Seafarers!

For those in peril on the sea

SEAFARERS!
A Strategic Missionary Vision
By Martin Otto
Piquant. 102 pages. £5.99
ISBN 0 9535757 6 4
Distributed by IVP

Martin Otto's passion is unashamedly for the world's 1.2 million seafarers who he calls 'a forgotten people'. For 15 years he has worked in association with the Seamen's Christian Friend Society, ministering to seafarers in the port of Hamburg. Within a short time of visiting ships in Hamburg, Martin Otto had spoken with seafarers from over 80 different countries. Many of these were from the world's 'unreached people groups'.

The stories he tells support his contention that seafarers are 'a lonely and demoralised people, sometimes eking out a miserable existence on ships'. Paid poor salaries, working 12-16-hour shifts, at sea for up to nine months at a time, at risk of personal injury, attack by pirates and denied basic human rights by irresponsible ship owners, many seafarers are lonely, demoralised and afraid.

By the end of the introduction the reader is drawn into the world of the seafarer, which they didn't know existed, and into the unique ministry to seafarers they never considered necessary. The unanswered question is how has the church managed to forget the seafarer and overlook the opportunities that exist to witness to them and through them to reach the families and countries they come from.

The quality of the photographs in my opinion detract from the overall appearance of the book and the appendix would have been more useful if it included details of other Christian organisations working amongst seafarers.

Not out of place on the bedside table or the minister's study Seafarers is both enlightening and encouraging. Although it is an 'easy read', Martin Otto's story is one which compels the reader to reflect upon the many opportunities which exist to reach the world's 1.2 million seafarers with the gospel and the 'unreached' world through them!

David Potterton,
Principal Chaplain,
British & International Sailors Society (BISS), which works in partnership with the Seamen's Christian Friend Society (SCFS) in Tema, Ghana

© Evangelicals Now - April 2003
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