Okay, but tonight we got something really cool before the sermon I've asked
Brother Kevin Rowe to come at this time and I've got your microphone Kevin if
that's what you're looking for I'm just gonna wire you up with this but Brother
Kevin Rowe has come up with this idea it's such a cool idea I thought it was
cool when I first heard about it he successfully executed it with several
other church members and so he's going to teach us about this thing of cruise
ship soul-winning okay it's gonna be good here we go
all right so I want to just talk briefly about a Caribbean cruise mission trip
that I led last month I think they handed out an insert that basically shows
the itinerary and some of the pictures from that but basically this idea came
to me because I have a desire to get someone to saved as many countries as I
can and cruises are a cost-effective way to do that and right now there are
cruises that you know there's thousands of cruise itineraries that are available
and they go to all seven continents including every country at this year's
conference excluding Armenia and they even have cruises that loop around the
entire world you know if you had so much time to do that but basically for the
North American cruises there's basically four options and I want to kind of show
you on the map here but basically there's you know because you have a hub
where the cruise sends out from basically there's one option where you
can start from California side and basically do you know Baja California
Mexico somewhat of Central America within a week but since that speaks
Spanish and I don't speak Spanish I didn't do that one the other option is
basically Texas or Louisiana a lot of those cruises go to Mexico Belize a
little bit of Central America again I didn't choose that one the other options
pretty much Florida which mostly will do these upper islands you know Bahamas
Jamaica and some of the ones you can go a little farther down with those cruises
but then you wind up having at least one day of just on the sea travel on the sea
back so within one week you would probably only see maybe three islands and
so we went with option four where if you actually fly in to Puerto Rico which is
very good because it's an American territory you can fly there cheaply for
about three hundred dollars and now you're surrounded by all these countries
and all these islands and you can basically do a many many islands in one
week with very little downtime of course if you had the time to do two week
mission trips you can do a lot of other cool things for instance you can
actually go from California all the way to Florida through the Panama Canal and
do these really elaborate things but we were just trying to do a one week cruise
and we were trying to do it you know as many countries as possible for as cheap
as possible so you know with my pretty much I didn't ideal itinerary found
which is the one that I chose here's how it went down so you know the first day
we flew into San Juan Puerto Rico we got there about two o'clock and we ubered
from the airport to the cruise terminal and what's nice is that Puerto Rico is
pretty much the only you know Caribbean country that even has uber access so it's
real cheap real easy to do that we boarded the boat pretty much like going
to the TSA a second time we put our bags in the room and then we basically had
one of our first buffets and so a big part about the cruises is really the
food right so how the buffet works is basically there's a buffet area on the
boat that's open from sunrise to sunset and they have distinct menus for like
breakfast lunch dinner and then kind of snack times in between and a bunch
different stations for different types of food right there's like a Mexican
Indian Italian British you know it's massive everything you could want is
there and then they also have like you know a salad bar ice cream you know shop
bread place drink thing and everything's free right all you can eat at all times
the day everything's free except for like cans and bottles you have to pay
extra for that and also every day everything is new right there's never
the same thing twice so after we ate we left the boat because this was like our
first day we went to a local mall called Plaza Las Americas which happens to be
the largest mall in all the Caribbean it's the second largest mall in the
Latin American speaking world we figured that'd be a good place to find some
Spanish speak or some English speaking people just because it was a big mall
right it still wasn't that easy though we but we did get one person saved in
