Crete..This is a place to return and explore its wonders

Crete…we arrived into this beautiful island full of anticipation. As we had been praying for Crete a few weeks ago, we had felt that this would be a week of abundance and that doors of opportunity were to going to open to us all.

Being close to the end of the lecture phase, abundance often means that the students and staff are praying in their finances for the outreach and we have continued to see our resources multiplying. It is always amazing to watch as we pray together for God’s provision that miracles begin to happen.

In the midst of the old city of Heraklion, there is the ancient Orthodox Church of St. Titus. As one walks into this church, there is a small relic room that contains the head of the apostle Titus. One feels the difference between the casual way that so many of us Westerners approach God to the way that the Orthodox young people came in the church quietly reverent. It is helpful to see how another part of the world is worshipping God in the mist of their traditions and know how much God loves the diversity of styles.

This has been our final teaching week with an outside speaker flying in to join our merry band. Emmanuel came bearing the mail from the Oval and so was warmly welcomed! His subject was on the Character and Nature of God and how we are all being challenged to be wonderful reflections of the Father. On the third day, we stuck on the aspect of Knowing God intimately and how God is always yearning to draw his children closer to Him. The challenge is so often how much space I will give to God to be in charge of my life and ultimately how much of His love do I pass on to my neighbors.

As we prepared to sail for Cesme, Turkey, a winter storm came blowing in, and so we are staying here in this safe harbor until the 20th. Then on to our last port, hopefully on a calm sea.

Sailing into the Greek Islands

Kalamata lies at the southern end of Greece in the province of Peloponnese…home to the ancient culture of Sparta. Arriving in December, it is a lovely town quietly awaiting the influx of next summer’s tourists. It is our first port of call in an Orthodox community. On the first day off, Lidia and Elias arrived back at the ship carrying a huge, round loaf of bread that they had been given at the local church. They had arrived at the church towards the end of the service as people were being given the bread. So the whole ship feasted on the bread of this ancient church.
On our first day off, Remaliah and Erika were approached by a man on the street asking about their visit to Kalamata. It turned out that he was a reporter and he came to visit the ship and encouraged us to visit the mayor’s office which we did. As the week unfolded, many of the students made friends with local people. It just seemed that doors of friendship opened up as we went about our daily lives. Dan and John Paul went to buy a morning snack at a local grocery store, and this lead to Dan being invited at the end of the week to have dinner with the shop owner and his son.
The teaching this week focused on looking at Gods heart for reconciliation and justice. Working in Belfast and seeing young people trained to work as peacemakers. He challenged us to begin to engage with the gospel at the level of Jesus’ concern for the injustices of our world. We looked at the issues of the church’s lack of response to apartheid in South Africa or the unfortunate tendency that often we back one side of a conflict as if God is for one side and not for the suffering people on both sides. As we discussed these issues, God impressed on all of us how important it is that we understand how to walk out the truth of what Jesus taught. The world has seen the gospel often controlled by our nationalisms and power but perhaps in this generation, we will see more followers of Jesus arising who want to live out the challenges that Jesus presented us to bring his kingdom values to help the oppressed, poor, and needy of this world.
Now on to Crete and the ancient world of the Minoans……..

Malta...the adventure moves on

Malta....It stirs the imagination to visit this gem of an island. From the St. Paul's shipwreck adventure in the Book of Acts to pirates and knights of the Crusades, this is a place of loads of history. I also found these two young men looking like Greek gods near the entrance to the Old City.

Our teaching subject this week was on relationships. It is interesting to be learning about how to relate to one another with the backdrop of an island full of fortifiications that were built to protect them from their enemies. As individuals, we examined the issues in our personal lives that hinder each of us from being able to form healthy relationships. As we dismantled our strongholds, we examined the injustices that had hurt each of one of us. By the end of this week, we all seem to be carrying a few less heavy stones of unforgiveness and hurt.

On our second day of teaching, a storm had blown in and the ship was moving like a cork in the water...not very helpful if you are trying to listen to teaching. In praying about how to handle the situation, we felt a nudge to ask for a classroom from the port authority. They very graciously gave us the terminal waiting room in which to have our class. It might have echoed but what a blessing to be on solid ground talking about "relationships". A good lesson in seeing how God is watching over us at every point of this journey!

