I’ve been on watch since 03:00 and have done my boat checks, finding no cause for alarm. The rest of the crew is asleep, as are our Sierra Leonian extras. The wind is blowing from the shore carrying with it the sound of the muezzin, calling Muslims to prayer with the words, Allah akbar, God is great! As I have traveled through SL, I have seen churches and mosques practically side by side. The manager of the bar near our boat told me about his son, who has both a Christian name and a Muslim name because, here in Sierra Leone, the population is almost evenly mixed and Christians and Muslims travel in the same circles. The other day, Heather was telling me that, when she was traveling in Switzerland, the common greeting when meeting a stranger was “God is big.”  I can just imagine walking along a Swiss mountain path and seeing the vastness of God’s creation and being unable to contain the wonder of God’s majesty. Perhaps, since our Muslim sisters and brothers begin each new day with a celebration of God’s greatness and since we Christians also rejoice in the bigness of God, we may, one day, learn to live together in unity, rather than just in toleration. In our life on board Amistad, we have Protestants, Catholics, Jews, a Unitarian, and a couple of Muslims aboard. We work together for the sake of Amistad and her mission and find that the diversity of our faith enhances our life together. In a little while, I will need to do another boat check, then it will be sunrise and time to raise the flags: Sierra Leonean, Australian, Canadian, US, and UCC, celebrating everyone aboard.

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