More than half of the ship’s 400 international crew members have headed inland while the ship undergoes routine maintenance work in the dry dock.

Their outreach activities include sharing God’s love with children orphaned by the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004 and running a vacation Bible school for young members of a church in the capital city of Colombo.

Whilst in the dry dock, the ship will have its hull repainted, valves replaced and seawater intake systems cleaned.

This means raising the entire 12,000 ton vessel out of the water.

The 174 crewmembers still onboard are completing a checklist of over 200 small and large jobs. For some of them, the spell in the dry dock has been a whole new experience.

Daniel Bergmann, from Germany, is overseeing the removal of rust from the vessel’s exterior docks.

He said: “It was fascinating to see the ship out of the water and to see how huge the hull is.”

Logos Hope is scheduled to depart Sri Lanka on May 23 and head to India.