About Us

Sail and Serve Mission Statement

Sail and Serve is a unique family ministry designed to find ways to creatively serve God as we explore the world on our 42 foot Pearson 424 Ketch: "Elin." Believing that God himself has called us to this adventure, we desire to see him glorified through all that we do. We feel especially called to come along side, encourage and support missionaries already serving in different parts of the world, whether through an hour of focused prayer or a month of hard labor. As we move around the globe we want to give our children the best education possible while molding and equipping them to be servants in His Kingdom as well. We envision this ministry as a mobile unit that can be rapidly deployed wherever God would call us and ready for whatever he would call us to whether it is evangelism, church planting, intercessory prayer, children's & youth ministries etc.. In addition, we desire to network with Christians around the world and we also want to create short term mission opportunities for people from our home church and others to come serve (and sail if they would like) with us. Quite simply, we desire to go wherever God calls us, to do whatever he calls us to and to join Him in the work he is already doing in a way that bears fruit for  His Kingdom, strengthens His Church and brings a smile to His face. 

Leading up to this point

After many years of reading sailing magazines and dreaming about the impossible, we decided that the only way to find out if this is more than a crazy idea is to take steps towards it happening.  The fact that the children were getting older also put some urgency to the plans.  We started out by spending a couple days on a lake in Gunnison with a guy who used to live on the east coast and sailed a lot.  We loved it, and within a week Kenny found a boat down here in Denver on Craig’s List that we quickly bought.  An old 20 foot Ensenada with outboard engine, cabin to sleep 4 and a little sink (that we never used). This was towards the end of the sailing season of 2011.  We still had time to sail quite a lot on Chatfield reservoir before they closed it though.  We all LOVED it.  Our maiden voyage on our own included going aground on a sand bank, broken engine, and then no wind.  We paddled for a little bit before we called the park ranger who towed us in :-)

We signed up for classes with Denver’s Victoria SailingSchool.  Who thought Denver had a sailing school?!  It’s run by Jim Cook who sailed around the world on a 50 ft. sailboat with no engine.  He is very experienced and knowledgeable.   We also took navigation classes with a sailor from Boulder.  He owns a Cal 40 in Ft Lauderdale and we spent a week with him on his boat in Florida.  We didn’t sail a lot due to different reasons, (hardly at all), but it was a good experience to get a feel for what it’s like to stay on that size boat.  At this point I wasn’t sure about the whole thing.  Kenny and I believe in a God that didn’t only create us, but who loves us and actually has specific purposes for our lives and plans.  So we were basically testing out if this idea really could be His plan for us.  We reasoned that if we start taking steps in this direction, He can either confirm that it’s right by opening doors and making it fall into place, or He, in His care for us, could close doors and show us that it’s not His plan at all. 

When we were still on the Cal 40 in Florida in Biscayne Bay outside Miami I asked the Lord what the whole purpose of it all would be, if we even were on the right track.  The answer I felt in my heart was “It will be for my Glory”.  Simple but powerful.

So we continued on.  In fall of 2013 we sold our house and 3 days later bought a 42 foot Ketch (sailboat with two masts..) It’s a fantastic boat and extremely well maintained.  We will have a separate page about her and the details.  There will be upgrades we will need to do in order to get her ready for crossing oceans, but she is ready for coastal cruising right now.

We are currently renting a house in Denver until the kids are done with school.  Then we are planning to move down to Florida where the boat is docked.  We will stay at the Marina for a month or two to get organized and used to her.  We are planning to spend late summer and early fall up the US east coast before heading down to the Caribbean late November, early December.  Our first longer stop will be the YWAM base at St Croix in the US Virgin Islands.  

-Beatrice