Doulos

The same weekend as the all-encompassing party, my former roommates and I spent our Sunday afternoon checking out the Doulos, docked for two weeks at the Kaohsiung Harbour. Interest in seeing the ship was peaked by the fact that one in present company would be working aboard for 2 months in May and June.




A quick rundown of the ship:

• Built in the USA in 1914 (2 years after the Titanic), the MV Doulos is the world's oldest active ocean-going passenger ship.

• During her history, she has sailed under 4 different names and has been used for quite a variety of purposes such as freighting goods, transporting emigrants, and for cruises.

• In 1977, the ship was purchased by the German based private, non-profit, charitable organization Good Books for All.

• Since becoming the Doulos, the ship has visited over 500 ports in more than 100 countries and has welcomed more than 19 million visitors aboard for tours, programs, and visits to their large on-deck book fair.

(We, as in I, sort of volunteered Emi to take part in a magic trick, part of the
entertainment as we waited in the 2 hr. line. She can now look forward
to many days of strangling visitors during her 2 months on board.)

While I enjoyed checking out and purchasing several books and was particularly excited to see all the Christian literature (and in English!!), to call the ship a giant floating book fair grossly undermines its purpose. The ship's motto is: Bringing knowledge, help, and hope. In addition to bringing literature to their various ports of call, the purpose of the Doulos is to "encourage inter-cultural understanding, train young people for more effective life and service, promote greater global awareness, provide practical aid, and share a message of hope in God wherever there is opportunity." Upon doing a bit of research, I also learned that Doulos is Greek for bond servant or slave. I found this to be cool because all the crew members, both short-term and long-term, are volunteers, including the captain. In fact, they have to raise support to cover the expenses of living on board. What a testimony the crew members have in their willingness and commitment to serve God and others both on board and in the countries they visit.

(We went from watching the entertainment to entertaining
ourselves as we waited in line.)