that too well, but all you need to see is the green and the red and the blue and the pink. So our ministry, what we do is, and we also have brochures and we have prayer cards on the table in the back, so if you get a chance you can pick one of those up. But we have a seaport ministry in Norfolk, Virginia that was started back in 1978 by a brother there in Norfolk, Virginia. So what he did is, is he would board the cargo ships that come in to the United States of America and are stuck in port for several days at a time. And each one of those ships have at least 20 to 30, sometimes more, foreign seamen from all over the world. And he had this idea, why don't we try to get on these ships and try to get the Gospel to them? We can get the Word of God in their language, we can try to get it to these men, and we can also witness to them while they're here. And many of these men come from closed countries or restricted countries. Countries that I would not be allowed to go to as a missionary. Maybe I could go undercover somehow, but it would be very difficult to be a missionary, let's say, to the country of Yemen. or the country of Bangladesh or the country of Myanmar. So here's what we have. Each one of these green dots on the world map or the red dots or the blue dots, all of those dots are a cargo ship out in the ocean right now. That's pretty incredible. There are about 1.6 million foreign seamen on the ocean as we speak. Those are a lot of men from closed countries. And here's the benefit. So what they do is since Since these men leave their home, they sign a nine-month contract, and a lot of times it's extended to about 10 or 15 months. And since they're traveling around the world and talking with people as they come into port, as they're loading and unloading, they have to have a way to communicate. So somebody somewhere decided English is going to be the world trade language. Now that benefit is in my favor. So here's what we have, we have men from China learning English and coming to the United States. We have men from Vietnam, and North and South Korea, and Indonesia, and Thailand, and Myanmar, and Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, and India. All these men from all over the world, all these different languages from all over the world, and these men spend years learning English And then they're coming here to the United States and they're stuck in port for several days with nothing to do. That sounds like, to me, a great opportunity to try to get the gospel to these men. So there's a brother who started the work there in Norfolk, Virginia in 1978. He did it faithfully till he died. And let me go ahead and read these verses with you and kind of get, we've got to get some Bible in here, that way it's not just a testimony, we can make it a preachimony. Psalm chapter 107, and let's begin in verse number 23. The Bible says, they that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, these see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep. You know what's a blessing about the Word of God? All the religions of the world have their religious books. And the religious books of the world tell people how they act and tell people how they are supposed to act. But there's something about the Word of God that not only tells us what we do, but it exposes who we are. Is that not true? The Word of God not only tells us how we act, the Word of God tells us what's inside of our heart. And so the word of God in these verses here takes in and pries open the heart of a seafarer and lets us see really what they're feeling on the inside. How many of you have ever been exposed to the Navy? Or maybe you've been in the Navy, you know somebody in the Navy. It's just typical of the Navy that those guys are rough sailors. I mean, they're just rough, tough, rugged men. And now rough, tough, rugged women. Not a good idea, but... So what the Lord does is He exposes what's in their heart. On the outside, they look like they're tough and strong and not afraid of anything. But look what the Bible says about these men as they're there in the middle of the ocean. The Bible says in verse 24, These see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep. For He commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to heaven, they go down again to the depths. Their soul is melted because of trouble. So here's what we have. If we take a step back, here's a man from the country of Myanmar. And he has been raised up in a Buddhist country. And every morning, he gets up early in the morning, And he breaks off some of his food, and they don't have a lot of it. And he scoops out a portion of his rice, and they don't have much of that either. And they'll set it before pictures of their dead ancestors and before a statue of a Buddhist god. And they'll burn incense to that god and hope that their day will be a little bit more prosperous than the day before. Every once in a while, they will have the opportunity to travel to a large Buddhist temple, and they'll see a large Buddhist statue, but what you'll notice is that statue is surrounded by a fence that says, do not enter. They're not allowed to approach their God. In fact, they don't even know who their God is. They know there's a God in heaven, they're just not sure who he is. So here's this man, he grows up, he finds a job that's a little bit better than working in a rice field. He signs on and works aboard a cargo ship. So he signs his first nine month contract and he gets out in the middle of the ocean and he's stuck in the middle of a storm. Now you and I, how many of you have ever had a storm in your life? How many of you when you were in that storm, you cried out to God in trouble and He helped you? He comforted you. He got you through it. We have a God that we can call out to. Imagine being in the middle of the ocean. No one around. If