Good morning everyone. I like that response. Thank you Lot of tools up here. I get a little confused.
I'm sorry. I got I got something to advance the slides I got something to point at the slides. I brought my own thing to point at the slide. Sorry.
That's not my that's not that one I Got my phone and I got key So if you happen to hear the alarm going off as I hit wrong button here And if you happen to get a laser strike because I got confused It's a low voltage one so they say that the flash will go away in about a week. So sorry in advance With all these things here is reminded of a Herman comic Maybe some of the older ones remember Herman. Maybe some of the younger ones don't know what I'm talking about but he was a guy that could put into a cartoon the realities of life and There's one there. I got a kick out of his the husband is sitting in a big chair in front of the TV and he's Pushing the remote at the TV and his wife comes in the front door with the groceries and she says he says to her He said the remote's not working.
She says that's strange the garage door keeps going up and down That's the way I think I am sometimes with some of my technology Thank you for inviting me here. I'm excited to be here I have had a great day yesterday at Jesus to the nations if you're not thrilled about our Savior Go down and visit there see what the Lord is doing. We have a great God. I don't understand why I put so many boundaries on him Who am I?
He's the one who has saved me and rescued me who am I to put any kind of boundaries on him? He's a great God and so it's been exciting for me and I'm gonna be here all week leave Saturday morning So if you would like to have coffee with me, please Let me know if you got time for that love to hear how you came to know the Lord and love to hear what you're doing here get to know Yes a little bit about myself. I was born at a very young age Sorry, I have bad jokes. I My kids would be walking out the back door.
They were here. They've heard them all too many times My parents are believers and from the youngest time They brought me up around the word of God and I would probably hold almost a world record for going to gospel meetings I was raised in a gospel hall in Vancouver and They were known for having lots of gospel series and my parents made sure I came out to all of them And I cannot remember a time in my life that I did not want to know that I was going to heaven But I really struggled with believing how to believe what I believe in the right way was I believe in enough? And I would sit in gospel meeting and hear the word of God preached and be very convicted of my sins Be very convicted of where I was going understanding that there was salvation the strange thing was I Believe the word of God enough to know that I was going to hell I didn't believe it enough to know that my sins have been forgiven. I was going to heaven I struggled with how to receive it and you got to the point in my life where I would say I hated John 3 16 Because it confused me.
I always believed and yet. I wasn't going to heaven and it wasn't until I was 19 years old That a few people spoke different things to me that really helped me to get past some of my hang ups And I think my biggest hang up was well It was definitely myself, but I was trying to put my faith in my faith I thought my salvation came because of how I believed and was it strong enough was it good enough was it the right way? I tell you I finally realized my faith is not in my faith. My faith is in my Savior My faith I like to stress to people my faith does not save me.
I am saved through faith The Lord Jesus Christ is the one who saves me He is the one who died for me and took all the punishment for my sins and so I am not trusting in my faith I'm trusting in my Savior. I received it through believing. I received it through faith It wasn't from what I have done. It's all about the Lord Jesus Christ.
So this is I was I was 19 years old To the world standards not a bad guy, but I knew it went on upstairs here I knew I was a sinner there was no doubt about that, but one night I Was at home and I was reading through the book of Romans in Rome chapter 4 Someone had encouraged me to read there and I came to verse 25 and says who was delivered for our fences and was raised again for our Justification well, you if you get to know me, you know me. I'm not I'm not good with words I can maybe tell a story, but I don't have a big vocabulary But I do know this that was is past tense already done who was delivered for my offenses and was raised again for my justification And I asked myself two questions. Can I trust God? Yes, I can trust God.
I cannot trust myself Many times I said I will never do that again. What did I do? I did it again, but I knew I could trust God and I said where does God say my sins are God says that all my sins Replaced upon the Lord Jesus Christ. I thought if they're on him then they're not on me I said thank you Lord Jesus and that's the only thing I'm trusting in to get to heaven I'm trusting in what the Lord Jesus Christ has done and that's the only place to trust I tell you when I look inside myself.
I come to the quick conclusion. You're not a Christian. Look what you do Look what you think about it. Look what you've done.
