William Chong

This is what’s left of my iPod headphones.

I normally use them at work, but they were left on the floor over the weekend, and a cleaner’s overzealous approach to vacuuming has left a mangled mess of frayed wires and broken audibles, and nary a note in sight to explain themselves. Pfft.

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In other news, who remembers Doulos from their childhood? No? Well this was the one ship that got my dad in a ruffle of excitement, back when I was still growing up in kampung-town Kuching. It’s known to many people as “the floating book store” because of its massive collection of over half a million books onboard. One of the few snippets I remembered from my childhood was my dad talking excitedly about a ship full of books, seeds for a lifetime of knowledge – Doulos had docked in when I was just 4 years old, and I recall a jigsaw puzzle with a picture of the almost mythical boat that we bought. I don’t remember what the ship looked like in real life, but the name has always pricked my subconscious once in a while, though I thought no more of it for a long time.

What I eventually found out as I grew older was that Doulos is a ship bringing more than just knowledge – it’s a volunteer-run ship under the umbrella of Operation Mobilisation, that supplies literature resources and the gospel message to , This is a ship on a mission, and the more I think about it, the more I’m impressed about the creativity of this method of reaching out to the ends of the earth.

It’s berthing in Auckland next week, which sounds pretty cool. Apparently it’s the last time it’ll be here because it’s due to retire, so I’ll have to try and set aside a time to go check it out, to come full circle and to finally clarify an aspect of my childhood I never fully remembered.

Big. respect. Hope everyone is well.

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DOULOS – (Gr) from deo?; a slave (literally or figuratively, involuntarily or voluntarily; frequently therefore in a qualified sense of subjection or subserviency): – bondservant.