Cohutta Springs CAMP PASTOR MESSAGES
By Pastor Chris Donavan
1st Week of JUNE 2011
MONDAY:
I Grew up in what used to be a standard American Home, two parents and 1.9 kids (unfortunately I treated my little sister like she was the one who was .9) We lived in as small house in the suburbs of a small town on a quite street with a white picket fence in the front yard… Unfortunately God was not in the picture; I went to church as a kid only twice; the first time I embarrassed my mother terribly during the song service; everyone stood up and sang-- naturally I didn’t know the song; but being a very young boy I wanted to sing too!!! and after a while started blurting out the song OLD MCDONALD HAD A FARM… E, I, E, I O! I guess mom got several frowns and stern looks… so we didn’t stay long.
The second time I remember dressing all up for Easter and going to a church; the only thing I remember was the experience of making some crafts in a Sunday School… However, it wasn’t that much different than the Boys and girls club activities at the local park in the summer time.
For the most part I had a pretty good life, I knew Mom and Dad loved me, & even though Dad was a workaholic, & we didn’t have a lot of fun time with him, but we knew he cared about us…. One hard thing was that every other month or so they argued well into the night! Sometimes Yelling loud, waking me up. On those nights I just lay in bed & cried…
You know the sad thing about my life thou---
The real tragedy was I didn’t know God!
And I didn’t know that God had made me…
and not just made me… but made me to be like Him!
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over … all the earth” Genesis 1:26a (NIV)
I didn’t know that I was created by God to enjoy life and experience it in abundance with love and acceptance from the very one who created me! I just simply didn’t know He existed.
When you don’t know God you have a tendency to fill your life up with things that excite you, keep you from pain, or keep you occupied so you don’t really have time to think about God, or…. you search for something that will provide you with Happiness (which never lasts very long).
My Dad decided that he would be happier if we could sail away on a boat and find paradise! So you know what he did the garage in our back yard? He built a really big shed and started building a big sail boat behind our house!!!
People thought we he crazy: and night after night after work, and on weekends Dad cut large and small pieces of wood, then nailed, stapled, glued them together--- did this over and over again and then put a special cloth over it, and a coating of special glue building this big boat.
He decided he didn’t want to go in the ocean with a boat that sinks. So he was building a boat with three hulls. One of my earliest memories of helping was pulling staples out of the thin wood that formed the outside of the hull. You know what? It took over four years, but he finally completed it! And one Sunday very early before most everyone in our town was awake; we had the boat put on a trailer, and took it to the bay that lead to the ocean.
~It was so big it took up both lanes of traffic, and we had to lift up power lines for it to go under.
Then that fall our family moved onto the boat; my mom got all our books to boat-school us, and we sailed down the West coast toward Mexico!
I had mixed feelings about this! We were giving up our friends and leaving behind family, yet we were embarking on an incredible adventure to explore incredible white sand beaches and swim with all kinds of new creatures!
However, I was really mad about one thing…. I had gotten it for my 8th birthday, I really enjoyed sports & my bike, and skate board; but this was my passion, I couldn’t wait to get home after school to use it! ANY GUESSES?
Yep, I was mad for a while because I had to give up my motorcycle. I guess you can’t ride a motorcycle on a boat!
Have you ever had to give up something that was really important to you? I was only 9 at the time and it was definitely a privilege to have a motorcycle, but I had to sell it. At the time I didn’t have much money to advertise to sell it so we put a for sale sign on it, and rode it in the 4th of July parade, (hoping that no one would want to buy it!)
It was a decent day to start out with, and then the clouds came in by the time we finished the parade--- and we ended up across town from where Dad had dropped us off to start the parade.
Some of my aunts and uncles and cousins met us at the end of the parade and they were all talking and not walking back to the Van very fast so I put my knee on the seat and scooted along in front of them and got farther and farther ahead of them.
Finally when I was around the corner I started it up and rode up to the fast food place where Dad had dropped us off. Only I couldn’t find our van. I waited for a time thinking my parents would come walking around the corner any minute, but they didn’t come walking up the street after waiting for a long time!
