 Nine of us headed off to the Logos Hope for the youth evening. We’d battled through Thursday night traffic, having given up going in convoy, and the security at the gate – but amazingly we eventually arrived at the ship almost at the same time. The evening was a professionally produced mix of contemporary worship, dance, mime and drama, film, interviews with crew members and a message on the theme of mission. Clearly the experience of living on board with people from other cultures with a shared faith is a very powerful experience, but I felt the sensitivity, which was expressed in the opening ceremony, didn’t translate to this occasion.  Some of the young people would have been ready to hear the challenge of world mission in such a way, but the presentation made big assumptions about those attending and ignored the fact that nearly all of those present were expatriates already living outside their own culture, many in a very international context. As one text message said afterwards: If nothing else, it stimulated a lot of discussion in the car! As I responded, I would have loved to be a fly in the car. |
Nine of us headed off to the Logos Hope for the youth evening. We’d battled through Thursday night traffic, having given up going in convoy, and the security at the gate – but amazingly we eventually arrived at the ship almost at the same time. The evening was a professionally produced mix of contemporary worship, dance, mime and drama, film, interviews with crew members and a message on the theme of mission. Clearly the experience of living on board with people from other cultures with a shared faith is a very powerful experience, but I felt the sensitivity, which was expressed in the opening ceremony, didn’t translate to this occasion.