Merry Christmas from Myanmar,

We drove from Phillip Island to Melbourne just over a week ago through unexpected heavy traffic (due to a big fire) and just made our first flight.  In the next 24 hrs we traveled into and out of four airports and countries,  claiming and re checking our luggage,  going through customs, security etc... each time.

We finally landed on our box springs in the hotel here in Yangon and learned we were perched neatly atop a karaoke bar and the cacophonous sounds seemed amplified through the drain pipe in our bathroom. That first night, after the humor had dissolved from the situation, let's say 3 a.m. we still had plenty of karaoke left.  Eventually it became very difficult to remember what we'd thought was funny to begin with and when the karaoke finally let off about 4 a.m. The pigeons just outside our window took up, and their cooing seemed just as pitchy and out of tune as the bad karaoke.

So ended our first day in Myanmar.  Shortly thereafter I got quite sick and Beatrice followed.  Here is the point though.  Far from staying on the edges of our experience God has entered into it. He has met us in our suffering, added His tender mercies and infinite love and in so doing somehow has increased the beauty and richness of our time here,  augmented the depth and significance of it. We've been overwhelmed by the kindness,  warmth and openness of these humble, beautiful people,  touched deeply by their musical giftings and the passion revealed in their worship and we have so enjoyed their food and diverse culture.

Three times, in home churches packed and bursting with believers and Buddhists, I've had opportunity to share a message God put on my heart just as we arrived.  It's a simple message about a journey. In the contexts of the Shoemakers' journey,  my spiritual journey and the earthly journey of Jesus Christ,  I've tried to encourage the audience to consider their own life journey. Using Joshua 24:15 "choose this day whom you will serve. .." I've suggested that our choices and decisions determine not just the quality of our journey, but also where we will spend eternity. Using the original Christmas Story as laid out in Luke chapter 2, I've encouraged that as God has given His very best should not we at the very least give our whole hearts,  our whole lives?

I feel I need to make this appeal one more time to those of you now listening. If there is anything at all in your life not fully surrendered to the Lord what are you waiting for?  What might you lose by entrusting your future,  your dreams,  ambitions, relationships, your fears, or whatever you may be holding onto, to the Omnipresent,  Omniscient,  Omnipotent Creator of this vast universe who loves you so much He sent His son out of paradise to a lowly manager and then to a cross?  Think on that a little this Christmas. Meditate on how much He loves you, how much you can trust Him. "Choose this day whom you will serve. " You can't repay God for the amazing gifts He has given,  but you can give what He's asking for -- your whole heart.

Please tell us how things are in your life and how we can be praying for you. From the bottom of our hearts we wish you a warm and very Merry Christmas!!!

Kenny, Beatrice, Joshua and Gabriella Shoemaker

Greetings from beautiful Berry, New South Wales, Australia,

From where I am sitting I can see for miles in several directions. I'm on the back patio just outside the kitchen of a very nice farmhouse here in the heart of some fertile farmland on Australia's south east coast. The rolling green hills are dotted here and there with Black Angus cattle, but apart from them and the brilliant purple of the blooming Jacaranda trees the predominant color is green. Lush, vibrant green in many hues. To the north the grassy slopes rise up then fall off into a deep valley giving way in the distance to blue mountains that on a clear morning often have strips of fog clinging to them like pieces of gauze carelessly discarded. At the ridge of these mountains escarpments and cliffs make sharp contrast to the blue sky. To the east the land falls away to green pasture, then swampland and beyond it, dense forest which almost succeeds in hiding the ocean behind it but leaves a ribbon of deep blue Pacific just below the horizon, a gentle reminder of the body of water we had to negotiate to get to this lovely place.

We are farm-sitting for some “yachties” (which is what Aussies call “cruisers”, which is what Americans call sailors who live on their boats and move around from place to place), who we met in Mackay. Although there is a lot of work to be done here, weeds to pull and soil to sink our hands into, it feels rather more like play than work after living on our boat every day for the last ten months. More on how we’ve come to be living in this amazing place and on the kangaroos, cockatoos and many other parrots and exotic birds inhabiting these parts later, but first let's connect the dots since we've not written properly since Tonga.

