It is an old, decrepit ore carrier... full of rust, disrepair, damage. All indicating that the end of its life is knocking and threatening. Once on deck, your conclusion is simple, but damning. This carrier will soon be reduced to scrap. For now the owner clings, stubbornly, to borrowed time. It is clear that they will tap the last bit of life from sailing this ship. In Coega they have to load another cargo and reach another destination from here. In the heart of the ship, in the hold, the men are working and living. They have to keep the rickety ship on course and above water.
A very young server works in the dining area. Upon Danie’s question, he explains that he has been working at sea for three years. Beneath the face of youth one can detect a little something reflecting the condition of the ship - decline, ruin and decay. These seem to have stolen something from the young man.
It is the unpacked CSO Bibles that eventually sways the discussion in the direction of the young man’s heart. He struggles with concern and feeling powerless, but these are now so embedded that you can see the effects in the way he walks, as well as the way he handles those around him. He has been away from home for eight months, with only thirty days left before his booked flight ticket will take him home again. What awaits him there includes horrible realities that incapacitate his soul. Sitting in front of Danie in the dining area these make him look worn out, wrecked and defeated.
“How will I survive these thirty days?” he asks urgently. “Please give me a word of encouragement”. It is an unashamed cry for help. The young eyes plead for words from someone or somewhere to carry him until he arrives home. It costs listening, care and empathy to help him calm down. He also did not only get a single word but received ‘The Word’. In the Tagalog Bible they search for God’s words of encouragement and they do so together. He reads and hears that God is with him and his family. He finally finds a way to place his concerns at God’s feet.
Danie got a few more opportunities to visit him before the ship left the harbour for the next destination. He did not only take his new Tagalog Bible with him for encouragement, he could also treasure the time that he spent with Danie. This simple treasure of such value will help carry him until he goes home. Every person that is worn out, wrecked and defeated deserves to be seen and to get the absolute reassurance - again and again - that there is always hope in Jesus Christ...
Please consider in prayer and deed to support us financially. It will help us remind every seafaring man visiting our harbours of this eternal treasure.
EFT Christelike Seemansorganisasie. ABSA. Current 1520-230-226
Mong, the third officer on board the CENTURY CHENZHOU proved it yet again to Nico this week - sometimes words are overrated. Words could be like a stream without pause, hurtling over the edge of silence, moving along without course.
Even for the most skilled word smith, one that can create sentences with great workmanship and expertise, meaning could disappear in a maze of double meaning. Words can confuse, hide the truth or even damn. Words may form a bridge or an abyss...
Similarly, a look, the rhythm of a sigh, a tear, a half-smile or silence could express more than a thousand words. It is as if deep feeling can exist without name or words.
The words between Mong and Nico are stolen by their inability to speak each other’s language. Their words form an abyss rather than a bridge. Even their best attempts to formulate or express meaning are hopelessly inefficient. Their meeting is, therefore quiet now...
It is exactly within this silence where they find meaning in an unusual way. As such, it is ironic that I am trying to describe the depth of the silence here with words...
The moment when Nico hands Mong a Bible in his own language, at the moment when their eyes meet in a friendly look, at the moment when there is (in spite of a wordless discussion) mutual understanding of the enormous event, it becomes a moment of bridging the silent gap in a way that cannot be described by a thousand words. When Nico explains the meeting, he also explains how deeply aware he felt of God’s presence. He also explains that Mong felt as deeply aware of the fact that they found themselves in God Moment.
Sometimes our service does not lie within the scope of words. Sometimes we understand only a part of what is said. That is exactly when we feel we should explain, talk, discuss, give more information and express all the beautiful things we think we can share with words. Yet, sometimes words are not necessary. Being without words may be enough to touch and move others deeply, because God is so much bigger than that which we can achieve with words!
May you be aware of every story to which you contribute, specifically that your contribution could work in ways that not even the best word artist can express. God is, indeed, bigger than our words and minds. Thank you for your share in this.
Each of us is a story - it is how we each exist and live. Interwoven within it are our time, place, introductions and endings. Also involved is conflict, perspective, tone, style and atmosphere. Bearing this in mind, the greatest mystery may be the way in which each story is without equal. Every story is individual, remarkable and unusual.
The third engineer now tells Danie his story while Danie visits his ship in Gqeberha. They each have a cup of coffee. At first the young man's story is full of ambition, explaining the great heights he wishes to achieve. One day he wants to be so and so, including the rest of it. As Danie asks questions, it becomes clear that the work story is only one part of his life. He also has a story that involves home. This includes antagonism, conflict and joy. The more he tells, the more it becomes clear that the story is set on the deep blue sea, but that the story is by no means simple. The mere sphere where it takes place implies associated intrigue. It is clear when he explains about being alone. It is clear when he explains the effects on relationships if you spend 10 months at sea. It is also clear when he explains the steel walls of a ship... Jonar's story is full of miracles, desperation, expectations, disappointments and every dramatic effect of a gripping story. Indeed, his story is without equal...
It seems as if we all involve more than a single cut story. Eventually each of us includes thousands of interwoven stories that form us to be something unique and unusual.
