In this sermon, the pastor discusses the importance of spreading the vision of God's plan for mobilizing manpower, finance, and prayer power for unreached nations. He shares his personal experience of researching and mobilizing prayer for Turkey and Iraq before being sent to Spain. The pastor emphasizes the need to study and saturate oneself with the facts of world vision, using resources like leaflets, prayer cards, missionary books, and maps. He encourages believers to spread the facts and not assume that people already know the truth. The sermon concludes with a reminder to be strong in the grace of Christ Jesus and to endure hardship like a good soldier of Christ.

Coming up from Spain, never did we dream that God would ever move us from Spain to Britain. We thought if anywhere we would go from Spain it would be perhaps to a communist country, and the Lord showed us that we were to go to Britain. We only had one child at that time, little Benji was about two or one and a half, and this of course ended up being our home. So in and out of Dover I've been going for twenty-one years, and I just think that it's very, very significant that as Britain builds up for this mission, England is already involved in the mission to London, that the ship is here at this same time. I was sharing last night that in all these years I don't think I've ever preached in Dover. If I have, I've forgotten, and I know I've preached in Folkestone. Dover's a very needy town. We did have a team here many years ago trying to reach all the foreigners, internationals who go through Dover, hundreds and hundreds of thousands. It is, I believe, one of the busiest, probably somebody will tell you the busiest it may be. To be careful, I'll say one of the busiest ports in the entire world, mainly of course because the channel ferries come in here from a number of different ports. Anyway, you'll get a lot of that information later on. Let's just pray. Father, we thank you for bringing us here safely through the night. We thank you for the committed men in the engine room on the bridge. We thank you, Lord Jesus, that we're here in your plan and your purposes, and I just believe that you want to touch many, many lives in and around Dover, Folkestone, Deal, Sevenoaks. We think of people coming in from Bromley and all over Kent. We know this area of Kent is as close to the Samarias like France and Belgium than any other part of Britain. I think of the vision you gave us that was never fulfilled in 1963, to see large numbers from Kent just crossing the channel and moving out to reach France and to reach Belgium and other parts with your holy word. Lord Jesus, we just really thank you for the privilege and the opportunity to be here. Guide us now as we focus in on what needs to be done. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. In an hour or so, I will have to have the unfortunate experience of leaving. I realize it's a risk to come to such a short visit because of various reasons, but it is really impossible for me to stay. I had meetings booked up a long time ago tonight on Sunday night and now Saturday night because of the ships in a line up, advance meeting, advance prayer rally, whatever John Matthew is calling this thing, down in Poole. But I have another problem in that I have been away from home and Bromley so much that people are making interesting remarks about my never being there and somehow I have to get back there today and get a lot of work done and spend some time with Jerry Davey who's going to meet me at the station. But I'm glad I had the opportunity to be here and share last night and now share with you this morning and I look forward to coming back for the after church rally. If you see anybody who knows me, I don't think you probably will, but down here, but I encourage them to come to the after church rally a week from this Sunday. Tell them to come this Sunday as well, but a week from this Sunday. I'd like you to turn in your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 2. I really feel very involved with the Logos at this time, especially through prayer and through trying to drop notes to the various line up men about anybody I know in these different ports and it is quite amazing the way things are falling into place with fairly short notice in these different ports. We have our little plans and our little dreams and God has his. Sometimes they fit together, sometimes they don't, but it's exciting the way God is putting this together. 2 Timothy chapter 2, You then my son, be strong in the grace, in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and the things ye have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others, endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. I want to talk to you this morning on a very practical subject and I hope you will write some things down as I did, that's why I didn't get up to breakfast, one of the reasons, on how to spread this vision. God has given us a vision and a movement like OM without vision is drudgery. Discipline without vision is drudgery. Thank God we know where we're going, we know why we're going there, we know where to get the energy to go there, we know what to do when we fall on our face on our way there. You know, it's clear, the way is clear, there are a lot of things that are not clear, exact, exact geography, visas, my own trip out to Pakistan, should I go to Abu Dhabi or Kuwait or Dubai or Bahrain or Oman, this is on the way, you don't like to pass all these places up and I've had this invitation to go back to Kuwait, getting a Kuwait visa is a very interesting experience. And then of course Pakistan and you think, well, Pakistan, just go there, but you know there's so many places to go to in Pakistan. And I think most of you know that one of the things, I would say one of the three major things that led to the birth of the work in Pakistan is the visit