On to Kalamata, Greece...may the seas be calm. Paul might not have minded being shipwrecked on an island but we want to make it to Greece without too many waves!

On to the French Riviera

As we headed into the French Rivera, our subject of study was the Kingdom of God. What could be more of a backdrop for study then being in the harbor of an ancient port near Nice that is beautiful to the eye. VilleFranche is a lovely harbor near Nice and Monaco.

As our speaker, Scott Tjernagel, turned our minds to understanding the Kingdom of God, we began to talk about the inequality of wealth in our world and how we can be challenged to understand the gospel’s influence on how we use our wealth and power. I thought as I walked around these beautiful places that many who have so much would use their influence to build communities that are caring for those less fortunate around them. Our students will be going from the ship to spend two months working on relief projects. The one group will be going to Guinea Bissau to work on building an orphanage for two months. The other group is going to Bethlehem to work with the poor and so in both cases, the contrast from this wealthy port will be stark.

As the week progressed, the group began to see the need for them to see the teachings of Jesus and the Old Testament as leading them to understand a stewardship of the whole earth. Often we think of our faith as only bringing us personal joy and freedom which it does, but the message of Jesus was revolutionary in its call to bring to earth God’s desire for restoration of the whole earth and every part of society.

For me, it was a wonderful week of having my brother Scott with us as the speaker sharing his passion for building the kingdom of God and for discipling young people. What a privilege to be able to share part of the sea adventure with him and to be able to send him back to New Braunfels, Texas to continue to see our faith community growing in living out the gospel. One of their projects has been for the church to help clean up a local river. New Braunfels is a haven for tourists year round who come to enjoy riding inner tubs through the river and who typically drink a lot while floating. As these cans are thrown into the water, the church has been diving for the cans and trying to clean up a small area in the hopes of awakening the community’s need to take care of creation.

Journey into Forgiveness...Marseilles

Marseilles…if one has seen the movie The Count of Monte Cristo, then it is impossible to be able to sail into the Marseilles harbor without thinking about the theme of injustice and revenge. In the bay is the famous prison and then one enters the main harbor right in the center of the city which is sheltered behind huge fortress walls, and so we rested there for a couple of nights as we began the week’s teaching.

Our subject for the week was forgiveness. As we engaged in looking at the subject of forgiveness in their own lives and in the lives of communities, the truth of God’s love became clearer to each of us. Our speaker, Padraig Twomey leads a forgiveness project in Belfast that is teaching forgiveness principles in the local schools. Whether the school is Protestant or Catholic there is an awareness of learning principles that could help change the next generation of Northern Irish.

At the end of our harbor was a beautiful Catholic church that I and others attended on Sunday morning. As we walked in, there was such a rich sense of God’s presence. As we left the service, I tried to talk to the priest how deeply I had been touched during the service with the peace of God. As he listened to me, he smiled and replied “go and live the message that you have heard here.” This priest’s face will be for me, the image of a Frenchman from Marseilles that I will remember. Here at the gates of the city was a priest teaching his congregation to live out the life of Jesus through love and forgiveness.

Through the week we also discussed two movies where the two fictional men had reacted to injustice in their lives through using revenge to win the justice their hearts desired. In both movies, the subject was brought up but ignored because forgiving was not the aim of their hearts. Both characters sought vengeance against their enemy and were almost destroyed by their acts of vengeance. When we compared this to the rewards of forgiveness in our lives, we all gave thanks that we have been called to way of living through God’s mercy that brings freedom to our lives and we want to share that good news with others.

On to Nice……..

Ibiza...a spectacular adventure

Having missed several ports due to lack of time and internet cafes, I don’t want to leave out the adventures that the school has been having as we travelled from Malaga, Spain to Sicily. So sorry to work backwards but the chronicles of our travels wouldn’t be complete without a few of these adventures.