And then I remembered that my Dad had told me to stay with them…. I sure wished I had listened… But I was focused on being mad that I had to get rid of my motorcycle; and was impatient and wanted to go home!
I thought about just riding my motorcycle home, but figured I would get in a lot more trouble if I tried that, and maybe even get hit by a car… A little while later it started getting dark and drizzly--- now I was really miserable!
I knew that Mom and Dad were looking for me, but I couldn’t figure out why they hadn’t found me yet… What I didn’t know is that they had already driven home on two different routes looking! They went back to where the parade had ended, and even went to my uncle’s house looking for me!
Feeling lost and all alone, I was starting to shed a few tears and it was then, I saw our van coming down the street… and I was so thrilled, Dad had come for me!!!
But my joy turned to fear and anguish because HE JUST PASSED RIGHT ON BY! HE HADN’T SEEN ME AFTER ALL!!!
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TUESDAY
So… knew that Mom and Dad were looking for me, but I couldn’t figure out why they hadn’t found me yet… What I didn’t know is that they had already driven home on two different routes looking! They went back to where the parade had ended, and even went to my uncle’s house looking for me!
Feeling lost and all alone, I was starting to shed a few tears and it was then, I saw our van coming down the street… and I was so thrilled, Dad had come for me!!!
But my joy turned to fear and anguish because HE JUST PASSED RIGHT ON BY! HE HADN’T SEEN ME AFTER ALL!!! --- so I started to run after him and tried to yell for him but the words didn’t come out I was so chocked up!!!
Then suddenly the van stopped and started backing up….Dad got out and that’s when he finally saw me… we talked about what happened, He hugged me and re-assured me some, put my motorcycle in the van and headed home together! Mom was so glad to see me too! They had both been worried sick!! Why, because they loved me and wanted me to be with them!!!
Do you think I was mad for having to get rid of my motorcycle after that? NO WAY! I would have willing given away my motorcycle just to be back with my Family safe and sound!!!
God doesn’t’ ask us to give up much; in fact when we give up something…. He replaces it with something better!!!
“…give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will accept. When you think of what He has done for you, is this too much to ask?” Rom 1:12
Some people think that sailing off into the sunset is a romantic and peaceful thing! Actually ocean cruising on a boat is tremendous amount of work! Everything takes work!
You have to be ultra clean and always put everything away since there is only enough space to have things were they are put away!
It takes a while to make your bed when your room is only two feet longer and one foot wider than your bed! Every chore takes more work because you’re constantly working around other people and stuff is stored a certain way to get everything you can in a small space…
So if you have to get something out, you have to take out a bunch of other stuff to get to it… and then you have to put it all back so it’s not in the way; then pull that stuff out of the way and put back what you got out to use and put all the other stuff back in place…. It can be exhausting!
When you live on a boat you are surrounded by water… But you can’t drink it so drinking water is very important since it’s essential to life.
When you need more water in the tanks, it might be possible to go to a dock and get some. But in most cases I would have to get 2- 5 gallon jugs, load them into the little row boat, row to shore, grab the jugs, walk to where a water spicket was, fill both the jugs and then carry them one by one back to the row boat.
Get the row boat out in the water… then load the row boat with the jugs of water. Row all that back out to the boat. When I got there I would stand up in the row boat and lift the jug up as high as I could and one of my parents would grab it from me and lift it onto the boat. Then after securing the row boat I would have to pour all those jugs into the tank--- before we left on the next leg of our journey I would have to do that at least twice!
Then we had to clean the bottom of the boat every few months! WHY?
If the water was cold I had to use a long handled brush and get in the row boat, hold on with one hand (since the row boat constantly tried to move) and plunge the brush down into the water and scrub the bottom of the boat… each side; THREE hulls! Doing that after school work each day took about four days… It was easier if the water was warm… would get my mask, fins, snorkel on and then jump into the water with my hand brush.
