Port Witnessing

the twentieth of november, two thousand and twelve

  To start off, Dave wanted a better picture of himself on the website:

  Monday morning Al, Jared and I went to scout out a new area for foreign factory workers.  We spoke with the police station and they pointed us to a plastics factory a few miles away.  There were about forty or fifty Vietnamese workers that lived in dorms next to the factory.  Their English is limited so using the Good News booklet and a few tracts we tried to give a brief witness.  There is a small Vietnamese group nearby that we will pass this along to.  

  Later that day I was able to catch up on my blogging a little as you all can now tell.  

  After Al returned from work that evening, Grant, Jazz, Al and I went to the port about forty-five minutes away.  The ships might have a week dock or so, others are dry docked until December.  Meanwhile the workers finish work around five or six and are able to talk.  Sometimes we can ask the captain for permission to board and have studies on the ship.  There were many Indonesians which we placed tracts with but the majority were Filipinos who are very appreciative and love to talk about the Bible.  

  Let me tell you about Andrew.  While the guys were talking to a few other individuals, I approached Andrew and asked him about his life.  He is from the Philippines and has a wife and a one year old daughter.  He has been on ship for six months so has not seen his newborn daughter as she changes each day.  He is waiting to be paid so his agent can get him home to his wife.  There is some problem back home that he must return to and although he is excited to get home, he seemed really anxious about not being able to continue on the ship.

  Andrew said that he was a Born Again Christian but would still like to talk about the Bible.  I explained the Bible study arrangement with the Bible Teach book and he wanted to discuss the chapter about family happiness.  He was soon to go out with his buds for the night but when I offered a fifteen minute study he readily agreed and made his friends wait for him.  We sat down, portside, on a plank of wood and began to read paragraph one as the cochroaches ran around our feet.  It didn't matter. He wanted to study.  His pals were pestering him so they could leave but he was firm in studying first.  We took our time on the first three paragraphs, looking up scriptures and making sure he understood the English. He was unsure when we could meet again, so I tried the next day, but the ship had moved. You can only hope that something he heared touched his heart and sets a good ground for the next time he contacts the brothers.

  Like I mentioned, the next night, Tuesday, we returned to the port, and although we didn't find the same people from the previous night we did re encounter several guys that had studied with Al before.  Philemon, a Filipino man, sat down for a study and we also ran into a few Tanzanians who were back in port.