All posts by Brandy

Choosing to Thrive

This time of quarantine is not one any of us could have prepared for, and certainly meets the definition of adversity. Back up just a few months to the beginning of 2020 and none of us would have imagined the entire world (more or less) would be shut down – no travel, schools are closed, offices are closed. Only essential businesses are open. Now we all need to find a way to not only survive this pandemic, but hopefully to thrive through it. We should use this time to reflect, decide what’s truly important, and determine what parts of “normal” we really want to return to. It’s an opportunity to reset.

Seven people living on a 38’ sailboat for almost 6 years has given us some experience with isolation. Going out to eat or easy access to stores is not something we have. We typically do our own laundry in a bucket, make do with the food we have onboard, I cut everyone’s hair (including my own), and when we do go to the store, we take our dinghy to shore and then we walk. We spend a lot of time sailing and sitting in anchorages, sometimes with very few other people nearby. When we do meet up with other boats and other kids, there’s a chance they may not get along. Thankfully, they often do because boat kids love other boat kids – they instantly have something in common. When we go to shore, it’s usually a new place. We’re learning our way around, finding what’s available, figuring out a new currency, meeting new people (missionaries) and jumping in to their routines, and many times, it’s almost all in another language. 

We intentionally made the decision to downsize and squeeze into 380 square feet during Dennis’ last tour in the Navy. Two years later, after Dennis spent 21 years in the Navy, we felt it was time to for him to retire. Dennis had watched as the kids kept growing and he had been gone more than he had been home. He felt they were starting to drift away. We also felt God was calling us to something else and we wanted this new ministry to be something we did together as a family. The past 6 years haven’t been easy in a small space. We’re always in each other’s way, as one person literally has to move for another to pass. Emotions can run high and tempers can flare, but we also have to know how to resolve those conflicts and how to forgive. Our family is close, physically and emotionally. While we haven’t loved every minute of being in such confined quarters, we are so very glad we’ve had this opportunity to really know our kids – to be their friends, as well as their parents, to laugh together, learn together, and serve together. I hope that you all are seeing the positive aspect of this forced halt in your lives and have taken the opportunity to really get to know your family. 

I’ve been pulling together a list of resources and ideas that are helpful to us and may be helpful to many of you. We normally do not have access to wifi, just the small amount of data on our cell phones (3GB/month) when we are close enough to shore. Sitting in a marina (as the Mexican government has requested boats to limit movement) gives us access to wifi (still only about half the speed available in the US) and opens up a whole new experience for us. In fact, we feel LESS isolated now with the world moving to virtual meetings. Our older 3 are joining in on youth group and getting to do video chats with friends. Our oldest two are taking an online college course – we usually do our schoolwork the old fashioned way, with real books! Dennis and I are working on a course in member care, and we all get to join our churches back in the US for worship services. There are many wonderful things available to us all now, but make sure that you are spending more time together than time alone with a screen.

I divided the resources into four categories – Family Fun, Learning/Homeschooling, Relationships, and Other Resources. I’d love to add a book list too. Send me/comment below with some of your favorite books. Personally, I really enjoy historical fiction.

Family Fun

It’s easy to just sit around, binge watch Netflix, Disney+, or whatever. Eating snacks is easier than making healthy meals. In order to thrive, we must make plans – plan meals, make a schedule, be deliberate. If you need some time to mope (I get it, sometimes I just need a small pity party, do something mindless) then give yourself some time to mope, but then get up off the couch.

So, make some plans. Designate different nights for different activities. It’ll help the days go by and give everyone something to look forward to. We’re not saying spend every waking moment together, but plan some specific family activities. Older kids might balk at first, but they’ll come around.