Take a deep breath and force myself with my legs to hold pressure and scrub the bottom of the boat… If I was just gently swimming under water I could hold my breath for a little over 3 min at my best. But when you are working hard you don’t last long so I would dive under and scrub real fast and then come up for air… over and over again diving down and scrubbing. Then the next day do it again---- 3-4 days later it would be done and I was sore several days.
You know the one nice thing about that job? Dad gave me a little money if I did a good well!
And when other boat people found out I did this I would get the occasional job cleaning the bottom of their boat.
My favorite job was retrieving a pair of glasses for man at a resort in Mexico. He had jumped from the dock to the boat and his glasses fell out of his pocket into the water. I put on my snorkeling gear and It took me three different decent (15 min) and I found them… The man was so thrilled he bought me a shirt and a souvenir from the resort gift shop for retrieving them. About $20 worth (how much did I make per hour on that Job?)
It’s been many, many, years since I made that kind of money!
Tuesday “Hard work means prosperity, only fools idle away their time.” Proverbs 12:11 (KJV)
So I worked hard and it paid off! & because I could work hard I was able to get good paying jobs growing up.
Everything takes somebody’s hard work. Either you receive the benefit from your work or you benefit from someone else’s work!
When you receive something (benefit) from your work what do you call that? Called a WAGE!
~When you receive something (benefit) from someone else’s work what do you call that? Called a GIFT!
When I was young I hadn’t heard about this yet --- But now I know that the Bible tells the story of Jesus who came down to this earth, lived a life of hard work, and then spent several years healing and sharing about the love that God has for US, his creation that he wants to have a mutual relationship with!
The Bible says the WAGES of sin… is DEATH… Unfortunately mankind chose to take a journey down the path of SIN and the “benefit” we receive is separation from GOD
And as a result of having a sinful nature; (the desire in our hearts to do wrong) we all end up sinning/ or living contrary to the way God made us --- which was to have LIFE based on LOVE!
~So Jesus came down here to do the work necessary in order that He could give us the gift of LIFE! JOHN 3:16
So hard work is important; but you can’t work your way to heaven, you have to have the gift of Life from Jesus and then He gives you the ability to work hard on your way TO heaven!
So let’s fast forward --- 6 months and we are on the boat going down the coast of California.
It’s my 10th Birthday and I come out through that main hatch and dad greets me and says “Happy Birthday son”. Mom comes out a little while later and presents me with gifts from grandparents and then my parents and my sister gives me something as well. After opening them I am happy for a while --but am actually pretty home-sick being away from all my friends and family
And just then I have this thought…
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WEDNESDAY
REVIEW
Sunday “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over … all the earth” Genesis 1:26a (NIV)
God made us; not only made us, but made us to be like Him…. And God is LOVE; so He made us to be LOVING!
Monday “…give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will accept. When you think of what He has done for you, is this too much to ask?” Rom 1:12
Romans 12:1,2
Next because God made us we can choose to give our bodies to Him to be the best we can be and perform at optimum level
God Never takes away anything without offering in its place something better!
Tuesday “Hard work means prosperity, only fools idle away their time.” Proverbs 12:11 (KJV)
Did you know that Solomon ( to this day) in many cultures is still credited as being the wisest man that ever lived.
Which reminds me ---- Hard work is a blessing! Another job
I had was = cleaning the bottom of the boat every few months! WHY?
If the weather was cold I had to use a long handled brush and get in the row boat, hold on with one hand (since the row boat constantly tried to move) and plunge the brush down into the water and scrub the bottom of the boat… each side; 3 hulls! Doing that after school each day took about 5 days…
It was easier if the water was warm… I would get my mask, fins, snorkel on and then jump into the water with a brush.
Take a deep breath and hold pressure against the boat by kicking with my legs so I could scrub the bottom of the boat… When you are working hard you don’t last long under water--- so I would dive under and scrub real fast and then come up for air…
over and over again diving down and scrubbing. Then the next day, do it again---- 3-4 days later it would be done, and I was sore several days after that. -You know the one nice thing about that job? Dad gave me a little money if I did a good well!
