumming the whole ship! not easy especially when sailing!

Cath (Australia) working at the International Cafe

Laundryyy! my favorite Accom job!

Me, cleaning the 210 or 211 toilets (more about that later!)

Each department has its own joys, challenges and frustrations! The work may look and sound easy, but trust me, it's NOT easy at all. But the beautiful thing about it is that each department supports each other so that visitors to the Doulos can get to know the reason for the Hope that we are working for. Sometimes when the work gets really really tough, looking at the faces of each visitor or at the faces of the people who are blessed by the ministry of Doulos, MAKES IT ALL WORTH IT!

Thoughts from Family Camp...

The highest expression of love is worship.
The highest expression of worship is trust.
The highest expression of trust is obedience.
The highest expression of obedience is death.
Do we worship, trust and obey God?

Casual Christianity: set of customs and rituals observed by people
who love Jesus in order to go to heaven
True Christianity: set of standards and actions practiced by people
who follow Jesus in order to establish his Kingdom.

Doulos 1

Let me first introduce to you my STEP group. STEP btw, stands for "Short Term Exporsure Program".

Many people commented that we bonded really well in such a short time. These guys and girls were AMAZING to be with and to get to know better. We laughed and cried together many times! These are the people I mostly "hung out" with. There were 27 of us all together and we are known as the "Keelung Steppers" (because we started our program from Keelung, Taiwan)

Some pics [almost all my pics are taken by my fellow Stepper, Yihui, who has a super canggih camera!] :-

our first pic together! learning the Doulos' famous tearing-Cross.

steppers outing! *will blog more about it later* and no, we did not visit the Big Buddha.


at the foot of the mountain.

at the peak!

our first farewell :(

Keelung STEP - May 2009:

1) Adeline from Canada
2) Joanna from Canada
3) Jong Pill from South Korea
4) Seung Hye from South Korea
5) DaBin from South Korea
6) David from South Korea
7) Yun Yong from South Korea
8) Sun Hye from South Korea
9) Matthew from Singapore
10) Marianne from Singapore
11) Samantha from Singapore
12) Clarence from Singapore
13) Janice from Singapore
14) Yi Hui from Singapore
15) Anael from Switzerland
16) Danael from Switzerland
17) Oliver from Switzerland
18) Olivier from Switzerland
19) Gun from Thailand
20) Catherine from Australia
21) Karen from USA
22) Careyan from Taiwan
23) Mihaela from Romania
24) Daniel from Malaysia
25) Jack from Malaysia
26) Luke from Malaysia
27) Grace from Malaysia

I miss you all so so much! Every single one of you is so very precious to me!
Thank you so much for the memories!
You have all contributed in helping me learn and grow during this time.
I love you guys!

Stay tuned!

I'm so sorry i did not have the time to update my blog in Doulos. But i will be doing so soon!

There's soooo many things to tell you and so many pictures to show!

Stay tuned... :)

Update 1

Dear All,
Firstly, i would like to thank all those who have been praying about me, thinking about me, email-ing me and keeping in touch with me!

This is just some updates from me:
I work in the Steward Department under Accomodation/Hotel Services. This means i do cleaning the inside of the ship (toilets included!), almost the entire ship's laundry, and work in the coffee bar. All this i do for five days a week.

One day of the week is an off day, while the other is what we call an E-day (which is short for evangelism day) where we have both onboard and onshore ministry.

We are allowed to go out at nights during our free time. Oh btw, it will interest some of you (especially my parents) that i am eating sooo much here! Because working gives you a bigger appetite! I'm getting fat!!!!

Anyway, in short.. Doulos has been great so far! A learning experience! God's been shaping me and revealing things to me.

Thank you for praying. God bless!

Hello!

Greetings from the Doulos! Just want to let you all know that i'm okay here! Updates later :)

In your free time, please drop me an email at Grace.Goh@gbaships.org
Please don't send to my hotmail as i can't access it from here! Thanks! Keep in touch!