Saturday, February 23, 2008

Ship Trip Update

Just wanted to give an update on the Ship trip coming up soon. We have 6 people heading out on this short term missions trip. This weekend we were able to talk with a person who had been on the Logos II mission ship a few years ago. She shared a lot insights into the real work of these mission ships. The ships move from port to port all over the world. They stay about 2-3 weeks per port. There is a team that goes 2-3 months before the ship to help prepare the way. Permits, port fees and discussions with the government, also rallying churches, advertising, etc. Its a big deal to all these countries to have a large ship come into port. Once there, the ship opens its doors to everyone. The ship contains a massive book store with books in tons of languages. Each port they reset all the books for the groups they will be ministering to. The also hold conferences for pastors (some of which have never met each other due to political issues with Christianity), they also hold women's and youth conferences. They do street ministry, they visit churches for encouragement. Each stop is like a big carnival. People wait hours to days just to get on the ship for a little time.
Its getting really exciting to go. The Logos Hope needs a lot more work before it can sail the world for Christ and we will only be there for a short time but it will still be cool to help with the preparations. If you can, look into heading out to Germany to help out with your church.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Ship ahoy!

Well I decided to go on the Germany missions trip. It will be an exciting experience. It will be tough on the girls to have me gone, but I hope God will really use me to make a difference. The team thats going is small, about 6. We will be staying and working on the ship. the website is www.logoshope.org I hope that I can count on our blog readers for prayer support before and during the trip. We are going to be putting lots of hours to continue the ship retrofit activities. If you do feel lead to support me in a financial way, please send a check made out to Venture Christian Church. In the memo please put "Ship Trip". Please include my name on the envelope or on a post it note attached to the check. Send all donations to Venture Christian Church @ 590 Shawnee Lane, San Jose, California 95123.

Thanks all for the comments and support. Sara and the kids will love to have you come by and eat meals, play in the yard or just talk. Keep checking back for updates on the preparations and other things going on at the Olson's

Thank you all!
Jon