Just prior to leaving Tonga we had a banquet on the beach just in front of the home of a wonderful Christian family from Tonga who our friends Jeff and Anne from sailing yacht Joyful had introduced us to. We’d taken our dingy, with Jeff and Anne, over to the island Sochi and Anna live on, and we feasted there on the delicious local cuisine, mostly of fresh vegetables and very fresh seafood which had taken the whole morning to prepare. Just as we were to say grace we saw Pam and Phil on Maranatha making their way up the channel that separates the islands and got to talk to them on the vhf radio and wish them blessings on their way to Fiji. Phil was going to see a specialist about his detached retina there, and as it turned out we would end up seeing that very same eye doctor.

Although we had planned on sailing straight from Tonga to Townsville, Australia in order to be there early for the big “YWAM Together” conference, it seemed God had other plans. Every time we did anything at all we were delayed. However, these delays were always laced with blessing and although an ulcer on Joshs’ cornea certainly sounds, well... not good, and was of course a real concern, we always felt perfect peace about it through the whole episode. That, in large part, no doubt, was due to many of your prayers. Thank you again for those!

Due to the need to see an eye specialist sooner than we were able to get to Australia, we stopped in Fiji. We got to catch up with our South African friend Eddy there, who we'd first met in Bora Bora and then had run into unexpectedly in Tonga. He met us as we arrived at the anchorage in Suva and was a tremendous help to us, arranging for clearance from Customs and Immigration and even making the eye doctor appointment and then taking us to there!

We had the chance to share about Sail and Serve in a small Methodist church and, after the service were invited to visit an orphanage in another town which we did several days later. Beatrice got a chance to hold the youngest of those well cared for children (an infant about 18 months old) and we prayed for about twenty of them on the carpet in the great room where they do their morning studies.

We left Fiji with enough time to still make it to Townsville before the conference. About five days West of Fiji, however, the wind died completely and was not forecast to pick up again for several days forcing a stop in Vanuatu on the island of Tanna. There is an active volcano on Tanna and from where we anchored we could see steam rising right out of the bay and at times could even hear the eruptions. The natives came out daily in their simple dugout canoes to cast their homemade nets and catch the daily meal. There was one place in the bay where water hot enough to cook potatoes boiled up from the bowels of the earth.

We set off again several days later only to find once again the wind dying completely after we’d sailed several days. This time we were just shy of an uninhabited atoll in New Caledonia called Beautemps Beaupres. The seas were calm enough the day we were to arrive for me to read my bible in the cockpit during my morning watch. I was in the sixth chapter of Mark that morning and read Jesus’ words in vs.31“Come away with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”  Although I don’t normally stop in the middle of a chapter, I did so here and I’m not sure why. We anchored inside the reef inside a small lagoon which was inside the larger lagoon in 15’ of crystal clear water near the most colorful coral we'd yet come across and about fifty yards from a yellow sand beach lined with palms and tropical jungle populated with a great diversity of exotic birds. The cumulative effect of the sound of water, gently lapping against the shore, and constant birdsong was something like one of those relaxation tapes designed to help you sleep. This was the first time since November of 2014, when we were in the Bahamas, that we'd been totally alone in an anchorage. The day after we arrived, in the very early morning, which is when I rise before the rest of the crew is about, I picked up in Mark 6 with vs.32 “So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.”

I was finally starting to get it. God had, has and will have plenty of work for us to do, but it must be in His rhythm. I was finally starting to get it. God had, has and will have plenty of work for us to do, but it must be in His rhythm, His timing and most of all in His strength. If we press forward and fail to rest when He directs us to we'll burn out quickly. I completely relinquished my aspirations of getting to Townsville and we spent several blissful days in that idyllic spot soaking in the exquisite beauty of the place, exploring the uninhabited island and the reef. We were entertained the day before we left by a whale, just outside the reef, which breached once and beat the water with its tail a couple dozen times.

