Why God is leading us a different way than the status quo..

When God calls you to a specific work for His kingdom, He will first confirm it in such a strong way that you will start walking toward the call with all your heart. As you walk, the Lord will begin to tear down every thought, attitude and preconceived notion concerning how this call will come about.

 

The Lord is not interested in showing you every little detail and giving you all the answers up front. He is more concerned with growing your faith and trust in Him, as well as using it to grow the faith and trust of others. To know God and to trust Him in the realms of impossibility  means  that you must walk and take each step as He shines the light on the path in front of you. God does not want us relying on ourselves for anything, especially any of His work that bears His name.

 

It takes a very long time for God to mold and shape us into the kind of people we need to be so we will carry out His will and work, the way He wants it done. And this is only achieved through the building of our faith. What is faith but the understanding and living reality of "knowing who God is, knowing His character and trusting Him implicitly"!

For the past two years, we have watched God move in His own way and His own perfect timing. He has opened doors and He has closed doors, all the while providing and meeting our needs one step at a time. This has not only built our faith, but also the faith of others, as we trust in Him alone to provide for His work.

He will light each step. Be faithful in prayer, trust and waiting on Him. Don't do things for yourself or try to make things happen, That's not trusting in God, that's trusting in yourself. It may seem like God is leading you into blind darkness, but trust and believe that He knows where He is taking you.  His ultimate desire is that you learn to trust Him completely and not lean on your own understanding.   After all, He is the King of the universe,  is worthy to be trusted and is faithful to bring His works to completion!

To show how He has met our every need, at every step of the way thus far, we have put together a short list that we would like to share with you in order to encourage your faith also. 

1. We filed for non-profit status after the Lord confirmed this to be His will through several faithful believers. Filing and getting your status can take up to a year and a half and there is often extra steps of filing additional paperwork during the process. We had our non-profit status from start to finish in 7 months with no extra filings needed. This is the government we are talking about, where we know nothing happens that flawlessly.  Filing is also expensive and the Lord provided the funds right before we began filing.
2. We had our paperwork in September and the missions vessel was donated 3 months later. This was an incredible blessing and it was definitely God who worked it out!
3. A month before the vessel was donated we received enough donations to allow us to begin work on the vessel for the next 7 months.
4. We then needed to build the on-board workshop from the ground up (this was essential to get the shop finished before we could work on the other damaged areas). We received more unexpected donations that were used to make the shop operational and to start renovating two other cabins.
5. The areas and many of the items that were heavily smoke damaged were salvaged through deep cleanings and did not have to be replaced. In addition, the three of us have been doing all this work ourselves and have been able to save the ministry thousands of dollars.  For years, God has led Eric and DJ from one experience-building job to the next and all that is now being used for His kingdom work.
   
6. After a year of struggling through red tape trying to straighten out the vessels registry which was looking to cost thousands of dollars, we just got everything straightened out for the princely sum of $19.
   
7. During the few days it took to compose this blog post, our next goal of needing funds for the u-haul and moving expenses (Listed at the bottom of this post) were met in full. Thank you Lord!
   

We would like to encourage those of you who have considered donating to our boat ministry.  It does not take large sums of money in order to make a difference.  A donation of even $20 is very helpful and is gratefully received. There are many small projects that can be accomplished with small donations and we are sure that God will continue to supply for every need as it comes up.  Thank you all so much for your prayers and support and God bless you all!

*Our next goals:

• The funds for renting a u-haul to move everything out of the storage units to the boat and overall moving expenses. (This goal is now met!)
• The funds for completing the wiring and completing the re-furbishing of the damaged cabins and hallway.

*Prayer goals:

• We need a buyer for our 30ft sailboat (where we are living right now)

• A new place to dock the boat that is either donated (tax write-off) or $500 month or less. Needs to be 120Ft of dock space and 7ft at low tide.

Progress Update: January 21st

The shop is now operational! We still need to install the overhead, trim around ports, wiring, a few upper cabinets and shelving but will wait until the rest of our tools and shop equipment are brought from the storage units to the boat. 

Eric in our operational shop!By the way, all this new stuff is removable for access to hydraulic lines, electrical, etc.

The laundry room is almost finished as well! The overhead has been installed and floors and walls are painted. A really nice chest freezer was donated about a month ago and will stay in this room. 

A support wall will be placed next to the washer and dryer stack for stability and they will also be securely tied down. Shelving and lots of cubby-hole storage will also be added.
 

The laundry room overhead. These were cut, temporarily fitted and then removed for painting before the final install. There is access through panels to the ships inverters, wiring and a soft patch through to the deck above for removing and replacing the washer, dryer and freezer.

New flooring and small access hatches. The flooring was only replaced in the back half of the room where the washer and dryer will be stacked.

Eric sanding the old flooring

 Lots of new paint

Eric and DJ had an entertaining time figuring out how to get the freezer into the laundry room. They ended up cutting an opening in the floor above and will be installing a hatch and storage locker with removable flooring. This enabled them to lower the freezer and will serve as an access hatch to replace the washer, dryer and freezer when they need it. A win-win all the way around!

Mary finished cleaning the forward stateroom and has begun working in the forward crew quarters. 

This crew quarters is the next room back from the shop.

Orange cleaner is doing a fantastic job on the wall paper paste.

DJ continues to work on the wiring and electronics throughout the ship and in the engine room. *Eric added a few notes below

*"Sorry for the picture quality. We have no lighting on the lower bridge currently and the cell phone camera doesn't do total darkness well.
 
This is my son's major project right now. Since we have the new 24 volt system run here it's time to hook up systems. First of our 72 mile radars is back on line now. Getting navigation light wiring upgraded to 24 volts currently. A ways to go yet but shortly we'll be able to run.

Still have 2 VHF's, an SSB, ham receiver, second radar, GPS, lighting, AIS, etc. To go. Then there's the leak we found in the hydraulic steering, new steering cross-arm, upper bridge systems, and so much more...."

 "Some old stuff that DJ is removing from the engine room. Some is really old like that transformer and rheostat that was part of the 32 volt AC system that is now gone. Yup, 32 volts AC. First time I've seen one of those on the water!"

Mary's sister-in-law stayed a couple days with us and helped prep some copper wire for recycling and is also providing transportation for DJ to and from North Carolina. He will be doing the wiring on a smaller missions vessel that is headed to Papua New Guinea. The job may take two to three weeks and then he will be returning to continue work here. 

 Mary's sister-in-law and Penny!

 Mary and DJ

Prepping aluminum ducting for recycling

Eric and Mary are now back in Florida. They are getting closer to moving and being able to work on the boat full-time. As soon as enough funding comes in, they will rent a U-Haul to transport everything in the storage units. They will then get their small boat ready to sell and tie-up some loose ends. 

*Our prayer request still stands for a new place to dock the boat. The owner of the dock is getting a new vessel and needed his slip but his current deal fell through, which buys us a little more time. We are needing a very inexpensive ($500.00 a month) or donated slip (which would be tax-deductible) of 120 ft. which has at least 7 feet of water at low tide.