  • Pick a tv series and watch it once a week: Remember when we could only watch our favorite show once a week and how much we looked forward to that? We just started watching The Dukes of Hazzard with our kids on Mondays. We also watch Little House on the Prairie another night. It’s a lot of fun to reminisce and share some of our childhood favorites with our kids.
  • Educational night: We watched an episode from PBS NOVA on how armor was made for knights. It was great and the kids can’t wait for our next educational night. We also enjoy watching Bear Grylls. You never know when you need some British Special Forces’ survival skills. 
  • Game night: Pick one of those long, time-consuming games, our family favorite is Settlers of Catan. A game of pounce (aka nertz) is great for fast moving, loud and crazy fun.
  • Movie Night: Some friends of ours at are excelling at this! Each of their kids gets to pick a theme, pick a movie, decorate, and they all come in costumes to match the theme. I am so impressed with their creativity! We just watch a movie and eat homemade pizza every Friday night. I’m feeling like a slacker.
  • Dining In: Want to go out to a restaurant? Make one at home! The kids can make a menu, cook (even young ones can put crackers and cheese on a plate or make a peanut butter sandwich), set the table, serve, and even clean up. Dress up and have fun!
  • Dinner: If you’re like me, making dinner every night feels exhausting! If you have older kids, assign them a night. You can help with the basic planning, let them know what you have available or what needs to be consumed soon, but let them look up some recipes and have at it.
  • Listen to a podcast: Here’s our favorite kid-friendly one, Red School Bus. We all love it! Dennis went to high school with James. This is one of our favorite episodes (right after we got to meet them in St. Louis for dinner). 
  • Backyard (or indoor) camping: Set up the tent (or a blanket fort inside), start a campfire, roast some hot dogs or marshmallows and sleep outside. Spend some time outside during the day too. Sunlight is a natural virus killer and great source of Vitamin D. 
  • Go out and stargaze: If you live somewhere without bright street lights, head outside with a telescope and stargazer app. If there are too many outside lights, find an online planetarium. And while you’re at it, check out NASA’s website. 

Learning/”Homeschooling”

Everything can be learning! This is one of the focuses of homeschooling. We make almost everything a learning experience. I keep seeing people say that their “…kids aren’t learning right now. This online school isn’t working. My kids don’t find it challenging.” This is especially true for young children. When Hope was 7, we were a part of an online charter school. They met for an online class 3 times a week. IT WAS AWFUL! They weren’t allowed to turn on their microphones and the teacher expected them to type their answers. Seven year olds typing answers, insert eye roll here. Even math problems were terrible. The teacher never gave them enough time to work out the problem and didn’t teach anything! I had to sit with her the entire time all while dealing with my other 4 (the twins were less than a year old!). Then the one hour online class would drag out to 2 to 3 hours because the teacher felt they didn’t cover enough. I can certainly see how many of you would be frustrated right now. Young kids are not designed to sit still at a computer and try to learn. Kids should be:

  • Moving – get outside if you can or come up with some physical games to play inside. Hullabaloo was one of my kids’ favorite indoor movement games when they were little, and they didn’t even need me! 
  • Reading, reading, reading! This is fundamental. Reading aloud to kids of all ages is so important! Have kids do a video call with grandparents and let them read Grandma a story, or vice versa if they are too young to read. Audio books are great also! Kids can illustrate the book as they listen. 
  • Drawing/coloring – who doesn’t love to draw/color? That’s precisely why they make adult coloring books! Pull out some paints and canvases and paint along with Bob Ross! He can take even the most stressed out person and have him smiling while painting “happy little trees.”
  • Writing (if they are old enough), telling stories, explaining how something works…written and oral communication are so important!
  • Cooking – following recipes includes a lot of math and is delicious quality time.

More resources for learning at home…

  • An adult TCK friend, daughter of missionary friends, and once our babysitter, wrote this set of 3 read-aloud coloring books to help parents explain the current situation with their children. Recommended for ages 4-7. Available for immediate download on etsy.
  • Virtual museum tours – Contrary to what many may think, homeschoolers do not sit at home all day. We go to museums, national parks, libraries, historical sites, and SO many other places. Since we can’t go to an actual museum, check out these two sites with links to virtual tours, Timeout and Travel and Leisure.
  • Learn something new – Find something your children enjoy and learn more about it. We’re all studying marine biology now. We’re learning about the oceans we live on and the animals that surround us. We’ve now added Oceans Initiative’s online marine biology camp to our syllabus. 
  • Check out this list of 1500 online courses. Some of these are available for a fee if you want to receive credit/certification. They have the courses listed by topic. There’s a course for practically anything you can think of. I even saw a course on poker strategy from MIT and another on wine! 
  • Travel virtually – Pick somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit. Find it on Google earth. Do some research, look up the top things to do there, find recipes and create a local meal from your chosen place. Read fictional and non-fictional books about that country or place. This book, Give Your Child the World by Jamie C. Martin, has some great ideas and lists books by age and place.  

Relationships

  • This is a trying time for many as we’re suddenly “stuck” at home with our family. Many are realizing that they don’t know their family or maybe even don’t like them. My parents’ church, Castleview Baptist, in Colorado, has been offering some great advice on those relationships during their online services through a series called, “Better Together.” Topics so far include, Husbands and Wives, Communication, and Cooperation in the Home. They are on live on Facebook every Sunday at 10:30am MDT.
  • Focus on the Family has some fabulous resources for couples, parents, strengthening/growing in your faith, and even ways to stay engaged in our culture. 
  • And one of my all time favorite book series for relationships – the Five Love Languages of…there’s a book for singles, couples, children, teens, and even a military edition. Gary Chapman has many other wonderful books available. 

