Sail and Serve Down Under-April News

Sadly we are about to close this chapter in the saga of our journey, and we’re suddenly confronted with those potent mixed emotions that rise up at these times. We feel the excitement and sometimes mild anxiety for what's next on this adventure, but colliding full force with those sentiments are the sad and nostalgic emotions born of being torn away from a great many really good friends who’ve become like family to us. Then too, in the quiet, contemplative moments, the stark reality of what’s just ahead can edge its’ way into the consciousness and you suddenly realize “ah yes we need to cross an ocean.”  

We arrived in Australia in mid-September last year and those six and a half months or so have been divided into four distinctly different periods, in which God has blessed us abundantly more than all we could have asked or imagined. During the first six weeks we were able to spend some quality time with our friends Jeff and Anne from sailing vessel Joyful, explore the Mackay region (a tropical paradise teeming with rainbow lorikeets, kangaroos, duck billed platypus and spectacular scenery) and experience how God wonderfully began to lay the foundations for relationships that would be strengthened after periods two and three. 

In the beginning of November we headed down the coast, by car, and spent some time with Pam and Phil on Maranatha in Bundeberg, then at a fantastic YWAM base in Byron Bay and finally with some new friends (old friends of Pam and Phil) just north of Sydney before spending almost four wonderful weeks on the farm in Berry which we mentioned in our last newsletter ages ago (see at sailandserve1.blogspot.com). After the farm we had about a week aboard Joyful in Pittwater, north of Sydney, and got to visit the original Hillsong Church, go to the Opera House, see Sydney Harbor by ferry and experience many of the sights and sounds of that beautiful city. We then had about a week in Victoria saying a long overdue “Hello” to the Koalas and Penguins on Phillip Island, exploring Wilsons Promitory and visiting Wonthaggi where I spent a year in 1978 with my family. 

We flew from Melbourne to Yangon, Myanmar in mid-December and spent about three weeks there and one in Mandalay to the north. While our time in Australia had been laced with great pleasures, tremendous scenery and was made significantly more meaningful by the many relationships we’d developed, our time in Myanmar was life changing. For starters we’ll never be able to view wealth and poverty in quite the same light. More moving and impactful for all of us, however, was the total surrender and resulting passion which just naturally emanates from the Burmese pastors and leaders we met there.

One encounter I had just after New Years’ Day will stay with me forever. Daniel is one of the Ignite pastors in

Daniel and his family

Yangon, and he and his wife care for more than a dozen children in their home. They have a bowl of rice at lunch every day and perhaps some meat with rice at dinner once or twice a week. However, when we came they prepared a feast. I asked Daniel what he wanted for 2016 and his answer shook me to my core. He said simply that he wanted about 15 more children. Frankly, I’m still wrestling with this and struggling with my own selfishness as contrasted to his utter selflessness. Here is a guy living on probably less than ten dollars a day, supporting a whole soccer team of mouths to feed and what does he want for the future? Not help with the chores, more food, better supplies, a bigger house; Daniel’s driving motivation and consuming passion is to impact more children for the Kingdom of God. He wants more mouths to feed! It seems a little petty, anymore, to complain that my steak isn’t grilled or seasoned properly. 

We encountered this kind of passion and complete surrender to God’s purposes virtually everywhere we turned, and although we may not have fully realized it at the time, I believe our world view and fundamental understanding of what the true gospel of Christ really looks like when lived out in full were permanently and inalterably transformed. Though it was subtle and developed gradually, I think there was a sea change in the way we view people, our relationship with the Creator and our purposes within His Kingdom. Coming back to the comforts of the western world presented some mental and philosophical challenges, many of which I still wrestle with. We were deeply moved by the humble, beautiful and very generous servants of Christ we met in that amazing country and hope that we will be able to return in the not too distant future.

 

Paul and Daniel, Ignite leaders in Yangon

The final period has been the ten weeks in Mackay since returning from Myanmar in mid-January, during which God has taught us some very important life lessons and cemented many of the relationships that had begun back in late September and October. We’ve received excellent teaching from the church we attend here, have been so blessed by several itinerant speakers including Shane Willard http://www.shanewillardministries.org/main/ and Lucas Connell http://lucasconnell.com and Joshua and Gabriella have gotten very involved in the excellent and very active youth ministry at the church. God continues to confirm that His primary purposes for our family are centered in building relationships and networking, and because of the many special relationships we have developed here in Australia one could also make the claim that our time here has been life changing. We certainly hope to return here in the not distant future as well and look forward to visits from Aussie friends in Europe or America and to the many networking opportunities that will unfold as the months and years roll by. We've already been able to make a couple Aussie-Colorado connections and hope to see much more of that going forward. For those of you in Australia receiving this you should know that you have a lifetime open invitation to come visit us in the States or Europe and if we're not where you're going we'll try to help you connect with someone we know.