Danie is not only there to listen to Jonar's story. After he unpacked the Bibles in the sparkling clean dining area, there is another story that is closely knitted into their discussion. It is the story of a God that is deeply aware, involved and active in all our lives and He wants to be there. This is a God whose story is interwoven, knitted into the very core of our lives, because He formed us. He put us together. He created us. Jonar finds this realisation extremely valuable. It brings new perspective and hope. He smiles and holds the Tagalog Bible close to his chest when he finally says goodbye.
At the CSO we are involved with and active in the stories of men working at sea. More often than not, the stories are full of sorrow and searching. That is why it is such a privilege for us to remind every person we meet that the Great Storyteller's story forms such an integral part of our own stories and the stories of each of the men.
Please consider, urgently, to strengthen our hands with a financial contribution. Your contribution will help to rewrite stories each and every day of this year!
But also this - please remember in this year that your own story is unique, remarkable and unusual. We hope that you will also realise, in 2025, that God is aware of, involved and deeply active in your story. This promise is incredibly valuable.
Bank details: Christelike Seemansorganisasie. ABSA. Current. 1520-230-226.
“No”, is the quick answer - nonchalant and definite. There are no Christians on board and therefore Danie’s visit is blocked immediately and without further discussion. It is a clear fork in the road...
How vast the distance between two of the shortest words in our language? Between “no” en “yes” we often find a gaping, like a giant wound, in the earth, a dark cliff that divides the world in two. Between steep rock-face and wind-worn crags, chiselled by time, we find the depth are hiding a cold and relentless emptiness. The other side is so close and yet so far away. It is within reach, but also far beyond our reach. A single “no” or “yes” could change our lives irrevocably and chart our paths.
Danie’s “no” on board the ship is definite and absolute, BUT...
Then, as he is about to go down the stepladder, one man on board mentions casually that there could be, that there is a possibility of, one Christian on board. Perhaps he would like to speak to Danie. Suddenly the absolute refusal seems softer and the door had been opened, showing just a visible crack. Some warbled message over the radio and then a hand sign, asking Danie to wait a moment, makes him hang around a little longer. Moments later a young man appears. “Yes, yes please...”. Danie is led to the interior of the ship, although only moments ago he was asked to leave the ship, using the stepladder. The man does not only invite him to sit down and talk, he also invites him to unpack the Bibles from the backpack and display them on a table.
While talking, another man approaches shyly to look at the Bibles in his own language. First one arrives, then two asking what the books are, eventually picking up a Bible and paging through it. In a moment Danie can summarise the essence of the Book in three words: Mercy, love and hope.
Surprisingly the man that uttered the definite “no” at the stepladder also approaches to look. Suddenly there is a “perhaps”...
Then, he asks if he could, perhaps, also have a Bible.
Day after day we bear witness to the unbelievable ways in which God changes an absolute “no” into a receptive “yes”. How absolutely powerful! What we see as an unbridgeable chasm, poses no problem for God. Your donations and prayers help us every day to take the message of the Man of the Cross to the sceptics. From there God performs miracles that far exceed our understanding. So we experience many a “no” that changes into a straightforward “yes”. Thank you for being a part of this. It changes lives.
Christelike Seemansorganisasie. ABSA. Current. 1520-230-226.
Taking form depends on the perfect dust storm. As soon as the dust settles, it has the final say. From dust to dust... We seem to be living in circles - cyclical. A chilly winter holds the hidden promise of summer. The grey dark of the small hours of the night, promises the certainty that the circle around the axle of the earth, that we will see the colours of daybreak again. New Year’s Eve, when the clock strikes midnight, we have moved around the sun once more...
Men working at sea are just as involved in the game of eternal cycles. The eternal ebb and flow of the sea, the sunrise breaking over endless waves of the oceans, the moon that affects the tides. Each man starts hoping in safe harbours and ends with the everlasting promise of going home. Men working at sea know more than most that life cycles, like those of the seas, never stop. When they sail on the horizon, far from a beach where New Year’s fires sparkle and fireworks brightly light the skies, the feelings mostly include a deep longing for home, for that which they love.
At the CSO we hear these stories every day. Very often the stories are as extreme as the storms and the silences of the oceans. The stories are often about loneliness and longing, depression and fear, war, pirates, broken families - a seaman’s life.
How naïve would we be to think that the bells on New Year’s Eve could change all, wash everything clean? But, there is something about the start of a new year, it does bring hope that things will change in the new cycle. In our case, it is better, because we start walking the way to the Cross after celebrating the birth of the Child in the manger.
In the cycle from Crib to Cross we have living hope that things will improve, that there is a possibility of looking back after the cycle around the sun and say, ‘It was good’.
During this year we will, as in the decades before, with our donors’ donations and faithful prayers, we will be with the men working at sea, supporting them in the journey around the sun. We will continue, non-stop, to tell them about the One that is not bound by cycles, circles, time and seasons. We will continue to tell them of the One that always has mercy, the One in Whom we have living hope! Your donation makes it possible. Thank you so, so much for that.
May you also, in this cycle, experience that hope and mercy. And, when it gets dark, may you continue to breathe, because we never know what wonders the next tide will bring.