your ship goes down, there's not a likely chance that you're going to get rescued in time. And you don't have a God to cry out to. You're burning incense to the same statue you burned incense to your whole life, but there's no response. There's no communication. And so the Bible reveals to us what's in their very heart, even having a religion that they were taught to do and taught to perform. The Bible says that their soul is melted because of trouble. The Bible says in verse 27, they reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits end. But I thought they had Brahman. I thought they had Buddha. Didn't help. They're at their wit's end. That means there's nowhere else to turn. That means there's no farther down they can go in their heart. They are at their wit's end. And the Bible says in verse 28, then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble. You remember in Acts chapter 17, where Paul comes to this particular location and he finds a monument with an inscription, to the unknown God. They have all these Greek gods that they worship. But they know in their heart, far superior to any God that they have formed with their hands, there is a God in heaven who created man and put man on this earth, and they're going to be accountable to Him when they die. They just don't know who He is. And the Bible says these men, when they're in the middle of the ocean, and they've cried out to their God and He hasn't helped, and they cried out to their statue and He hasn't helped, and they prayed and asked help from their imam or their priest and He hasn't helped, The Bible says they go above all that and they cry out to God, they just don't know who He is. The Bible says, then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and He bringeth them out of their distresses, and He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet, so He bringeth them unto their desired haven. How many of you, before you were saved, there was a storm raging in your heart? Just bitterness and anger and wrath. But then you met Jesus. Then you called out to the Lord in your trouble, and that storm that was in your heart immediately became a calm and a peace and a quietness in your heart. You had a God you could cry out to. And the Bible reveals to us that these men are looking for that God. They just don't know who he is. So let's take a step back. So in 1978, this brother started this port ministry in Norfolk, Virginia. So the port facility, there's a lot of restrictions. There's a lot of security. There's a lot of safety factors that are involved. You can't just... drive out to a ship and knock on the side of the ship and let them lower a ladder down and you climb up and witness to them. There's a lot of things involved in that. But what he said, he said, you know what, if I offer these men free transportation, that'll be a benefit to the men, since taxi drivers typically try to rip them off because of the exchange rate. The port facility will see what we're doing and they will give us access to the port facility because we're offering this free transportation to the men. And that gives us the opportunity to go right to the ship with a backpack full of gospel tracts and Bibles in all of these native languages and give them the word of God in their language and introduce them to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it worked. And so since 1978, every day of his life, he would board ships, offer them free transportation. And by the way, once they get off the ship and once they're in your van and you drive them to Walmart or whatever the case may be, there are captive audience there too. So we just have so many opportunities that way, getting the gospel to these men. So, Haley and I, we're gonna take another step back here. Haley and I were both raised in the same town, but we didn't really know each other. Her dad was a pastor on one side of the county. My grandfather was my pastor on the other side of the county. But God at a young age was both working in our hearts about foreign missions. And so ever since we could, we got on every mission trip we could get on. and we would go to many different places all over the world, wherever we could, and just had a love for foreign missions. We had a love just to go somewhere. Honestly, some of it is just the adventure. You know, that's true. Some people just like adventure. They like getting in dangerous situations, and it's probably not the smartest thing in the world, but part of it is we truly did want to help a missionary who's trying to get the gospel to an unreached part of the world, and something about that, the Lord was just bending our hearts toward that direction, And so both of us, at some point in our life, told God what He wants us to do with our life. We told God where we wanted to go. We told God where we wanted to end up. And not necessarily considering that the Lord would want us to stay here in the United States for any reason. So during the time that I went to Bible school in Deland, Florida, and the time that I graduated, I had been down to Guyana, South America, eight different times, and was planning on going there to help a missionary that was struggling there and needed some help. And the Lord just closed that door, the Lord directed us otherwise. And so in 2017, my future father-in-law at the time, so her dad, who is a pastor, supported this brother up there in Norfolk, Virginia for about 20 years. And he said, look, this guy is getting up into his upper 70s, he has got really bad health, and he really needs someone to at least come up and help him for one summer. Would you be willing to do that? Our church would support you for a summer. And I said, well, that's in the United States. I don't really want to be in the States. But if he needs help and if you think I'm the one to do it, I'll at least give him a