Here is a newsletter of my friend Alain who has recently joined our ship "Logos hope"
Hi All,
Firstly, I’m sorry that the communications has been so bad on my side. I have been training and training!!! I must say the trip has been a real learning experience, yet a real blessing!! When I arrived the first thing I noticed was this thick hot air and it was so difficult to breathe. I got to the hotel where all 73 trainees from 25 different nationalities got ready to start their Pre-Ship Training (PST) which we did from the 4-21 September. It was getting us ready for ship life and opened us to the different ministries the ship has. We also got to hear about the different departments there are on the Logos Hope, for example, Deck Department. Which many of you already know is my favourite and it is what I want to do on the ship. Deck or Deckies as they are called are responsible for many tasks on the ship. Mainly maintenance and safety of the ship.
PST went well and I enjoyed meeting and fellowshipping with my PST Team; PST Penang, “All for one, whooh, PST Penang, wooh Penang, whooh Penang…..” J That is our chant. During our PST we had Basic Safety Training (BST) where we learned how to handle emergincies. Life boats, life rafts, fires on board and so on. The Sunday before the BST began we went to the ship for many us that were our first time seeing the ship in real life, I was one of those. The ship’s crew formed a guard of honour with their national flags and the new PST was welcomed to the ship, it is a tradition on the ship. And we had church together.
It was so great to move on the ship on the 21 September, I’m in a 5 man cabin on deck 2. I also found out that I’m a Deckie!!! That was great news for me!! And then on the 27 September we sailed out of Penang to our next port, Port Klang. I’m enjoying life here so much. I’m doing department training now and I’m enjoying being a deckie.
I really want to thank you all for your prayers and support.
I must appologise this is the first newsletter I have done myself, hopefully I will make my next letter more creative. J
Missing all of you
Blessings,
Alain le Sueur
allesueur@gmail.com (email)
Alain Leon le Sueur (Facebook)
Post or Mail:
Alain le Sueur
LOGOS HOPE
Alte Neckarelzer Str. 2
74821 Mosbach, Germany
Alte Neckarelzer Str. 2
74821 Mosbach, Germany
Or call me:
Satelite phone lines: USA: +1 954 518 7256
UK: +44 1228 815 299
This is the newsletter of one of my firends Matthew Palmer who is currently serving with OM in an Eastern Europe country called Kosovo. Matt is an amazing guy with crazy guitar skills so enjoy his update
Matt in Kosovo
Wow, these last two months have been so good, pretty
action packed. I’m so thankful to God for everything I’ve
experienced and everything that He’s done.
It was such a huge blessing to be a part of two Music/
Arts tours that happened over this time. The first tour
was with a well established group called ‘TACO’ who are
based in Turkey (though from all over) and the second
was just a bunch of us thrown together (also from all
over the world) as part of the larger OM ‘Transform’
event.
The TACO team (first tour) is a band who also incorporate
drama, dance and fire poi (twirling fire on the ends of
small chains) into their performance. I had the privilege
of playing in their band, as they were short one guitarist
so I gladly joined them. Altogether I think we played
about 10 shows in 6 different cities within Kosovo,
mostly with a full sound system etc. but we also played
unplugged a few times on the street. Generally speaking
our goals were to first attract an audience (with fire
poi and dance) - and then not only do an enjoyable
performance, but also bring across a message, through
the songs (Turkish, Albanian and Charles’ English rock/
pop songs - the lyrics were projected onto a screen in
Albanian) and through drama and dance. For example
we had a prodigal son type drama that went across three
songs - the drama illustrated the story and mood of the
songs. After the performance the team went up to the
audience to engage in conversation and invite people to
the followup events.
Looking back I can’t help smiling at the thought of all of
us (slightly crazy mix of personalities and accents etc.)
travelling around in two vans, one held together with
duct tape and the other miraculously fitting in all our
equipment (a lot) without an inch to spare. It was really
cool getting to know the team, they are the real thing:
real musicians/artists, real lovers of Jesus Christ, and
real evangelists.
Obviously I can’t tell you about everything in detail so
I’m just going to mention some things that stick out in
my mind now as I type this.