Other Resources

  • Lindsay Braman put together a simple list to keep ourselves mentally in check while we’re home. Check out her site if you would like to print the checklist.
  • Looking for some good news? These videos are all about the good going on around us. They’re pretty funny too. 
  • TCK Training with Lauren Wells is offering a free 3 part series on helping kids work through Covid-19. She also has a 3 hour seminar coming up on May 2 on Raising Healthy TCKs. I took this seminar in February and learned a lot. It’s currently $49. Try code FEBLIVE for a 50% discount. I’m not sure if it still works, but it’s worth a try.
  • Free Growth in Crisis Series from Birch Rise Coaching (I have not personally watched these so I cannot give a recommendation either way, but wanted to share as it’s only available for a limited time.) 
  • Global Trellis put together a debriefing packet and videos designed to help us work through our experiences with Covid-19. This is aimed at the Christian worker.
  • Self-care for Missionaries during re-entry caused by the Coronavirus – another article by Sarita Hartz aimed specifically at missionaries.

If you’ve found some other sites and resources, please add them in the comment section below.

Feel free to share this list of resources on your Facebook pages and websites. Please use this link: https://ankyrios.org/2020/04/22/choosing-to-thrive/

Quarantined in Mexico

I’ve tried to sit down and write for several days now and the words just won’t come. When they do, it’s just a jumble – so many different directions that even I have trouble making sense of them all. So let’s just start with these two questions:

Where are you?

What are you doing?

When the US Department of State released the statement for all US citizens to return to the US or be prepared to shelter in place indefinitely, we had already discussed what we would do if the US issued such a statement since Canada already had. We know the safest place for us is on our boat. We’re mostly self-sufficient with our reverse osmosis water maker (even though it only makes 3.4 gallons per hour), our solar panels and wind generator. We can store quite a lot of food and we’re prepared to wait it out. But just how long might that be? “Indefinitely” could be a really, really long time.  

We’ve been heading north. It’s been slow going as the weather hasn’t been cooperating. We waited for 2 weeks in Costa Rica (sitting at anchor and only going ashore a few times – practicing quarantine before it was a thing). Then we waited in southern Mexico for another 2 weeks. We spent a few days in Zihuatenajo before we were able to sail another 200 miles north to where we are now, Barra de Navidad. We’re 100 miles short of La Cruz where we planned to reunite with several missionary friends, lots of boat friends, and Dennis planned to preach on Easter. And now, well, everything is closed, off limits, just like the rest of the world.

We’re still trying to go north. We think. At this point it’s mainly to be out of the hurricane zone before the season starts on May 15th. We’ve been here for a week waiting for our next window of agreeable weather to sail north. We came into the marina when we first arrived, planning for just a night or two. We were low on power and water. Our navigation and communication equipment pull so much power and when we’re sailing it has to be on 24/7. The direction we were sailing limited the amount of sun on our solar panels. We need power to run our water maker, so low power meant we didn’t make any water. The anchorage in Barra is located in a very muddy estuary so no making water there. When we arrived, the dock for transient boats had two other boats on it. A week later it has over 20 with only a few spaces left. We heard rumors that the ports were going to be closed so we kept our slip. Hurricane season starts in 6 weeks and the dock is much safer than at anchor. Of course being at the dock means we’re coming into contact with more people. We’ve all been practicing social distancing. We’re washing our hands constantly and taking showers daily. That’s so different than our normal routine of showering once or twice a week. That’s definitely a benefit of staying on the dock – unlimited water. Without a washing machine, we can only wash clothes a few at a time in a bucket. We’ve been alternating our clothes and hanging them on the lines in the sun and then washing after a few days. 

We’ve been weighing all our options – do we leave and go north? What if ports are closed while we’re enroute? Will we be able to get into a port? What will we find as we go north? Do we find an empty, secluded anchorage on some deserted island and wait this out? What if this lasts several months and we need more food? What if someone gets sick and we need medical care? We are stocked up on tylenol, cough medicine, inhalers, neubulizer meds, essential oils, and SO much other stuff. We have food to last probably 2-3 months if we are careful.

Two days ago the Mexican government issued an order to close all ports. Sailors are beginning to get nervous. “If we’re stuck here, we need a slip at the marina.” This marina is a designated hurricane hole, meaning the topography of the land provides protection from the brunt force of a hurricane. They took a direct hit in 2015 from a cat 5 hurricane and only suffered minimal damage. We were so glad we kept our slip and now our decision was made for us.

