Confidence
We made it to Puerto Escondido just before 8 on the morning of January 1st. Actually, we were a mile and a half away at 6am but we slowly rode the current while we waited for sunrise. This is not the kind of place you want to approach in the dark. We’re tied up on a mooring ball where we’ll be for 3 weeks.
The 21 hour passage was incredibly calm at first, and then much rougher than we like (starting just before sunset and into the moonless night). Right around 4pm, the wind kicked up, waves got big (the boat is covered in salt – maybe we should start a secondary business selling sea salt), we had to reef the sail (pull it down some so there’s less sail area), fight the waves that were pushing us to shore, and in the middle of all of this we caught a fish! But not just any fish, a Pacific sharp nosed shark! It was about 3’ long. We let it go because we really couldn’t handle a shark at that moment and no one was super excited about eating shark. We celebrated New Year’s Eve with the kids on the first, but Dennis and I didn’t make it til midnight. The long rough night just wore us out 😴
The wind began to pick up by the afternoon after we arrived and has been blowing strong over the last few days. It’s made the half mile ride in from the boat to the dock a bit wet. Tomorrow should be calm but then it’s going to rain for a couple of days. Our solar and wind power are doing great! We can spend time at the mooring ball (a quarter of the price) instead of the expensive dock.
We’re happy to be back somewhere familiar and plan to spend time with the missionaries we met here 2 years ago. We also have study and prep work to do to get ready for the conference which starts the 13th. Our cell service is limited because of these giant beautiful mountains. We’ll probably go ashore each day and get some marginal 3G network. Not completely off the grid, but close.
Please pray for us as we prepare for the January 13-18th conference. We will be leading the youth of the TEAM missionary families. The theme is Confidence in God, which has been hitting home during my personal study.
As an update to our finances, we have received donations of almost $6000 above our regular monthly support. This has helped so much!! Unfortunately, we had unexpected problems with our engines to the tune of $3000, but we were able to pay the boat yard bill and the credit card bill (which had all of those necessary boat parts on it). We are waiting to hear back again from the state of CA in regards to a settlement on our tax bill (approximately $15,000). We provided them with information on our current income and what we could pay per month. They don’t seem to be in a hurry to give us a decision.
We are still only about a third of the way to what we need to be fully funded ($3000/month) to continue to serve missionaries. We have exhausted so much of our own resources over the last couple of years, we are to the point that we don’t have much more to provide and now are becoming dependent on support. We know God specializes in coming through when we’ve reached the end of ourselves. He wants us to fully rely on Him, to have confidence in His faithfulness. Please prayerfully consider if God is calling you to partner with us in this ministry to missionaries.