Yesterday, I went to Fukuoka to see the Doulos. Doulos is a ship that was built in 1914, making it two years younger than the Titanic. This ship is also in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's oldest active ocean-going passenger ship. It visits port cities throughout the world, supplying literature resources, encouraging inter-cultural understanding, training young people for more effective life and service, promoting greater global awareness, providing practical aid and sharing the message of hope in God wherever there is opportunity. The Doulos is a ministry of OM (Operation Mobilization).

The crew is made of 350 people from 54 countries! English is the primary language of main communication on the ship. We were able to visit the mess hall, walk through a few halls, and talk with Caroline, an American from Atlanta, for an extended period of time. It was great to hear more about their ministry and hopefully encourage her in it as well. I also talked with crew members from Germany, South Africa, Indonesia, and Finland.

There was a huge bookstore on board and almost all of the books are in English. I was in book heaven:) I had to restrain myself from buying too many books. I was able to restrain myself from not buying more than five. I thought I did pretty well considering I haven't seen so many English books anywhere in about two years, not to mention they were very reasonably priced. All the books have stickers on them with 50 unit increments. Depending on what country they are in the amount of money for the units changes. In Japan, 50 units equaled 150 yen.

Over 19 million visitors have been on board the ship in the 30 years it has been used for ministry. When we were there hundreds of people were on board and during the first week in Japan, she's had over 6,000 guests. I had a wonderful time!!!