Emily Briese is a young kindergarten teacher at Glider
Elementary School in San Jose’s Oak Grove School District. While
attending a young adult group at Venture Christian Church, she
heard of an intriguing ministry and signed on for a week of
volunteer work with Operation Mobilization International (O.M.I.),
a Christian nonprofit organization of more than 4,000 volunteers
working in more than 100 countries
”
equipping people to share God’s love.
”
Emily Briese is a young kindergarten teacher at Glider Elementary School in San Jose’s Oak Grove School District. While attending a young adult group at Venture Christian Church, she heard of an intriguing ministry and signed on for a week of volunteer work with Operation Mobilization International (O.M.I.), a Christian nonprofit organization of more than 4,000 volunteers working in more than 100 countries “equipping people to share God’s love.”
Since 1970 the group has operated a fleet of oceangoing ships which visit far-flung ports to spread the Christian Gospel. More than 37 million people have walked up an O.M.I. ship gangway.
The volunteers aboard these ships provide many services:
n They operate floating book fairs, offering quality literature from fiction to instructional manuals to devotional material at discount prices.
n They provide interactive programs about Christianity for visitors who come aboard at ports of call.
n They donate supplies and help with construction projects in the communities they visit.
n They bring other kinds of aid and relief, as well as promote education “as an outworking of God’s love.”
But these ships need a good deal of maintenance to fulfill their mission, and the fleet has expanded over the years. In 2004, O.M.I. purchased a 12,000-ton oceangoing ferry and renamed it Logos Hope. That ship has been extensively renovated and is now receiving the finishing touches to put it into service for its first missionary voyage.
On Leap Day, Briese and five other volunteers from Venture flew from San Francisco to Hamburg, Germany, then took a bus to Kiel, on the German Baltic coast. There they joined another 300 volunteers working aboard Logos Hope.
As a teacher, Briese thought she might be assigned some work in evangelism, or perhaps in the ship’s galley preparing meals for the huge crew. But instead she was assigned to work in an engine room, helping prepare it to provide power to the ship’s massive propellers.
Dressed in coveralls, safety goggles, ear protection and gloves, she began long days grinding, sanding and painting below decks. Briese had never seen before many of the tools she eventually learned to use, and the intimidating noise, shrieking alarms, dramatic sparks and strong odors made for “intense work,” she admits.
But all her time wasn’t spent in physical labor:
n She enjoyed relaxing in the cramped cabin she shared with young ladies from Texas, Mexico and Venezuela.
n There was a daily Bible study held each morning after breakfast.
n She liked the animated conversations over meals with other volunteers from around the world, sharing their cultures and faith.
n Volunteers who had been on previous mission voyages talked about people they had met in foreign countries and life-changing experiences.
n There was time to stroll around town and enjoy the German scenery and people.
Briese expected to be doing something more sedate for the week, “but God had a better plan for me … an awesome experience.” She is grateful to the members of Advent Lutheran Church, her home congregation in Morgan Hill, who contributed funds to make her service possible.
For more information about Operation Mobilization International, log on to www.om.org.