We left New Caledonia and had a smooth sail straight to Mackay. After negotiating Hydrographer’s’ passage to enter the Great Barrier Reef in the dark and being asked ever so politely, by the captain of a container ship, to please move to the other side of the shipping lane, which I was, oops, on the wrong side of, we were met with the best welcoming committee yet i.e. several humpback whales (one which breached at least five times) dolphins, a sea turtle and even a sea snake.

Apart from a short week to cruise around the Whitsunday Islands Elin has made the marina in Mackay her home since September 17th, and just as we experienced in Marco Island we found ourselves immediately embraced by both the Christian community and the boating community and have had our lives deeply enriched by both. Although we’ve had some opportunities to do the work of the traditional missionary, most notably helping Anne with her art ministry, both in Tonga and in Mackay, visiting the aforementioned orphanage in Fiji and doing some counselling and personal evangelism, and of course prayer, it seems God has confirmed again that His heart for our ministry reside in the relationships we’ve made and the opportunities to network that emerge.

It really is staggering to look back at not just the number of, but the depth of relationships, we have established in less than six weeks in Mackay. One of many examples of how God has moved mightily in this area came the week before Josh’s’ birthday. I was invited, by the pastor of the church we've been attending (New Life Mackay) to a meeting for leaders and pastors. As a result of that invitation Joshua and Gabriella had an opportunity to serve with the youth group and take part in their big celebration at a water park to introduce six graders into the youth program which is strong and healthy in this church. As result of that one evening they gained a whole new group of friends and we barely saw them again for days! The pastors’ daughter turned 17 the same day Josh did so a big group of them went to lunch Sunday October 25th after church and then after the evening service we were all invited over to the Pastors’ house where they had a separate cake for Josh. There were even speeches!

Or, take for instance, the fact that we are now living on this incredible 250 acre cattle farm in country that is every bit as lovely as the south of France. We are here as the result of a single, simple conversation which began when a yachtie, one of the owners of this place, noticed our American flag and the Arvada, CO on the stern of our boat. A few days and a few words later and it was “come, perfect strangers, stay on our multimillion dollar property, drive our car, sleep in our beds and eat our food while we are away for a month.”

Who does that? I’ll tell you who. God does. It’s all God orchestrating our adventures and enriching us every step of the way in relationships with incredible people too numerous to mention. By His grace we get to be here enjoying the beauty of nature and of Kangaroos (one hung out in the paddock above us all afternoon the other day) Cockatoos, Kookaburras and the brilliant red, yellow, green and blue eastern rosellas and a great many other exotic birds I don't yet know the names of. We have the tremendous privilege of working here, planting a garden, mowing the lawns, pulling weeds etc... and in so doing can add our touch to the beauty of this place. The owners used to own a nursery and therefore the landscaping is immaculate, but we can at least help maintain it.

So what’s next? We felt that God opened the door for us to go to Myanmar over the holidays and have booked flights out of Melbourne on December 14th and back to Townsville on January 10th. Though we believe God is leading us there we don’t have any idea how we are to afford it. Please pray with us for His provision and especially that we would have fruitful service there as we join forces with Denver Ignite, Scott Boykin and also the connections there with the good folks from New Life Mackay who visit and serve there often.

Before that epic journey we would like to visit YWAM and Hillsong Church in Sydney, meet our friends Jeff and Anne who’ve just sailed Joyful there and plan some travel with them and last but not least, visit my old stomping grounds in and around Wonthaggi, south of Melbourne, where my family lived for a year in 1978.

I’m sorry it has been so long since I’ve sent news and that as a result the letters must be so long to contain even a small fraction of all that's transpired. Since we'll be travelling the next couple of months it’s unlikely that will change, but we will be here on the farm through most of November and would love to hear from you at sailandserve@gmail.com

Your prayers and support mean more to us than you can imagine. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Sincerely,
Kenny, Beatrice, Joshua and Gabriella Shoemaker