Mission to Seafarers (กะลาสีเรือ) - Who is my Neighbor?

Mission to SeaFarers, Thailand

The Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37)

Greetings and Intro!

Scope and Limitation:

My sharing will not focus on exegesis (การตีความพระคัมภีร์) of this passage or the background of the Bible text but I will relate it to my work and story as chaplain (อนุศาสนาจารย์) of the Mission to Seafarers in Thailand and also to let you know what about our mission since this Sunday focuses our prayers and we give importance to the Church’s mission as a whole. For the Anglicans, we are proud to say that we are the pioneer of doing mission to seafarers, we welcome and serve, help and support, visit and provide assistance to stranger and unknown to us with different background of crew nationalities, faith or beliefs, cultures or customs, races or colors, we go beyond these and we do care to respond to our call of Christian mission to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is our Mission to Seafarers, caring for seafarers around the world!

Slide 1 Show MtS logo

Introduce the Question:

To continue, let me ask. Who is your/my neighbor?

The parable of the Good Samaritan is one that many of us are familiar with. It reminds us that we should always be willing to help people who are in trouble and to respond to those who need our help. It challenges us to go beyond ourselves and to see people as neighbors, even though they may be different to us in some way.

At the first glance it is simple question. Generally, our neighbor is the person who lives near us, or the people we meet from day to day, but these days our neighbor also includes people who brought near to us in other ways. Television and social media have opened us up to the world. Suddenly people in other countries and far places have become our neighbors. We now find ourselves involved in things that are happening elsewhere in the world. It might be entertaining things like the Olympics or world sports, but it might also be tragic things like war, civil unrest and natural disasters.

Jesus uses this parable to teach us about love and compassion, both our love for God and our love for others. So who is your neighbor?

Slide 2 Q: Who is your neighbor?

In 1835 Revd. John Ashley, (Introduce Slide 3: John Ashley). He was on holiday near the Bristol Channel. (Show Slide 4: Bristol Channel and Thai ships routes ) As he looked out over the Bristol Channel, he saw hundreds of sailing ships at anchor far from shore and he realized that the seafarers working on those ships had no one to minister to them. He recognized that these seafarers were his neighbors and he became a chaplain to seafarers, devoting his life ministering to them.

Today, is a Mission Sunday. We have different areas of mission. I am thankful that ACT invited me to share about my work and our work as missionary church especially for ACT members to know that our Anglican Church do have missions in different fields like the Mission to Seafarers. Mission Sunday is important because it is the one day set aside in the year for churches to reflect about the core of Christian mission. And today, let us remember the seafarers. These are the people who work on our oceans, sailing ships across the seas often in difficult circumstances, bringing us the goods we need to live and the materials for industry. Seafaring is a hidden world. It is invisible to mainstream society, especially to those of us who do not live in coastal areas, but the people who work on these ships are our neighbors and it is important that we remember them.

But why it is important? The Mission to Seafarers is over 160 years from the visionary work of Revd. John Ashley. We witnessed these things and still continues as a challenge to seafarers;

 Life at Sea is often lonely, difficult and dangerous with long anti-social hours and the risk of shipwreck, piracy, or other accidents. Seafarers find themselves far away from home, often sailing to countries where they don’t speak the language and where people can sometimes be hostile or unwelcoming. This can make them feel isolated or vulnerable (อ่อนแอ เปราะบาง) . (Show slide 5: picture of ship and seafarers)

 There are many ships that don’t have access to the internet. This means seafarers can find it difficult to maintain contact with their families. ( Show slide 6: seafarers with phone)

 At the Mission to Seafarers we respond to this need by visiting seafarers on their ships, welcoming them to our seafarer’s centers, we provide a safe environment away from their ships so that seafarers can relax and rest and buy refreshments and toiletries, etc. we also provide free transport to and from the ports to the nearest town or shops. (Show slide 7, ship visit and center)

 When seafarers arrive at our centers, they can use free Wi-Fi and other recreational facilities, such as Table Tennis, Billiards and Table soccer. We try and make our centers places of welcome and hospitality. We try to be a good Samaritans.

 But it is not just physical needs that we respond to, we also respond to spiritual needs, we provide spiritual support and guidance through our ordained and lay chaplains, staff and volunteers, we also provide free Bibles and other Christian literature, magazines, newsletters and information materials in different languages for any seafarers that needs them. (Show slide 8: giving tokens, praying and mass on board)

 Sometimes seafarers are left in dire situations just like the man who was left half-dead on the road to Jericho. In our world today some governments, ship owners, and other organizations and people involved in the shipping industry find it very easy to pass by on the side on the road and ignore the needs of seafarers. We can respond to this by showing compassionate action and prophetic leadership. (Show slide 9: sample case in Thailand)

 We respond to situations of injustice especially where seafarers are abandoned in ports or where they haven’t been paid. We act on their behalf by campaigning for justice within the shipping industry and we can do this because of the support from individuals all over the world, people such as yourselves who are answering the question “ who is my neighbor”?

 God has empowered all of us to bandage the wounds’ of seafarers and quietly save their lives like the Good Samaritan did on the road to Jericho.

 Today, as Mission Sunday, in here as a Church, to recognize seafarers as our neighbors and to find ways of responding. Not everyone can go to the ports or become involved in ship visiting but everyone can do something to help such as:

 Prayer- we are all connected when we pray and when we pray together, it becomes the most powerful tool and we believe the God will intervene and he will do the rest. We believe in His Divine power, providence and presence in us at all times when we pray, He will respond lovingly with care.

 Keeping in touch and show support- You can check our website: www.missiontoseafarers.org/bangkok or follow us on our social media account: FB: Mission to Seafarers Thailand. We have regular news bulletins about our work that we are doing and see how our help is changing lives. Please do Like, Follow and Share!

 Helping the mission-become volunteer ship visitor/staff. Contact the Chaplain for more information.

 The Mission to Seafarers is only able to exist and serve our seafarers neighbors because of the generosity and support from people across the world, people who have decided that they are not going to pass by or ignore the seafarer, people who have decided to recognize the seafarer as their neighbor.

 In the words of Jesus himself, let us all support the work of caring for seafarers, we can all ‘go and do likewise. We can all get involved and quietly save the lives of seafarers.

Let us pray,

Dear God, We thank you for the beauty of the earth and the mighty waters that surround the land. May we responsible for the just and proper use of your creation. We thank you for entrusting to us your mission becomes our mission to show care and love to our neighbor. Empower us by your Holy Spirit, strengthen us when we become weak, lead and guide our way to respond according to your plan, protect us as we find joy to serve you and continue to use us for meaningful life driven by purpose, purpose to serve and love you through our neighbor. We accept your mission to become our mission, please be with us along the way. And today we acknowledge that we have our special mission to care for seafarers. Dear God, please help seafarers and make sure they’re safe while they travel. We pray that they are loved. They are very helpful to us, they deliver all our goods and help the economy of every country afloat. May we show care and love for them in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Amen!

Amen!