BUT then just a few hours later, a new order was issued that says private foreign flagged vessels are free to move from port to port within Mexico. Now we have a decision to make again. (Un)fortunately the next weather window is still looking like it’s a week away so we have time to go over the scenarios and make a decision. 

BUT then yesterday morning, the port captain here in Barra said all boats are to remain in port. We’re not sure if he just hasn’t seen the second order or if he has made his own decision. Irregardless, we do not plan to violate his order or do anything contrary to what the Mexican government declares. It’s changing moment by moment. The back and forth is mentally exhausting.

BUT if we stay here, we are smack in the middle of the hurricane zone. Our current insurance policy (which expires in August and the company is closing so we are working on find a new carrier) raises our deductible if we remain in the hurricane zone. It goes up from $2,000 to $40,000!! That’s not a typo. The boat is our home. If we lose it, we lose everything.

Honestly, if it wasn’t for the whole hurricane thing this could be an excellent place to be “stuck.” The marina is part of a huge and amazing resort. It’s almost completely shut down. The pools are open, and since they are chlorinated and we’re practically the only ones that go we’ve decided to let the kids keep going. We just discovered a business center with wifi. It’s empty too. The location is beautiful, warm during the day, but so much cooler than where we’ve been lately. I’ve actually taken warm showers for the first time in months! We’ve even turned off our fans at night and slept under covers. It only gets into the low 70s but we’ve acclimated to much higher temps so we’ve been cold. The virus is said to not like hot and humid climates so that’s good for us. The nearby small town has a few grocery stores and medical offices. It’s across the estuary so we remain even more isolated at the marina. There is a larger city about an hour away.

But those lingering questions keep popping up…are we safe from the virus here? Will we be safe from hurricanes here? Would we be safer if we do sail north and hide out away from as many people as possible? What is going to happen here in Mexico? There are so many unknowns. We’re praying God would make it clear. Please pray for us as we try to determine the best way to keep our family safe as we will continue praying for you. 

Ministry Statistics

If you were truthful with us, many of you wonder what exactly we’re doing out here floating on the ocean and dropping the anchor in anchorages along the Pacific side of Central America and Mexico. Are those Kellys doing anything besides taking a vacation? Come on, be honest, many of you have thought that. We’ve actually had a few people even ask us about our vacation. Well, to quote Dennis, “If we were on vacation, it would look a whole lot different.” We’ve mentioned the places we’ve been and some of the people we’ve met, but we’ve offered few details over the last couple of years. That’s mostly intentional but living off the grid makes it difficult to constantly stay in touch. AND, the very nature of our ministry is caring for those serving full time in ministry – many places, people and conversations are confidential. We do not share details with anyone, so that makes it hard to let our supporters know exactly what we’ve been up to. However, we think we’ve devised a way to share what we’ve been doing, to prove ourselves and our ministry so to speak. 

Many member care services are offered for a cost, and sometimes a very high cost. Missionaries are already funded by supporters and they just don’t have enough to pay $400 for a 3 hour debriefing or $1500 (or more!) per person for a 3 day retreat. We raise our own financial support so that we can offer our member care services for FREE!

Without further ado, here are our stats!

We divided our numbers up into 5 categories:

  • Missionaries and their families that we have personally spent time with. Most are face to face although some have been through phone/video calls during the months we are off the boat.
  • Pastors and their families
  • Lay leaders and their families
  • Cruisers, ie. boat people. We are part of a tight knit group of sailors. Having 5 kids on a small catamaran makes us stand out too. We have developed some incredible friendships over the last few years. Some are Christians, many are not. 
  • Others personally impacted such as those who attend churches where Dennis has preached and locals we have developed relationships with in places we stopped

We’ve also included how many kids there are in each of these categories. Our children are vital to our ministry and can reach other kids in ways we cannot. We were once told that our kids would get in the way of member care. The number of kids we’ve come into contact with proves that is not true. We also estimate approximately 1000+ people have been indirectly impacted through Facebook groups, in anchorages, etc. Those people who would say, “Ankyrios? Yeah, I’ve heard of them. They’re the missionary family with a lot of kids, right?”

Boat repairs and ministry in Costa Rica

A little update…

Boat – we’ve been out of the water for two weeks. Two very busy weeks! Dennis is currently in Florida picking up the needed parts and will be back here in Costa Rica at 2am. It was actually cheaper and faster for him to fly to Florida than have the parts shipped to Costa Rica and deal with the lengthy time in customs. 