You're not a Christian when I turn my eyes to the cross I say, oh, thank you again. Thank you. This morning here. We're worshiping the Lord I think the worship is gospel and gospel is worship We're talking about the one who died for us the one that we now love and adore So I thank you for allowing me to come but I wanted to start off by just sharing that little bit with you How I came to know the Lord.
I don't think we tell our testimonies enough We don't let people know that once we were lost now. We are now we see once we were lost now We have been found we didn't grow into salvation. I wasn't born a Christian Once I was lost but now I see and we need to share our testimonies with other people so that they might know I'm wondering what was the last time you told your testimony to somebody did anybody tell your testimony the last week? one good month last month One last year Wonderful, you know what if you don't have anyone to tell your testimony to tell it to yourself It'll warm your heart when you take yourself back to the cross and you realize what the Lord has done So I'm glad to be able to Speak with you here.
I also want to stress one point out one of the things I wrote my own testimony It was back in march 2nd 1982 that I got the assurance of my salvation, but I want to Point this out to I'm not sure if that's what I've got saved Because there's many times in the past I could maybe look at and say well, maybe I got saved then maybe I got saved then But you know what I don't I don't worry about that now the fact is I'm saved right now And that's what matters if I look back a little bit it sometimes confuses me But what's important is I'm saved right now and that's what I'm very thankful for and I know that many christians children would struggle with the same thing And as I share this others will tell me I got the same thing and I'm kind of been pushed and forced to say I got saved on this date I understand why people do that, but you know what if if that is not your experience tell the truth It'll help other people it'll encourage other people. I want to read in the book of Jonah You have a fast clock back there But I'm glad you don't have one in front of me here because I think the one behind me goes Goes slow and the one behind me is there going goes very fast here. So join a chapter one Well, no one's story I'm sure to most if not all of you join the chapter one verse one says this the war the word of the Lord came to Jonah The son of Amitaih saying arise go to none of other great city and cry against it for their wickedness has come up before me But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarsus from the presence of the Lord So he went down to Japa found a ship which was going to Tarsus paid the fair and went down into go with them to Tarsus from the presence of the Lord Well, we we know this story here of Jonah. He's been given a job to do but he's not going to do it He doesn't agree with God.
He doesn't want to be chosen by God. He's not going to do it So he's going to run from God and what does God do? God in his mercy sends a storm Have you ever had a storm in your life? I have My wife went through cancer when our daughter was three months old she had open heart surgery There's been many other tough times.
We have all gone through storms We see here with Jonah. We know that God sent that storm But you know what God also did he provided salvation. He sent that whale that great fish That swallowed Jonah. He just didn't let him die in the ocean.
He sent that great fish And it swallowed him. Let's turn over to chapter three Chapter one Now the word of the Lord came to join of the second time saying arise go to none about the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation What I am going to tell you so Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord None of it was an exceedingly great city a three-day's walk Then Jonah began to go through the city one day's walk and he cried out and said yet four days 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown Then the people of Nineveh believed in God God gave Jonah another chance to obey him You know I've been thinking here about the great commission Are we doing it? Am I doing it? God has given us a job to do Are we doing it or are we running the other direction?
God has been merciful. That's why we're here today. It's only because of God's mercy And God has given us another chance. Maybe he brings a storm into your life Maybe he rocks your solid world or at least the world that you thought was solid.
He rocks it a bit Why to draw you to him? Jonah obeyed the second time I want to encourage all of us to take God's commands seriously to go into all the world and preach the gospel to make disciples to baptize them like Jonah For many years I would say I went the other direction. I didn't do it Excuses or whatever I didn't do it where I could and should be doing it when God spoke to me and laid it on my heart to speak to people I would put my head down and look the other direction long enough to the opportunity went away to my shame I pray That I am able to go out there and do what God has asked us to do. He's given us another day today Satan will let try to drag you down about your past failures We want to learn from our past and move forward God has given us another opportunity to share his word and so we want to go forth and share that great news I work with lighthouse harbor ministries in Vancouver.
I love the name lighthouse. We were singing about it A lighthouse to me serves two purposes. Do we have any sailors here? I've never been a sailor.
