God Wants A Small Ship
Ministry!
From the
beginning of Maritime Ministries, we have continuously examined our hearts
to determine whose will was being served with the creation of a "boat
ministry". Many people would scoff and say "sure, a yacht
ministry", or "boy that's really suffering for the Lord".
We have honestly wrestled with these thoughts over the years, and we have
become more than convinced that this is indeed God's doing and a purpose
much larger than we realized at first.
First of all,
Maritime Ministries is much more than a "yacht ministry". It is
an interdenominational international
small ship ministry. It was created to go to the places and minister to
the people that the large ship ministries (OM and Mercy Ships) can't
reach. The Sailing Vessel "Praise the Lord" is a prototype and
training vessel which is only the first step. Our vision is to outfit
other suitable sailing vessels as well as small cargo ships (approximately
100-tons) as mobile outreach centers capable of reaching even the smallest
remotest pockets of humanity on the sea.
In an effort to
make certain that there was indeed a valid mission field of this type, we
began to do some research, and we discovered some amazing things. First of
all, we asked the question, "Does God mention islands in a
significant way in scripture?" The answer was a resounding yes! There
are over twenty important references to islands in the prophets which
state unoquivicably that God has His eyes on the remotest of the islands
of the sea, and that He has a plan for them to be included in His purpose
to reach all the nations with the Gospel of His Son Jesus. The Great
Commission includes the remote islands of the sea!
Secondly, we
wanted to see if there were indeed a significant enough number of islands
in the world to merit a special missions agency which specifically focused
on them. Again, what we found was staggering. We found one statistic that
stated that one out of every ten people on the earth is an islander. There
are (very roughly) 50,000 inhabited islands in the world. We looked at the
geography of islands and discovered that there are many nations made up of
hundreds and even thousands of islands. Some nations are nothing but
islands. Many thousands of these islands are so small as to be all but
overlooked. Even Cuba has some 1200 small islands surrounding its shores.
There are people on some of the remotest, tiniest, most insignificant
specs of land. Ragged Island for example, is
a tiny little island in the Bahamas on the edge of the tractless
barren waste of the Great Bahama Banks. It has fifty permanent residents.
Bahamians call Ragged Island "the island that God forgot". There
are many such "Ragged Islands" in the world, and the scriptures
are clear that God has not forgotten them. He wants someone among His
disciples to go to them and reach them.
Finally we
asked the question, "O.K., but are there any islands which are truly
unreached?" Again, the answers were incredible. The nation with the
largest Muslim population in the world is Indonesia. This nation is made
up of 17,000 islands. It has over 212,000,000 people ( 88% of whom are
Muslim) spread out among 6,000 inhabited islands. The Maldives is another
island nation off the tip of India.
It is made up of more than 200 tiny islands.
99.9% of the Maldives population is Muslim. There are only 300 Christians
in the entire country. The
Greek islands of the Agean Sea are considered by some to be the most
unreached places in all of Europe. There are also many islands off
mainland China, Japan, and Thailand.
It is clear,
according to cold hard statistics, that there is a need for small ship
minstries. Beyond this we have a burning conviction in our hearts and
constant confirmation that,
yes, God does indeed want a small ship ministry.