The engine problem actually turned out to be pretty simple and exactly what we were expecting. The coupler that connects the upper and lower shafts of our sail drive (think transmission) had slipped down onto the lower shaft and was no longer engaging with the upper shaft. Therefore, the propeller would not turn. There is a tiny piece called a circlip that sits in the middle of the coupler to hold it halfway onto each shaft. That piece is about $2 and it was the culprit. So the failure of a $2 piece caused this whole mess. We’re replacing the coupler as well since it was worn down on the upper edge from being out of place. We are also replacing the circlip on the other engine as preventative maintenance. 

Unfortunately, we found more problems when we hauled out. We typically have to paint the bottom once every year or two (depending on how warm the water is) to prevent growth and creatures from attaching themselves to our boat. That was on our planned maintenance schedule for next hurricane season since we did not do it this past hurricane season. However, the last time the bottom was painted a different type of paint was used that was not compatible with the previous paint. So the paint is just coming off in chunks. We had different colors painted so we could tell when the layers were slowly wearing off (what it is designed to do). We knew it was flaking off but didn’t know why it was happening. I didn’t realize how much had come off until the boat was out of the water (Dennis is the one that cleans the hulls and I do NOT swim under the boat). Could it have waited until hurricane season? Well, possibly, but at risk of more paint flaking off and then the hull could have further damage from those pesky little critters. So our boat had layer upon layer of bottom paint scraped off and a new barrier coat and paint applied. She looks good and it will hopefully prevent any other damage. 

The other maintenance item on our list for later this year was the replacement of the bearings on our rudders. We had the rudders checked and they both have quite a lot of play suggesting the bearings are indeed wearing out. Could it wait a little longer? Again, yes, but at risk of damage to the rudder shafts which would be way more expensive to replace. 

Our boat is approaching 20 years old and just like a house, several things need to be taken care of. Next big item on the list is replacing the standing rigging – this is all the wires/cables that hold the mast up and provide a solid structure for the boat. Compare it to replacing the roof on a house. We just remind ourselves that even with maintenance, we’re spending a lot less money than we would if we were living in a 20 year old house with maintenance, electric/water bills, cars, etc.

Ministry – while we’ve been very busy working on inside projects on the boat (I put away Christmas and deep cleaned among others, Dennis has worked on a very long list that he’ll have to share later), we’ve also been working with some missionaries in the Quepos area. We are staying at a new ministry center (so new that a lot is still under construction) with a missionary couple that’s been there for 14 years dreaming of the day this will be complete. We’ve joined them in some of their weekly activities, such as ESL class at a men’s recovery center. We also met another missionary family (with 5 kids!) that pastors the local bilingual church. We’ve been attending men’s/women’s Bible study, Wednesday night church dinner and Bible study, and of course, Sunday worship service. We’ve met some great people and have enjoyed getting to know them. 

Thanks to the generosity of the family in Quepos, we have a car this week! We dropped Dennis off at the airport in San Jose (3 hours from Quepos) on Tuesday. The kids and I headed up to a Life Impact Oasis house where the host family here provides member care to pastors and missionaries. I’ve enjoyed chatting with them, sharing our ministry and comparing notes on member care. The kids are having a blast with their kids too. We’re up in the mountains and having a good laugh at ourselves over how cold we are. It was in the upper 60s last night – we’ve obviously acclimated to Central American coastal temps. Dennis will get here in about 12 hours and tomorrow we’ll head back to the boat. We’re hoping to be back in the water early next week and maybe get to take some families out for a sail!

Thanks for your continued prayers for us and our ministry!

Bilingual Sunday worship service at the beach with about 25-30 others.
While chickens attend church in Nicaragua, monkeys attend church in Costa Rica.
On our way to ESL class.
Leaving Mexico! Really?!

This week has been busy!

Things have been coming together. Lots of things have been done (and cleaned). Everything has been stowed. Everything has been tested. Both sails are back up!! We had a refrigerator guy come out and $150 later, he refreshed the freon. Seriously, that’s more than a visit in the US! Ugh. But our food is staying cold.

Seth is feeling a bit better. Micah started coughing the next day. Now Sarah has a sore throat. Thankfully it seems to be short-lived.

We sent the biggest boy, Caleb, up the mast to reconnect a few things and make sure the lights were working. He loved it and did great! 

The baby birds hatched a few days ago. We moved them tonight over to another boat. Poor Mama was fairly distraught. We’re hoping she goes over to them soon. She’s been flying around a lot.

We talked to friends in El Salvador and the sand bar is open (crossable). Weather looks good. They’re expecting us.

