Thanksgiving Newsletter

It is strange changing hemispheres during certain seasons. The day  before I arrived in Sweden, where snow had cloaked the pine and spruce  of the forests with a heavy blanket, I was eating breakfast in the  cockpit on Elin in Richards Bay South Africa, wearing shorts and  t-shirt, watching vervet monkeys coming up the beach preparing for  their morning raid on the waterfront.  The young were practicing their  circus-style acrobatics as they went. In Sweden it had been cold and  snowy for a long while. Riding the bus home to Orebro from the airport  in Stockholm, I watched deer timidly emerging from the forest into the  snow covered fields in search of food. I was struck by the contrast  both in the demeanor of the wildlife and the profound differences in  climate and landscape. It was like experiencing two totally different  worlds within less than 24 hours, a little surreal.  

 It’s been a very long time since we’ve sent out a proper newsletter,  but in our own defense we have been moving around a bit since April,  when we left Mackay. I did a quick calculation of miles travelled  since then and estimate we have sailed roughly 9,500 miles, flown  31,800 and driven about 500. I like playing with numbers so I went  ahead and totaled all the miles we’ve travelled since we began this  crazy journey back in 2014. We’ve sailed about 20,100, flown 31,800  and driven 4,000 for a total of about 56,000.   

 It feels pretty good to not have to move anywhere for a while, and it  feels really good to be in Örebro (Beatrice’s birthplace and where she  and I were married and lived from ’92-’95).   

 Another striking contrast to the raw third world simplicity in parts  of Africa is the opulent old world charms of Europe, especially as the  holiday lights and decorations begin to emerge and the cozy warmth of  being in doors surrounded by family and friends is cast against  memories of struggling against the elements on Elin in a difficult  stretch of ocean faced with some, at times, very trying circumstances.  I’m so glad to have gone through that though, and the tremendous  burden I’d felt prior to leaving for Mauritius in preparation to sail,  without the rest of the family for the first time, to South Africa,  has been replaced by a wonderful peace and a joyful acknowledgement  that God has yet again mightily stretched and then strengthened our  faith and simultaneously has knit us together with other believers and  used us to mutually bless one another.   

A detailed accounting of all the ways God has blessed us in the last  half  year would take much more time than we have here, but I will try  to provide a brief overview with the hope of bringing those of you who  are interested at least partially up to speed.  

 

Our voyage from Mackay to Darwin was mostly uneventful and marked with  some very pleasant days and nights spent in the Whitsunday Islands,  Airlie Beach and Townsville and some quite fast and pleasant sailing  up around the top of Australia and on to Darwin where we did some work  on Elin and provisioned for the upcoming long transit of the Indian  Ocean. The first three weeks of that passage were rather difficult in  that the winds were light and sporadic and the Indian Ocean was living  up to its’ reputation for being predisposed to big, unpredictable  swells, which makes life onboard difficult and uncomfortable. Because  of the forecast for no wind for several days, after the third week, we  diverted to Christmas Island and were glad we did. The provisioning  there is much better than at Cocos and Keeling where we had planned to  go. We were on a mooring while at Christmas, though, and it was quite  rolly almost the entire time we were there. A verse from Isaiah 54  kept reverberating in my mind most of our stay. The phrase “storm  tossed and not comforted” was running through my thoughts as we rolled  incessantly back and forth on our mooring and I asked God why it had  to be so. According to the locals it is usually calm in Flying Fish  Cove, where we were moored. It seemed to me that God answered my  question within the same verse I’d been thinking of, and the ones to  follow, but I’d not been considering those words: “I will rebuild you  with stones of turquoise, your foundations with lapis lazuli. I will  make your battlements of rubies your gates of sparkling jewels, and  all your walls of precious stones.” Is 54: 11-13. God was reminding me  that the difficulties in our lives are reasons to rejoice because it  is through them that He forges character and holiness and beauty into  us.   

While we were there, one day Gabriella went down to the beach and  collected some shells and sea glass, colorful glass which had been  tossed and tumbled by the sea. After years of such rough treatment  they’d become smooth and beautiful like little jewels.  

 

When we left Christmas Island for the 2500 Nautical Mile stretch to  cross the broad expanse of the Indian Ocean the sailing was pretty  smooth and fast as well. One day reading in Jeremiah a verse jumped  off the page and I immediately thought that it would be applicable to  our time together in Sweden. “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask  for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and  you will find rest for your souls.” Jer 6.16  

 We stopped at Rodriques Island and though our stay was brief we made  many new friends and have stayed in touch with most of them. We’d  planned to sail straight from there to Richards Bay South Africa, but  as many of you know we had a catastrophic failure to our steering over  a hundred miles off the shores of Mauritius and had to divert there  for repairs after also breaking our emergency tiller and spending a  night adrift in high seas.   

Though I was greatly disappointed at the time and saddened that as a  family we would not have time to reach Africa together (we needed to  be in Sweden by early August for the kids to start school) or to visit  and hopefully serve alongside our friends at Hope Farm outside of  Durban, I knew God had a plan and I would just have to hold my horses  and see what it was. As it turned out God’s plan was much better than  mine. Shocking right….  

 

We attended a church our second Sunday on Mauritius and met the pastor  and quickly became friends. I continued attending church there after  Beatrice and the kids flew to Sweden. Pastor James had recently  written a book about worship. I bought it and started reading it  before leaving for Sweden to rejoin the family. Pastor James came to  the apartment I was staying in and prayed with me the night before I  left. We spoke about the book a little as it had already begun to  impact me.   

