Samuel Cowan [belfast@scfs.org]
My name is Samuel Cowan and I became the full time missionary for Seamen's Christian Friend Society in Belfast on 1st November 1999.
I am married to Pauline, who is a Primary School teacher and we have two children, Grace and Daniel. As a family we live in the seaside town of Bangor, County Down which is at the opening of Belfast Lough. We are members of Hamilton Road Baptist Church and are members of their missionary family. We thank God for their support to us.
Recently, Wilbert McGivern and I spent some time on board the M/V Crystal Serenity. There are 650 serving crew which come from 44 different nations. It is always hard to determine what materials to take when there are so many different languages on board. At the end of our day on board, all our English Bibles and a number of foreign ones had been taken. Also very popular were the scripture bookmarks and postcards.
One man from Portugal told Wilbert that he and his friend didn't believe the Bible. Yet when we were at lunch he must have returned to the table and took a Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese Bible. Later he returned again and said he was sorry but his friend didn't want the Bible but if it was alright he would keep his.
Two young women from Romania took a Bible each in their mother tongue. As they left one of them turned around and thanked us for coming to see them and for bringing her something that she has longed for most of her life yet was unable to get one.
Most of the waiters on board were from India and I had brought three or four different Indian language Bibles. One came to the table and was really overjoyed at being able to hold and keep a complete Bible in his mother tongue of Bengali. Another Indian had asked for an English Bible and as he was on duty until two o'clock we promised to keep one for him. After lunch he came to collect the Bible and Wilbert went to the case where we had hidden it for him, and guess what, the Bible had been taken. As he wouldn't be here when the ship returned to Belfast, and I could sense his disappointment, I remembered that my own personal copy that I take on board ships was in the car. I asked Willy to wait one moment and ran out to the car and brought him my copy for which he was very grateful.
It is always a privilege to be able to serve those on board the Cruise Ships. This was true when the Golden Princess returned to Belfast. When Wilbert and I arrived at the ship a full safety drill was in operation. We were shown to the crew's mess room and allowed to set up our table of Bibles. This was the first ship that I took the new SCFS Bibles on board. Within 10 minutes all the Bibles had been taken. Orders had been taken for more literature when they return.