The following is sent quarterly by email. If you would like to be on the mailing list, contact SealeJoe@gci.net with your request.

I received this letter recently from Tom, a Filipino, who leads the fellowship aboard one of the cruise ships that visits Seward occasionally. It should be an encouragement to us all.
Dear Pastor David: Finally, we're back here in Japan. I just want to share with you some news on how the Lord works in our group. Remember when you talked to us about how hard to have a Bible Study on a Japanese ship? you said that for Japanese, their religion is their nationality and it is a threat for them to have a group of believers on the ship. We really prayed for that problem and thanks for your prayers also. The good news is, just last week, our ship encountered a very huge typhoon and all the windows on the bridge was destroyed by big waves. All our electronic equipment on the bridge was destroyed by sea water also, our 2 stabilizers was broken, so our captain order us to prepare for abandon ship. Everybody was scared and crying at that time. I ask all my leaders to stay calm and trust in the Lord. I ask them to comfort and lead the prayers for every individuals. And when all the crews are gathered together at the promenade, I lead the prayer of all, including for Japanese and other nationalities. We don't have any passengers at that time. Everybody saw how the Lord works in our midst and how the power of our Lord Jesus Christ calms the sea. The Lord really touches almost all of our Japanese crews.
Three days after, I received a letter from our crew purser, signed by our captain that they are giving us all the rights to use our conference room for our Bible Study any time we want. And we can freely distribute an invitations to all. They give us a brand new over-head projector for us to use with my laptop for slide shows. And the best thing that God does was, we have now 2 converted Japanese crews and we want you to pray for their Spiritual growth .... Really, nothing is impossible to our Lord Jesus Christ. Thanks for all your prayers. To God be the GLORY, HONOR and PRAISES.

Unexpected Opportunity by George Reichman

During the summer our focus is primarily on seafarers, but it's important to be ready for those unexpected opportunities too. This past summer we were staying in the apartment above the Nazarene Church in Seward. One evening as we were returning to the church, we found five young men standing outside the church. They were Turkish Muslims who were working in a local cannery. These young men wanted to know the differences between Christianity and their Muslim religion, so we went into the church and sat down in the sanctuary. For the next hour or so my wife and I had an excellent opportunity to share with these young men what Christianity is all about and how it differs from Islam.

Later we all walked over to the Seaman's Mission. As we walked, one of the young men whispered to me, "I believe more like you!" We showed the guys around the Mission, explained to them what we did there, and gave them some Christian literature in Turkish to take with them. We never had another chance to talk to them. Will we ever see them again? Probably not, but that one evening was an opportunity to impact five young men from a Muslim country with the Gospel. It would have been easy to miss that opportunity because they weren't seafarers or because we were tired or for a dozen other reasons. We thank God for the chance to touch people's lives, whether it is with the seafarers--or an unexpected opportunity.

You Never Know by David Hawkins (continued from last newsletter)

All of us may sometimes feel we have failed because we do not see the immediate evidence of transformed lives. This has been true for me on many occasions. Ron's case was likely the most improbable. He had arrived at our doorstep in the middle of winter. A very dark cloud seemed to hover over him. For more than a week he lay on the couch barely communicating, his depression almost tangible. It had seemed unwise to tell him that he should be up and doing as would normally be the case for one of our guests. Rather, in the quiet of our brief times of conversation, he heard of the Hope that all men may have. Eventually Ron moved on. Time went by. How many months or years I couldn't say. Then out of the blue, I received a letter from him. Its pages contained more words than he had spoken during his entire stay with us and were full of joy.

After he left Seward, he continued to wrestle with God. He went on to reveal the startling news that he had to have both of his feet amputated because they became frost bitten while he was sleeping on a snow bank in Anchorage. However, God had somehow used this awful ordeal to draw him into the light. Now he believed and he is looking forward to eternal life in heaven.

And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched. Mark 9:45

Unique Opportunities to Serve by Jeannette Seale

The volunteers at the Mission have stumbled onto a very unique way to minister to the crew. It may have started in Sept, 2000, when Joe and I decided at the last minute to hop on the "last ship out of town," or it could have started after Sept 11, 2001, when one of our helpers had to get back to Holland to work but all planes out of Alaska were grounded. We came up with the ingenious idea to get her on the last ship to Vancouver, BC, where she could catch a flight back to Europe. However it started, the idea for volunteers ministering during a cruise seems to have caught on. On the longest missionary trip, two of our "crew" circumnavigated South America and the shortest was a 3-4 day cruise up the West Coast of the US. All of these trips have been a very positive experience for the volunteers and crew of the ships. They have been allowed to attend the Christian crew fellowships on board and to counsel crew who need some special attention and encouragement.

For years my prayer has been that each cruise line would supply an onboard chaplain for the crew. Until that time, volunteers paying their own way to work for God's glory for a week aboard are reaping many blessings.

First Summer Report From Amsterdam by Jan Best

After much planning, expense, and excitement, our little mission was open 18 days during the summer. None of us had had much training to undertake such a challenging task, but we trusted God with the outcome. Some days no one or very few crew came to the mission, but the conversations we did have were so encouraging. We gave away a total of 32 Bibles or NT in 8 different languages and made some excellent contacts with Christian crew members.

Because of the many lessons that we learned this first summer, our operation will change direction for 2008. We found that the rent for rooms and expense of a van was too great and that our efforts can be better spent contacting crew on the sidewalk and on the ships themselves. This port has some challenges for us as the crew have very little time off, this city is known for its vices, not Christian Missions and, because of this, we are suspect by the shipping companies. Even so, one fellowship group on board donated a $200 offering to our endeavor.

There may be a possibility in the future to have space in a new cruise terminal, but until that time we will trust the Lord to guide us in how to continue in this work. The reason we so wish to continue this work is to spread the Good News of Jesus to sailors and to make it known to them that Someone loves them and is very much concerned about seafaring people.

You try to help save our lives. Jamaica