of the ship, this ship, seems incredible doesn't it, we're in Dover, but this ship in Karachi, I remember arriving in Karachi, we have, we fought against starting a work, they wanted us to start a work there years ago, the Iran teams are always banging on me, but we felt with a long, strong, committed work in India, how can we start a work in a country where they were at war, we were sailing into Bombay on this ship in 1971, a submarine came out to meet us, sealed up the radio room and gave us an escort and that night the planes were flying overhead and some firing was going on and that was the birth, led to the birth of Bangladesh and we got, you know, more and more pressure and to go into Bangladesh, so we started a work in Bangladesh and they were at odds with Pakistan, plus Pakistan traditionally was a different situation, had more missionaries, but when Mike Wakely felt that he should get involved in a shore ministry, he was also, as in my case, had to leave India, that was sort of the final piece in the puzzle because the policy of OM, which sometimes we stray from, is we'll not move into a country until God has given us the right man with the gifts from the Holy Spirit to do the right kind of job for his glory, and they're not easy to find, but it was clear that Mike Wakely was the man and he was on the Lagos at that time, I arrived in Karachi, I remember meeting Captain Porter, he was picking up papers on the foredeck or doing something in his overalls, I think it was one of the first times I met him, now he's my assistant team leader in Bromley, and it just, as I walked the streets of Karachi that day, the Lord just sealed it. You know, when you know what's involved in opening a new country, you're a lot slower to do it. If you're new, and you don't know, you might launch into it very quickly, many have, but I knew what it would take, not completely of course, if we dared move in Pakistan. I knew the Holy Spirit may cause me to get involved, and may ask me to start to learn some Urdu, and may ask me to live there, and that's what the Holy Spirit has been doing, and I feel now a commitment to Pakistan that I felt 20 years ago, to India, though I don't know exactly what the Lord has, and I'm in great tension. You know, if you don't learn to live with tension, you're in the wrong movement, I think all tension disappears when you read the 23rd Psalm, or blow your nose with a gospel handkerchief, you're going to be in for some big surprises, and the Christian learns to live with tension, but praise God for what is going on there in Pakistan. So we have a vision, we know where we're going, it's world evangelism, it's every creature, it's every unreached people's group. We have this burning burden on our heart. Now to find our particular place in the fulfillment of this vision, that's not easy. We all have different gifts, and I want to emphasize what I've emphasized many times, that our first burden is reality, not geography. I've seen a lot of disappointed OMers over the last 25 or more years. They thought this was the country they were going to. They never got there. They're actually back home, working for Joe Blow's baked bean factory. And, you know, I've seen a lot of people get the turkey vision, because we push turkey, and that's the land of turkey. Not funny people who don't know what they're doing. So many of these people, it never worked. I could give you 25 reasons why I'm discouraged about turkey, and I can give you several why I'm encouraged about turkey. OM now has only 17 or 18 people in turkey. And very few have ever stayed beyond eight years. That's after 25 years of work. You know, Rotom was the pioneer of the work in turkey. He's not there anymore. Roger Malsted was pioneer number two. He's not there. And I could give you a long list. So it's difficult at times to get the geography straight. Don't be too upset if you're having geographical problems. You know, am I in the right place? Am I going to the right place? Where does the Lord want me? I mean, on this ship you could go crazy just after the first year, of course, trying to decide which geographical location do you want as your wife. You can choose from Malaysians, Singaporeans, Americans, Greeks, Turks, French, Egyptians. I mean, I don't know all those here. Koreans. You just choose your nationality. You just go around. Of course, none of you do this. You know, seeing the advantages of marrying into these different nationalities. That all becomes rather interesting. So don't get involved in it too much, especially the first year. But it's amazing how some people launch into these marriages not realizing that just to visit grandma is going to cost them a $3,000 airfare. Once the little poochie-doochies come along, and, you know, your wife is from Alaska and you're from the Falkland Islands, I hope you know how to pray and money. Either that or get the faith that Peter had for a few minutes when he started to walk on the water. So we've got a vision. We know where we're going. But there are tensions, and the geographical problems are great. Certainly at this stage, because most of you are fairly young, one of the keys is to let this vision mature in your heart. Let it be tested. Another one of the keys is helping others get the vision. And I believe this is one of the keys for the next few months. Don't think of this time in Britain as some long period of time. Oh, we're in Britain, so long. This is a false concept. This is a very short visit to a country. Most of you aren't going to end up in Britain the rest of your life, so relax. This is a short visit, a very strategic visit. And one of my prayers is that some people, as a result of your ministry, are going to get turned on to this ship ministry. And let me just be honest. If some more people don't get turned on to the ship ministry, there will be no do-loss in a few years. It doesn't just happen