Mary’s story

Since the day when Jonah told the seamen of Tarshish to throw him overboard, ships at sea have long been places where the reality of God breaks through. The ship which carried the apostle Paul towards Rome had 266 people – sailors, soldiers and prisoners – when it was wrecked at Malta. The cruise ships which call at Invergordon can carry as many as 4,000 people, both passengers and crew. And, yes, these ships too can be places where people hear about God and pray.

The Seafarers’ Centre, hosted by Invergordon Parish Church, offers a Bible to crew members in their own language. This year, Blythswood provided Bibles and New Testaments in 22 languages for this purpose. Mary who has been a volunteer there for many years recognised a crew member from a previous visit.

“Two years ago she and another crew member had been overjoyed to receive a quantity of Bibles to help them disciple young Christians aboard their ship,” Mary says. “There had been more than enough to go around, and ten left over had been placed in the ship’s library.
“Now working on another boat, she checked her emails on our internet, and called me over to share her news. She had just learned from her former shipmate that more crew members on that ship have been reading those library Bibles. There have been conversions every week and baptism services every month.

“’God’s Word is powerful”, she reminded me. ‘Sharper than a two-edged sword!”

A Young Woman’s Story

A young woman entered the Seafarers’ Centre in Invergordon. She had been at sea for 15 days. Tentatively she picked up an English Bible and asked how much it was.

“We told her it was free and that it was hers if she wanted it,” says Drew Anderson, Sailors’ Society chaplain at the Highland port. “She was jumping and down with excitement and said it was all she ever wanted.”

Along with tea and biscuits, internet access is one of the attractions that draws ships’ crews into the Seafarers’ Centre during their precious few hours of shore leave. “Minutes later this girl was on Face Time to her pastor at home in the Philippines,” Drew says. “He asked her had she found a fellowship yet and she said she hadn’t but that she had just been given a Bible.

“We were able to tell her there was a fellowship on board her ship, and showed her a photo of some of the crew who attended. She said she recognised one and would speak to him.”

Her brief shore visit provided both Bible and fellowship for this young Christian so far from home. All types of vessels call at the Cromarty Firth but it is cruise ships especially that swell visitor numbers with crews of up to 1,500 men and women. They include people from Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe and Blythswood Care provides Bibles, New Testaments and Christian literature in appropriate languages.

Danilo’s Story

Danilo was a crew member on one of 93 cruise ships to call at the Highland port of Invergordon in 2017.

An evangelical Christian from the Philippines, he led an on-board fellowship which met twice a week, late at night.

At the Seafarers’ Centre in Invergordon he was delighted to be offered a study Bible that would help him prepare for these meetings during his scarce free time.

He told the Seafarers’ Centre volunteers about his home village, where there was only one copy of the Bible. His wife was a teacher and every morning before class she spent an hour teaching the children a Bible story. Every evening she painstakingly copied out another for the next day.

Even his home church did not have another copy, but yet had sent eight of the congregation to a neighbouring village to plant a church. He explained it like this: “We have nothing but we have the Lord.”

Blythswood Care supports the Seafarers’ Centre ministry by providing Bibles and Christian literature in various languages. The day before Danilo’s ship docked, 30 English New Testaments had been included by mistake with other items obtained for the Invergordon mission.