Natalie Vellacott

I received a mobi.file for this book from the author through a giveaway she had on LibraryThing, and the following is my honest opinion.

What do you if you’ve always been committed to your job as a police offer, working in various departments, getting promotions, and being well-liked by your peers, etc., until you’re starting to get more re-committed to your faith and to G-d each day. But, what if, as you do, both of these parts of your life you’re finding are becoming increasingly into conflict with each other, leaving you with not knowing what to do.

This is the precise conflict the author, Natalie Vellacott, had been facing in her own life while working for the Sussex Police Department in Sussex, UK, for ten years. Taking an extended leave of absence, she joins a Christian missionary ship, the Logos Hope for two years. The ship is a literal United Nations of people from over 60 countries, whose languages and cultures she doesn’t know anything about.

While the ship might be a missionary one, and the task of the missionaries on it to is help those in the country they’re visiting, they must pay extremely close adherence to the laws of that country; especially the ones which outlaw the teaching of the Gospel to anyone who’s not Christian, or even a member of a denomination other than the person interacting with a local native.

The author has done a marvelous job in meticulously describing her experiences over the two years she’d spent with Logos Hope. Her experiences go from the warm touching adventures to ones which might considered to be quite uproarious, as she gives her readers what life is like in the Asian countries they’d visited. In painting an accurate description of her experiences Ms. Vellacott has made sure to include the problems of communication between the missionary workers, like the Tower of Babel, due to the multitude of languages being spoken. She’d also witness and experienced clashes of cultural background, conflicting personal behaviors, and even the manner which their missionary work needs to be performed.

For having given her readers and myself, an insightful and entertaining foray into the work and daily life of Christian missionaries in Asia, I’ve given Ms. Vellacott 5 STARS for her endeavor here.… (más)

This review is very long overdue as I received a copy of the book via Member Giveaways several months ago and began reading almost immediately. Then, unfortunately, several family matters including major surgeries and funerals interrupted my ability to concentrate on many routine tasks, including reading. Nevertheless, having finally finished the whole story, I find it an engrossing personal account, a worthwhile autobiography with insight into the author's personal character and dedication to public safety and service.… (más)

The British Sussex Police officer Natalie Vellacott took a two-year break and joined the Operation Mobilisation (OM) Christian missionary ship Logos Hope. It is one of the large ships sailing across the oceans to dock into harbors, receive thousands of visitors a day in their onboard bookshop, cafes. Volunteers staff the ship and all kinds of performing arts and teams reaching out to onshore locals, churches, and missionaries to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. With hundreds of volunteers in their young adult or adolescence years, from sixty-five countries with different cultural backgrounds, proficiency of English and theological views, this mini-society faces many challenges. And that's exactly where this partly coming of age, partly travelogue The Logos Life is about.

Natalie served in the International Cafe, acted as store-keeper of the largest floating book fair, went out to people living on a garbage dump, girls selling their bodies and addicted street teens in Asian countries like the Philippines, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, and Singapore. The reader gets a unique peek behind-the-scenes of the OM operations, ways to manage a dynamic and versatile volunteer organization, suppress romantic relationships, statistics of conversions and baptisms. It seems just as easy to lose your faith in God as well as enforce it. Natalie proves that you can deny divine signs and wonders happen in the here and now (officially called cessationism), yet testify of many surprisingly things occurring while talking and praying with people. Is it necessary to always use words? Help before hope or the other way around? The narrative is based on diary entries and is flavored with humor, constructive criticism and a growing belief in the necessary next step as an independent missionary.… (más)