ANY WAY… where were we yesterday?; Oh yaa, my 10th Birthday----
It’s my 10th Birthday and I come out through that main hatch and dad greets me and says “Happy Birthday son”. Mom comes out a little while later and presents me with gifts from grandparents and then my parents and my sister gives me something as well. After opening them I am happy for a while --but am actually pretty home-sick being away from all my friends and family
And just then I have this thought…
Wouldn’t it be cool if I could see a Thresher Shark! And just at that exact moment as I was staring off into toward the coast line one jumped clear out of the water about 150 feet from out boat!
I was like …. WAY COOL, but after I realized what happened I got this eerie feeling---- some-thing or some ONE must have just read my mind!!!
After spending considerable time over the next few days mulling that over in my head I came to the conclusion that “there must be something out there bigger then I was, and who had significant power”
Well, we got to Southern California and my dad wasn’t happy with the way the boat he built sailed; so he let someone buy Lions Paw and found another boat named Narooma, built by a guy in Australia who had sailed to the United States and was done sailing. Unfortunately it was in Northern Cal so we had to sail the South along the coast of CAL twice.
So after making sure this boat was fully ready we set sail for Mexico and settled into a routine of staying a few days in a port.. Getting supplies and resting then sailing further south again.
We spent a few days in Magdalena bay where the Grey Whales breach (jump) out of the water.
We hung out at the arch on the tip of Baja.
We got to see a bird sanctuary on Isle Maria on our way to San Blas.
Then we go to a little bay North of Puerto Vallarta. We had been there a few days and My Dad was on the beach one day trying to buy some fish from the local fisher man who had their little boats beached after a morning of fishing.
A curious older gentleman came up to my dad and started talking. His name was Alberto Gaxiola. An extremely nice, patient, very intelligent, and humorous old man who invited us to his home for dinner that evening.
Now, no Mexican had ever done this before, usually they asked us for money, traded with us, a few stole from us; but no one had ever invited us over
So we went and turned out they were fairly well off; yet treated us with utmost respect… In fact they wanted to spend more time with our family after that visit.
The visits ever few days became a daily thing, they brought us into their lives and poured out their affection and regard in ways that built bonds of friend ship that were even stronger then my own family members back home.
They talked us into staying longer so we could meet their whole family that was coming to visit during the Easter celebration season. They had 12 kids and about 37 grand kids.
I couldn’t believe that a family that we had only met a few weeks earlier would embrace us with that level of love and acceptance and trust! All their kids turned out successful and Alberto JR. had kids a similar age as my sister and I and they lived in Guadalajara and invited us to stay with them for a week.
And because of the trust and love that existed between us and their family my parents let my sister and I go with them a days drive toward the center of Mexico and we got to attend school and hang out in the evening playing soccer in the street and just visiting with their friends and then on the weekend we toured around the city… then my parents came and we stayed a few days and went back to our boat on the coast.
I learned then that not only could family reveal the power of love; but even total strangers if they had love in their hearts (and as it turned out, Alberto’s dear wife who became our Mexican Grandma was a Christian!!! We couldn’t communicate that well since she didn’t know English but she SURE DEMONSTRATED GOD’S LOVE TO US!
Wednesday “Be on guard. Stand true to what you believe. Be courageous. Be strong. And everything you do must be done with love.” I Corinthians 16:13 (NIV)
Romans 5:8
Well leaving that family was very difficult but it was late in the year and if we waited any longer we would have to stay in Mexico a long time and wait for the storm season to pass.
So we were in a hurry to get to the Southern most port in Mexico before we headed out on our ocean crossing.
This part of the journey I wasn’t too thrilled about! It took roughly a month to reach the Islands in the South Pacific
Not only that we were leaving late and could possibly get caught in a storm.
Well we got to Monzenillo and gathered and stored all the provisions we could take. I even had stuff we might need in what was considered my bedroom area.