automatic. People have to catch this vision. People have to see what this ship and the other ship, and this one, of course, is doing a lot better right now in many ways. Financially, it's a smaller ship. It's an easier challenge in some ways. But that gigantic 6,000-ton ship sitting down there in Spain, that needs a $200,000 generator overhaul, I will tell you the OM leaders are shaking about that project. We shouldn't be surprised because it is a big thing to keep it going. It's still going. It's never stopped. It's barely slowed down. And we are trusting that in these ports in Britain, and if the Lord continues to lead in Canada and the States, that God is going to give some people this vision. And I think it's normal to pray in that direction. Now, I give a lot of my time, a lot of my energy to that one ultimate goal, to give people a vision for the ship project. I take extra meetings. I write extra letters. I make extra phone calls. I continue in my battle against sleep. Last night it didn't work. I had a little visit to the bridge, but I saw they were busy. This was after our time here. I was starting to get a little tired. And I said to Percy, well, I'll come back around midnight when the pilot goes. We'll have a little chat, a little talk. But I haven't been getting a lot of sleep lately. Anyway, I went back to my room. I had my overcoat on. I saw that couch. I thought, boy, that looks... I couldn't find any blankets, by the way. But I just saw that couch, and I thought, well, I'll just try that out. And I had my coat over me. I didn't even take my shoes off. Just trying to couch out. Anyway, I woke up this morning. I didn't even have to put my shoes on. So, you know, all of us do need sleep. You know, I fell asleep once preaching. My wife thought I was going to go right over. I just started to go. Hi, folks. The human factor. The human factor. And one of my greatest burdens at present is to spread this vision for these two ships because I see how the two ships are part of God's overall plan in mobilizing manpower, finance, first of all, prayer power, for these unreached nations. Before the Lord thrust me out to Spain and Europe, I was there in Chicago researching Turkey, reading about Iraq, mobilizing prayer, mobilizing young people, spreading the vision, taking meetings every week, showing slides. I would have, back in those days, shown my slides anywhere. Where one or two are gathered in His name, I would be with my slides in the midst. And God opened many doors through that. Now, I've written down six points of how you can spread this vision. And I've written as a key, sanctified imagination. If some of you don't increase in the area of imagination, you're going to get bored. By my age, you'll be bored to death. You need a little imagination. Sanctified imagination. And initiative to be creative in our own personal life. Now, one creative project, for example, is your prayer letter. Some of the prayer letters, and I'm supposed to get copies of all of them, whatever the language, because I have ways and means of getting any language back into English. And I like to see the style of the letter. I like to see who sends the letter. You know, one of the biggest mistakes in prayer letters, people don't put their last name. You know how many Susie's there are on OM? How many George's? And whatever. And I just pray you will be creative and produce creative, challenging prayer letters. Don't worry about making a few mistakes in the process. And I'm looking forward to the Lagos prayer letters. You can send them to me cheaper this year if you turn them out locally. And if you're having any problem with your prayer letter, let your home country leader. You know what these home country leaders tell me? I don't hear from these people. They even send out surveys. People don't even fill them out. I guess they throw them overboard. Maybe they're using them for fuel. I don't know. But your home sending leader wants to hear from you. Now, I know sometimes the reverse is true. You may not hear from him, but they're willing to help you with that prayer letter. And so I put as number one on the list prayer, number one priority. First of all, our own prayer life. Nothing more important than that. The whole life of the ship and your own personal life. Prayer. And I think on Lagos, you need a little holy ghost stubbornness if you're going to have a prayer life. You need to sort of set a minimum. I'm going to, by God's grace, pray a half hour every day or die in the process, speaking spiritually. But you can't play around with prayer because you're busy, you're in a work-oriented environment to some degree. You've got to say, one way or the other, I'm going to get that half hour. Use the maps. Use the prayer cards. Your prayer list. Use photos. Use whatever method to help you. But try to get that minimum. I've been practicing that for about a quarter of a century, and I can tell you it works. It works. And I just think it's so important. I meet some people who say, well, I'm having a great Bible study, but I don't get very far in prayer. This is crazy. This is a contradiction. This must not be. Your Bible study should lead you to communion, to worship, to praise, to prayer. But you know the problem? Our minds are not disciplined. We don't know how to take hold of our mind and just say, look mind, this is the way you're going. Not this way and this way and this way. This way. If Paul had to say, I buffet my body and bring it into subjection, lest after preaching to others I become a castaway, how much more should we? There's nothing more important except perhaps your love, because love is the most important, than your prayer life. And that's the key to love as well, your communion with God. Often I get a little irritated feeling towards somebody, and just the moment I go to prayer, just start worshiping the Lord, it just goes. I've never been able to hold