Aid and outreach
from the MV Doulos community

Thailand Stories gathered by Bruce Millar,
UBS freelance photojournalist

BANGKOK, Thailand — An international mobile floating Christian community docked in Thailand to bring aid to the children of Bangkok, and to work with the Thailand Bible Society (TBS) to distribute and communicate God’s Word.

The high-profile arrival of the MV Doulos, which was welcomed into port by Princess Siriwanwaree Mahidol – the 13-year-old daughter of His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince of Thailand – marked the end of a great deal of planning and preparation on the part of the TBS.

Welcoming ceremony

Yet the welcoming ceremony was only the beginning of the Bible Society’s involvement with the Christian ship. The TBS provided Scripture Portions for the Doulos crew to distribute, and crew members also accompanied the TBS’s mobile distribution units to schools and on social engagements. Meanwhile, the crew visited Bangkok’s slums to give children packs of soap, toothpaste and Scriptures.

The Doulos is crewed by more than 300 people from over 35 different countries, and carries a stock of about 500,000 books. Their aim is to share the Gospel around the world. “The aid that we give at various ports is normal behaviour for Christians, as outlined in Scripture,” said Lloyd Nicholas, Director of the Doulos.

Spontaneous response

“The nature of that aid varies according to the port – our next visit, for example, is to Ho Chi Min City in Vietnam, where our main focus will be on bringing aid. Sometimes our aid is a spontaneous response to a given situation – such as when we were in Mexico at the time of a typhoon. We were able to assist with providing clean water and counselling for families.”

The ship’s crew is also able to offer primary healthcare courses, provide tools, and teach people how to use them. The MV Doulos is responsible for building training centres in conjunction with local Christian groups, and helping to get many projects off the ground before leaving local communities to maintain and develop them. (WR 360/26 - 06.01) [PHOTOS]