And we woke up early the next day finished our work and cast off--- but instead of heading South we headed West away from the Sun and away further and further away from land. It was such an odd feeling.
That first day wasn’t bad since we could still see land but the second day Land disappeared and then day after day went by and then a whole week went by and nothing but wind and waves and the occasional bird.
After 8 days we decided today was another Bathing day since it was calm and not much wind. So we got our bucket out dipped it in the ocean and dumped it on ourselves and then lathered all up and rinsed off with another bucket full…
And then we took like a quart of our precious fresh water and slowly rinsed the salt water off. I got done, then my sister and just as my Mom started we heard this very strange noise!!! PHOOM, PHOOM, PHOOM, PHOOM---
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THURSDAY
Yesterday we talked about how Maria Gaxiola shared the love of Jesus with us and how she took a risk and included us to be just like part of her family
Wednesday we learned that we should “Be on guard. Stand true to what you believe. Be courageous. Be strong. And everything you do must be done with love.” I Cor. 16:13 (NIV)
So there we were 8 days off shore headed West to the Marquesas Islands, surrounded by ocean; showering off when all the sudden we heard this noise PHOOM, PHOOM, PHOOM, PHOOM.
We looked all over and couldn’t figure out where the sound was coming from and then we looked up there out of the sun came this little helicopter! What in the world was a little helicopter doing flying out in the ocean?
Well the guy hovered real close and held up a sign in the bubble window with the number 14 on it. So dad got on the radio, turned to channel 14 and talked to the pilot. Turns out he was from a Tuna Fishing boat that was hidden just past the horizon (because the earth is round it only takes about 7 miles and things are below what the eye can see).
So Dad asked the guy a favor; see my dad was good at math and he had spent considerable time working on his navigation. This is where you take readings of the sun in relationship to the horizon at specific times during the day and you can plot your location on a map.
You do this every other day and you keep track of where you are going.
So dad asked him if they would tell us our location. So he could double check his navigation. Well since the guy had already told us where his fishing vessel was, he didn’t want to give away their position to any other fishing boats.
So their captain said he would change their course and go ahead and tell us where we were based on satellite technology which was really expensive at that time so only the multi-million dollar boats could afford stuff like that.
Turned out we were not located on the map where Dad thought we were… after three days of calculations and readings multiple times a day Dad figured out his mistake. And we were one degree off course.
Doesn’t seem like a lot but after days and days of sailing hundreds and thousands of miles we would have been headed for Japan and totally missed the Marquesas islands.
~Let me ILLUSTRATE IT LIKE THIS…. (a camper volunteer, and a staff member)
Most likely would have run out of supplies and our only hope would have been rescue from a passing ship which chances were would have been pretty slim for that to occur since we headed on a course that mostly crossed the path of boats and you have to be within how many miles to even see another boat?
Thursday “Whoever walks with the wise will become wise; whoever walks with fools will suffer harm.” Proverbs 13:20 (NIV)
One degree meant life and death; and even though we didn’t know it at the time God was helping us through a Tuna Fishing boat!
It’s so important to have friends who will encourage you to make the right choices in life!
One wrong choice can be fatal! And it’s important to make the decision to make the right choice before you get yourself into a situation where it’s very hard and you’re unsure of which way to go and there is pressure to do something you know isn’t right.
And usually this is how it went with me and my friends..
1. Hey let’s do this _________
2. No man that’s stupid, we’ll get in trouble
3. The originator of the idea says “no we won’t man, we won’t get caught, we can this and that and then no one will know it’s us… blah, blah, blah
4. Then some-body else goes I don’t know it doesn’t sound like a good idea
5. Then one of my friends goes “ya let’s do it” and a couple of us go “OK’ but I sure hope we don’t get caught!!!
6. In the middle of it one or more of us is thinking …. This is stupid we are going to get caught
7. Then we do it and all laugh and say how funny that was that we were able to pull off_________
8. Then we get caught later and have to be grounded or some other consequence and we all say “boy that was stupid!”
Anyway if you choose to follow Jesus each day and ask Him to guide the direction of your life; to help you make good choices and stay on course HE WILL DO JUST THAT!