English and one person saved in Spanish we only had a couple hours till the boat
had to leave so we went back to the boat and had our first dinner and so
there's a separate outside of the buffet system there's a separate kind of fancy
dinner system where you know once per night you can sign up to this fancy have
reservations and basically you know you're given a menu that has like
starters entrees desserts and you can order as much as you want because again
everything's free and you know some of the things we ate were steak lobster
prime ribs salmon beef wellington and we all pretty much ate an absurd amount of
ice cream but I have no regrets so the basic the basic itinerary for the boat
the boats basically at each island from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. which leaves about 9
hours per day during the day and then overnight is when the boats was going to
the next one so pretty much you wake up every morning and you're in a new country
so the itinerary that I said was pretty much from 8 to 9 we'd eat breakfast while
it's arriving at port and then we'd walk or taxi to town 9 to 12 we'd go
soul-winding for about 3 hours 12 to 2 would go back to the boat we'd cool off
we'd eat lunch then we'd go back out 2 to 4 we'd go out so on it for another 2
hours and then you know 5 4 to 5 would go back the boat leaving a little time you
know you want to leave a little buffer in there and then normally from there you
know it pretty much shower we eat at the dinner buffet then we'd relax or do
maybe a recreation then we'd go to the fancy dinner like a second dinner right
then you eat like your dessert at the at the fancy place then you go back to the
buffet for the post dessert dessert and yeah so we ate a lot it was it was great
but because we split the day in half like that we were able to you know as needed
kind of take a half a day off like oh I'm not feeling good I'm gonna sleep you
know I'm gonna sleep in and I'm gonna start so winning after lunch or this or
that and so we kind of alternated that so we didn't go ultra hardcore in this
thing we probably did about three or four hours of so winning per day you
definitely could do more like I said you have over nine hours on the island every
day but the thing is right the boat everything is free so at any point you
can just go back and you don't really have to spend money in a country you can
just go get it all free at the boat which is nice so the next thing I want
to describe is pretty much how a port city works there's always going to be
like a tourist area which is going to be like a few blocks or streets that are
just you know where everyone's try to sell you stuff so it's not a very good
idea to preach there just because all they want to do is sell you things but
outside of that you're pretty much going to have a business area for all the
locals where they shop and then outside of that it's probably gonna be the
residential area and either of those be great for so winning and now the ship
can dock either directly in the tourist area or in like an industrial area where
you'll have to either like walk for a half hour or take a taxi and taxi is
definitely a better option but once you're in that tourist area you pretty
much just have to walk a few blocks in any direction and you'll find great
people to preach to and obviously if you're organizing the map you should
plan all that on Google my maps right so the second day was our first port was
was Phillipsburg st. Martin and since those our first day we made a couple
mistakes you know we tried to stay out all day we didn't kind of use that free
lunch system so we learned right and the second thing is we did walk we did the
far walk we got blisters and didn't enjoy it so but that's how running a
mission trip is right you have to kind of be adaptable and learn on the fly and
the other downside though is that because this was a Sunday pretty much
everything was closed and I was really looking forward to st. Martin too because
I'd rate a couple blocks from the boardwalk is their main University but
it was all closed we actually went and talked to like a security guard but
we weren't able to really preach to anybody but we did some so any of the
business of residential areas and we got 16 people saved there and you know even
I think we'd do much better on a weekday I think this this country still has a
great great opportunity there so I definitely want to come back and we wound
up hanging out just on the boardwalk and the beach you know tourist area and
they're both very nice day three went to st. St. John's Antigua and unlike st.
