The incident was typical of many encountered by Rob and Sandra
Stip at the Pago Pago Seafarers Center.
The incident was typical of many encountered by Rob and Sandra
Stip at the Pago Pago Seafarers Center.
A ships owners had a reputation for having “never
paid a penny to anyone – and when the crew complained they were thrown
off the ship, arrested and deported,” Rob Stip recounts.
But a group of the seafarers from the ship found shelter at
the Seafarers Center and became involved in intense Bible Study and prayer.
After 10 days, a fishing agent brought $35,000 to the center and paid the men,
saying: “What is it with this God of yours? I cant eat. I cant
sleep. … What is it going to take to make you guys happy?
As directors of the center from 1998 until early this year,
the Stips learned their ministry would be much more than passing out Kool Aid
and pool sticks to idle seafarers. Indeed, they say they soon saw how God had
uniquely equipped them for ministry in ways they had never imagined.
The seafarers center in American Samoa has been operated
by the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board and the Hawaii-Pacific
Baptist Convention since 1995. It seeks to minister to two groups – those
who prefer life on the water and those who often do not seem to fit into conventional
society.
Stip understands the groups. He is no stranger to living on
the fringes. He grew up in the hills of Tennessee. As a car thief at 17, he
was offered a choice of either military service in Vietnam or jail. He chose
the military, and his familiarity with guns, hunting and tracking handed down
from his Indian grandfather helped make him “very proficient in the art
of war,” he says.
In the early 1980s, Stip admits he was “not a nice person:
drunk, antisocial, and very belligerent.” The Stips owned a house initially
but eventually moved to their boat.
One night, returning home from a bar, Stip sank his dinghy
and was pulled out of the water by a man named Frank Mullins, president of Gospel
Ship Ministries, and onto the ship “Saved By Grace.” It was through
that influence that Stip and his wife eventually came to faith in Christ.
“My marriage was falling apart. I just decided, “What
have I got to lose?” he says. “It was like once I started listening
and reading my Bible, everything that had gone wrong in my life I found a reason
for it.”
The transformation was not immediate, but Stip says the Holy
Spirit eventually helped him submit to Gods will in his life. He says
he also felt called to reach out to others like them – first in the Tampa
area, then in South Florida, then in Beaufort, N.C.
In Beaufort, the Stips visited people on pleasure boats and
conducted worship services. They also became Southern Baptist Mission Service
Corps volunteers.
The couple initially expressed reluctance when asked to take
on the leadership of the Seafarers Center in Samoa.
“It just scared us to death; we didnt think we were
ready for this,” Stip says.
However, God worked it out, he notes.
The routine at the center includes regular recreation hours
for seafarers in port. The ministry also operates an international call center
that allows seafarers to pay by the minute for calls to home at cheaper rates
than would be available elsewhere.
“Its a clean, safe environment for international
seafarers to come to for recreation and help, whether it be medical, legal or
spiritual,” Sandra Stip notes. “And we must be here on call for their
needs 24 hours a day regardless of what their needs may be.”
Ministry often starts with just the simple things – assisting
with international phone calls, listening to seafarers talk about the families.
“First we have to develop trust,” Stip says. “Once they develop
this trust in you, then you can start ministering.”
Last year, more than a hundred seafarers made professions of
faith through the ministry – many from countries where such decisions mean
certain persecution even among their own shipmates.
“There have been reports that some of them have been beaten
unmercifully on these ships because of it,” Stip relates. “But they
will not turn around.”
While the Stips initially saw their role as primarily one of
hospitality and evangelistic ministry, opportunities to be advocates for seafarers
and others quickly appeared.
For instance, on one occasion, several young Vietnamese women
appeared at the center with the story of how their families had paid thousands
of dollars for the right to work in promised high-paying jobs in American Samoa.
However, when the women arrived, they found only meager wages and intolerable
working conditions. Because they were indentured workers, the management of
their company felt justified in the abuse, Stip explains.
Police were called, and investigations were conducted. Eventually,
some relief was secured. During the turmoil, Sandra Stip helped found a Christian
grassroots advocacy group that became an ongoing watchdog for injustices at
the plant.
Meanwhile, 12-year-old Scott Stip was the impetus for a ministry
effort for local Samoans. One of the first things the family noticed about the
Samoan culture was that children often are neglected and abused by mainland
standards.
“My son came here and said, Dad, how can only adults
be missionaries? Why cant kids?” Stip says. “And I looked
around at the crime, the drugs, the abuse, … and we started working with kids
on our day off.”
The ministry settled into a one-hour Bible study each Saturday,
followed by a couple of hours of free time for the children in the Seafarers
Center.
The Stips are role models for the kids, not only sharing Christ
with them but also serving as surrogate teachers and parents.
They also encourage them to stay in school and set their sights
high. One young man who came to the center had quit school. Through the influence
of the Stips, not only did he return to school but he excelled. “He graduated
with the highest SAT scores in the history of Samoa,” Stip recounts.
However, despite the success of the work, Stip and his wife
announced late last year that they felt God was calling them back to the United
States. The deciding factor was a doctors advice that Stips recurring
health problems meant he would be risking his life if he did not live near more
advanced medical facilities.
“We hate to leave…. but I can see the good in it,”
Sandra Stip says, noting the couple plans to continue to build a network of
ministries similar to theirs.
Meanwhile, several key leaders are coming into place that will
help continue some of the roles the Stips filled in American Samoa. And steps
already are being taken to recruit their replacement, Sandra Stip adds.
That is good – because Sandra Stip says she is sure of
one thing regarding the ministry effort in the srea.
“God is still working here,” she says.