One time we played in a run down theatre full of rowdy
Roma (gypsy) youth. They were probably our most
enthusiastic crowd, maybe you could even say wild
haha, but we were all glad that they had come and that
they were enjoying it (we weren’t expecting so many
people - the previous time we played in a theatre it was
mostly empty, though it made the mayor happy as he
had just built it and it was his pride and joy). But they
were whistling and cheering and well, generally not just
sitting still in their chairs. We appreciated their energy
but we were seriously wondering if anything of the
message of our show got through to them. When the
show ended things didn’t really settle down but we went
up to them and they were friendly. Charles (band leader
and evangelist from New Zealand) looked at us and said
something like “I know this is stupid, but I’m going to
try and talk to these kids”, well when he began talking
to them about Jesus they suddenly quietened down
and began to listen intently. He had a crowd (mostly
teenagers, maybe some in early 20s) gathered around
him as he began to explain the gospel, sometimes using
stories and parables, it seemed as though he was able
to talk for as long as he wanted to without them losing
interest. The next day there was the followup in a Cafe
- I didn’t go to that (some of us stayed in Prishtina to
play on the street) but I heard that there was about ten
of them that had come because they wanted to know
more, and they were asking deep questions about Jesus
Christ and the contrast between the grace found in the
gospel and the legalism of Islam. Actually while they
were talking many people in the cafe asked if they could
join them and they ended up with a crowd - including
waiters and the manager of the Cafe!
Other things that come to mind are some of the beautiful
places we played at outside, and all the crowds that
gathered. Only God really knows how many people
were impacted. I really loved the big shows with the big
sound and lights etc. but I was surprised at how some
of the best times we had were when we just played with
acoustic instruments on the street. I used to wonder
at how effective music can be in evangelism but I now
see how well it works - it attracts people, and through
our drama and music people can have a taste of what
we’re about - and then the spiritually thirsty people
start to come out of the woodwork. I’m not much of
an evangelist yet (I was glad that I could speak a little
Albanian though) but I learned a lot just by watching
certain members of the team who are lot wiser and more
experienced than myself. Sometimes it was sad to see
the bad reactions that Muslims have, like for example
when I saw a young man’s face suddenly turn to a mix
of fear and anger when he realised that Charles was
talking about Jesus - he quickly started making his way
out of the crowd, and encouraged others to do the same
(many did) - Charles asked him something like “Why do
you reject the prophet Jesus whom the Quran speaks
about and honours?” he shouted back “We only know
that he lies.”. I really truly long for these people to know
the truth.
Ok, on to the next tour - no sooner was that tour over
then another group arrived as part of OM ‘Transform’.
This was another really cool bunch of people that I was
blessed to get to know - from America, Switzerland,
Albania, South Korea and me from SA. This tour was
quite different - our performances were on a smaller scale
(also in many different cities) - sometimes with a simple
sound system, often just acoustic, and our audience
was usually younger - somtimes we played to children :)
This team was another bunch of interesting characters
haha, but they were also very talented. After we first met
up we had two days to decide what we wanted to do and
practice it - considering that that was all the time we had,
I am quite amazed at what we managed to pull together.
We had a good range of songs, some instrumental music
with dancing and coolest of all we had an artist painting
as we were playing! She painted whatever she felt led to
paint and at the end of the performance she explained
the message of her painting. One church in a town was
hosting a kind of evangelsitic outreach to children and
teens in the mountains - and we got to be the official
band haha - there were all kinds of activities some of
which involved mud and water balloons, lots of fun :)
Some other church people own a camp in the mountains
(but really in the mountains) and they invited all their
neighbours in the surrounding areas to come and
enjoy what I would call a Braai - but it was also kind of
evangelstic - a pastor gave a message and other people
shared gospel stories and messages - very cool.
Oh no I see my newsletter is already too long, there’s a
lot more that I could say but the point is that God has
been so good :) Thanks for reading :) And a very special
thanks to everyone who is supporting me and praying
for me (thanks sooo much!). There are still two more
tours to come and I may even visit the team in Turkey :)
Grace and Peace!
Matt
action packed. I’m so thankful to God for everything I’ve
experienced and everything that He’s done.
It was such a huge blessing to be a part of two Music/
Arts tours that happened over this time. The first tour
was with a well established group called ‘TACO’ who are
based in Turkey (though from all over) and the second
was just a bunch of us thrown together (also from all
over the world) as part of the larger OM ‘Transform’
event.
The TACO team (first tour) is a band who also incorporate
drama, dance and fire poi (twirling fire on the ends of
small chains) into their performance. I had the privilege
of playing in their band, as they were short one guitarist
so I gladly joined them. Altogether I think we played
about 10 shows in 6 different cities within Kosovo,
mostly with a full sound system etc. but we also played
unplugged a few times on the street. Generally speaking
our goals were to first attract an audience (with fire
poi and dance) - and then not only do an enjoyable
performance, but also bring across a message, through
the songs (Turkish, Albanian and Charles’ English rock/
pop songs - the lyrics were projected onto a screen in
Albanian) and through drama and dance. For example
we had a prodigal son type drama that went across three
songs - the drama illustrated the story and mood of the
songs. After the performance the team went up to the
audience to engage in conversation and invite people to
the followup events.
