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I met Dorothy and many other crew members of the Anastasis earlier this year. The ship was moored in Tema, West Ghana, on a five-month outreach to the port region and outlying villages. I had flown to Ghana to spend a week aboard the ship, to discover firsthand what life was like on a missionary ship and why people chose such a life.

Sitting on the harbor front of Tema with Dorothy, a slender African American with an unusual combination of wired, taut energy and tranquility, I asked her more questions about her lifestyle change, how it had come about. She struggled with the words at first, but then they tumbled out: how the still, small voice of God had pierced the din of her existence as an engineering executive in Houston; how, in the midst of projects, deadlines, and the general chaos of fast-track living, he had illuminated the shadowy outline of another way ahead.

"I've always had great jobs. I went into engineering, then construction, and I ended up running my own company. At the same time, I was also always doing Christian projects, like turning around a nursing home. But the year before I came to the ship, I began to feel tired. I mean tired. I was angry with the way life was, with the suffering and the sin. And I was frustrated by my inability to change any of it."

One day, sitting in the office of a Christian friend, Dorothy expressed her desire for a new direction in life. He pointed to a picture hanging on the wall of a woman holding a child. The woman was Paula Kirby. "Why not join the ship Paula is on?" he suggested. For some reason, the suggestion felt right.

A few days later, Dorothy was at work in the drafting room when "all the lights came on and I had a real bolt of insight as to what I felt God wanted me to do. After that, the doors just flew open. And from the first moment I saw the ship in Germany, I felt as though I had come home."

Dorothy's description of her new life seemed too good to be true; I asked her if she struggled with any personal issues. "Health is probably my biggest worry," she said. "And sometimes, I struggle with fear. I'll start thinking, I'm crazy. This stuff is for kids. What am I doing with my life? I should be thinking about a pension. It took me a while to come to grips with that, but I talked it out with older Christians who have taken all kinds of risks and who trust God deeply. And I made it over a few of those hurdles."

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November 13 1995, Vol. 39, No. 13