What's next?  In short, getting to South Africa as quickly as our little vessel will safely take us there. We hope to arrive soon enough so as to have ample time to serve alongside our friends Andrew and Rae on Hope Farm http://farmingwithgodandalargefamily.blogspot.com.au/ and to witness firsthand the amazing ministry they do there. After that we plan to fly to Sweden so the kids can learn the language thoroughly and have a year in school there. Gabriella has already been accepted to Engelska Skolan http://orebro.engelska.se/ and we are hoping and praying Joshua soon will be accepted to the fairly exclusive International Baccalaureate Program http://www.orebro.se/rudbecksgymnasiet/studerahososs/internationalbaccalaureate.4.639484fa14f307c14aebb33.html which is offered at the very school Beatrice graduated from. With these things in mind here are a few prayer requests we would really appreciate your consistent support with:

1. Fast but comfortable sailing up over the top of this Great Big Island and across the Indian Ocean. 

2. A good, safe, inexpensive place to leave our boat while we are in Sweden. 

3. Productive, fruit bearing ministry in South Africa and doors to open for ministry opportunities in Sweden. 

4. Josh to get accepted to the IB Program in Sweden. 

5. At least part time job opportunities for one or both of us and at least a partial rebuild of our depleted savings     and the right place to live while we are in Sweden.

I mentioned earlier that we have learned many valuable life lessons. Let me close with the story of just one of those lessons. When we were on Phillip Island we got a call from Bill who lives aboard a boat near ours in the marina who was watching after Elin for us in our absence. He was unable to start the generator. A visit from the mechanic at the marina revealed that our starter motor had seized up. The problem with it was that it is on the back side of the generator in a pretty inaccessible part of the boat. The situation caused me not a little anxiety, because our engine and generator are the only ways we have to charge our batteries which are used to power everything on the boat from the water maker to our navigation systems. Crossing a big ocean, you could make the case that our survival depends on it.

Twice in one night I had a dream that someone brought me our starter motor and it had been fixed and was ready to do its’ job again. Still a nagging worry dogged me regarding this issue right through our time in Myanmar. When we returned we experienced the reality of those dreams I’d had when our good friend Peter, a big guy, crawled into the tight space behind the generator, removed the starter motor, took it home and fixed it. Rejoicing, we put it back on, thinking our problems were over. As it turned out the whole motor was seized and even removing the fuel injectors and cranking on the large nut at the end of the crank shaft to manually get it to turn was unproductive. Aided by a two foot wrench for leverage both Peter and I tried our best to get it to budge unsuccessfully. Jacob is a diesel mechanic so we decided to get his opinion.

This process played out over days and my anxiety level was constant and a persistent burden, like a wet blanket hanging on my back. One morning I was reading in the 18^th chapter of Genesis when I came across these words which God had spoken to Abraham asking him why Sarah had laughed: “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” You know the feeling when God’s word comes alive and you know He is speaking directly into your life. I realized suddenly that in my head and even with my mouth I was saying God can do anything, “look He parted the Red Sea, He raised Lazurus after he’d been dead for days, He turned water to wine; there is nothing too hard for the Lord obviously.” However, the burden I’d been bearing in my heart revealed that although I could say with my mouth nothing is too hard for the Lord in my heart I was saying “nothing is too hard except finding an affordable way for us to fix our generator.”

Jacob saw that we’d diagnosed the problem correctly and he too tried with all his might to get that crank shaft to budge. He set to work to go a step further, by removing the head of the engine so that he could at least see the tops of the pistons. He’d drained all the coolant and removed the fuel lines when he heard the Lord say to him, “put it all back together and try to turn it again.” The message didn’t make any sense so he double checked. Yep, God was saying put it back together and try to turn it again. I wasn’t on the boat at the time or I probably would have objected. Jacob obeyed the seemingly nonsensical command, and although I do not like to use the word miracle casually, because I think it cheapens it, I have to say at least that there is simply no logical or rational explanation according to the basic laws of physics that the engine easily turned over with a small wrench and started right up immediately after.

When we came here we had significant repairs needed on Elin which would require the expensive services of a professional electrician, a diesel mechanic and a welder. We are leaving soon having established what will surely be life-long friendships with, among many others, an electrician, a diesel mechanic and a welder and their families. Surely nothing is too hard for the Lord!

Please send us your recent news and prayer requests to sailandserve@gmail.com and visit our new sailing blog at www.sailblogs.com/member/shoemaker/ where you can check our current position in the world by clicking on the map on the right side of your screen. We have also posted additional photos from Australia and Myanmar at our regular blog at http://sailandserve1.blogspot.com. Thank you all for your prayers and support!

Kenny, Beatrice, Joshua and Gabriella

The church we have been part of in Mackay