And now, we’re all checked out of Mexico. Three years ago we were heading south and finally, finally, we are! At this moment, the only thing not working is our satellite phone but we have been assured they’ll have it up by midnight. My mom is a bit nervous right now because that’s are only connection when we’re on the water. Honestly, I’m a bit nervous too. It would be naive to not be. We haven’t sailed in 5 months and this isn’t the easiest thing we’ve done. It’s not necessarily difficult or more dangerous, it’s just new territory. It’s also a 250 mile sail rather a short jaunt to start us off again. We need to get our sea legs (and stomachs back). So, please pray for us and we’ll check in Monday or Tuesday once we’ve checked into El Salvador. Thanks friends!

Welcome home?

We made it back to the boat on Thursday, October 17th after a wonderful week working alongside many missionaries in Guadalajara. Our flight was uneventful, but our boat was a disaster. Some stuff is covered in mold, other stuff is just fine. There are a ton of some weevil kind of bug (looks like they hatched in our new vacuumed sealed yeast and ate their way out!). Most are dead but a lot aren’t. The batteries on the boat were completely dead. Based on some research, it seems our solar quit just 3 days before we arrived. There apparently was a small fire under our bed. The wire between the solar controller and battery bus was melted, but the in line fuse is just fine! The wood under our bed was blackened but no other damage. Our kitchen table looks terrible. We were told the damprid containers all melted (what?!) and the oily liquid soaked into the table. 
Some of the clothes in the closets are moldy. Supposedly they were emptying our dehumidifier and changing damprid bags weekly but I’m guessing not. We’ve been cleaning since we the moment we walked in. It’s coming together very slowly. The heat and humidity are still very high (90 degrees but heat index around 100). We have a lot of laundry and we still are trouble shooting the solar and batteries. The batteries are fully charged now through shore power and seem undamaged. We could have come back to nothing had the fire been bigger. We’re so thankful.
We almost have everything put away and our bags were stowed back under Caleb’s bed which actually gave us some floor space to walk around. The rain means everything has to be inside but inside is quite small while trying to unpack and put things away. We finally got to a point last night where we could have dinner (made in the instant pot bc we don’t have propane for our stove/oven yet), a time of family worship and game night. 
The work on the boat is exhausting, especially in the heat. Besides cleaning the boat and still working on everything inside that needs to be cleaned, Dennis and the kids have already cleaned and patched the dinghy. We still have to repair a tear in our sail (Dennis is working on that) before we can put the sails back up. Replace the solar wire with a new in line circuit breaker instead of a fuse. Check the engines, fill our diesel jerry cans, refill propane, figure out why the refrigerator won’t cool below 46 degrees,…the list is long. 
We’re all emotionally and physically drained, but pressing on. We all agreed we will never again leave the boat in a humid and rainy climate. We’re ready to leave here and get back on the open water (where’s there’s wind and it’s not so hot). 
Please pray for us:
-for our attitudes – a friend just reminded me that Paul had boat problems too and look what God did with him, thanks Robin!
-for our wisdom and insight to fix our solar, refrigerator and other mechanic/electrical things to continue working; 
-for us all to stay healthy (we all have heat rashes and mosquito bites, Seth started coughing last night which sounds like croup and is now running a fever but feels fine otherwise, and my back is terribly sunburned after doing laundry on the dock yesterday morning);
-for the checkout process so we can leave Mexico and sail south. The weather is still unsafe for us to head north. 
-And most importantly, for God to go before and show us where He wants us to be in the coming weeks and months ahead. 
Thank you all 😊

Looked good at first glance.
Damprid containers MELTED on the table and ruined the top. How hot was it exactly?!
Mildew on the couch. Yuck.
Making room in our homeschool cabinet for new books we brought back with us.
Thankfully our little fish, Crema, did well and was happy to see us.
We were also greeted by a mama sitting on two eggs!
Strange Winds

The plan for the entire last three years has been to sail south. The first missionary contact we ever made was with a family in Honduras. An old Navy friend introduced us to them through social media. Our other missionary contacts have come through various sources – missionary member care groups, meeting one family which lead to an entire agency with missionaries all over Mexico, local churches, and new friends. It’s been a wonderful adventure, as we trusted God to lead the way. 

Wherever the wind blows…that’s the name of our website, but there’s a lot more to that, a little play on words. We live and travel on a sailboat, so yes, the wind fills our sails. Sometimes we can adjust the sails and harness the wind to take us where we want to go. Other times, the wind is against us and it’s what we sailors refer to as a bash. Loosely translated, it means absolutely no fun at all (okay, that may be my personal definition). Going against the wind is not where we want to go. The Greek word for wind is pneuma, but it has a secondary meaning. In the New Testament of the Bible (originally written in Greek) the word pneuma is also used for Holy Spirit.  We try to listen to and go where the Holy Spirit is leading us – wherever the pneuma blows – wherever God is sending us. Much of the last three years has not looked like we expected, and that trend is continuing with strange winds surrounding us, but we will continue trusting God.