I've been on a cruise, but that's already been a sailor Like one lady said I'll go on any ship as long as it has a gift store. It's big enough to have a gift store I talked to this when I talked to the sailors on board the ship. I say what's the purpose of a lighthouse And it comes to this there's two purposes it warns of danger and it guides to safety I believe that's what the word of God is. I believe that's our job to warn of danger, but to guide to safety And that's exactly and only through his word the holy Bible I believe it's necessary to preach sin The preach disobedience of God to preach punishment eternal punishment because without them understanding where they're going there can be no salvation Hebrews says how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation How can there be so great salvation if there's not so great a danger?
We need to make it very clear not water it down not try to soften it for them We want to do it correctly. We want to do it with love and kindness, but we cannot water down God's word We need to be sharing with them Both the danger but the salvation that the Lord has provided I don't want to get after people for a word, but I personally the I get a little upset sometimes when I talk here people talking to the unsaved and said you need to make him your friend You need to make him your savior. That's what we need We need a savior a savior of sinners and if you were to ask me who is Jesus Christ to me I tell you number one he's my savior number one. He's my savior and now I want him to be my lord First he was my savior and now I want him to be my lord and I want to follow him and obey him A little bit about late house.
We were started in 1981 There was some people in Vancouver that wanted to reach out to the sailors coming into the ports of Vancouver in a More of a formal way my father visited ships for nearly 50 years back in the day when there was no such thing as security You drove up to the ship drove up to the gangway you walked on the gangway and you asked for the captain And that's how you got on board After 9-11 of course things changed a lot and a lot more procedures went into place and rules and security and that but we have the great privilege Today of going on board the ship and I've been telling some that the actually the transport candidate the governor of the Canada is in our favor We have some ports and they try to give us a hard time about coming on board because To security and to safety we can sometimes be a concern for them or maybe even a nuisance to them We want to follow their rules, but it's another vehicle driving around the port somebody else on the port But transport Canada says that we have the right to be in the port because we are there for the welfare of the sailors And sometimes we've had where the ports have tried to stop us from going in and we remind them what transport Canada says And if they still don't we have to phone transport Canada and say please talk to the sport remind them of the rules Because we're allowed in there because we're going in there for the welfare of the sailors and we all agree and let us in And I would have to say that we have a very good report with all of the security once they've agreed to let us in But there was a desire in 1980 there to formalize going on board the ships in Vancouver And we see a lot of ships there. We see a lot of cruise ships all different types of ships come in to Vancouver And so lighthouse was started and we started just visiting ships And a few years later we were able to buy a center where we like a clubhouse and I'll show you the pictures here But we were able to buy this and invite the sailors to our center. I might as well start the slides This is our if you go on our website here, you'll see that a little bit about our history and who we are and what we're doing here There we go. Okay, so if you're familiar with the lower mainland of Vancouver We've got Stanley Park kind of well known down here This is the city of Vancouver and we have a center right over here by the mountains So if you know where gross mountain is or any of the ski hills we're right down here in the waterfront And then we also have a center here on the Fraser River The Fraser Surrey center.
This is the one I typically spend most of my time at because I live in Surrey And so it's a lot closer for me So if there's ships in Surrey or I'm at the center It's just a lot closer for me if there's no ships in this this is not as busy a part if there's no ships here Then I'll go back over here because there's always ships in the Vancouver port There we go. This is our center at the Fraser Surrey dock We started here and we were in some trailers and the port came to us a while later and said we really like what you're doing But we need your spot. We know you're where you are. We're re-developing the port We need where you are, but we'll work with you and give you something So it went around in circles a few times and we eventually settled on this a piece of property here Which was a garbage dump and so we took it we had to do some soil sampling and everything to make sure we weren't being stuck with Someone else's contamination and we got a 20-year lease on it.
We pay a lot for the lease. It's a dollar, but it's plus GST Per year. That's what we pay for this. So they're really in favor of us here So we're actually halfway through the lease already So we're thinking that in a few years we got to start to collect some thoughts from the Sailors and that saying how much they appreciate what we do from the port so that when we go to Canada transport Canada again We're renewing the lease that they will be in favor of us and we just know the way the government's going right now We we don't want to take this lightly, but this is our center here.
We built this here about eight years ago It was mostly by volunteers and you'll see here. It's a beautiful center inside. This is a blurry picture of our literature rack So we have these are all individual different languages in the ports. We have had over a hundred different nationalities come into our ports People from all over the place, but the main ones would be 10 about 10 countries 10 nationalities Filipino is number one.