Martin here you know once you're off the boat you're right in the action so in
the morning we went soul winning in a residential area but it was pretty much
raining the whole time so we were walking around with umbrellas we got a
few salvations in English few in Spanish but we had to really work for it but
after lunch though we went soul winning you know just like right off the boat
just a couple blocks away and they were just surrounded by it was apparently is
when all the school kids got off their book you know off the school so
everyone was just the streets were packed with students and kind of like what
Caleb said you know preaching the students is really like a cheat code
for missions right it's just like you're gonna get a bunch of salvations so
because of that you know most of us thought this was the best island on the
trip right brother Mark said it felt like he was back in Fiji so we had a
total of 26 salvations most of which were in the afternoon so in day four we
went to Castray st. Lucia now this is another one where you want a taxi to the
city is pretty far we started off in the morning the same spot the previous
faithful word trip went to was Derek Walcott square and a little background
you know I had my honeymoon this year in st. Lucia and while I thought the
country is beautiful you know I personally thought the soul winning was
kind of awful while we were there you know we had a lot of people get really
confrontational about us and yell at us about internal security so I was kind of
curious to see like is it gonna be better this second time around and
unfortunately it really wasn't we had the same issues at this square and you know
this square had like two different Jehovah's Witness stands set up you know
it had a lot of like 70 Adventists we met and just a lot of like Rastas I kept
running into that was sure demon possessed and my opinion the Rastas the
worst of the three but despite all that we were still able to get a couple people
saved including a bus driver who gave us a free ride back to our ship and then
after that you know we tried a different tactics again you got it if it's not
working you got to change right so try a different tactic we went to him like a
covered market where people are just like selling produce and we were pretty
much just selling to the stall people because there wasn't that many people
buying stuff and so we had really good success there you know there weren't
really I guess heretics buying produce so so we got a lot of salvations are
taking our total up to 21 but you know despite kind of a good number of
salvations most of us kind of ranked it pretty low because we all had pretty bad
experience at some point or another just people being it mean to us but the next
day though we were in Bridgetown Barbados you know and here we took the
just two dollar shuttle into the city and you know there's large parks a lot
of people around and unlike st. Lucia you know everyone's super friendly and we
had some really easy salvations and we also walked a few blocks to just like a
public beach and it was really like a lot of us said it was one of the best
beaches we've ever been to you know water was really clear the sand was
really fine it was really warm but because we did that you know kind of on
the fly we kind of stayed out long so we you know had a late lunch we went back
and then afterward you know it's kind of too late to go back out to the city with
the bus so then we just tried we were in the industrial area we're like let's
just try you know going around to these businesses and just preaching the
industrial area and we had a couple of salvations there too so even that worked
that well so I think I'd rank Barbados as the second best island we didn't run
into all the schools you know kids in Antigua this would probably be the best
island certainly it was you know is the prettiest as well so day six you know
it's kind of our last country was Roseau Dominica I don't know how to
pronounce it this place you know it's pretty rough in general I think also we
you know with all these days in a row pretty long days we were pretty worn out
so we didn't really stray super far to this day either and we stayed pretty much
on the main street which is just like packed full of people but because of
that everyone's really busy no one really wanted to listen to you and you
know I had a lot of people that were like heckling me from across the street
I had like a lot of like Ross's would come up and like break up conversations
and kind of ruin ruin it but we went up the street we visited this botanical
garden and saw some nature as our recreation but because it was like you
know not very receptive and also is like incredibly hot we didn't stay off the
boat very long it was like the one of the few days we actually went to the
boat like three times we just was just so hot we needed the AC so most of us
would pretty much rank or Dominica as our worst island but we still had six
salvations and our last salvation a day was kind of a real really sweet woman
who was just like crying the whole time and so it's definitely worth it to us you
know we still we still enjoyed it day seven was basically the one day that we
had those at sea so we didn't we weren't on a country at all but we tried to do
you know some of the things on the boat the boat has like tons of stuff to do
and we didn't utilize you know even fraction of it but we tried to find some
of it you know so we watched a few live shows we played pickleball we did axe
throwing we had an archery competition and obviously there's like ungodly