anything against anybody for 28 years. I've never gone to bed with anything against anybody for 28 years. I don't think that's super spirituality. Hey, this guy is some kind of a freak. I think it's a normal Christian life. When you're praising Jesus and you're worshiping Jesus, how can you at the same time have bitterness or gall or something against somebody? You may have an unpleasant memory. We're human beings, that's normal. I've got lots of unpleasant memories. This girl that beat me up when I was in high school, I've already told you about that. I mean, that memory is still there. And, boy, I ought to get another shot. But I don't have anything against her. In fact, she appeared in one of my meetings a couple of years ago. We were good friends. She's married and got children and all that as well. I think there's a difference between memories that may pop into your mind and disturb you and bitterness or a root of bitterness. So, prayer. That's why, in some ways, geography is not the main thing. You know, in the geography factor of world missions, providence is a major thing. God's providence. There's a great book, I don't know if it's on the exhibition, The Mystery of Providence, How God Uses Circumstances. To some degree, you're here because of circumstances. Maybe some of you were even praying about going somewhere else. Wherever I go in O.M., I meet people who are praying about joining the ship. I say, what are you doing here? You're praying about joining the ship. They have a little song and dance, a little story about how they ended up where they are. God's providence. I am, in many ways, in London as a result of providence. It's almost a quirk of history. Two Englishmen arrived in Madrid. They got me turned on about Britain. I met a Methodist young people's group in Vienna about the time I was thrown out of Russia by the Communists. And this Methodist British youth group was on my mind. Then I had the tree-singing O.M. birth experience. And then back to Spain. And the Q.E. too. The fact that I crossed the Atlantic on the Old Queen and I got to my first Anglican church service. I couldn't believe it. Six-minute sermon. And a lot of other things. And I'm in London living now. I have two British children who speak excellent English with British passports. Quirks of history. Providence. Praise the Lord for providence. I got my wife as a result of providence. I wasn't going up on the elevator that day. A wife. In the name of the Lord. In the name of the Lord. Today is the day. Today is the day. No. I was going to rent a film. I wasn't going for a wife. I was going for a film. A Christian film. I was evangelizing the YMCA. I got out of the elevator. You all know the story. It's one of my favorites. Turn the corner. Zap! There she was. She was in charge of the films. It was all an innocent move on my part. Providence. A quirk of history. She smiled. Ah! Don't do that anymore. Anyway. So in God's providence right now, we are not sailing into Karachi. We are not sailing into the unreached people's area of Mongolia, which would be difficult. Well, we're sailing. Where are we sailing here? Dover. Some of you are British. You are headed for the regions beyond. You're in Belgium, heading east. Here you are, back in Dover. You're trying to figure out what to put into your prayer letter. What to put into your prayer letter. Well, the Lord will give you some creative thoughts, I'm sure, for your prayer letter. I think we can be honest with people that in God's providence, one of the reasons we're having to put more effort into Britain, into Canada, into Germany, into Sweden, because so few have responded to this challenge. In a sense, O.M. would like to put less effort into this part of the world, but so few have responded to this challenge. Let's all for one minute look out the window. Everybody look out the window. Look out the window. Look out that back window there. Okay. Now let's go back to our notes. All right. Mobilizing prayer, getting your own prayer life in order, that is absolute priority. Number two, study the facts. This is a fantastic time. I know it's not easy, but it's a fantastic time to gear up on your knowledge and missions. Every time I walk through that little, outside the lounge there, I see that little thick white book, Christian Perspectives and World Missions. I never got the title straight. And I know the book and I'm in the midst of reading it. I tell you, this ship should be able to sell a thousand copies of that book in the next months. That is hot. That is equivalent easy to one year at seminary. I got this new book selling approach that I used, just experimented with this week. I had Christian leaders. And most Christian leaders would all like to get more education. We even have some of those around O.M. They got already more in their heads than they can handle, but they want more education. Anyway, I'm not against that much. But I held these books out, Lloyd-Jones, Roy Hesschen, William MacDonald, Packer, John Stott, several. And I said, you know, and I could say it with absolute honesty, you have got more right here than you will get at a full year of seminary. And better. After all, if you go to study at Cambridge and Oxford, think of the secular world, what do you do? You read. You read, read, read, read. You go talk to your professor, you know, maybe once every other week. You may take in a few classes. I was in this medical school in Canada. Very, very modern. Very contemporary. Very few classes. Very few classes. And by reading, people can get a full year of Bible college equivalent. In fact, what is a correspondence course in which you now can get a full degree? And we need to realize God's people could use a year of Bible college or seminary. And with the books we have, we can take in our hands a full year of Bible college and give it to the layman who is not going to be able at 40 years of age to