Stick 'em up

Back in those days VHS video tapes were how you watched movies at home. We had a very few movies that were approved for public viewing on the ship. So we saw those few over and over and over again - movies like Hello Dolly, The Sound of Music, Chitty Bang Bang and It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad World.

Us kids started playing games in the Aft Lounge. Aft is the rear or back in ship language so it was the back lounge in contrast with the forward lounge where we had our meetings. The Aft lounge had tables with couches and chairs which made great game-playing spots. We played card games like Uno and a game called Rook which is my favorite to this day. We also played a lot of Risk.

Boys and girls play games very differently. Boys tend to be very competitive and really want to win. For girls, it tends to be more of a social experience. We boys used to mistreat the girls during our games. They would start talking and their minds would wander off. So when it was their turn and they weren’t paying attention, we used to whack them on the leg – hard - to bring them to attention. I don’t know why they kept coming back for more.

We also used to play the game of Sardines. That is when one person hides and everyone tries to find him or her. When you find them, you hide with them until everyone finds the hiding spot. There were plenty of great hiding spots on the ship. In fact, there were so many that we had to restrict the game to certain areas. If you could play the whole ship you would probably never find the person who was hiding.

YWAM believed in a very expressive form of worship to God, especially raising hands during singing. I was not a very demonstrative person. Sometimes during the singing my dad would stick his finger into my back like a gun and say, “Stick ‘em up”. I would lift my hands like it was a stick up and they would be raised for worship.

Communal meetings were held in the Forward Lounge. As with most communities that have ongoing meetings in the same place, people get comfortable with certain seats. They usually always sit in that same spot, particularly those drawn to the back rows. My dad was into breaking up this kind of proclivity. 

Every once in a while he would have our family get to a meeting early and all sit in the back row so that when the people that usually sat there came along, they were forced to sit somewhere else. It was funny how lost they looked but it was also kind of embarrassing as they scowled at us. But they went to find another spot and my dad accomplished his purpose, even if it was just for one meeting.

My parents were very intentional about making sure our family kept as a family in the midst of a community. They made sure we sat together in the dining room for dinner and we had regular “family times” when we got together in their cabin for a spiritual lesson and prayer. Again, I was not very demonstrative. I was usually the last to pray and even that took some cajoling.

Salamis in the background