things to do on the boat you know there's like a casino and but the boats
laid out in such a way that you know you could pretty much spend the whole week
and never even see that stuff you know and like we didn't even go near the pool
or the ball bars and stuff so we didn't see like you know really anything that we
shouldn't and honestly like you're gonna see more bad stuff just on the Caribbean
Island than you are on the boat just because the Caribbean is known for just
kind of pot smoking and drunkenness and everything else so I guess you have to
take it out how you will one of the things that I enjoyed on the boat though
is that all the workers had name tags and the name tags said obviously their
name but it said like what country they're from and pretty much the main
countries they're from were India Indonesia Philippines Zimbabwe Kenya and
South Africa so pretty all receptive countries we didn't really do any
preaching on them on the boat because they're all working but at the last day
we did hand about us hand out a bunch of YouTube cards but one of the things I
was trying to do on the boat or was pretty much be able to greet everyone in
their own language I would just try to see their name tag and try to greet
them and I you know I have a whole list on them but the funniest I thought was
Indonesian you know to say what's up you say apa kabad and the answer is bike
bike but anyway day eight was our last day we got back on the San Juan Puerto
Rico this time we had to actually have all of our bags so we just went to the
same same mall again and we pretty much just like sat down at a table with all
of our bags around which try to kind of new strategy you know I can only speak
three sentences in Spanish but I would pretty much go up use those three
sentences with somebody if they kind of answered them right I'd kind of point
them over and they basically sit down at a table with us you know Lola would
preach to them and then they'd get saved so we actually had two salvations in
entirely in Spanish like that so it's a good system we got a few more salvations
there so just as an overview you know you could see some of the country we
visited were great some you know not so much but what's great about this format
is that you kind of get a little sample of each island right and if it's not
receptive well you know the next day everything resets not that you know go
there again and of course obviously if you find a hidden gem then a church can
transition and be like hey let's do a full you know week-long mission trip
there and I believe you know cruise is a great first-time mission trip either as
a participant or as an organizer because you know one of the key metrics that we
look for is just enjoyability you know we don't want people to come get work to
the ground and then never come again right we want people to become lifelong
lovers of missions and you know this was easily like one of our most enjoyable
and kind of luxurious mission trips you know we're we all definitely want to go
on a cruise again and a little bit you know just kind of the background like
finances right you know this is really a very cost-effective way for the cruise
itself you know I paid thirteen hundred dollars for my wife and I our flights
were three hundred dollars each and paid about a hundred dollars extra and like
Ubers and taxis so pretty much was a thousand dollars per person Johnson
family also paid the same and you know I should note obviously it's like it's a
little more expensive you try to have a single cabin they'll charge you more so
you pretty much need to book with at least two people but that's really as
many people as you need and as brother sagor alluded to earlier you know a lot
of people don't really realize how expensive some of these trips can be
especially in the Caribbean crime is a very expensive place especially with
like food but here you know best view that you can get it's all free and you
can easily spend you know fifteen hundred two thousand dollars if you had
to pay for everything yourself but you know here you know and even if you pay
that fifteen hundred dollars you're probably in an Airbnb and you're
probably eating you know ham sandwiches you're not eating you know steak lobster
and ice cream so but you know obviously we're blessed to have such a generous
church who won a lot of these trips has paid a lot of those expenses but without
their help you know some of those trips wouldn't be financially viable just as
I go a solo person or two people right so maybe you go to a church that can't
do all that supporting or maybe you just want to run a trip on your own you know
cruise is a great you know alternate for that because it's all paid for just for
one flat feet so even you know whether it's two people or 20 people you know
saw the same price and pretty much the same way to organize it and not to
mention you know I I think we all personally paid for our ticket just with
the food that we ate so the final thing is basically you know I think the best
thing about the cruise is that it's like it's very scalable you know I talked a
lot with Raymond over the years about just the running trips and how this
works and you know if I was running a cruise trip and a hundred people sign up
like I'd hardly have to plan but if a hundred people signed up for a
traditional trip you know it's kind of a logistical nightmare right there's like
things like lodging you know like yeah there's hotels or Airbnbs and while
Airbnbs are cheaper you know Raymond's found out that if you just book too many