Maybe about 50% of the sailors are Filipino. There's a lot from India from China from Bangladesh Eastern Europe Eastern European countries You never find a Canadian on board. They're not willing to work For those wages under those conditions these men all have nine month contracts Then they're maybe home for two or three months and we know in the military sends people off on a tour duty somewhere And when they come back home, we make a big deal of it as we should But this these men this is their life. This is their whole working career and it's a very tough life loneliness temptations Not only their their own sins and their life that they're battling with they phone home and sometimes they get bad news About what's going on?
I had one chief officer asked me to come meet with him side on the side there And he told me that he had gotten news that his wife was having an affair. He was didn't know what to do He didn't know who to even talk to he couldn't talk to the captain about it The captain said was very understanding but he couldn't go and talk to him about it And I was just thankful to be able to sit down share with him share some verses from the Bible encourage him to read the Bible Help them maybe find some literature But most of all we're pointing him that he needs to make sure that he's right with God that he's he's trusting the Lord Jesus as a Savior we have a little story there. This is our Walmart. Sorry These just some pictures here are some sailors here to come.
He's like soft. Maybe we'll get a better picture here These are Chinese sailors Filipino sailors. We have our our bear on top of the log here Most photograph bear I think in the world. Please that's my claim You can challenge me on that But they love to walk around with their cameras and they're all on Skype and they're taking pictures of our center It's beautifully done up.
We're very thankful for it. Someone told me oh, I thought you were in a cold warehouse somewhere No, we have two beautiful centers. They're done up like beautiful club houses This is one of our rooms there for the computers and the phones the phones used to be a very important part of our ministry But now it's Wi-Fi and Before they're all lined up to take a make their phone calls home We sold them phone cards and they would be lined up to contact their homes But now it's the phones are hardly used and we keep dropping the lines and trying to add more capacity in our Wi-Fi This is in there's two main rooms in the Fraser story center This is the kitchen room here and so you can see they're all busy on their laptops And I even know this is an older picture because few of them have laptops anymore It's all just their phones a few will bring in a laptop and not many but we gather them together We're open every night of the year from 6 till 10 And we gather them together into our into the room side room here and we share the word of God with them We'll sing with them if my wife is there we sing if I'm there I don't sing they'll leave if I sing so we'll sing with them We get them to sing their national anthems and sometimes we'll have three or four nationalities there So they all get them all to stand up and sing their national anthem But we'll share the word of God with them and we give out thousands of Bibles a year in different languages I had down at the missions festival a Bible Chinese on one side of the page English on the other someone decided They needed it more than I did so they took it off my table there, but it's a great tool for me I can't speak Chinese, but I can sit down there open the Bible with them and they will try to read English And they can't read English But if they come to a word they don't know they can flip back to the other side of the page and read Chinese a great tool for us to use there This is the same room here, but there you can see just nice decor there Some people say we'll make a nautical theme their sailors. They don't want an otticle theme That's their life.
This is a west or west coast theme here big trees and lots of wood This is my friend Ashley Millen a great singer professional singer So he comes down sometimes and he's singing with him and sharing the work You can see they start pulling out all their cameras and they start videoing him This is in the big room here our pool table or ping pong table This is my wife is singing with him. This was a night that we had a bigger crowd So we had to use this room here. We have on average about 15 men a night come to each of our centers I would say the greatest night of the whole year is Christmas Day Especially with the Filipino's Christmas is a big deal from them. They're away from home.
They're very lonely We're able to invite a man. We have a great time together. Yes, we have to leave the rest of my family to do this But we've always had our daughters come down and it's a great opportunity to To help these sailors forget about their loneliness and to point them back to the Lord Jesus Christ This looking the other direction this tall guy here opening the Bible up and reading to them This is our center in North Vancouver. So if you're familiar with the area at all It's right by the sea bus terminal and we basically work the North Shore Harbor.
