Visitor during LMM Board meeting

At the LMM Board on Friday, May 15th, Chaplain Chim told how busy he has been at the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach recently. He reported visiting a total of 14 ships since the last LMM Board meeting. There was a visitor from First Lutheran in Torrance that accompanied Mary Stewart to this month's board meeting. We had the pleasure of meeting Terry Wall at this session and hope that she decides to join us again soon. She expressed an interested in possibly driving the van once a month to provide transportation for the seafarers but has made no commitment at this time. We would love to have her join our board and we are still actively seeking others to assist us in this once a month activity. Think about it?

Chim was recently told by some of the seafarers that 3 of the ships he normally visits are being sent to anchor for 3 months because there is no cargo for them to transport. This contributes to low morale amongst the seafarers at this time of limited job availability. As their contracts come to an end so does their ability to earn a living. Add to that that ships are crewing even more minimally than ever and this leads to further fatigue for the crews! It is more important than ever to be available to the seafarers. Please pray that the Lord would continue to open doors and hearts to the Chaplain. Let's remember Romans 12:5 that affirms that "we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other, and each of us needs all the others ".

Captain Parekh of the MOL Presence (middle)

Glad to inform you that Chaplain Chim is back in full swing with the seafarers now. He visits ships and serves seafarers nearly on a daily basis. Yesterday morning he and Rajiv Pathik visited the MOL Presence and held a service for the mariners. It was a wonderful time for the men on board and Chim came back much encouraged. It was wonderful to have Rajiv and Anna Pathik here for the weekend from the Bay area with their 21 month old daughter, Eva. Good news is that they are expecting their second child come the end of July. Chim really appreciated Rajiv's assistance over the weekend and enjoyed fellowshiping together.

WOW! It's been so long since we blogged that we had quite a hassle trying to remember our password and address! We have been busy getting a hard copy newsletter out to all who are signed up to receive them. It's been 2 years since we published our last hard copy and started using the blog but seems some people prefer the old one. If you do not receive one and would like to get a hard copy, just email us your mailing address and we will add you to the list.

There was a seafarer who was left behind when his ship sailed because he had an emergency surgery and was unable to travel. His name is Mr. Chaudhruy. The ship's agent called Chim and ask for assistance in helping him find vegetarian food. We were pleased that he was here for lunch and dinner yesterday. Captain Parekh also joined us from the Presence us for an Indian vegetarian dinner. Chim was able to share the Good News with them both.

On a daily basis we are receiving emails from traveling seafarers. We correspond with them and encourage them to seek peace from our Lord. They express their thanks for our prayers for them and look forward to returning to the Port of Long Beach/Los Angeles.

On May 2nd, Sadie Mursu, our LMM Board secretary, introduced us nicely at the Women's Cluster meeting at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Bellflower. We enjoyed meeting Pastor Mary Todd-Pendergast, who gave a devotional about "new life" from II Cor.5:17. The other women of the Cluster listened attentively as we spoke about Lutheran Maritime Ministry. We are available with PowerPoint and Open Office presentations as needed if you'd like someone to share about the ministry.

The return to normal LA time has taken a while! Jetlag hung onto us for nearly 2 weeks. Happy to report Chim is finally back to normal. We enjoyed our LMM board meeting here on 13th as it gave us opportunity to update all the members at once. Hearnen continues to supply the telephones to the seafarers and Chim is beginning to get back into the routine of visiting ships. Chim had the chance to share the Gospel with Raymond, a Phillipino seafarer from a Maersk vessel, while driving him back to his ship prior to departure. Pray the seed of the Word was planted in receptive soil of the heart.

We'd like to report that the port of Long Beach is going "green" by supplying power to ships that are equiped with special fittings so that they can turn off their diesel engines while docked thus saving the port pollution. Using shoreside power is about 90 percent cleaner than burning diesel fuel. So far only 5 "K" Line vessels have been equipped with the necessary fittings to plug into the new wharf. More will come as Long Beach continues to go green.

The care of seafarers during November thru January

Hearen Christian and the Board of Lutheran Maritime Ministries have done a superior job of maintaining support for the seafarers at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles during our absence. Not only did they distribute the wonderful Christmas boxes provided by faithful Lutheran churches but Hearen continued the daily availability for transportation and spiritual services the folks at the ports have come to expect from LMM. Thank you does not say how very grateful we are to the Lord and His servants!

Our visit to India ends tomorrow!

Tomorrow is our last day in India. The time has slipped by very quickly in terms of seeing different places and enhancing friendships. We have visited many of the seafarers that ask us to but by no means all.

At present we are with Captain Sanjay Bhatia and his family in Delhi. We have known him for several years. Four years ago Fay was able to take them to Sea World in San Diego. The kids have grown up so much since then. Neha is in her 3rd year of law school and Manish is in 7th grade. Sanjay’s wife, Geeta, is a wonderful cook so we’ve enjoyed her talent very much.

The Lord has used this time in India to impress upon me the importance of hospitality and how we express our love through it’s use. Chim says he's learnt the importance of love in action and is looking forward to returning home to put into practice what he's learnt. The next 10 days we will be in Thailand with Handclasp ministry and then home.

Visiting South India

Yesterday we arrived in Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala, India. We are visiting the chief Electrician, Ranjan, that we met from the Spar Lupus in Long Beach. We actually changed our travel plans because of this man's insistence that we visit him! He is most gracious and a wonderful host. We tried saying we wanted to stay at a hotel but he refused and I'm glad he did because he lives in a very peaceful, tree surrounded area that is beautiful. Plus this gives us time to meet his family, wife and 2 daughters. Last night he drove us around the city and we met his friend, Father Peter at St. Joesph's 100+ year old Catholic church and visited a 2,000 year old temple in the middle of town!

Since our last entry on this blog we visited Jaipur, the pink city in Gujarat. What a treat! It was so well planned out 300 years ago that cars can drive in even the oldest part of town. The bazaars are lively and colorful, unfortunately, our bags are full and the weight we can carry by plane has been lowered so Chim informed me there would be no shopping for me!

We traveled back to Punjab for Christmas. The day turned out to be just like all others as no one celebrates like we do unless they are in big cities! We had 2 speaking engagements without a Christmas tree in sight! Needless to say there were no gifts and their "Christmas carols" are regular worship songs. Nevertheless we remembered the birth and death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We did cut our trip short in Punjab to increase our opportunities to visit our other friends around India. New Year's found us in the far north at Dehradun a city very near the Himalayas. We visited the Torchbearers' school with Satish John and his lovely wife. (Chim and I first met at the Torchbearers' school at Capernwray, Carnforth, England in 1966! Satish was a student there too.) We were invited to stayed with Captain Jayant Kumboli and family and were treated like royalty. His wife and daughter were so sweet to us we were sad to leave. They insisted we visit Missouri, a famous hill station during our stay. Amazing to see how they build a city on the edge of a mountain ridge!

Ahmedabad, Gujarat

Here we visited with friends that we met in Long Beach because of the Lutheran Maritime Ministry. Santanu is the first engineer on a MOL vessel. He’s a big quiet man with a shiny shaved head and a heart of gold. We enjoyed meeting he and his wife, Purba, during their last visit to Long Beach where we showed them around and served them dinner at our home. They insisted that we meet them here in India whenever we visited. They just got back from their European voyage 4 days ago and are thrilled that we kept our promise to visit them. Purba’s parents live with them and what a lovely and peaceful home they all share! They live in a private gated community. Purba’s sister is an architect. She & her designer husband created this very modern home with beautiful features. The floors are marble but it looks like wood. There are many unusual built-in features unique to this 3 story house. I think it is definitely one of a kind.