phone call and we'll talk and we'll see if we can make plans. So I got in contact with the brother in Norfolk, Virginia, who started the Seaport Ministry there in Virginia. And we exchanged testimonies. We had a great time of fellowship over the phone and everything was set up. I was going to go up there for the entire summer of 2017. And I was just about done, I had one more year left of Bible school. So when he got off the phone with me, he said, I've got to get off the phone, I have a doctor's appointment. But he said they had been praying for over 10 years that God would send them somebody that could work with them in the ministry. And no one yet has answered that call. And so we got off the phone, we said goodbye, he went to his doctor's appointment, I continued on with my life. The next week I got a phone call from him and he said, you never guess, At that doctor's appointment, they found out that I have a major aneurysm in my heart, and if it bursts, I'll bleed out internally within minutes. I've got to undergo some major surgery this summer, and I'm not going to be able to do the work. God just worked that out perfectly. What's the time? They've been praying for 10 years, and the very minute they get a phone call that he's got to undergo major surgery, He just got off the phone with a young whippersnapper who said, hey, I'll be willing just to go up and see what it is. So me being raised in central Florida, I couldn't really visualize the ministry. I honestly wasn't really sold on the ministry. So I went up there for one summer, and the first ship that I ever boarded with the brother who started this ministry was the last ship he ever boarded before he went to be with the Lord. He went under major surgery and never recovered. And he's been with the Lord now for about three years. So now here I am with this ministry that's been established since the 80s and men have been saved and discipled and planted churches all over the world. And I've just boarded my first ship and I don't know what I'm doing. So I kind of had to learn the hard way. But my first ship, I could see the importance of the ministry. and I was sold just on that first ship. So what we do is we take a ministry van and we drive out on the long pier. And when you get to these ships, I don't know if, have any of you ever seen a cargo ship up close before? They're massive. They're huge. I didn't realize how big they were. And so you climb up to the gangway and you climb up the gangway to get on top of the ship and you're greeted probably between four or five, maybe six or seven different men. Could be from anywhere in the world. but they're speaking English. Granted, it's broken English a lot of times, but it's English and they communicate with us and we communicate with them in English. And then we're able to offer them and say, look, we offer free transportation. If anybody wants to go out to the store or anything, we can arrange to come back and pick you up. But more importantly, we have a gift that we wanna give you. And then we begin distributing Bibles and begin striking up conversations about the Lord and about eternity. There are three questions that every man has in his heart, that science cannot answer, that religion cannot answer. Those questions are, where did I come from? Where am I going when I die? What is my purpose for being here on this earth? The world doesn't have an answer for that. Science does not have an answer for that. But the word of God does. And so we're able to open up the word of God and explain the gospel to these men, explain creation and explain the fall, explain how death came into the world, but explain how Christ came into the world and conquered death, rose from the dead and offers eternal life to anybody who'd call upon Him. And so it's been a real joy since that time. So every time I got a chance, I would go back and forth to Norfolk, Virginia, back down to Florida, finish Bible school, got married to my wonderful wife, and then we ended up moving up there this past summer and have been working in that ministry full-time in between going to different meetings. That's been a blessing. So here's the idea. The goal of this ministry, though it is different than a foreign missionary leaving the United States, going to a foreign country and planting churches in a foreign country, there are a lot of countries that have zero gospel witnesses or zero independent Baptist missionaries because the country is closed to missionaries. But that doesn't mean it's closed to the gospel. It doesn't mean there's no way we can reach them. It just means we have to be creative in the way that we reach them. And so by doing this ministry over the past five years, we have seen God allow us to get the gospel into closed countries. and see men read the Bible and at least consider the truth of their eternal soul. So that's been a real blessing. So the idea of this ministry is still church planting. Our goal is to still spread the gospel just like you would on a foreign field. Witness to these guys. Talk to them about the Lord. Put them on the spot. Ask them about their religion. Why do you believe that? Why do you believe the Quran is true? Why do you believe Jesus was just a good prophet and not God? And we're able to confront these men. Many of these men are from countries where everyone around them is from the same religion. And so they've never been questioned as to why they believe what they believe. And so we find that when these men come into port, and let me say something else as well. Let's take the country of India. Most of the country of India is predominantly Hindu. And if you live in a predominantly Hindu area in the country of India, your job is based upon the fact that you're a Hindu. Your family relations are based solely on the fact that you are a Hindu. Your social life is surrounded upon