Lent Appeal 2025

The opportunities and paradoxes of being present – Chaplaincy on the frontline of seafarers’ needs.

One of the often-repeated descriptions of the ministry of chaplains is “being present”, or perhaps more amusingly, “loitering with intent”. In this case the intent is to serve every seafarer, whatever their background or beliefs, according to their need. Across the world this Lent and
Easter, as they do day-by-day throughout the year, our chaplains and ship visitors will be loitering with intent.

Our experience is that time after time, the ministry of chaplains is characterised by compassionate response to those in need, often without an immediate understanding of how much that has meant to the people involved. Occasionally, we are granted an insight, and these stories are worth sharing because they give us and those who support us just a taste of something repeated time and again in ports around the world through the course of a year.

The determination to serve a diverse group of people according to their need requires us to be sensitive to what that need may be, and flexible in responding appropriately. This Lent, I would like to share with you something from our chaplain in Houston, Texas that illustrates this ministry perfectly. I do so because it is so very good to read. I do so also because our expansion into the port of Houston is relatively recent, and without that investment, and the support of people like you who enable it, you would not be reading this story today. I do so then to thank you for your compassion and your generosity.

It is a story of people, chaplains and supporters, who are willing to offer what they are and what they have in service to others so that the love of God might be made real, touchable, tastable to others. This stands at the heart of a good Lent and Easter.

I hope of course that this will both journey with you through Lent and encourage your continued support, which we so much value, in this Lent Appeal.

Please consider making a donation, so that we can continue to ‘be present’ in places such as Houston to help those when they need us most.

Yours with thanks and blessing,
The Venerable Dr. Peter Rouch, Secretary General

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Houston – The incident of the ship that burned.

It was my last ship visit that day. I noticed the age and all the rust in the vessel. A Tanzanian sailor pointed me to a reluctant Ukrainian officer who shrugged and said they didn’t need anything and motioned for me to leave. The next morning, I got a message that while refuelling at 3am that same ship caught fire. Two crew members had died and one was air-lifted to hospital. I flew into action, going straight to the terminal where I saw the black smoke residue of a devastating fire. In the grey and cold of early morning the crew were huddled outside a nearby building facing the ship, while the authorities did their work.

There were two distinct groups, Russians/Ukrainians, and Tanzanians. Remembering how hot drinks can help those in shock I picked up coffees and distributed them, and they began to open up. “I knew from experience that as Muslims the Tanzanian seafarers were probably missing their prayer times, so I looked up Muslim prayers for the sick and used my phone to play them in Arabic”. With tears running down their faces, they all came up to me shaking my hand and expressing thanks. The leader said; “Thomas, you have no idea what you have done for us”.

From that point on, all mistrust or fears were vanquished. The crew were taken to a hotel where I helped them settle, having evacuated quickly they had nothing, so I sent a driver to Walmart to get the essentials. Simple acts perhaps, but the difference they made was clearly significant.

I visited often and talked at length with the Ukrainian and Russian officers stationed near the ship. To help them feel a sense of home my wife found a recipe for Paska, a bread traditionally eaten during Easter. It was a long process to make, but one evening I took the cloth-wrapped loaf to them with butter and knives. As he unwrapped the cloth, a smile spread across the Ukrainian officer’s face. “It’s Paska!”,
he said, “yes, this is religious bread, served only at Easter”. He was very thankful and understood our simple effort to help him.

I continued to visit the crew—those at the hotel, the officers at the port, and the one in hospital. Without visas they were unable to leave the hotel but were permitted to do so if accompanied by me. The injured seafarer was still being treated with major damage to his lungs and throat. I stayed with him for a few hours praying.

He has had a difficult and distressing journey, but as the months passed he began to improve. The last time I saw him he was walking up and down the corridors of the hospital as part of his physical therapy. I got him a Texas baseball cap which he loved. After five months, at last it looks like he might go home soon, and he will leave with a blessing from me.

The crew was eventually sent back to their countries and their families. I remain in contact with them by WhatsApp from time to time.

Please support our vital work by making a donation this Easter, so that we can help more seafarers who are caught up in tragic circumstances, as only the Mission has the time and the ability to respond in such personal ways. Thank you.

Donate to our Lent Appeal 2025

If you would like to support the work we do, please click on the button below to donate to this appeal.

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