We very do very little in Vancouver We're wanting to grow but we're having problems getting people willing to commit to doing ship visitation So we pick up from we call bridge the bridge on the North Shore and we bring to our center So there's no charge to the sailors for the shuttle service There's no charge to come in we do have the little snorif they wish but there's other stores around so we don't even promote that It's only if they want to but they will come to our center there This is the back mural on the wall or pool table course ping pong. I think it's a beautiful center It's a real nice place for the men to relax. These are our phone booths They're pretty empty these days, but they're used to be line up So you even have signs on there that there's a 30-minute limit when there's a lineup Well, there's no line-ups anymore and this is up on our mezzanine You can see the sailors here just on their phones there and we just mingle with them Everybody does it differently. I tend to gather them together and to have a gospel message for them Some people are not comfortable without so they just go from sailor to sailor talking with them where you're from your family Get to know them and share the word of God with them But everyone that's got it That's really their goal is to eventually get to the word of God our model there is to serve the sailors in word and deed and so We were there to help them with any other issues.
We've sometimes run to Walmart the best buy we give them maps We take them around but the goal of course is to share the word of God with them Number of Chinese sailors here busy on their phones there for me They're a little bit different in how to witness to them I love it when we can have a someone is from China that can come down and witness to them in their own language We give out a lot of Jesus DVDs to them. They're in 24 languages Then we have another one. It's just Indian languages 14 Indian dialects languages there It's a great tool to share the word of God with them and many of them will take it and they say I'm gonna take this home to my village and show it to them. Praise the Lord two years ago I remember this was good Friday.
I went to a ship and it was has an American crew There's only a couple ships that come in that have American crew and you know Americans who seems Canadians They're not very interested in hearing the word of God So I go on board the ship with hesitation and as I go on board the ship I run into two guys there one guy's got a big skull hanging around his neck But I get talking with him he wants to talk to me and he tells me that he goes to church. He's a drummer in the church Well, he also admitted that he's not doing very good And so I was able to encourage him in the word of God and in that night My wife and I were both down at the center and it was mostly a Chinese crew And when my wife starts singing they start pulling out their phones and videoing her and then they Continue to video when I spoke and I was speaking through an interpreter and the sailor system He says when I get home, I'm gonna show this to my church my small church We think of China's a big country and it is but the further inland you go the less people there are he says I come from a small church. He says I'm gonna show this to them. I said great.
You're gonna translate it He says no it is translated. Oh, yeah, right But what an opportunity it thrilled me that the song the beautiful songs in God's wonderful word was going back into China I would love to be able to go to China and share the gospel But I don't speak their language and would have problems with the government trying to do that But here's someone that's taken it back for me. It's amazing how the seed can be sewn and spread a little store there This is just a the Vancouver Harbor here. It's Stanley Park But you see this is the big freighter parking lot here and this is where the cruise ships come We're really working over on the far side here on the North Shore This is a picture here.
This is a cadet. I remember him here. He was a chubby little cadet He didn't realize really how good he had it because this captain is a believer and he holds Bible studies on board I would say maybe one in five one in ten ships We meet the crew where someone is holding a Bible study if you're going to pray for us Please pray for those men on the ships. I go on for an hour or two hours four hours These men are on for nine months So they have a much greater impact in sharing the word of God and so I when I go on board I said what do you need you want twenty bibles?
I'll give you twenty bibles you want twenty study booklets I'll give you twenty study booklets. We want to help you you're the ones out there doing the work last May I had the privilege of going through the Philippines and We were to meet some people the fellas traveling with it made arrangements and he told me somebody was coming I didn't recognize a name But that's not uncommon for me and the elevator door opens and then walks the captain I said I know you I know you I Didn't recognize his name, but we had a wonderful day with him this captain admitted to us. He says I'm struggling It's tough. It says my family's not going on for the Lord and it's tough He spent the whole day with us and not only do you spend the day with us?
We were in Manila He rode their jeep knees which are polluting extended jeeps in the back of this for two hours to come visit us And then at the end of the night He had to ride it take it home for two hours and he wanted to come with church with us the next day I said well We're leaving at seven in the morning because somebody was picking us up I'll be here So he probably got home at nine or ten at night And he was back downtown in Manila at seven in the morning. He wanted to be with us Satsing is we've not we've lost contact with him. He hasn't been responding to us Which isn't all that uncommon for the Filipinos? But we're praying for him.