the fact that you are a Hindu. And if you leave your religion, You're not just leaving a religion like we would do in the United States. So I'm not Protestant anymore, now I'm Catholic. Now I'm not Catholic, I'm Jehovah's Witness. Now I'm not Jehovah's Witness, I'm Mormon. You could change religions more than you change socks in the States and it doesn't matter. But in other countries it could be a life or death situation. So if I were to leave this country, and I'm not against foreign missions, you have to understand what I'm saying, but if I leave the United States and I go to the heart of India and I'm trying to establish a church, what I am doing is I am asking these men to leave their job, to forsake their family, to forsake all the friends that they have, and mutually to be forsaken by them. You can understand how even if someone really does long for the truth, that's gonna be a very difficult decision because of their surroundings. But when these men leave their home country and are at sea for nine months at a time and they're at their wit's end and they're looking for truth, when they come to the United States, they're expecting to meet a big, loud, white American who believes something strange and something different. And so they don't have a guard up against hearing the gospel. And I'm telling you what, Look, I understand as Christians, as believers, we need to get really good at learning to defend the faith. We need to get really good at learning why we believe what we believe. Isn't that important? We need to learn that when we go out there in the world and we be a witness on our job. We need to be able to have an answer for why we don't believe in taking the Eucharist, and that's the blood of Christ, because the blood of Christ takes away our sins, and He rose from the dead, He's not dead again. And all I'm saying is, we've gotta have an answer. And when these men leave their country, and when they come to the United States, they're looking for that answer. And I know that we need to be able to show people from the Bible why we believe what we believe, but honestly, It's a lot simpler than that. If we'll just take the gospel message and lift it up, I believe that it stands far above any religion anywhere in the world. And no matter what answers they have in their heart that they think is a good enough answer as to why they don't trust in Jesus Christ, there's something in their heart that says, boy, I wish I could know that I have eternal life. but in my religion there's no way to know. I keep praying another prayer, I keep doing another sacrament, I keep flipping another bead, but I have no assurance of eternal life. And so when we take the word of God to these men who have never heard it before, and we lift up Jesus Christ to them, and we show them that he died for their sins and rose again, offering eternal life as a free gift, the gospel stands far above any other religion in the world. And it's such a blessing to be able to share with these men what Jesus Christ has done. Let's go over to Acts chapter eight quickly. Acts chapter number eight, there's a story here that I'm sure you might be familiar with. But as I read these passages, I find that it's very similar to the opportunity that we have. How many of you, when you read Acts chapter number two, when the Bible says that all the Jews from all over the world and all these different countries from around the world, the Bible says in Acts chapter two, they came to Jerusalem. from all over the world, and the Bible says that the Spirit of God allowed the men of God to preach the gospel of God into the languages that these people could understand, and so literally the whole world came to them, they preached the gospel to them, they got saved, and then they took the gospel back to their home country. By the time Paul wrote the book of Colossians, he said all of the world has been touched with the gospel. That's pretty incredible. So Acts chapter two is pretty much exactly what we get to do. It's such a joy to do this. But also, let's look at Acts chapter number eight. The Bible says in verse number 26, and maybe we'll get some application here as we go. The Bible says, and the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, arise and go. Arise and go. Isn't that what God has asked us to do as believers? as the church of God. He said, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. So he said, arise and go toward the south, unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he rose and went, and behold, a man of Ethiopia, he's a dark man, and eunuch of great authority, So he has been placed under the service of a queen. He is in a pretty high place, and he's been made a eunuch, so that way he doesn't... That's something that they would do in the Bible, so that they would be solely focused on their duty and responsibility to the queen or king. The Bible says he was of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure. That's a pretty prominent place. And look what the Bible says. And had come to Jerusalem for to worship. He's not a Jew. He is not part of the Jewish religion. But I believe in my heart that this man from a far distant land had a question in his heart. Who is God? And he's searching for truth and he's searching for answers and he's willing to travel across part of two or three continents to get to Jerusalem over 2,000 miles without Uber, without Delta, Why? He's searching for truth. So the Bible says he comes to Jerusalem for the worship. And the Bible says he was returning. He was returning. He didn't find the answer he was looking for. He went to a big religious gathering. found a bunch of people worshiping some God somewhere, but it was just a religion. In the Old Testament, the Bible says that God instituted the law, and God instituted the commandments, and God instituted all of