How to shorten ladders
Wheezing, huffing and puffing, at last I made the top of the ladder. The gangway of a larger container vessel that arrives in Miami can be a challenge for a 73-year-old to climb. Stepping onto the deck of the vessel, I notice a longshoreman behind me on the ladder singing the same wheezing, huffing, puffing tune. Maybe I am not so old and out of shape; if a young man also finds it difficult to get up the side of the ship. (I will ignore the fact that he had an arm full of metal pipes.) My name is Dean Worden, the newest volunteer at the Miami International Seafarers Ministry and it is my intent to share a most remarkable day with you. Reaching the deck of the ship, the seaman that is assigned deck watch greets us, checks us into the visitors log and escorts us to the crew’s lunch room. On this day I am shadowing Pastor Vasiley. Pastor Vasiley is incredibly gifted, fluent in Spanish Russian, Ukrainian, and English he has a passion for sharing the gospel with the lost.Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
In the ship’s lunch room we lay Bibles, tracks, literature, cookies on one of the tables. Pastor Vasiley talks with the crew as they come and go. Some stop and engage Pastor Vasiley in conversation and some depart with urgent duties to perform. What is amazing is that the crew come from different countries and without skipping a beat, Pastor Vasiley addresses each crew member in their own language. My ability in Spanish is limited and I have no ability in Russian but I am very thankful that God understands all languages and my deficiencies simply demonstrate God’s incredible power to do his work using our limited skills. As Pastor Vasily shares Christ I am praying. Over and over I ask God to open the heart of a seaman and to have the wonderful seeds of salvation fall on good soil. Wait a minute, the seaman are repeating the prayer that the Pastor is offering. With the few words I understand in Spanish it appears we will need accommodations for one more resident in heaven, Hallelujah!!
Five ships were visited on this day. On one vessel, three seamen repeated the sinners’ prayer and on another vessel the captain accepted Christ as his savior. What a day! The gangway or stairs on the side of the ships did not seem so tall at the end as they did in the beginning of the day.