Services play a large part in the SCFS chaplain and ship visitors' ministry among the seafarers, whether it is holding Bible studies and worship services or carrying out small acts of service, such as words of encouragement and friendship, taking time to listen and practical gifts.

Dublin

Last week Jae had the privilege of leading nine Bible studies and three praise & worship services.

"On Elbtrader, which hadn't visited Dublin port for almost one year, I met some crew members who were members in a weekly Bible study group which I had taken on a different ship. They were so happy to meet me again and to have fellowship. I was surprised to see the passenger from Belgium who is a port authority officer joining the Bible study and a praise & worship service."

"On MSC Nikoletta, a seafarer said that the most memorable moment in his 9 months on board the ship was having a praise and worship time and listening to God's Word. He was so uplifted to have such a time and told me to come back to have more time."

"A chief officer asked me if I could drive him to the city centre and help him to buy the clothes for his two young sons who are living in Romania. He misses them so much. He said he will go home in two weeks. I also taxied seafarers to the city many times"

Belfast

Sam returned to the Renaissance to hold another communion service. He was accompanied by Ruth, one of the Belfast ship visitors and they took bin bags full of gifts.

“Pastor Sam. Thank you so much for your kind support and for organising everything today-it truly means a lot. I really appreciate your thoughtfulness in preparing the bags and leaving them ready in the day room. The distribution was very quick and extremely positively received. The gifts were amazing.” (Message from Renaissance)

Cork

On board the NG Explorer cruise ship, Marilyn excitedly said to Colin, "Pastor we have started a Bible study fellowship on board - just 2 of us are meeting together so far." It was lovely that Colin's wife, Sunhwa, was also able to meet them when their ship returned.

Colin and Sunhwa have also enjoyed meeting up with members from the Christian fellowship onboard the Regal Princess and Spirit of Adventure.

Bringing Korean Gimchi and noodles on board are always popular with crew, along with the gifts, hats, teddies, toiletries and Bibles. Physical and Spiritual food!

SCFS Taxi 

A unique vessel was in Port which has 'sails' at the back. This utilises wind to save fuel. The Captain and C/O were delighted when I drove over to them to say hello.They had only 2 hours until their ship was leaving, and desperately wanted to go to the supermarket. That day I ended up bring 14 crew shopping from 4 different ships!

The Service of Friendship

In our Crew Lounge in Cobh we had a young Taiwanese man visit from a cruise ship. He spend over an hour chatting to our volunteer Mary. On another day we were able to pray with a number of the crew. Mario our Bolivian volunteer was able to pray for them in Spanish. Krishna, one of our volunteers is from Nepal, and can really minister to the Indian and Nepalese crew in their heart languages. It's great being able to pray with the seafarers in their native language! After one of our prayers, when a Mexican lady was clearly very moved and was crying, it was lovely to have a lady on hand to pray some more for her.