at once they just ban you for life like you know so it's kind of dangerous in
that regard and then also for instance rental cars you know normally with with
the trip like this you you know if you're all driving around you need to have one
out of five people more or less sign up to be a driver and you know that's
sometimes they might have to put the credit card on the line their insurance
policy on the line and and then they're driving an unfamiliar and maybe
stressful environment and you know and I've done that in the past I've enjoyed
it like I enjoy driving you know left-hand stick shift and Nagaland you
know on the left side of the road and up you know that's all fun but now
obviously not everyone you know may enjoy that and many people really don't
want to be pressured in driving so you know a trip with no cars is great and
what's nice is that you know they drive you for you right on the boat and you
know finally you know obviously foods a big thing you know I know you know
Raymond for instance want you know on a couple trips is kind of spent like a
whole trip just buying food and transporting it to all the different
Airbnbs and hotels and stuff and I really had a good chance to go swimming
and you know I think that's that's not ideal I like just leaving all the
logistics to the to the cruise line and just enjoying kind of a stress-free but
fruitful mission trip and obviously it's not going to replace traditional
missions but I think it's a it's a good way especially if you're just starting
out or you just want to try something and have very stress-free you know and
not have to deal with all the kind of admin work that sometimes running a
mission trip does because there's a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes
that you don't really see so kind of in closing right I think that you know I
just hope you guys would consider you know this kind of new style of mission
trip you know obviously I'm gonna keep doing them probably the Johnsons are
gonna keep doing them so hopefully you guys will come with us so otherwise
thanks God bless yeah I think it's such a great idea you know it just it just it's
it's tailor-made for our philosophy around here of common-sense missions and
just the way the way it works out and I mean the price I mean a thousand bucks a
person it's pretty hard to plan a mission strip for less than a thousand
bucks I mean and so that's incredible and I mean do the math that they got like
what 80 some people saved right five people go out there for a week get 80
some people say that's incredible results and I like the idea of kind of
sampling all the different mission fields and then later you could send a
big group to the good ones and whatever and and I really love what he said about
how you know people that are in say an old IFB church where you know you got
you're buying tracks to hand out even locally they're selling you the tracks
you know nothing's free and with the old IFB you know you got if there's ice
cream after the service you're paying for it you know and so the thing is you
know if you're going to that type of a church where let's say you're going to
an old IP church you could literally just get together with a buddy you and
one just a couple of dudes could just be like hey let's get a week off from work
we both got a thousand bucks you could do this and it's like no
excuse not to do a DIY mission strip I think it's great and and you could get
four people two people six people it's scalable like he said you're not gonna
be like whoa there's too many people coming and I've been to these ports I've
never been on a cruise you know full disclosure so I don't know what that's
like sounds great though but I've never done it but I have definitely been to
these port cities because I've been on so many trips where the where the ship
is right there and I see the people kind of getting off the ship and getting on
the ship and so I know exactly how these cities work and like he said you
literally walk like ten minutes and you're out of the tourist area and you
are in that country and you are deep into that country after walking for ten
fifty minutes and it's like two different worlds where everybody's poor it's all
the locals and whatever you just get out of that tourist zone but 99% of people on
the cruise they're staying in that tourist zone I've always found that
getting out of the tourist areas is a more authentic experience anyway like
whenever I travel to other countries I'm actually more interested in kind of
getting the real life than just seeing a bunch of like I want to say Zane's
verdict and I never can think of a good word for that in English Anzel you know
the sights I guess you could say and so I always want to you know see the real
stuff I for me it's so much more fun to go sit in someone's living room in a
foreign country and kind of experience their house and their life and their
family and eat a home-cooked meal is way cooler than just hey let's go look at you
know Mount Rushmore you know the pyramids or whatever and so I love this
idea I hope that people online are listening to this I hope that you guys
are listening to this and realizing how this is something you could probably
successfully execute with a week off work and you know thousand bucks maybe
1,500 bucks and you could really have a lot of fun and probably get a bunch of
people saved and do valuable recon that you can then tell us about and tell
other soul-winning churches about and tell us which islands are good which
ones are dead that information is gold so thank you very much brother row really
appreciate that