go back to Bible college. I tell you, that is very exciting. And those Christian leaders got excited about that, and I tell you, it piles. People just, everybody took their year of seminary off with them. And we would like a lot of people here who come to the ship to get a year of Bible school. How? The books that we have are some of the greatest Christian books in the world. That book is equivalent to a full advanced missionary one-year course that no seminary could match. That's just one book. Let's you and I get into some of this missionary material. Missionary magazine, periodicals, prayer cards, Operation World. Let's get saturated with this. We can't give people what we don't have. Any lemmer should be able to stand up and lead a night of prayer for six hours without stop, without looking at any paper. That wouldn't be as good as if he could look at his notes. You know, you can't memorize all these facts. But we just get involved in so many countries. We know so many people. We're corresponding. We are just saturated with missionary material. We're walking missionary libraries for Jesus. And we can just open our heart and there's Mongolia. Open our heart, there's Senegal. Open our heart, there's China. Open our heart, there's Russia. Open our heart, there's Boonga Boonga Land. This is the time to do that. It really irks me, and I get irked easy. It's one of my many problems. I keep repenting of it. But it really irks me the way people approach nights of prayer. What time do you want me to stay, Lord? Before they even get there. We don't take notes. We don't, you know, at times just really throw ourselves into it. It's a poor use of the time. Because sometimes we're not even praying. We're just sitting there like the proverbial bump on the log. And I would challenge you to see these nights of prayer firstly as tremendous times to touch the world for Christ, but also gathering information. You have people coming here. Do you think we in OM have ever had Dr. Kendall come and visit us? Forget it. I mean, you are the VIPs of the OM world. We are the snails. And these people want to come to the ship. There's all kinds of people hinting about coming to the ship. Some missionaries will come. Some of them will share information. And then you sometimes go to different countries. And I would challenge you to get the facts, and then, of course, on the basis of 2 Timothy 2, share them. Channels only. I would like every one of you to be committed to the distribution of those prayer cards. I think they are dynamite. And those maps of the world. We have just published a whole edition of the maps of the world. How many do you have here on the ship? How many? One and a half thousand. This is incredible. A year ago, people were fighting over these maps. They were out of print. We had no money. And every one of us could be involved in distributing these prayer cards, these maps, and Operation World for those that are more involved. It's not time to go into further detail. Leaflets about the work. Leaflets about different countries. You know, the average free literature display that an OMer puts up when he has a meeting is an embarrassment. It all takes work. It all takes initiative. And it's so important. You know, when you're committed, or a meeting is committed to you for a weekend, that's not some little thing. And you're put in charge of the literature. You say, oh, well, the only one important is the one who's preaching. That's nonsense. The one who's in charge of that literature. That you know it. That you make sure you have enough. Sometimes they make an announcement. If you want literature about OM, go to the program room. I want to tell the program room, if you lack any kind of literature, please. ICT now, we're just up the road. We have free literature coming out from, you know, the world. They overprinted 20,000, too many of this Pakistan leaflet. I don't know what they're using those for because now we have a better one. But that one little piece of literature could determine the whole destiny of whether a person, perhaps more gifted than you and I, will go to Pakistan or Nepal. Do you know how many people OM is producing for Nepal? Long-term people really committed to Nepal? Hardly anybody. There's 12 million souls. We don't have anybody hardly at all interested in Nepal. They want to even close it down or amalgamate it into OM India. I have stood against that because I feel Nepal amalgamated into OM India will lose its identity. It's a separate nation. It has very little to do with India in depth, except of course it's strongly Hindu. Cassettes. You know, if you could get a vision for how the Lord can use cassettes, it would be very exciting. Most people, when they take a book table, bring no cassettes. Too much work. Now, probably here, the one place where it might be legitimately not possible because of customs. With a little extra energy and push, you could have it arranged on shore in the line-up base, but that may be too much trouble. But let me tell you, for every one book I sell, I mean, for every five or ten books I sell, I sell one cassette. This weekend, Alec Brackett came to my meetings, duplicated the cassette of the message, had it there the next day. We sold dozens and dozens of cassettes in this little small meeting. And through cassettes, the message goes on and on and on. And I think, of course, you do reproduce cassettes and make them available, don't you, to the people who come to the conferences? This is a phenomenal ministry. And we can't measure where those cassettes go and what they do. I think it's been agreed on, Alan can correct me, that one of the specialties that's agreed on in the ministry and the conferences is the spreading of the vision for world evangelism. In a lot of other areas, I'll tell you, there are people around Britain ministering that we can't touch, you know, in certain subjects. We were