the law in the Old Testament to have a relationship with his people and have a special relationship with the nation of Israel. But by the time we flip into the New Testament, Jesus said it's the Jews' religion. It was just a religion to them by that point. And so here's a man who travels from Ethiopia and he comes all the way to Jerusalem hoping to find the answers from what the nation of Israel says. We have the answers. We have the true and living God. We're the only ones with the law. We're the only ones that God spoke to face to face. And he came and he left. And he had no answers. Wouldn't it be sad? If somebody finally gets to leave the poor country of Bangladesh, and they've been raised in the Islamic religion, and they're looking for truth, yes, my ship has finally been summoned to go to port in the United States, that's a Christian country. And they come, and they leave. They find no answer. The man working the crane has no answer. The man who boards their ship and deals with the paperwork has no answer. Wouldn't that be a tragedy? I wonder about the people on our jobs. Yes, finally there's a Christian on my job. And then they don't get an answer. and they find out the guy who was supposed to be a Christian is just as bad as they are. Wouldn't that be a tragedy? God, help us. We've got not just foreign missionaries. All the believers of God have got to have an answer to give every man of the hope that lieth within us. So the Bible says he was returning. Look at verse number 28. He was sitting. in his chariot and read his eyes to the prophet. Then the spirit said unto Philip, go near and join thyself to his chariot. And Philip ran thither to him. You see that? Philip ran. No questions asked. God, why do you want me to go to the desert? God, why do you want me to go to Ethiopia? You know those guys are dangerous. God, why do you want me to run after a chariot? There's no way I can catch up to a chariot on foot. He didn't ask any questions. He said, God, you told me to come here, I did. You told me to go there, I'm gonna go. You told me to speak, I'm gonna speak. And the Bible says, he ran, there to meet him, and heard him, read his eyes to the prophet, verse 30, and said, understandest thou without readest? And he said, how can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. And the place of the scripture which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, like a lamb done before shears, so he opened on his mouth. In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away. And who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself or of some other man? Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him, Jesus. Jesus. I think it's important that we understand and we learn the ins and outs of the scripture. I think it's important that we understand what the Bible says about being sealed in the Holy Spirit and about being sanctified and about our relationship with God and what it means to be justified, but not even going into all of that. Philip just took the Word of God and he said, let me tell you about Jesus. That was all this man needed. And when he heard the sacrifice that Christ made on the cross for him, and how all he needed to do was believe. Now if your Bible is not a King James Bible, all you need to do is get baptized. Believing is not in there. That's a pretty dangerous change. But according to my Bible, according to the Word of God, look at verse 37. Philip said, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. Let me tell you what I found. Look, I'm a young man. I don't have wisdom. Haley and I, we are still learning about this ministry. We're trying to get as much help as we can, because we don't have any experience. But I'll tell you what I've seen. The second ship that I ever boarded, I had to board by myself. I had no experience. But I boarded the ship, and it was a Chinese ship. And I had a bunch of Chinese New Testaments in my backpack. And I told them what we do. We're a Baptist ministry. We offer free transportation, but more importantly, we have some gifts that we want to give you. It's the Word of God. And these men, they called the captain, they got permission for me to go inside the ship. So they escorted me into the ship, up a few flights of stairs, into a lounge area. And I got to open up the word of God with a room full of men from China. And I was able to freely and openly, without fear, without worry if I was gonna get caught, open up the word of God in English and allow them to open up the word of God in Chinese and explain the gospel to these men. Right in the middle of trying to explain the gospel, one of the chief officers got a call on the radio from the captain. And he said, who is this man that's on our ship? I need to see him right now. Oh no. All I know of China is if you go there, you gotta go undercover and all this stuff, and I'm like getting worried. So the chief officer pulls me out of the room, carries me up more flights of stairs, and takes me into this big office with a big wooden round table, the captain's office. And I'm greeted by the captain, the Chinese captain of the ship, who spoke fluent English, by the way, praise the Lord. And he said, sit down. And I said, yes, sir. And he said, can you tell me who is this Jesus? And I said, I'd be glad to. And I was able to sit down with the captain of the ship and open up the word of God in English and allow him to open up the word of God in his heart language and go through verses and explain sin and explain what sin is and sin is transgressing the law and sin is reproach against God. You're gonna be accountable to God. But the Bible says in Romans 5.8, but God come in with His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And he said, let me see that. And he pulled my Bible over to him and he said, is that true? And I said, this is the Word of