by Dale Reeves
Story Pastor
Two weeks ago, my wife and I were fortunate to be able to sail the western Caribbean with her family to help her parents celebrate their 25th cruise on the seas. Twenty-five cruises! Yep, that’s my awesome in-laws! The time spent with family, drinking hot chocolate and eating pizza late every night is something we only experience there. Basking in the tropical sun while it was frigid up north, visiting port towns we’ve never been to before, listening to some great music, and dancing to some of my favorite songs all made this an enjoyable week for us—notwithstanding a few days of cold and choppy seas. Besides making wonderful family memories, I love interacting with the crew comprised of a diverse community of nationalities aboard the Carnival Glory. From the chefs, servers, and restaurant hosts to our room steward Sarafina, to the entertainers, engineers, hotel and cruise director, there are over seventy-five different nationalities working aboard ship. That is why one of the themes of Carnival is “The world works here.”
With approximately 2,900 guests aboard, there were about 1,200 crew members serving all the guests, ensuring they have a relaxing and pampered time. Those who serve meals or clean cabins work very long days, and they all look forward to their time off. Each of the crew sign on for six-to-nine-month contracts. That’s a long time to be on the seas, away from family on the other side of the world. I had the chance to talk with several of them about how they build community aboard ship. One morning during the week our room steward apologized for being at our room a little later than normal. Sarafina said, “We had a crew party last night, and I partied a little too late. We enjoy getting to have these times at night with our friends.” Building community is essential to our spiritual journey in the church. It is also invaluable when being away from family members months at a time.
I asked our cruise director, Cam, “How do you build community aboard ship with the crew?” He responded, “I really believe that attitude reflects leadership. We work hard on our attitudes, and have team engagement specialists who help with HR issues, teaching other languages to crew members, helping them apply for other jobs that come up, and other things. Management teams tend to stay on the same ship for two years to build continuity within the team.” Cam concluded,
“We are like a little city at sea, and become our own little family.”
Ubuntu
Ubuntu is an African concept that derives from the Zulu and Xhola languages. The idea is that of “humanity to others,” embodying the virtues that help maintain harmony and a spirit of sharing. It can be described with these words,
“I am what I am because of who we all are.”
One evening as our family was being served dinner in the Golden Restaurant by one of my new friends, Kuda, we talked about Ubuntu. Kuda Vokoto is from Zimbabwe and as my “brother from another mother,” we immediately hit it off. We couldn’t wait to see each other every evening and enjoy a warm embrace before I sat down to eat, and he stood up to serve. After dinner one night I asked Kuda his concept of community on board and he said this, “First of all, everybody to me is family. If we’re connected, we’re friends, regardless of where we’re each from. Aboard ship, we share laughter, we hang out together, and we enjoy our time together even if we have long shifts! We look forward to it!”
Then while at dinner one night, I met Kuda’s cousin, Farai Mandizvidza, who is also from Harare, Zimbabwe. Farai is junior restaurant host on his second contract with Carnival. He is an extreme extrovert like me. I asked him what kinds of things they did to foster community aboard ship. He said, “As crew members we have our own network. We have crew parties, play games together, listen to music, and other things for us to be together as one. If one of our crew members receives bad news from their home, we are there for them. We try to be family to each other. Some team members actually communicate with other crew members’ families—even though they’ve never met them!”
While working on my laptop in a lounge area one day, I met another friend from Zimbabwe, Stella, who works hard cleaning the ship. She asked me what I was doing in my work. After we shared some life together, and she told me how she was homesick, I asked if I could pray for her, and I continue to do so. She is working on becoming a nurse’s aid. She said to me, “Don’t forget to forward a word or Sunday sermons here and there when you can.”
It’s a Small World
Another thing my wife and I enjoy when we cruise is the opportunity to go on some fun excursions while at each port. We’ve been fortunate to go on whale-watching boat rides, riding in a helicopter, landing on a glacier in Alaska and driving a dog sled, snorkeling, basking on the white sand beaches of the Caribbean, and many other fun outings. On this particular cruise we signed up with an outfit called “Native Way,” for a three-hour boat excursion in the beautiful aquamarine waters surrounding Grand Cayman Island. There we met our captain, Everton, who grew up in Jamaica, but now steers a ship along with his crewmate Dave. They treated us to an unforgettable adventure in which we got to snorkel while stingrays were swimming under us, then we got to hold starfish and stingrays. I even kissed one!
If you’ve ever watched the reality TV show, 90 Day Fiancé, you may have seen Everton and his girlfriend Jordan. But even though he is now a reality show celeb, he and his mate Dave went above and beyond to make sure that our family had a wonderful experience aboard their boat. They brought stingrays and starfish to us, helped my mother-in-law get close enough to touch a stingray, and then fed us some fresh conch meat straight from the Caribbean Sea. They did all the work while we simply sat back and enjoyed the scenery and the experience.
I could talk about my friend Laura, whom I met in line, waiting for our freshly made-to-order deli sandwiches for lunch one day. She is a retired fourth grade teacher from Louisiana. After talking about our families, and youth culture today, she looked at me and said, “You’re a pastor, right? I saw you dancing on the ship the first night!” How did she know? Or my new friend Martin from Alabama who let me spin him around on the deck at the Sail Away party just before Cam, the cruise director, referred to me as, “A black man dipped in white chocolate!” Or my new friend Matt, a steward on our Southwest Airlines flight, who lives in Las Vegas, wanted to be a dentist, but now flies everywhere and helps his church build homes for people in the impoverished country of Haiti.
Ubuntu!
We Are Family
I once heard the analogy regarding the similarities and differences between attending church and riding on sailing vessels. Can I ask you today: Is your walk with Christ and his community of followers more like a cruise ship where you are just there for the entertainment, the daily feeding more than you can eat, and the need to be pampered by all those serving on the ship; or is it like a Venetian gondola (or Jamaican raft) in which one person is doing all the rowing and you are just there with your honey enjoying the ride and basking in one another’s love, not noticing anything else going on; or is it like a Greek warship where every single passenger is there, not to be entertained, but to pull his weight and make the ship be much more efficient?
If working hard together and building community is critical to the survival of crew members around the world on a cruise ship, how much more essential is authentic community to the success of Jesus’ mission to us individually and to our corporate body?
We in the church are called to be “family to each other,” as my new friend Farai challenges us. Come aboard the ship, there’s plenty of room.
“This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other” (John 13:35, The Message).