We want to encourage him these men need a lot of encouragement This is just a big front-hand loader in the side to ship once they've emptied as much as they can They got to put the big loader inside here to scoop out all the corners This one here was happening bringing in salt. This is a log carrier I find these things interesting from a manufacturing background, so I always find these things interesting I think the actually the next the next picture is better or to start first They fill up what they call the holds of the ship with logs then they close over the lids they put up out back here Outriggers Then they put up these outriggers and they load this up so that they can just see on the top of the ship They can see above it and they head off to China or to Japan or to Korea with this load of logs here Takes them about a week to load them and we have a great time to come to our center Just about every night when they're in port here just to give you an idea. We know tanker trucks are big right? See this tanker truck is it big?
Not really not that big these ships are huge This is a cook I met inside his galley isn't this very nice? Would you like to have a kitchen like this? He's special most of them are kind of run down They're pretty rough shape, but this was a new ship here. So men on the deck we give out hundreds and hundreds of toots We have many ladies knitting for us from across the prairies from around Vancouver from down the States and they send them to us And when we go on board the ship we are able to give them a took And that just warms them right up to us and they need it on the ocean You know if you're out on the out on the the coast here It's it's always chilly and so you don't the middle of sea with the waves rolling in the wind roaring It's a cold place so they really appreciate these toots and it just opens the door for us And we tell them these nets these tukes have been knit with love for you We'd ask this at knitters.
Please pray for the sailors as you knit these toots Some sailors here I go on board with these beautiful picture texts here great Bible verses and I put them up on the ask them Can I put it up in your mess room? Sure? They love me putting it up there and I see the ships come back year or two years later. They're still up there It's the word of God This sailor here had quite a story I met him on a Tuesday night He asked me if I was a priest because he wanted to confess his sins to me I said I'm not a priest, but I'll talk to you but no you don't think professor sins to me Well, he told me his story.
He was a needy guy He told me he didn't trust his wife and he's telling me a bit about himself and I said why don't you trust your wife? Why why is that no no? She's a good woman. She's a good woman.
Are you can trust her? I said then why are you don't even her? I said matter fact she should be not trusting you from what you've told me She shouldn't be trusting you I said when you phone your wife I don't take I need to take my own advice But I said when you phone your wife tell her three things you love about her my next time you call her tell her three more things about it Well, he like that idea I don't know if he did it that was on a Tuesday on Saturday night. I'm at a wedding someone keeps phoning me who's calling me I'm at a wedding finally take the call.
It's him. He's cut his thumb off It's just been hanging on it's cut right through. It's just hanging on by some little bit of tissue there He's all upset. This is gonna change his career now if we lost a thumb on our job We'd be pretty well taken care of here Filipinos going back to the Philippines not so their idea of taking good care of you is a nice handshake a pat on the back There's not a lot of support for them.
This is changing his career as a sailor It's a good career for a Filipino financially many hardships, but financially is good I Was able to meet with him a couple times while he rested here before he was able to fly back to the Philippines And I prayed with him and share the scriptures with him many times. I've tried to stay in contact with him You kind of lose contact with some of these people if they live in some of the outline areas But we take for granted a lot of things that we have here in Canada And we don't even understand what other people go through and the lack of social systems to help them Another sailor here. He was a very nice guy. He was a believer and he'd run inside every time to contact his wife and talk to her This here is a captain captain John Darley Met him a number of times.
We all knew him. He's a great man. He holds Bible studies on board There's a lot of ships from his company that come into the port and they all know him He's even retired from the now, but they all know Captain John Darley and they'll tell you he's a real Christian What do they say about us? What do our neighbors say about us?
Oh he goes to that church or would they say he's a real Christian? She's a real Christian. That's what they say about this captain. His wife's not a believer He asked us to pray for her But she came to sail with him for the first time in 20 years And so they were about an hour about two hours from our home up in Squamish And so we went up there my wife and I we picked them up and we toured them around the city of Vancouver He's you're gonna be here.
You might as well see the sites, but it was just an opportunity to share with him So many and sailors on board the ship I'm just gonna flick through these real quick. There's a single cooperate a text an old text that I found on board the ship there This fella here I can't remember his name, but when he found out as a Christian he was so excited He's a believer and he tells me says I pray with the man and I try to have Bible studies I want you to talk to my friend So he runs off to get this fellow here and as they come both come walking back to me He runs by me and he whispers he's a Muslim. Thanks for the warning Well, I was able to share with him and I talked to people of all religions I first question asked him. Why are you this religion?