“I didn’t write it because I wanted to write a book,” James said, “I  wrote it because I felt the Holy Spirit was leading me to write it.”  He said something else that has stayed with me as well –“God is not  looking for those who are gifted or well off or blessed; He is looking  for true worshippers.” If we’d gone to Mauritius for no other reason,  it would have been worth it for me in light of how profoundly my  understanding of and attitude toward worship have been transformed  through that one simple book. I have a wholly renewed grasp of the  power and blessing of worship and how it is so masterfully designed by  our awesome, omnipotent Father to shape, inform and mold our  understanding and knowledge of Himself and also what a potent weapon  it is in our spiritual battles. During our stay on Mauritius we also  created some wonderful memories together as a family, visiting  different parts of the island and we made some more good friends. And,  as it turned out, we had reached Africa together as a family, a fact I  stumbled across browsing the internet one day (after Beatrice and the  kids had flown to Sweden) where I found a Wikipedia page stating that  Mauritius is in fact part of the continent of Africa!    I flew to Sweden August 6th. There is a joke that goes “I love summer  in Sweden; it’s the best day of the year.” That’s somewhat overstated  though. There are at least three days that are summer-like in Sweden  normally. The truth is we got to enjoy quite a stretch of warm weather  (what we in Colorado would call an Indian Summer) which was just an  extension of the more or less non-stop summer weather we had enjoyed  since about May of 2014. The six weeks we had together, before  Beatrice and I returned to Mauritius to prepare Elin to sail for South  Africa, were very special. We spent much of the time at the cabin by the lake (Hjalmaren, Swedens fourth largest Lake) where we usually stay when we come for visits in the summer. For me it was a time of deep spiritual renewal as God continued to develop my understanding and appreciation for worship and intimacy with Him. I don’t know that  I have ever felt closer to God. Meanwhile Joshua and Gabriella were  beginning to integrate into Swedish society and now, as I write these  words, I can say joyfully they are both absolutely thriving in their  schools and in the Youth Group at Immanuel Krykan where we attend  church on Sundays. This week they are spending every night there with  the rest of the youth for a week of service.   

 Through a very special set of circumstances, which seemed to be Gods’  handiwork, Beatrice has begun working with Open Doors Ministries  https://www.opendoors.org/  a ministry to persecuted Christians all  over the world. She gets to work alongside friends, is very engaged in  the meaningful work and deeply grateful for the opportunity.  

 I sailed with one crew from Mauritius, up over the top of Madagascar ,  stopping briefly at Nossi Be, and onto Richards Bay South Africa,  which gave me ample time to reflect on the amazing things God had done  in our lives over the last two years and how He had indeed brought us  to a “crossroads” where each of us was now going in a different  direction. The details of that new dynamic in contrast to the  proximity and intimacy we had enjoyed nearly every day of the last two  years was so stark that, for me, it caused a sort of shock. For  several days after departing Mauritius and then again after our stop  in Madagascar I was almost overwhelmed at times with feelings of  nostalgia, a sort of bitter sweet longing for something that I knew  belonged to the past. Any little item on the boat could trigger that  emotion as I remembered some special event or moment and  simultaneously realized that a very special time, a significant  chapter in our lives, was now past and it would never be the same  again. 

  There is only one thing to do in such circumstances – look forward. I  had to will myself to do so, but in time I was able. I began to pray  for Africa, my purpose there, Beatrice and her work with Open Doors  and Joshuas’ and Gabriellas’ school and church lives.   

My time in South Africa was wonderful beyond my wildest expectations.  Our friends at Hope Farm, who had undergone a very traumatic season  involving over one hundred refugees they had invited onto their land  to help and then had to flee from, were able to  return to their  property about a week after I arrived in Richards Bay and I was able  to visit and do some work with them as they begin their restoration  efforts. Had we sailed straight to South Africa as we had planned this  would not have been possible, proving yet again that Gods’ timing is  always perfect. I also have made some good friends in and around  Richards Bay and, because of one of them, unexpectedly was able to  visit a bush camp near Sodwano Bay and a magnificent game reserve  where we saw all sorts of Gods’ marvelous creatures in the wild. There  are few places where Gods’ creativity is so boldly on display more  than in Africa.   

Now, as we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving here in Sweden, I feel  overwhelmed with the abundant blessings and grace God has lavished  upon us. It really is tremendous what He has done and I will never  tire of praising Him or thanking Him for His great goodness to us. I  wish I could share it all more exactly, but I have already rattled on  far longer than any newsletter has justification for. If your still  with us then you must have a sincere interest in what we are doing,  and for that we are truly grateful. You will also understand that  this, for us, is more than just a newsletter, it is a sort of  historical document designed to help us remember how richly our  Heavenly Father has blessed us.   

To that point please help us pray that God will help me in going a  step further now and that I may use this time allotted to me (about  three months before I plan to return to South Africa) to write a much  more thorough accounting of all the lessons and experiences we have  been so richly blessed with. Whether these writings become a book or  just a detailed account our grandchildren can enjoy someday seems  almost inconsequential to me; what matters is that I do the writing.  Pray also that we shall continue following our Lord whole heartedly.   

Finally, please… please tell us your concerns and prayer requests so  we can hold you up in prayer, which we feel is at the very heart of  our ministry!  

  

  May God bless you and keep you this Holiday Season!!!    

Kenny, Beatrice, Joshua and Gabriella Shoemaker