getting into an area where they may have just had a speaker in their city a week before who can cover it a lot better than we can. I'm not saying we shouldn't touch those areas. I think we should as the Lord leads you. I believe there's a wide range for what we can do. But praise God, we have got something that very few, there are some of course, very few are really speaking out about. Continuously, regularly, world missions. Every creature, the unreached people. Not many people are pushing that little white book on missions. In fact, I don't know hardly anybody in Britain. In fact, even the get copies in Britain are hard. People just don't have a vision. In fact, even in LM, I find myself slipping, pushing healing for damaged emotions, pushing how, you know, God wants you rich in other enticing doctrines, pushing how to improve your serve. These books are good. They're fast selling. They help people. We need to push missionary books. And I would commend to you as the book of the month, Oswald J. Smith, The Challenge of Missions. STL has just published, co-published 5,000 copies with an introduction by Malcolm Whittacombe, one of the strongest ship supporters and OM supporters in the country. Pastor of the Anglican Pippin J. Church in Bristol. Do we have that book? We got it. How many copies do we have? We got enough to start with. We got enough to start with. Bromley is up the road. And praise God, I've heard of the tremendous improvements of your book exhibition. And I'm so glad Jerry Davey came down because he's one of the most turned on long-term people to the ministry of this dear ship and is completely linked with it. And you may be aware that a couple of years ago, STL was pouring tens of thousands into the ship ministry to help keep it going. Okay. Study the facts. Saturate yourself with the facts. World vision. Make use of the leaflets, the prayer cards, the missionary books, the maps of the world. And then, of course, spread the facts. Don't presume people know the simplest truth. Don't think you can't get up and speak at a meeting because you're not a dynamic gifted speaker. Some people, different people have different approaches to speaking. But some people respond more to the solid factual type heavy content presentation. Have some notes. And you know, there's enough material just in Operation World. I know a leading pastor in Spain. He had his congregation dumbfounded with his knowledge of the world. I came along and blew it. I told him about Operation World and sold him individual copies. He was getting all of it from Operation World. And his congregation thought, wow, he's so knowledgeable. Most of these knowledgeable professors, where do you think they're getting it? Encyclopedia, books, library. And I just think it's beautiful when our people going out taking meetings are knowledgeable. They have the facts. There's nothing wrong with having notes. Most speakers should not stand up in British churches without notes and end up waffling on this direction or that direction. There must be quality ministry in these churches because they have a lot of the churches fairly good quality, if not personally through cassette, through the local rallies that take place in London or here and there. And you may not think you can give a quality presentation, but if your facts are right and your heart is warm and you're enthusiastic as a young person, you can go further than the average person wandering around because there's a distinctness in the message and because there's things they haven't heard before about countries where the church doesn't even exist. You know, the publicity we generate with this ship is phenomenal. It's worth tens of thousands. I've got a newspaper in my bag and I must remember to give it to George. Challenge newspaper has featured the visit of the ship to southern England. It's amazing. Television. Radio. And you know what the Evangelistic Crusades, you know what they have to pay for publicity? Do you know in some Evangelistic Crusades the publicity budget is $100,000? Do you know you could buy this ship for $100,000? With the budget of some Evangelistic Crusade publicity if you threw in some of the other expenses. And we come in and people, suddenly they hear that. We must take advantage of this for the kingdom. And I just pray when the weekend comes, you're tired. Nobody ever died in the ship ministry of being tired. Being tired is a great feeling. You can identify with the rest of the world who are trying to get food in their stomach and so they work, many of them, double jobs, 16 hours a day just to survive. Now, of course, you need to know your limits. You need to know if you're getting exhausted. That's something else. It's when you wake up in the middle of the morning and you're still exhausted. That is always a little more concern to me. But being tired at night or feeling a little bit of tiredness as you head through the weekend, you think of another meeting, think of more people coming up the gangway, more prayer partners who would like to shake your hand. You know one of the most depressing things when you visit this ship? And I just had another interesting letter from a negative letter about the ship and we can expect that. We can expect that. I just put that in because I don't want you to think it's all positive. Mr. Optimist here. But I'll tell you one of the things that's really hard for people. Prayer partners come to the ship and they don't meet anybody. Praise God for that little coffee bar in there. That's still going? That is a tremendous thing. And if you can get time in there meeting people, even half an hour, you can squeeze a half an hour. I don't know how you work it. You'll have to, you know, that's up to you. But I tell you something, if people can just meet one, you're all VIPs. You are all VIPs. If I was around here and I'm not a member of the ship, you know, people don't want to