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Logos Hope’s International Café is always bustling around holiday season. When finished shopping in the bookfair, visitors can enjoy the Christmas spirit with warm drinks and tasty treats in the café – a space designed for connection.
As well as an area for children to play, it has a small theatre for performances and games, but most importantly, there are plenty of tables and chairs, where anyone is welcome to sit.
Café staff and crewmembers view these tables as opportunities to engage with visitors. Sometimes people are sitting alone, waiting for their family to finish shopping in the bookfair. Other times, customers express curiosity toward life on a ship and eagerly ask questions. People do not come to Logos Hope simply to buy books. They come here for an experience – to be on a ship, to meet people from all around the world, to make memories and to be a part of something bigger.
Creating a connection
Alehandro (Albania) has been the manager of the café for nearly eight months. Throughout this time, he has been able to see the impact that the environment has on a person’s experience on board Logos Hope. He shares, “Our job is basically about tables. It’s about sitting down and really giving the experience that you are on board a ship… That is where we come in as a staff and as a ship community to connect with people, get to know where they come from and share our stories.”
Finding an opening for conversation
Bookfair shift leader Nicholas (Brazil), had an unforgettable experience in the café during the ship’s time in Freetown, Sierra Leone. He saw a man sitting alone at a table and joined him to play a game. The bookfair volunteer told the man that if he won the game, he could have a free ice cream. Because he beat Nicholas and received the treat, many others wanted to play.
Nicholas told the next person that they could not give more free ice cream that day, but they could still play together and enjoy each other’s company and the pair conversed. He wished to give the man the opportunity to get a Bible.
“We went to the bookfair, he chose his Bible, which was beautiful. Then we prayed, and went back to the café… We took a seat and I started to talk with [the group]… about the purpose of their life. In the end, I asked them, ‘Who wants to have Jesus in their heart?’ and all of them said yes,” Nicholas shared.
Making room for one more
Every table holds the potential for something meaningful to prosper. We never know how God might use the connections we make. At His table, there’s always room for one more.
You can invite more people to His table.
Your gift to OM’s Ships Ministry will provide crewmembers, like Nicholas, new opportunities to invite others to His table this Christmas.
To donate today, click here. Thank you for your support!
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