Get some different answers most answers are because because my father is my grandfather is one man told me I don't know You're depending upon this role eternity and you don't even know I said and I give them a chance I say well, how does a Muslim how does a Hindu how does a seeker that is a Buddhist? How do you get to heaven? And every one of them it's about having this big pile of good deeds the small pile of bad deeds and I asked him How you doing with that? Gotta do better.
Yeah, have you tried doing better? Yeah, but I gotta do even better I said God forbid if you were to die right now, where would you go? Oh? I don't think I do very good.
I said can I tell you what the Bible teaches that it's not about what we have done It's both the Lord Jesus Christ has done. I asked him can you swim? Amazing that so many men that are on board the ships cannot even swim But I asked him can you okay some do I said, you know, I wasn't a bad swimmer and when they're on the river there I said I could have swam that distance I wouldn't swim in a fast flowing river, but if it was a lake I could swim that distance But I said if I fall overboard the middle of the ocean I don't say well keep going. I'll just swim the rest of the way to Vancouver.
I said, what do I need? I need a savior. I need someone to rescue me if I no one rescues me I'm gonna be dead within an hour for sure. I said, you know what?
We may do some good things We may help our neighbors out, but nobody's good enough to get to heaven We need a savior someone to rescue us and the good news is it's already been done The rescue is already been done some of the sailors when I asked them wherever they would go they'd tell me well God will decide God only knows I say God's work is finished. It's all done Now he's offering it as a gift will you take it? I said you know the only people being hell who's done this to God No, no, I don't I don't eat it. I'm good.
I'm young. I'm this religion. Hey, I was baptized whatever excuse They're saying I don't need your salvation. I'm going to do it my way.
I Want we have come here. I've come here with a blessing of lighthouse and the blessing of my assembly to See if there'd be people here that would take an interest in the ships that are coming here the sailors that are on board The ships have 20 to 25 crew a cruise ship have over a thousand crew We have an amazing ministry in Victoria that is the only seasonal and it's just to the cruise ships And because they're gonna come back in a week or two weeks you get to know them throughout the summer and you befriend them one man A retired doctor. He takes them to Bouchard Gardens. He goes down meets them on one week tells him anybody here want to go to Bouchard Gardens next time Okay, well, let's plan it.
I'll be here two weeks today when the ship comes back I'll be here at seven o'clock in the morning We'll go to Bouchard Gardens and we'll enjoy the day and we'll come back to my house for a barbecue They love it. They never forget these things but throughout the day. He's sharing the word of God with them So there's many opportunities So I'm here today with our booth at Jesus to the nations and hopefully speaking to someone here that would like to take a bit of time To witness to these sailors. It's an open door.
I this is not my work. This is the Lord's work I the reason I got involved with this I was invited to go down to our center one night I went down there and I could not believe how much more interested they were in listening to the word of God than my neighbor would be I thought this is a right field. This is a great opportunity to share the word of God. So what would it take?
You would need your port pass. I can help you get that. We're an organization I've been looked through the paperwork already what's required here You know we can set you up there go through the paperwork. There's car carriers coming.
They're one of my favorites in Vancouver to get on Their in Vancouver. I'm not sure here yet, but a Vancouver. They're typically in for about eight hours So I only have the morning to get on board the ship. It's a great time on board They're got lots of questions and they may be looking for a Wi-Fi or something Some people bring on a modem for them to use but if you can give even one morning a week one morning every two weeks Even one morning a month.
I guarantee anybody doing it will realize what it's a blessing for us to do it There are many opportunities that we have to share the word of God It does not take a huge commitment from you Hopefully your commitment will grow when you realize what a blessing it is to you that you're able to bless these men with the gospel But that's just how it starts We have a number of people and I do have a flyer back there I would like you to take one I've got two there ones are little information what we are But here's our latest newsletter and if you'd like to sign up to receive electronically I have a paper you can just sign up or just email us, but please take this There's three stories in here three main stories of people that have retired recently and now take one to two mornings a week visiting the ships It's a blessing for them when they're not able they tell me I've missed it. I miss going on board the ships They're friendly. They're welcoming not everybody but most and they would need to hear the word of God last Tuesday I sat across from a A believer he was the first engineer on board and he had one of his crew beside him and this man was under the burden of sin I believe and he was very squirmish in his seat He wasn't trying to leave but he was convicted by his sins and he was explaining to us that he likes heavy metal music And he knows the lyrics are blasphemy He knows that but he likes the music, but he doesn't think it's right And he happened at one point there he lifted up his arm to scratch his arm and I seen he had a tattoo of barbed wire I said oh what's your tattoo of? He says I got a worse one on my back.