In fact if we needed--- He would send every Angel in heaven to help any one of us so we could stay on the right track!
Jesus doesn’t want anyone to be lost! He loves us so much; we can’t even begin to comprehend how much He loves us--- all we can do is look at the choice He made--- He chose YOU, and wants to be in a relationship with you each and every day and to help you in whatever situation you have to go through!!!
Walking with Jesus is WISE!
So we don’t have time to:
~ talk about the 20 foot shark that followed us for three days,
~and we don’t have time to talk about the hug water spout.
But we will talk about the storm we went through!!! We were in it for over 30 hours! Remember I told you we left late in the year for ocean crossing--- and there was a potential of getting into a storm?
Well that’s just what happened!
SEE, A trimaran is designed for speed and it doesn’t sink! But they do flip over!!! And all it takes is one big wave and if the boat gets a little sideways and crash you FLIP.over! And the rest of your days until you are rescued the boat is being thrashed because you are at the mercy of the elements ~ upside down with about a foot or more of water inside.
The only thing to do in a storm is either sail with it… or let out a storm anchor… basically a hug parachute in the water and the boat is pointed into the wind and the boat goes up the wave and smashes down on the back side of the wave--- in a storm that’s not too harsh or long… that works.
Well this storm was intense… we had one little sail and up on the bow only open half way because the wind was blowing so hard it would have ripped it to shreds had we fully opened it!
The wind was howling so loud that even in the cabin we had to talk really loud just to hear each other. AND because the storm was so intense, Dad decided he didn’t want us on deck and so he put on a harness and clipped himself to the boat (similar to zip line) and was steering the boat with the wind and we started surfing each and every wave! NOW I like to surf… but this was nerve racking---- hour after hour in a 40 foot boat--- surfing wave after wave and any one of them could flip us upside down!
--- Boat people call this THE WHITE KNUCKLE TREATMENT because you are concentrating so intensely and holding on so tight that the knuckles in your hands go white.
Dad took the helm for 16 hours, and then simply due to his sheer exhaustion I took over for another 14 hours (at age 12)
And we did make it through that storm!!!
I didn’t know it at the time, but I believe God was the one who helped us through that storm…
Jesus did that for some other friends of His didn’t HE!
The disciples were asked by Jesus to cross that lake and a storm comes up and is so intense they are bailing water out like mad and rowing and finally they just feel like they are going down; and they will all die!
And then they remember Jesus is with them! (we forget about Jesus sometimes don’t we?) Jesus is amazed how paranoid they are!!!
I can picture Jesus making his way to the bow of the boat.. sloshing through the water and stumbling over things that have been thrown about--- all while the boat is being rocking up and own because of the waves
And then with one hand holding the rope that is hooked to the bow and holds the mast…. He reaches his other hand up and says IN A CLEAR AND AUTHORITATIVE VOICE
PEACE- BE STILL!
No matter what storm of life you face in the future young people I know Jesus can do that in your life--- when you are faced with hard times, sickness, troubles, heart ache, pain, sorrow
JESUS CAN CALM YOUR STORM
BONUS STORY
Because the Tuna Boat captain gave us our location and my Dad found his error; 28 days later we woke to a beautiful sunrise and glorious day, later in the morning we could see a large group of white thunder clouds all clustered together right ahead of us off in the distance… And suddenly----- we could smell it…. LAND!!!
We were so excited and literally hugged the ground when we got on shore! We had made it to the Marquesas islands and hung out there a couple weeks just trying to recuperate from our ocean crossing!
I made some friends with the native kids and since there was a large volume of rain water that washed into the bay you couldn’t see but about 4 feet into the water because it was so murky.
Well, the kids taught me to fish for little surf perch. I really like to fish --- who here likes to fish
That reminds me of a verse in the Bible… Jesus says “follow me and I will make you fishers of men; let me tell you I really enjoy catching fish--- But I enjoy helping Jesus catch people
Any way catching perch was fun for a while.. but I wanted to catch something big.. ~Something you could cut up and fry in the pan!!!