God. I believe it's true. And I turned around and behind me in the doorway, I thought it was just me and him, in the doorway all of those men had followed us up the stairs and were piled into the doorway listening and looking and some of them had their phones out taking video. And for the first time I got to see how hungry people are for the truth if they're given the opportunity to hear it. And so that's our goal. Our goal is just to be a witness. Our goal is to try to get the word of God in their hands, in their language. And our primary goal is to please God. And I believe in getting the gospel to the world. I think that's something that pleases the Lord. And I think this avenue, although it's different, although it's challenging in some hands, in some ways it's a blessing, it's such a great opportunity to literally reach the entire world with the gospel in places that I might never get to go. But a little gospel seed. can end up in a fertile ground in some foreign country. And time will only tell, eternity will only tell the fruit that'll come from that. And that's what we're trusting. We have about two more minutes. There was a, back in the 80s, there was a Filipino seaman by the name of June Katbagan. And him and his wife were both raised Catholic in the Philippines, like many Filipinos are. Just like we've mentioned before, in his heart, he was longing for truth. but the Catholic Church didn't have any answers for him. I'm not trying to criticize the Catholic Church, all I'm saying is they could not give him an answer, how can I know that I have eternal life? Well, keep trying, keep praying this, keep doing the sacraments, keep being a really good person. Well, how can I know I've done enough? And they responded to him, you can't know, just keep trying. So he signed a contract, and he was in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and somewhere he found a Bible on his ship, and he began to read the Bible. He was not encouraged to do that in his former religion. He began reading the Bible, and he came to Luke chapter 18, where there was a Pharisee, a religious man, in a temple. And he was praying this grand prayer to God. Oh God, I'm so glad that I'm not an extortioner. I'm so glad I'm not a winebibber. I'm so glad I'm not a drunkard. I'm so glad I'm not as wicked as that publican in the back there. And in the back was that publican, a sinner, a wicked man. And he was standing and just beating his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And Jesus said, that man walked away justified. rather than the man who declared his own righteousness. And this Filipino seaman got saved just by reading the Bible. It wasn't a few weeks later, he comes to port in Norfolk, Virginia, and was met by the man who started the work there in Virginia, found out that he had just gotten saved, kind of gave him a crash course on the Bible, what the Bible is, and what he should do next, and what kind of church he should find back at home. And the Lord started working on this young Filipina seaman's heart. You know what? There are so many people in my home country who are still lost in this religion, and I have never met anyone telling people the truth of the gospel. He said, I'm gonna go back home. I'm gonna quit this profitable career, and I'm gonna be a witness in my hometown. Haley and I got married in 2019, and shortly after we got married, we took a trip to the Philippines. and met up with this Filipino pastor. And we were there for their 28th church anniversary service. One seaman heard the gospel, got saved, got a burden for his home country, started a church in his hometown in the Philippines. started training young Filipino men who got saved, started sending them all across the Philippines. And then they started thinking, you know what? There are Filipino work communities everywhere. Let's start sending people to other countries and start churches in Filipino work communities and then reach that country. And so 15 or 16 different churches have been planted in the past 30 years by that one Filipino seaman who got saved. All of Asia has been touched with the gospel. because somebody took the word of God and got it aboard one of these ships, and someone took it and believed it, got saved, went back to their home country, and reached their people with the gospel. And that's our goal. Our goal is to get the gospel in their hands, train these men. We have an online Bible Institute that we're working on right now. We're getting recorded, and we're trying to get these discipleship lessons together, help these men learn the Bible, and then Lord willing, see them establish a Bible-believing church in their home country. That's our goal. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for your word that we've been able to see this morning. God, I know that it was mostly just explaining about the ministry, but God, there's a lot of convicting things that I've seen this morning in these passages. God, I pray that, Lord, when you tell us to arise and go, God, please help us not to drag our feet. Lord, help us to arise and go. Help us to run. Help us to go out into this world this week and try to reach people with the life-changing gospel that we hold in our hands. God, I pray that you'll find us faithful. And who knows who we might meet along the way who will be ready to receive that truth that we hold in our hands. God, I pray that you'll bless our time together. Thank you for these who have come. Thank you for the time that we've had this morning. I pray for this church. Thank you for their faithfulness. God, I pray that you bless our time in church for the rest of this hour. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, if you get a chance, we have prayer cards and we have things on the back table if you get a chance to go look at it. See you back in at 10.30, right? Great.