By Kidit Afable
I have known Alfher Hernandez for about two years now. I first met him at the Toa Payoh dgroup. Since then, I have witnessed God’s amazing work, transforming his life. And as his heart has been drawn closer to God, so has his passion for sharing God’s word. This has manifested itself in his burden to share with Filipino seamen, being one himself in the not so distant past. His passion reminded me of Mathew 28:19, which says “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
This is a story of how one man’s burden to share the truth about Jesus Christ led a couple of CCF members to sit down and share lives with the crew of MT Southern Zebra, a ship docked in Singapore. And more so, this is the story of how God is truly at work – Reaching out to those He loves and using ordinary people to do so.
God is a God of Multiplication
I learned from Alfher that there are an estimated 250K-300K Filipino seamen worldwide. Having faith & dreaming big means that sharing with this segment of the population has a potential spill-over effect – Touching the families of all those seafarers as well. This is what led him to encourage us to share in the lives of MT Southern Zebra’s crew…
Chart 1: Illustrative purposes
God is always in our midst and sometimes, as we seek to change lives, we discover that our own lives are also changed in the process
When Alfher first shared his burden, I was deeply touched but was also torn on whether to accompany him and two other brothers (Matt and Joseph) to talk to the crew. The ship was docked on the western side of Singapore and the plan was to talk to them that Saturday. It was a group I wasn’t sure I could effectively relate to, as I understood that we’d be talking to mostly married fathers who were away from their families – A situation I wasn’t sure I could easily connect with, being single. Thus I was a tad scared of not being able to fully empathize with their situation.
But God had other plans. From the moment we arrived I was startled to see how receptive and warm the ship’s crew was. My impression was that they would be somehow cold or distant, being on their guard against church and bible bearing people. We got the exact opposite. There were two distinct groups – A number of older married men and a few single men which Joseph and I had the privilege of sharing lives with. It melted my heart that they were so open and welcoming to us, especially on a first meeting. I was encouraged by their openness and their stories.
What was even more amazing was that we were able to share with them about God’s love and grace as the moment suddenly presented itself, when one crewman asked how they could be sure of salvation. It was an encouragement to have the privilege of praying for their needs. As we encouraged them to pray and to try to learn more about God, they were receptive to the idea of us providing bibles for them to read while they were at sea. I couldn’t understand why they were thankful that we made time to share a bit of our lives with them.
Listening to their stories reminded me of how God’s love encompasses all and that if we are willing to be used, God will definitely use our lives to touch and transform others and in the process we discover that our own lives too are changed for the better.
It is a Privilege and an Amazing Experience to Share God’s Love
Matt, who shared with the married men (together with Alfher), expressed his sentiments after, saying that he hadn’t shared the good news in a while, and it was amazing to do so again. I can’t help but think over and over again how much God loves these people, and how God opens doors, readying hearts to receive Him and hear his message.
We are sometimes too busy with our daily lives that we forget that we live for a greater purpose. There are countless individuals in the world who have not yet heard the gospel, who do not yet know Jesus Christ, and who do not have any inkling of His love and grace and mercy and of the eternity that awaits. We are instructed in Mathew 22:39 to “love your neighbour as you love yourself.” Sometimes that love manifests itself crystal clear when we step out of our comfort zone, allow our hearts to be used by God and share Jesus and His love with the ones who need it the most, people on the same ship as us…
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