So out on the boat the next day, I put a good sized hook on some heavy line and put some bait on it… and while waiting for a tug on the line my hook got bit off a few times…
So I took drastic measures and put a wire lead with a hook on it… then all I caught were a couple small sharks and Mom said “come down for supper” So I put one more piece of bait on; threw it in the water and tied it to the cleat on the bow of the outer hull and when I went down below
My Mom said “All you’re going to catch are sharks anyway so you should just stop for the night” I explained to her that I put on the last of my bait and would put everything away after supper.
I ate quickly and then ran up on deck to pull in my line. I walked out to the tip of the bow and began to pull…. But it seemed stuck and wouldn’t budge, I figured it was stuck on a rock at the bottom of the bay… So I yanked really hard and it felt like it came free, but like I was pulling up something heavy when all of the sudden the line went zip through my hands and the boat jerked to the side and a huge shark jumped out of the water almost hitting the boat next to us! I almost fell in the water our boat was jerked so hard!
then even before I could off the bow the boat jerked the other way (the shark hit the anchor line) and then it came up out of the water between the hulls and thrashed around and by this time I was holding onto the boom, shaking and scared due mad shark going crazy on my line. Then suddenly it was all still and calm again (accept for my racing heart) and my Mom came up and yelled Chris... "what are you doing" and i stammered out in a shaky voice... "I caught a really big shark". And she didn't have to say "I told you so", but boy had she been right!
She came over and reassured me that I was OK. and after a while I let go of the boom and started packing up my gear... I was done fishing for a few days for sure! Fortunately after inspecting the boat the next day we found the shark hadn't hurt the boat even though it had sounded like it left a big hole in the hull. And I decided to listen to my Mom a little better after that!
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FRIDAY
Because the Tuna Boat captain gave us our location and my Dad found his error; 28 days later we woke to a beautiful sunrise and glorious day, later in the morning we could see a large group of white thunder clouds all clustered together right ahead of us off in the distance… And then the wind changed a little----- and we could smell it…. LAND!!!
Because we accepted the wisdom and information from the captain of a large vessel that we never saw we made it to our destination!
remember “Whoever walks with the wise will become wise; whoever walks with fools will suffer harm.” Proverbs 13:20 (NIV)
We were so excited to see GREEN, and after setting the anchor and rowing a shore we literally hugged the ground! We had made it to the Marquesas islands!
~Naturally we hung out there a couple weeks just to recuperate from our ocean crossing! Then we visited a few other islands and headed further toward our destination of Austrailia ---
Next stop the Tuamotus!
I was taking my watch on a peaceful, clear night, with a light wind, and we had moderate sail up and making OK time.
I liked the boat my dad built Lion’s Paw… but Narooma was an awesome boat, it was longer, a little wider, more room inside and the best part of all….. a separate cabin for my parents.
The cockpit was kind of cool too… I could lay there between the mast and the aft cabin and man the helm since I could just make out the compass reading; and every once and while sit up and look around to check on things…. and then lay back down
a few hours went by and I was just amazed at the stars…out in the ocean it’s like a full on IMAX theater of the milky way
Totally awesome!
With the STARS being so spectacular I had this thought… “Wouldn’t it be cool to see a shooting star?”
And before I could finish my thought….. One streaked across the sky, then another, then three; then a whole bunch of stars streaking through the sky at different directions and sizes and even colors.
I was like WOW that is so cool…. And then it happened again!
~I got that eerie feeling--- That power or being just read my thoughts again, and put on a remarkable display!!!
That convinced me that there definitely was someone out there who not only knew me… but was willing to share and provide something that I enjoyed!
Then I realized that there were other times… like when I was homesick and bunch of dolphins would show up and play around the bow of the boat for long periods of time… and I totally forgot how home sick I was.