Our plan was to go to Bahía del Sol in El Salvador (the white arrow). The map depicts all category 1+ hurricanes over the last 30 years in the Eastern Pacific, which clearly shows why we must have a plan for hurricane season (May 15 – November 30). Once we’re in the estuary in El Salvador we would be “stuck” there until the fall. We planned to use El Salvador as a jumping off point for land travels to visit a missionary family in Guatemala and the family in Honduras.

Well, the actual wind is not blowing us south. The swell in the Eastern Pacific has been much larger than normal for this time of year. The sand bar that must be crossed to get into Bahía del Sol has been closed for almost 3 weeks. It isn’t looking good for the near future either.

It appears that the Holy Spirit isn’t sending us south either. The missionary family in Guatemala has returned to the US. The family in Honduras is actually on the Atlantic (yes, big mistake on our part, we thought they said Pacific and we never googled their small town until recently).

We are currently in Marina Chiapas, Mexico (the red arrow on the map). It’s a nice marina with a great manager and it’s a safe place to leave the boat (plus a discounted summer rate). Yep, I said leave the boat. As much as we don’t want to leave the boat for a few months, the 90-100 degree temperatures INSIDE the boat (heat index is 100-110), no AC, swarms of mosquitoes, and daily rain/thunderstorms that require we close up the boat, just makes it unbearable. The marina is 30 minutes from town and the only thing out here are tennis courts (yeah, I don’t think so!). We’ve decided it’s best to head back to the US, take care of our yearly medical appointments, and spend some time with my parents in Colorado. We also plan to send Dennis off somewhere so he can finally finish his dissertation for his doctorate. The constantly growing list of things to fix or maintain on the boat doesn’t allow him any time to sit and research/write.  

Such a quiet and calm place
Marina Chiapas – evening thunderstorms beginning to build in the distance

We need a week or so to secure everything on our boat. Our insurance considers southern Mexico still in the hurricane zone. Even though it should be perfectly safe, we must follow the recommendations from our insurance company to protect our boat. We’ll be flying into Tijuana on June 6thand walking across the border into San Diego. Dennis and I each have a medical appointment and then we’ll be heading to Colorado on June 11th. We will probably fly back to Mexico (not quite sure when yet) through San Diego/Tijuana so hopefully we’ll get a chance to spend some more time and visit with more friends. 

We appreciate your prayers as we continue to strive to follow God’s leading, wherever the wind blows, in our ministry to missionaries.

TEAM Annual Conference 2019 *in pictures*

We had such a great time meeting the fifty plus people at the Annual Conference for TEAM (The Evangelical Alliance Mission) and leading the youth. I wish I had taken more pictures and videos but these give you an idea of what a wonderful week we had in a beautiful place.

Journals printed and ready for the youth
One of our games – create something to protect a raw egg when dropped from the 3rd floor
Silly kid 🙂
It survived!
Another survivor!
Deep in discussion about David
The last day we climbed to the top of a nearby hill for a quiet time of prayer and reflection
God’s creation is beautiful!
Even we made it to the top!
Looking down on the marina. Definitely a God thing for the marina to be so close to the site of the conference
I got a picture with my girl
The littlest guy at the conference decided Seth was his buddy!
Morning worship – everyone loved the kids’ song

The egg drop – Just as these designs were different but had the same goal, God created us uniquely to accomplish our common purpose of reaching the world for Christ.

More videos from the talent/variety show on our Facebook group, Wherever the Wind Blows (S/V Ankyrios). The kids did some of their favorite Veggie Tales songs. The files are too big too load here but they’re worth the click over to facebook.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Kellys!!

We finally splashed the boat on the 17th and left Puerto Penasco on the 20th. We’ve been alternating between calm 1-2 day sails and hiding from 20-40 knot northerly winds for 3-4 days. We’re taking advantage of the next calm weather window and heading to Puerto Escondido (Loreto) today. We’ll be postponing New Year’s and pretending tomorrow is December 31st so we can celebrate after we arrive. 

We put our Christmas lights up on Christmas Eve. It was a calm night and the wind picked up the next afternoon.

This year has been full of so many wonderful surprises and unplanned events – a few not so great, but it’s been wonderful to see how God turned them around. 

