The ‘Ammar Empowerment’ ministry was created by Maria and Ambrose Carter. The organisation encourages young women towards sexual purity before marriage. Margot Pira (France) explained that by doing so, the ministry hopes it may prevent young women from turning to prostitution. Young women are also taught skills they can use to make a living.
Lydia Ruff (Switzerland) is one of Logos Hope’s bakers and was part of a team that visited the organisation to help the women bake sweet buns and baguettes. “They can take this knowledge back home, share it and bless others,” says Lydia.
“I could teach them and show love through this activity. It was nice to have this connection with them. Many of them said they’ll try it again at home; teach their friends.” Lydia observed that the women were particularly excited about learning to bake baguettes.
Weow Inthilard (East Asia) is the ship’s second cook. She taught the women and shared some of her personal story. “I was born into a Christian family, but I didn’t really follow Jesus or give my whole life to God. I was just interested in studying and earning money,” she told them.
“When I decided to give everything to God, He changed my life. Now I can see that He is using me to go and share the gospel to all nations,” Weow added. She saw the women’s joy on hearing the story of her relationship with God.
Despite the fact that she is younger than them, Weow felt privileged to be able to teach the women new recipes that would help them. “I really had a great day with them. This is also a way of showing our love for them,” she says.
Lydia talked about pressing down the dough for it to rise again and related it to the Christian walk. The organiser, Maria, was impressed with the analogy and by the stories the crewmembers shared. At the end of the day, she said her only wish was that they could have spent more time together.
“I enjoyed that everything had a message of faith attached to it,” she says. “We learnt to bake but we also learnt to share Jesus Christ.”
One woman tried the sweet buns recipe later and told Maria how pleased she was with what she had learned.
