Greetings from sunny
Marco Island Friends and Followers of Sail and Serve!
This is a shortened version of our newsletter that went out in July so the news is a little old, but it will give you an idea of where we are at. We are actually still on Marco Island since it is such a great place to get equipment, talk with other sailors and learn. So here is the newsletter:
We are happy to report
that we are all alive, have all toes and fingers still attached and, to date, there
has been no mutiny on board! So much has happened that it does not seem
possible that we have been gone just over a month. So many people and resources
came together at the 11th hour as we scrambled to get every lose end tied up in
Colorado before setting off across the country, on June 3rd, with all of
our belongings packed into a minivan (with two cargo bags on top) that it left
our heads spinning. Thank you all for your support, prayers and help! We drove
straight through to Kentucky and had a wonderful visit with Ben and Lisa Hinnen
and their delightful children Madison, Spencer and Pierce. In an effort to
motivate Josh to eat more vegetables Ben came very close to convincing him that
Kelp is a protein just like meat. Thanks Ben!
We left Kentucky late in the evening and drove straight through to Cleawater, Florida where we met up with Cort Peterson who had arranged to take us out on a six person outrigger canoe, which he paddles competitively. We all really enjoyed the experience and got a nice change of pace from our long drives. On June 6th we arrived at the marina here on Marco Island and have been living on the boat ever since.
Beatrice and I both feel this is the hardest
and best thing we have ever done. There were and are so many major adjustments
that need to be made to stay sane in this new life style we have adopted.
Although the changes are not easy to make they are almost all good. We have to
learn to live with less, for example, the answer simplify. We
need to eat healthy, easy to prepare meals. Answer: be
frugal, plan ahead. Get four strong willed people to agree to a course
of action, or even where this or that towel will be stowed? Develop
team work, cast a vision, Pray! You get the idea. Every
adjustment we've had to make has made us stronger and better.
Beatrice is very busy
right now narrowing down the options for home schooling curriculum and is
excited for school to begin! We pray together every day and she has had a
persistent burden to pray for people back home.
Living on the water is
wonderful. We are at the end of the B dock right next to the bay at our little
marina and almost daily get visits from dolphins. A couple of weeks ago they
came so close that as they exhaled from their blowholes the spray got Josh's and
Gabriella's feet wet. We regularly see them just feet from where we are sitting
in the cockpit of our boat. Another day Josh and Gabriella saw two manatees and
two dolphins nearby in the water simultaneously. On one of our afternoon sails
we saw a sea turtle, dolphins, a feeding frenzy involving yellow-fin tuna,
whatever they were feeding on, a shark, and an air assault from pelicans, gulls
and other winged creatures, and later on, flamingos on our way back in to the
marina. On our first overnight trip, to Panther Key, in the appropriately named
10,000 Islands region near us, we took the dingy out and got pretty close to
some flamingos as well. Living so close to nature we are constantly reminded of
God's creativity. We often see stingrays in our marina too. Sometimes they jump
out of the water two or three feet and sometimes they do flips. Being the son
of a scientist I have studied this singular phenomenon at length to determine
the reason for this odd behavior. After considerable pondering I've deduced
that the rays are simply expressing their unbridled joy. It is as though they are saying "look I swim and I can fly!"
No matter that their flight lasted just a second or two and ended with a belly
flop; for that brief moment they did in fact fly.
Although we had
planned to spend almost all of our time this first month and a half or so
concentrated on the boat and all that needs to be done to get her ready for
serious off shore sailing, God seems to have had other plans. We have found
ourselves becoming very involved and connected with New Life Community Church http://www.newlifemarco.org/ here on Marco Island. We went to
the Sunday service the first Sunday we were on the Island
and felt an immediate connection as Pastor Thomas Mcculley’s sermon was on
World Missions! It’s a very small church, but with great vision. We have become
involved in the church activities both in prayer support and getting to know
people in the church and their stories. We know that God will continue to use
us to encourage, support and build up the church wherever we go if we remain
available and willing. I don't think either of us planned to be quite this
involved this soon, but it is great!
Although we feel we
could stay here indefinitely we are thinking it is about time to shove off and
get some more miles under our keel. We are thinking of leaving here
around July 20th or so, heading to the Dry Tortugas and the Keys and
then up to the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina and then coming back here
in late September to prepare for our long voyage down to the Virgin Islands.
Please pray for a lot of important decisions we will need to be making in the
next weeks and months.
(Since we originally
wrote this we have been to Key West and Dry Tortugas and back. We are now back on Marco Island and are
trying to determine if it’s time to leave when the marina lease is out Aug 24th
or not.)
We are so grateful for
the prayers and support we have received and want to make sure that you know we
don’t take it for granted! It’s a real encouragement to us and it helps us
carry out what we believe God has called us to do.
You can make a tax
deductible donation by check or online with Pay Pal by following the
instructions on our website in the upper right corner http://sailandserve1.blogspot.com/
Heaps of Blessings on
all of you!