I got the Grim Reaper. This is a Filipino. I wasn't trying to condemn him for his tattoo I said what does the barbed wire mean to you? It's just as simple as it to me it means bondage it means jail it means you're not free I said it sounds to me like you're not free There's only one person that can free you and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
You need to receive a measure savior We had a really nice talk with him The the believer on board his boss the believer We were able to really encourage him and we hope to see him again in about three weeks his ship should be back Sorry four to five weeks his ship will be back and go on board and encourage him again They look forward to seeing us they'll tell us we've been waiting for you. We knew you were coming We've been looking forward to it. We don't come with a lot of trinkets Just a two or something if I'm giving them a chopper bars or anything We're giving out the word of God and you're hungry for it. They see the need many of them will tell us I didn't expect to get here the seas were so rough There I Further my slides.
I have a picture of a car carrier there a huge car carrier sides super high You said the waves are coming over the side not the front over the side They were rolling so much in the ocean. I say I'd love to be on a ship in a storm for five minutes They'll be saying okay time out. I'm off there in there sometimes in these storms for two weeks Sometimes a day sometimes two weeks, but it doesn't stop at the end of the day It doesn't give you a coffee break and light it will sit down it keeps going and going These may need our prayers So if you're be interested I'd love to share more with you on Wednesday night. I'm gonna be hosting a dinner at the Swiss chalet If you'd love if you'd like to come and learn more I'd love to have you there.
We'd like to pray for the work there We have lighthouses started a number of other I'll say branches, but we're not trying to control them We get them started up the coast of BC and then we hand them off to the local people We're in fellowship with them. We pray with them. We share literature with them. We buy bibles together in bulk But it's not that we're trying to set up another lighthouse controlled by us It's just a local people my father went on board the ships with no association other than going on with the Bible To get a port pass you kind of have to have some sort of association we can help you with that you could probably even go through your church here So there's different ways to reach out to them the cruise ships the seasonal one.
This is one where Wise women are really needed. There's so many women on board a ship on a cruise ship Not on a freighter But on a cruise ship and they need comfort They need someone to put their arm around them and to give them good direction and to comfort them When a sailor's at sea for nine months, I thought must be very hard to be away from your family But when I meet the ladies from the cruise ships and they're away from their own children for that time I thought if it's hard for a man how much harder it is for a mother and And they need comfort and they need us to just be a friend of them and to share the word of God with them So if you have other questions be happy to talk to you if you're John and me and you're gonna be heading out fairly soon back to Jesus to the nations But if you would like to learn more happy to meet with you happy to host you there at the Swiss chalet Please just let me know so I know numbers. That's on Wednesday night at six o'clock and that's I think it's leakwood or something there Thank you, let me know please, but if you'd like to learn more and hear more But when you look at the ships here, please don't look at the steel look at the souls on board pray for these people They need our prayers. They're coming to us going to all the nations.
We're blessed. They're coming to us They're coming right to our own doorstep from all these nations and you're taking the word of God back with them That's the greatest thing many are coming to know the Lord is our Savior. We don't count numbers But we just keep sewing the seed because we know that salvation comes to the Lord. Thank you for listening Thank you for your time here great meeting all of you hope to see you again and be God bless us I guess I'll close in prayer Father in heaven I just want to give thanks for our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ Thank you that he has saved me that he has saved us or thank you Lord for that day on the cross When he took care of all of our sin we're thankful for the day Lord when we trusted in you and Lord We think of here in the audience here If someone is not trusted you Lord that they may realize that this is the most important matter How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?
We're gonna pray that today we'd be able to go forth and to share with one more person the wonderful news of salvation So Lord I give thanks for this day as your blessing upon this assembly and our Savior's name amen Sam did you happen to have that song? Okay, I'm sorry do it you normally do it