God was really watching out for, and caring for me even though I didn’t know Him! He was revealing Himself to me through Nature mostly and a couple other people….
Well me made it to the Tuamotus and one stop was AHE, where my mom and I thought we had been taken over by pirates!
You see the Tuamotus are islands made from a pillar of coral and the coral dies off and the living coral grows over the old stuff. So it’s ever expanding and dying.
Well the top of the coral ends up degraded and with the tides and waves eventually the center part ends up with filling with water. So the island becomes this big ring with pounding waves on the outer part and calm tidal water on the inside.
And there usually some deep spots but mostly its shallow with these great big coral heads that grow randomly all over the inside bay… and they are usually just a few inches or feet below the surface!
Well we got to AHE island and it took longer than expected to get there and it was getting dark as we entered through the pass.
—usually it was my job to stand either on the bow or climb part way up the mast and look out for things when we were coming into shallow water; but I had been very very sick so I couldn’t do it and my mom had gone below when we heard this noise on deck and Mom didn’t know what to think since there were other voices and footsteps on the deck.
So my mom and I developed a plan and we would first peak out to see how many there were and then we would try to determine the best way to fight out way to freedom.
We slowly opened the hatch and saw these two native dudes at the helm and no sign of my dad…. This wasn’t good.
Mom closed the hatch and then just as we were in the middle of out planning my dad opened the hatch and said “hey honey we are going to be ok… some guys from the village volunteered to come out and guide us to the dock!”
We were so relieved, but it still felt strange having the guy stand on the deck telling his friend to steer and he wasn’t even looking for coral heads in the water!
In a short time we ended up safely at the dock and tied up for the night with a bunch of villagers who came out to greet us!
Friday “For there is only one God and Mediator who can reconcile God and people. He is the man Christ Jesus. He gave His life to purchase freedom for everyone.” I Tim. 2:5-6a (NIV)
Jesus is like that with us… We are trying to navigate our way through the waters and Jesus comes out in his little boat and says “permission to come aboard”. Which is what you say to those who own the boat. Jesus doesn’t force Himself into our lives. He gives us plenty of evidence to know that He exists and he wants to come aboard our lives and it’s only when we let Him in our cockpit and let Him take the helm can He pilot the ship of our life safely into Harbor!
I don’t know if we had super high ideals, but the interesting thing was that paradise seemed illusive, we never quit found it! There were some great places but there always seemed to be something missing!
The fact is our hearts can’t ever be fully content with out Jesus--- because nothing this world offers completely satisfies!
It always leaves you with some emptiness!
Jesus however can satisfy the deepest longing for love and acceptance; and He alone can offer you true strength and power. God promises for you a future and a Hope!
And whatever He has promised… He can deliver! Now, it may not come about like you expected--- But He certainly can provide every need and longing of your heart!!!
Jesus promises to not just give you life… but give it abundantly!
I thought cruising around the South Pacific was an abundant life.. it doesn’t even begin to compare with the richest and fullness of life with Jesus!
Jesus is the Captain of Salvation and Redemption; Each and every one of us have been ship wrecked on the beach, with the waves pounding away at us day after day and the problem is we think that’s normal! But it’s not normal… Jesus never intended us to hang out on the boat as it sits on the shore and gets thrashed by the elements!
Actually Jesus want to give you a brand new boat! He has plenty to go around and says don’t worry about that boat it’s done for anyway!
Here is a brand new one! And you know what????
Some people say oh that’s ok… I like the boat I have, and they sit there on their boat as it’s getting thrashed day after day.
Others go oh wow that is so cool thanks so much for the new boat and they proceed to run it a ground and ship wreck it too!
Still others say awesome; that is such and nice boat and they tie it up to the dock or anchor it out in the bay and just talk about how great it is to have a new boat!
But Jesus intends that we take that new boat He gives us and we set sail to journey with Him as He delivers new boats to ship wrecked people!
Tonight we are going to give you that opportunity to accept the totally radical awesome new life Jesus freely offers to you!
So be thinking about that today
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