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.
