3 minute read
SHIPS
WHEN OM VENTURED OUT TO SEA
This autumn, we mark the Ship Ministry’s 50th anniversary. Our pioneering vessel, Logos, was purchased in October 1970 and launched into ministry from London in February 1971.
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In this article, the first teacher to serve on board, Nancy Izzard (née Coates) and OM’s founder, George Verwer, share their reflections.
By 1970 the Ship Ministry had been five years in the pipeline. There had been persistent prayer, fundraising frustrations, ship-shopping setbacks and many doubters to convince. Not to mention coming up with crew and the intended captain ‘jumping ship’ at late notice.
Twenty-three-year-old American Nancy Coates was on a two-month summer outreach in Spain and heard about the need for someone to teach the leaders’ children on board the new venture. “I said ‘Sure!’ and called the school I worked in to say I wasn’t coming home. I’d just bought a red Mustang convertible – I told Dad to sell it and give all the money to OM!”
Nancy found herself on Logos, undergoing refit in Rotterdam that Christmas. Shipmates sneaked onto a Chinese vessel in the same dockyard and hid gifts of Christian literature on the shelves of OM’s pioneering vessel, Logos.
the ship’s reading room. “The guys were frogmarched down the gangway,” she says, “But we prayed hard for those Chinese books. You never know where they ended up.”
George and Nancy agree that in the early days they were on mission in uncharted waters: “Our lawyer could have written a book on bluffing your way through ship purchasing!” Verwer laughs. “It was a miracle to buy this old ship and ready her. In refit, she almost tipped over. The captain was not on board and the engineers made a mistake shifting liquid; putting the ship into a dangerous list. But that led to a weekly planning group being set up which still continues in the Ship Ministry today.”
“God had His hand on us and knew the ministry the ships would have – we didn’t,” Nancy muses. “We were just a bunch of immature, ignorant kids – a mess of a crew – and we frustrated the experienced seafarers. In each port, we were taught something new. From pastors’ conferences to tours of the vessel and outreach in communities: it got more successful and God showed us ministries along the way.”
Departing London in February 1971 was a moving commissioning for Nancy. “The UK was the nation most behind Logos at the start, in both prayer and funding. People came from all over England to wave us off. They were up on Tower Bridge, singing Christian songs as we sailed under. It was such a blessing,” she remembers. Five decades and four vessels later, the ministry has come through shipwreck, terrorism, financial and diplomatic difficulties… all sorts of highs and lows, says George, but, “God is just continuing to give grace. This is God’s work; He brought it into being. Things do go wrong, but most of the time our ships have been on George Verwer prays with crewmembers on the upper deck of Logos.
Nancy teaching crewmembers’ children
Well-wishers wave Logos off as she departs London in 1971.
on board Logos. the move, ministering in the name of the Lord in strong unity. I honour those who joined in the early days when this was a controversial project,” says the founder. “I also want to pay tribute to our donors; the people who put up the money. They are our unsung heroes.”
Combined, Logos, Doulos, Logos II and Logos Hope have covered enough nautical miles to lap the earth five times and welcomed 49 million people on board. “The legacy is in the lives of the people: thousands and thousands of people who have been born again,” insists George. “It’s a move of the Holy Spirit and when people get near a place or a person where the Holy Spirit is working, it’s contagious!”
“Behind the whole concept was my passion for revival and seeing lives changed,” he continues. “Not just new Christians, but believers, too: many were lukewarm. It was on my heart for young people to grow and become mature as a result of volunteering with OM – and that’s still taking place.”