Looking back I can’t help smiling at the thought of all of
us (slightly crazy mix of personalities and accents etc.)
travelling around in two vans, one held together with
duct tape and the other miraculously fitting in all our
equipment (a lot) without an inch to spare. It was really
cool getting to know the team, they are the real thing:
real musicians/artists, real lovers of Jesus Christ, and
real evangelists.
Obviously I can’t tell you about everything in detail so
I’m just going to mention some things that stick out in
my mind now as I type this.
One time we played in a run down theatre full of rowdy
Roma (gypsy) youth. They were probably our most
enthusiastic crowd, maybe you could even say wild
haha, but we were all glad that they had come and that
they were enjoying it (we weren’t expecting so many
people - the previous time we played in a theatre it was
mostly empty, though it made the mayor happy as he
had just built it and it was his pride and joy). But they
were whistling and cheering and well, generally not just
sitting still in their chairs. We appreciated their energy
but we were seriously wondering if anything of the
message of our show got through to them. When the
show ended things didn’t really settle down but we went
up to them and they were friendly. Charles (band leader
and evangelist from New Zealand) looked at us and said
something like “I know this is stupid, but I’m going to
try and talk to these kids”, well when he began talking
to them about Jesus they suddenly quietened down
and began to listen intently. He had a crowd (mostly
teenagers, maybe some in early 20s) gathered around
him as he began to explain the gospel, sometimes using
stories and parables, it seemed as though he was able
to talk for as long as he wanted to without them losing
interest. The next day there was the followup in a Cafe
- I didn’t go to that (some of us stayed in Prishtina to
play on the street) but I heard that there was about ten
of them that had come because they wanted to know
more, and they were asking deep questions about Jesus
Christ and the contrast between the grace found in the
gospel and the legalism of Islam. Actually while they
were talking many people in the cafe asked if they could
join them and they ended up with a crowd - including
waiters and the manager of the Cafe!
Other things that come to mind are some of the beautiful
places we played at outside, and all the crowds that
gathered. Only God really knows how many people
were impacted. I really loved the big shows with the big
sound and lights etc. but I was surprised at how some
of the best times we had were when we just played with
acoustic instruments on the street. I used to wonder
at how effective music can be in evangelism but I now
see how well it works - it attracts people, and through
our drama and music people can have a taste of what
we’re about - and then the spiritually thirsty people
start to come out of the woodwork. I’m not much of
an evangelist yet (I was glad that I could speak a little
Albanian though) but I learned a lot just by watching
certain members of the team who are lot wiser and more
experienced than myself. Sometimes it was sad to see
the bad reactions that Muslims have, like for example
when I saw a young man’s face suddenly turn to a mix
of fear and anger when he realised that Charles was
talking about Jesus - he quickly started making his way
out of the crowd, and encouraged others to do the same
(many did) - Charles asked him something like “Why do
you reject the prophet Jesus whom the Quran speaks
about and honours?” he shouted back “We only know
that he lies.”. I really truly long for these people to know
the truth.
Ok, on to the next tour - no sooner was that tour over
then another group arrived as part of OM ‘Transform’.
This was another really cool bunch of people that I was
blessed to get to know - from America, Switzerland,
Albania, South Korea and me from SA. This tour was
quite different - our performances were on a smaller scale
(also in many different cities) - sometimes with a simple
sound system, often just acoustic, and our audience
was usually younger - somtimes we played to children :)
This team was another bunch of interesting characters
haha, but they were also very talented. After we first met
up we had two days to decide what we wanted to do and
practice it - considering that that was all the time we had,
I am quite amazed at what we managed to pull together.
We had a good range of songs, some instrumental music
with dancing and coolest of all we had an artist painting
as we were playing! She painted whatever she felt led to
paint and at the end of the performance she explained
the message of her painting. One church in a town was
hosting a kind of evangelsitic outreach to children and
teens in the mountains - and we got to be the official
band haha - there were all kinds of activities some of
which involved mud and water balloons, lots of fun :)
Some other church people own a camp in the mountains
(but really in the mountains) and they invited all their
neighbours in the surrounding areas to come and
enjoy what I would call a Braai - but it was also kind of
evangelstic - a pastor gave a message and other people
shared gospel stories and messages - very cool.
Oh no I see my newsletter is already too long, there’s a
lot more that I could say but the point is that God has
been so good :) Thanks for reading :) And a very special
thanks to everyone who is supporting me and praying
for me (thanks sooo much!). There are still two more
tours to come and I may even visit the team in Turkey :)
Grace and Peace!
Matt
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