meet me. I'm saying, you know, if they know George Burwer, of course they might like to meet me. But in general, they want to meet somebody from the crew. And they want to meet, many of them, somebody non-English. Others would like to meet somebody English. So don't English feel left out because they like to know in this country that they're a part of this. And there's no nation more a part of the ship Vision than Britain. No way. Any other nation is more a part. It's a British company. You need to know that when you're in Britain. Other countries, you emphasize the international aspect. Here it's good to emphasize a little bit the British aspect. It's a British board of directors. It's a British company. The Vision came in a converted pub in Bolton, Lancashire for this ship. It partly came because George Burwer had to keep crossing the channel. And in 1963, we took 100 vehicles across this channel and it cost us a lot of money. And I thought maybe if we have our own ship, that never came to pass, we could save money on channel crossings. In each country you go to, you try to fall a little bit into the ground of that country and you try to think a little bit. When I'm in Spain, I can tell them how Spain is really the most significant country in connection with a ship visit perhaps next to Britain. And each country and each type of person. When I'm with a Methodist, I tell them that I was Christian to Methodists. My mother was a Methodist. When I'm with a Baptist, I tell them my wife belonged to a Baptist church. When I'm with a Brethren, I tell them I was baptized in a Brethren assembly. When I'm with a Pentecostals, I just say, hallelujah, praise the Lord. Paul said, all things to all men to win some. And we need a little bit of save. Save. You know that word? There's a new magazine for women executives. Women executives. I don't know if we have some here. It's called Save. Wisdom. Common sense. Saying the right thing at the right time is one of the greatest gifts you can ever develop. And we can learn about that. Spreading the facts. Spreading the vision. And then, fourthly, or fifthly, depending on how you number, mobilize others to pray. I think that is one of the greatest gifts ministries God has given us. Mobilizing others to pray. When you have the night of prayer, Alan, are they allowed to invite like a friend in from shore or is that not possible because of the space? You have to be careful. But I tell you, when a stranger or a friend in Christ can get involved in one of these nights of prayer, it really turns them on. Jean Giff told me on the phone yesterday, they're having their own little night of prayer. A little extra time of prayer. I think they're going to have one during your study night. I'm sure. Just those that can. God met with them just the other day, she told me. She'll probably be, I thought she would be coming in by helicopter. But then, probably she'll use an air balloon. If you don't know Jean Giff, you are in for a special treat. Irish deluxe. So spreading the vision, mobilizing people to pray. We cannot measure the impact when people pray. And there's still a lot of praying that has to be done, even for our own ministry. The challenge of the generators, the challenge of finance, which is still desperate. To get Dulas out of Spain, we have had to scrape again the rest of OM. We have had to leave 14,000 of bills sitting in Bromley to esteem the Dulas, as so often is the case. Top priority next to India. But financially, we are still in a battle. And I have to give myself to that every single day of my life. Because it's just a practical reality. We must pay the bills. And as much as possible, on time. What a challenge. Praise God for the giving you've had in these ports. Praise God that this ship and the EBE ministry is now in the plus. Isn't that an encouragement, Alan? Say, you know, we in ICT are not yet there. But when that day comes, we are going to break open the bottles, orange squash, and we are going to drink. And I will be dancing on the warehouse roof and giving away free cigars, candy cigars. And my last two points. Building yourself up spiritually. Really, this is the priority in these days. For those of you who are young and new in the work of God. It's not geography, but as I said, reality. And when you build yourself up spiritually and you increase in wisdom and stature and knowledge of God, the influence will be felt. And I have people tell me, I had even a cynical man tell me, when he met this ship in Bristol. And some people believe that the visit of Lagos to Bristol was one of the most outstanding events in the church life in Bristol in past years. And this man, who can be a bit of a cynic, he said, I just sense love and reality among those people. Not perfection. They are looking for perfection. They are on the wrong ship. But as you get built up spiritually, the word, prayer, relationships, all that we talk to you about week after week, it has an automatic influence. You don't have to fake it. You don't have to try to be somebody you're not. And God is wanting to sweeten up your spiritual life and your personality. You know, some of the things in the Christian life, they're practical things. Just to, for example, declare all-out war against bad breath. Now, I have to do this. I'm being very honest. I carry my toothbrush and my suitcase. I have nothing with me on this little trip except the shitpost in my mail and my toothbrush. I'm so skinny, my toothbrush has been hurting me. Poking into my bones. But I brushed my teeth this morning. Because, you know, I don't want to go out and witness to somebody and see them pass out in front of me. And don't think, don't think that living for Christ is only the big spiritual things. Tonight we're going to take Mongolia for Christ. No. Tonight you may want to wash your feet. You may want to brush your teeth. And this is a long upstanding battle. I'm