Two days onboard..

Last February 10 and 11, I have been privileged to join the Inside Out Program of the MV Doulos. It is actually a program designed for students who would wish to volunteer onboard for two days. Here, we had the opportunity to experience the work and ministry onboard the Doulos.

To those who do not know about MV Doulos, it is a ship built in 1914 making it two years younger than the Titanic. Doulos is the World’s Largest Floating Book Fair, carrying 6,000 titles of quality literature across the oceans to reach different parts of the globe. 350 volunteers from 50 countries work together and live onboard. They are actually not being paid for their service, which is why they are called volunteers. They just get support from people back home. Since 1977, Doulos has visited more than 100 countries, welcoming over 19 million visitors onboard.

So what did we did we do inside the ship?

The first thing we did was orientation. We oriented by some of the crew of the Doulos. There were actually four of them, Kaylee who was from the United States, Felipe who was from Brazil, Shibu who was from India and Monica who was from South Africa. Meeting new people from different countries was so amazing. They introduced themselves to us and gave us their testimonies. After awhile, Gareth Bolton, also a volunteer in the ship shared us about God’s word and the ministry of Christ here on earth. I surely did learn a lot from him. Lunch was next. I could not wait to see what their food was like. All I knew was that they had Western food. So I lined up with the other volunteers for lunch. Their dining room is somehow similar to a cafeteria, we would just line up and get the food that we want. When I saw the food, there was no rice! I only saw bread. There was meat and cheese and fresh cuts of vegetables like cabbage, carrots and tomatoes. There were also apples and oranges.

After I got my food, I looked for a table together with the other volunteers. When I had my first bite of the bread, I did not know how to react. The bread was hard, very hard. I just continued eating and told myself to finish what was on my plate.

As soon as we finished lunch, we were guided to where we were assigned. I was assigned to the Book Exhibition so I was brought to the bookshop. At first, I was assigned near the entrance wherein I would count the people who would arrive telling them how to get to the bookshop. Next I was assigned to be the baggage. The one who puts the customers items inside the plastic. It was really fun. It was my first time to experience that kind of work. After that, we had a break. We again went to the dining room to have some bread and juice. The bread was better now. We had peanut butter and jam which were both delicious. I also loved the lemonade juice. After that, we went back to the room where we were oriented to have some discussions and to update each other.

Dinner was next. We had rice this time and we also had chicken. After dinner, we went home.

The next day, we joined the worship service onboard. It was a new experience for me. There are actually a few families who are living in the ship. After church, we had the opportunity to visit the cabin of the Parker’s. Only the wife was able to entertain us because her husband was busy at the Book Ex and her daughter was also doing something. She served us chocolate cake, pretzels, dried mangoes and juice. We asked her questions about the ministry and their stay on the ship.

Lunch was next. There was cake for dessert and it was delicious.

In the afternoon, we had training for drama. I was completely surprised because they did not tell us about it. We were able to learn two dramas. We then went to the keyside where the people were lining up for the entrance. There we entertained the people. The dramas that we learned just a few hours ago were performed there. We also served water to the people for free because it was so hot. After that, we were then called to go back to the room. We had some discussions and reflections and we shared the lessons that we learned during that afternoon. After that, we went down to have our last meal together. After dinner, we exchanged numbers and email addresses and bade goodbye.

My Doulos experience is one of the things that I would always cherish in my life. A lot of wonderful things happened during my two days onboard.