The ship is from China. The expectation, as Loffie reaches the top of the very high set of stairs, is that a Chinese crew will be there to meet him. Instead, the crackling voice on the intercom is distinct, but not that of the country of the Red Dragon governed from Beijing. The rolling 'r's and the 'v' pronounced as a 'w' and the 'ie' instead of 'i' are markedly familiar for those governing from Moscow. "Kepten, we have a shiep wisitor on the wessel".
A person from Russia is different now, compared to the situation a few weeks ago. People will probably not be surprised if your first instinct is to feel resistance. Perhaps even anger could be understood because of the anarchy and blood spilt. It is as if the jury is out and had decided: Every person from Russia is guilty and is a part of the situation!
Loffie sits down with a representative united nations - men from China, Myanmar, Russia and others in the dining area. The atmosphere is dampened. The world seems to be worse than a few weeks earlier. Traditionally men from Russia prefer to avoid such meetings, especially in view of the stack of Bibles that Loffie displayed neatly on the table. However, the world is different now...As the Russians take their turn to explain, ask and wonder in their rich Russian accents, you see the human beings, the people. They also fear, wonder and feel lost. They are worlds apart from the bombastic, power seeking, self-centred individuals that dominated the news over the past months with a thirst for blood. These men have families, a young daughter aged ten, a mother in an old age home, a beloved wife, dreams...They agree with disbelief, 'Our President has lost his mind'. The collateral damage of a power drunk man rests heavily on their individual lives. It is definitive and difficult to bear.
Many ships have crewmembers from Russia and the Ukraine, working side by side, as brothers, hand in hand. These friendships are under fire now. As caregiver and breadwinner, it is almost impossible to send your salary home because of sanctions. Some of their fellow country members drift on the open seas, en route to nowhere. Russian ships are being turned away from everywhere. Food rations are getting scarce. Flights home are impossible to find. Every visitor to the ships makes it clear: per association, each Russian is guilty and responsible, the scum of the earth. Very soon, Russian seamen will be distributed all over the world. When their contracts expire, the road home will be almost completely closed. To find another job, other than on a ship with a Russian flag, will be much more difficult. Eventually, impossible.
The logical choice would be to write this letter about the rubble and ash of the Ukraine. But, the point is that the Gospel sees need without judgement. In the months ahead, our chaplains will work very hard to assist those affected by the conflict. They will not only serve the people by spreading the Word and praying with them as in the case of this particular crew, they will also provide practical help in terms of financial need, travel limitations, food, communication and much more. With the help of our partners, we will work tirelessly to do what needs to be done, irrespective of the person being from Russia or the Ukraine.
You are an essential partner in our attempts to help! Your donation will make a tangible difference to those affected by the conflict. Therefore, more than ever, we must ask you to support us with an open hand. This is where the need is now and this is where you and we are needed most.
So history repeats itself. When CSO was established in 1944, it was mainly to provide assistance to the Dutch soldiers to and from Indonesia. It was necessary to intervene to help the soldiers that were in suffering as a result of the war en distances from home.
Today, history is on our doorstep again. Ukraine and Russian sailors make up 17% of the world's total sailors. This means that almost one fifth of the sailors are directly affected by the conflict between the two countries.
This does however not implicate that the sailors are actively involved in the war. The impact of the crisis is on a different level for the sailors. Thousands of them are stranded in ports because they cannot go home. There are no flights to their homelands. Sanctions cause many of them not to have access to their bank accounts. This could lead to a major humanitarian crisis among the sailors even if they are not in the conflict.
Earlier in history, CSO was privileged to help the sailors in our own ports. Today's crisis is different. It is far from our territory. Yet each of us can do something. Pray for these sailors. Pray for their families with whom they probably have no contact.
Pray that tomorrow will look different for them. This is what this song sung by Rina Hugo is about. Pray that life will tomorrow, look different for every seafarer (no matter if they are Russian or Ukrainian). But also pray for every seafarer who is currently on the ships. Nobody has any idea where this conflict is going to lead. Pray that for the other seafarers, so that tomorrow will be different for all of them.
And please remember this is for you too!
The intrigues of a ship's arrest are complex. The emotions tied in this knot ride see-saw. Feelings change from highly flammable to total despondency. The results are often more than mere destructive...
It is 10 December 2017. A disheartened crew sails into the Durban harbour. The men have not been paid in months. In the days following their arrival a fierce legal battle takes place, resulting in the ship's arrest. This implies, basically, that a ship is placed in jail. The collateral damage is that the crew members are also imprisoned. From the moored ship they can see the shining Durban night lights and dream about walking about freely in the city, no more than that. The ship becomes the capsule of their total existence, their prison. Shortly after the ship's arrival in December, our Evangelist, Chris, visits them on board. His tasks are multiple. He must care about physical and spiritual needs. The reality is that the men have no water supply, food or any way to communicate with family that are scattered around the world. The men have nothing.