going to tell you, just to tell you how honest I am. The night of prayer in Bromley the other week, I'm going to tell you this before the rumor gets there. I stood there challenging them about whatever and my zipper was down. The great dynamic torchbearer. Of course, I have my jogging suit underneath. But it's so funny because the other day I was ministering to the Manchester team and I felt so terrible. One of the brothers on the team was sitting there with it in the wrong position. Oh, to be a girl. Mind you, I guess girls have other problems. But if we do go into these churches, really, our hair is a bit of a mess, we got bad breath, we're dressed like some kind of circus crocodile. Sometimes people, they just get less than the best impression. The first captain of the ship did not want us to sail into a harbor with all the clothing hanging on the line. Now those days are over. You have a dryer, but you don't have a dryer. So the women all climbed up to this little thing here behind this blue curtain. I don't know what that blue curtain there is. And all the clothes. And he would go wild just thinking of bringing God's ship into a port with panties and t-shirts, you know, waving, you know, here comes the gypsy ship. So, listen, we're running out of time. Your practical development, let your roommate check you over before you go out of the cabin. Eyes, ears, hair, zipper, breath, ears, and it may take you a long way because, you know, listen, some people are already gunning for us. They have heard that we are fanatics. They have heard that we're extreme. They may, some of the unconverted people think we're a cult. Let's be realistic. And there were some very heavy anti-press articles about us in one port some years ago. People not knowing how to explain the social policy in a sensible way to a secular-minded person. I don't have any trouble doing that. I'm not saying I win them all. But I think it's important. Our personal appearance and our practical development combined with spiritual development I don't believe in separating the two though there will be failure all along the way even when you're forty-five years age. We keep going. We keep going. And it influences people. It touches people. And this is an explosive spiritual catalyst, this ship and your ministry. And then lastly, the fire will spread especially as you get involved man to man, woman to woman. If you develop one friendship in each port I hope many of you have a greater gift in that area will develop more. And I would like to commit myself to help with postage. If you write me, Alan, and ask for money for postage from special projects I will definitely though I don't have much left in special projects I believe in letter writing. I am not going to commit postage to letters to your girlfriend apart from one a week. I think you should limit the letters to the one you think you're in love with in Google land to one or two a week or increase your support because letters in O.M. are one of our biggest expenses. But letters for the ministry I hope will not hold back. Follow up letters within the British ports are relatively cheap compared to a letter to Japan. And I just believe people need to hear from us. Thank you letters. Words of encouragement. A little tract. Because we have to work toward building permanent long-term relationships. I want to share with you about that sometime. Man to man. That's what it talks about in 2 Timothy chapter 2. And I pray, you know it used to be said of the old worldly sailors they'd have a woman in every port. I pray for you women that you'd have a woman in every port. And for you men to have a man in every port. Not for evil activities or do your own thing but for Jesus to see them discipled because I tell you the moment we leave and I'm getting letters from the different ports now. The enemy tries to move in and discourage them. We should also be seeing many recruits coming from these ports. Let me give you a clue. The key isn't us going there. That's part of it. The key is ongoing prayer. Correspondence. Personal involvement. Let's pray. Lord Jesus we thank you that you've given us a vision. We thank you that you've given us a strategy. And we feel so weak. We feel so human. Some of us after 29 years of training we're still falling on our nose. Even in little practical areas. And sometimes we want to jump in a barrel and put the top on it. But Lord you love us so much. And you use flunkies and failures for your glory. And some of us Lord Jesus we have tested your patience almost beyond endurance but you have unlimited patience with us. And so as we move forward in this vision and in this strategy we will not be discouraged. We will not be discouraged. We will not be intimidated either by others or by our own failures or by our own weaknesses. But we will be courageous standing on your word. Believing in the reality of your indwelling Holy Spirit. Believing in the importance of providence that has put us in Dover at this hour at this time. And that wants us by your Holy Spirit to make an impact on all the south coast of Britain. That from this place many workers would go. From this place many prayer partners would be raised up. Help us as we prepare for this spiritual invasion. That each meeting would be esteemed important. Each conversation would be esteemed important. Each person that walks up that gangway would be a VIP. And that together though we may at times feel tired and weak and inadequate and intimidated and some of us may be shy or we may be afraid of people. Somehow by your grace this place will be filled with the Holy Spirit and courageous to move out. To recommend the right book at the right time. To show some little practical love at the right time. Maybe even a glass of water in your name. And it will be rewarded. Thank you Lord. We praise you. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. The Lord bless you.