We are thankful for our families and friends who are like family – all those who opened their homes and their hearts for a weekend or a month, made us delicious meals, loaned us nerf guns for necessary battles, let us borrow cars, were our personal post office (our amazon account has literally almost 2 dozen addresses where we have shipped things this year), provided amazing conversations, prayers, and financial support of this ministry God has given us. 

We are thankful for missionaries around the world – we were able to meet so many this year in unexpected places. We’re thankful for what they do and the love of Jesus that they show to others. 

May your 2019 be blessed beyond anything you can ask or imagine. 

Punta Chivato – what a wonderful town with wonderful people. And they have an airstrip!! We were told that you know it’s rough when the fishing boats come in to hide as well.
When God Changes Our Plans

Well, we’re still in Puerto Peñasco, at the top of the Sea of Cortez (but not for much longer). *We* thought we’d be heading south in early November (when we left the boat in mid-May we actually planned to be back in mid-October). Between boat prep, lots of small jobs that didn’t go so smoothly, broken bolts, delays in solar panel installation, and the routine engine maintenance that turned into unexpected fuel injector pump and lift pump replacements to the tune of almost $3k, we just haven’t been able to leave. 

We’ve been trying to figure out exactly why God still has us here. What’s the benefit in our delay? We have missionaries waiting for us further south in Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. 

A couple of weeks ago, our missionary friends in La Paz reached out to us. They have an annual retreat in mid-January for all the members of their missions agency in the area. The leaders for the youth group can no longer attend. They actually asked us last April if we would consider leading the youth, but we told them we couldn’t as we’d be far south by that point. Hahaha! After some brief discussions and prayer, we’ve decided this is exactly why (at least one of the reasons) that God chose to keep us around here for so long. The retreat is less than a quarter mile from the marina we stayed at in late 2016/early 2017. We’ll be able to stay on our boat while serving the missionary families (specifically the teens) at the retreat at the nearby hotel. This is EXACTLY the kind of thing we strive to do for missionaries. We’re so excited to serve these families! The kids are looking forward to being with “old” friends again. 

Since we were waiting on the new engine parts, we decided to visit our friends in Phoenix for Caleb’s 14th birthday. I’m so glad we did! We attended Bethany Bible Church with our friends, and we were reminded that we aren’t the only ones that experience a change of plans. Two thousand years ago, a young girl named Mary was betrothed to one of the best men in town (I’m making an assumption here because God would want only the best in an adopted father for His Son). Mary had her whole life ahead of her and I’m sure she had made some plans of her own. Then one day, an angel comes and tells her she will have a baby, but not just any baby, God’s Son. Wow, talk about change of plans! What will everyone say? How’s she supposed to tell Joseph?! Will he still even want to marry her? 

And Joseph, he’s engaged to marry the most thoughtful, caring and beautiful girl in Nazareth (again, making an assumption here). He’s building a house for them (Jewish custom). And then he finds out that Mary is pregnant and he knows it’s not his child. Mary has some unbelievable story about an angel. All of his plans and expectations are gone. But then an angel comes to him too. Joseph decides to go ahead and take Mary as his wife, and become the earthly father to the Son of God! 

If this wasn’t enough change, just before Mary reaches the end of her pregnancy, they find out that they must travel to Bethlehem for a census. That’s 100 miles away! I think it would be easy at this point to call out to God and say, “ Uh, remember us? We thought this was going to be easy when we said yes. What’s going on?!”

Now Mary knows she won’t get to have the baby at home, surrounded by her mother, sisters, midwives. She’ll be in a strange town. But Mary goes into labor before they even arrive! Joseph goes door to door, possibly even carrying Mary, begging for a place to stay. They’re finally offered an area in the stable, next to the animals. And no one is there to help. Jesus, the Son of God, the King of kings and Lord of lords, was born in a barn! Not what we would expect at all, but absolutely part of God’s plan. Jesus came to the world to be available to all people. From the shepherds to the Magi and everyone in between. Jesus is the Savior for all! 

God’s plans never changed. This was all part of His plan, prophesied many years before. Sometimes it takes major events for our plans to line up with God’s plans. And just because it’s God’s plan, it doesn’t mean it will be easy. 

We’ll still get to head south eventually and spend time with the other missionaries we are looking forward to meeting in person. We’re trusting that God knows better than we. God hasn’t failed us yet. We all could benefit from a little more faith and trust, and this is exactly how we build it, one step at a time along the path He sets before us. 

~Brandy

Side note: If you haven’t watched the movie The Nativity Story, I recommend it this Christmas season. Yes, some theatrical liberties were taken, but I felt it gave me a better sense of the struggles and realities of Jesus’ birth so long ago.