As if the hopeless situation is not difficult enough, they find themselves captive in a traumatic legal nightmare. A maritime lawyer accepts the case. Eventually, much money and a long time later, he withdraws from the case. Chris and others try to find a new lawyer. It is complicated. The captain appoints a lawyer. It is expensive and he is paying from his own pocket. Eventually this lawyer disappears without making any difference to the depraved situation on board. Then, unexpectedly, a lawyer that Chris contacted returns his call. He is willing to help on a pro bono-basis. Chris does not fail to see the hand of God in this situation...Now it is four years and six months later. Chris visits to see the captain, now an old friend. He is on his way home! Eventually he could reach an agreement with the ship's owner to pay some of his wages and the legal battle has been resolved. His happy smile is real, but behind the happy mask the lesions caused by humiliation and sadness of the past four years remain. Then he was a captain with standing, to be reduced over four years to a person that had to survive from charity. Now he is en route, starting a new journey through life.
The goodbyes between Chris and the captain are loaded with emotions created over four years and six months. Chris is the person that returned again and again after that first day in 2017, sometimes only to find out how they were, other times with water, food, a phone to call the family, to bring news about the progress with the legal battle, but now and then with a small heavenly surprise like chocolate. The captain's emotional gratitude is not only to say thank you, but also thank a friend for four years and six months of walking together, discussions, giving hope, crying together and praying...
At the CSO we walk with men working at sea with complete dedication. In walking with them, we try to live love, hope and mercy. We remind these men that God meets them, irrespective of where they are on their roads.
You can join us in this walking together. Your donation helps to ensure that no man working at sea has to walk the road alone. Please consider this in your prayers and consider helping with this special task.
Let there be hope, because for us a Child is born, for us a Son is given and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace...
Let there also be hope for Gregory whose body language betrays that he is exhausted and overly tired. In Durban he tells Nico stories from the latest entries in his life inventory. His past is a mess, often disconnected, but styled using words like sad, depressed, stressed, hopeless... He hails from a small village at the Black Sea, about two hundred kilometres from Odessa. There one would find his wife, a woman he loves with all his heart, a daughter from a former life, Covid19 that left a trial of death, shipping that spread parts of his life puzzle over the globe, sitting at a harbour at the southern tip of Africa where he knows no one - all from a life whisked together in a haphazard fashion.
But, what can one say. How do you comfort him? How can you care for the wounds, some of them still raw, but others having left large lesions? The poet DJ Opperman asks - what advice can I give, what star can I show you, to travel safely through the grey country? At the start of the new year, happiness is often momentary. The temptation is big to remain in the ash and soot of the grey country, only to remain within the minor notes that life whisked up or serves.
But, let there be hope, because for us a Child is born, for us a Son is given and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace...
It is all that Nico can offer Gregori. It is all that remains when all else is stripped away. We can only hope. That hope is seated in Him that gives life and takes life. That is it. There is a definite choice to maintain hope. There is a definite choice to keep believing... to continue loving.
As Nico sits with Gregori, it is not to convince Gregori to maintain hope and continue loving according to Nico's guidelines. It is rather that Nico maintains hope, keeps on believing and continues loving. It is because he believes and hopes. It is because of the One of whom it is written: Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace...
Our donors help seafarers to remember hope each day. It is the most powerful thing we have in this crazy existence. On behalf of each person that experiences something of hope because of their donation, we thank you. We are so grateful.
May you remember in the new year and experience that there is an Everlasting Father that guards you too.
It is dirty. Sticky brown dust swirls menacingly in the chilly wind blowing in the Bay. It sticks to everything. Danie tries to avoid contact with the cables hanging over the stepladder, hunching his body as much as he can. It is not enough and his jacket touches the cable covered in grease and oil. It leaves stubborn black spot that burrows deep into the fabric. This will become a permanent feature of the jacket, an ever present reminder of this day. Experience has taught that the oil spot will remain there forever.
From the deck Dimitri, handling the arrival of visitors, checking that they sign in, watches the spat between Danie, the cables and the oil spot on the now damaged jacket. As Danie signs in, they joke about a harbour that is never clean. From the check-in point, Danie finds his way to the dining area where he encounters the first Christmas tree of this year. It is green, plastic and stands skew, with very few hand-made decorations cut from pieces of paper.
The men working on board come and go. Dimitri also arrives in the dining area, looking for something to drink. Danie soon realises that he has an ulterior motive. Dimitri waits for Danie to be alone and approaches with care, but also a little insecure. At first they chit-chat and continue to discuss the permanent oil stain on the jacket. This creates an unusual opportunity to talk about the things that bother him. There, unexpectedly, next to the green Christmas tree, Dimitri explains his past and the oil stains etched into his life. They are permanent. He cannot escape them. The story is dirty, sad, overwhelming...
Danie has a chance to explain that many forgotten stories are hidden behind Christmas trees. There is also the story of being born in the stench and dirt of a stable and eventually, the crucifixion. Dirty. Heart-breaking. Overwhelming. It is the plea from the Cross, but always spotless Lamb...
That is what the Child of the manger came to do for Dimitri. This is what the Man on the Cross sacrificed... to clear Dimitri of all, to make him as white as snow. Through the lenses of the manger and cross, Dimitri’s life looks radically different. On this morning, in talking to Danie, this new perspective is essential. It is not a magic wand to correct all that is wrong. They agree about this, but it gives the story another dimension. It changes the dirt and oil stains...
After they pray together, Dimitri now holding a new Russian Bible, he states that he will come back to the shade of the plastic tree whenever he feels overwhelmed. It will remind him of the crib and the Cross.
Our donors make this possible. Thank you! Their donations bring the crib and cross to seamen like Dimitri during this Christmas season. We hope that every plastic Christmas tree will remind you of the crib and cross that is there for you too.