In sailing from Malaga, we sailed for the island of Ibiza. We were dancing on the deck singing a popular song about going to the island. Ibiza is an island of indescribable beauty that captivates the eyes of the visitor. We harbored in En Cana which is a town that caters to family visitors. Our host Roy and Catherine Dixon, Mercy Trucks, welcomed us to the island with a brunch at a local restaurant owned by friends. The local press came out to interview our team, and we were able to tell about our adventures as an international community. The Spanish press also came on board to videotape the school as an example of a multicultural Christian school, and it was broadcasted a few nights later on a popular channel in Spain. It was also a time for Mercy Trucks to be able to explain their relief work.

Roy rented jeeps for the team for the remainder of the day, and we set off to travel around the island which was great fun and ended with us having a feast on the Dixon’s home property in the mountains. As we returned to the ship that evening, the storms clouds that we had seen all day had built into a major storm. As a school, we suddenly found ourselves stranded on the island unable to get out to the ship which was at anchor in the bay. But before we could panic, Roy announced that he thought he knew who would take us in for the night.

Another set of Roy and Catherine’s friends owned holiday homes near the restaurant where we had eaten earlier that day. This Christian family had been praying for us during our stay on Ibiza, and they offered us three apartments where the school was very comfortably housed for the next three days until the sea calmed down.

It was stormy outside but inside we were able to carry on with our teaching with Anne who was our weekly speaker. She took up the challenge of creating a classroom in our living room as well as helping us organize our meals. A real live/learn situation.

We were able to make friends with people around us who had seen us on tv and now knew that our ship had to leave us behind as they sailed to a safer harbor on the other side of the island. For all of us, this was a time of seeing how well God was watching over each of us. Through the goodwill of the Dixon’s friends we were well cared for through this time. For the ship’s crew, they learned how their teamwork saw them through a mighty wind.

The rest of our week was also full of adventure but we all left this time overwhelmed by the graciousness of people who had opened their homes and hearts to us.

Catching Up in Sicily

I can't believe it has been so long since my last entry. We have had very few internet connections and a busy school so the mixture has wrecked havoc on my travelogue! So hopefully I can catch up with the journey while we are here in Sicily.

We are in Catonia, Sicily with Mt. Etna in the background. It is gorgeous here although a bit more wintery then we all expected. We are in week 8 of the school lectures and having our teaching on board the ship has been rather exciting and challenging. Thankfully this week we are in a calm port where we have easy access to walking into the city. We had one speaker teaching as the we were moving from one port to the new one with the wind whipping up. Poor Padraig did very well staying in his chair as the ship was rocking!

In a few hours we are off to Church which will be the first cross-cultural church experience for the team. The pastor and a member of his church arrived yesterday at the ship carrying various goodies from a local bakery. Yummy! I don't think any area of the world can probably compare with the delicacies of the Mediterranean countries....it is just all delicious....well most things are great.

Over the weeks, Erica has managed to introduce all of us to delicacies from the region we are in. This week's unusual find was the swordfish...we didn't actually eat the fish...just smelled it. The last fish that Erica brought home is called a devil fish and it was actually despite its looks, rather tasty. It looked like a happy face with loads of teeth!

Well, off to church and more will follow of hurricane force winds and the open doors of welcome in France and Italy!

The Andalusia Adventure

Are You looking for an incredible vacation spot? A sunny beachfront…..castles in the background…..a short walk to a beautiful town….sunny days Book a ticket for Malaga, gateway to the Andalusia area of Spain. The buildings and culture contain remnants of when the Moors ruled, and Muslims, Jews and Christians lived in peace. It was one of the most productive civilizations in Europe until it slowly declined, and the Moors were driven out of Spain.
One can fly in and then the train or bus is so inexpensive to travel to Granada, Seville. Amazing history, delicious food and warm hearted people.

…What more can one ask for when a school begins to study God’s love for us as a Father. Malaga has been all that I hoped it would be for all of us. After 3 weeks of sailing from Liverpool to this Spanish port, we have now begun our Mediterranean adventure.

There was so much excitement as we sailed through the Straits of Gibraltar. At one point as we sailed close to the Moroccan border, dolphins were leaping everywhere. There were babies that seemed be learning how to jump out of the water but instead of a jump, it seemed to be a side flop. There was an electric feeling in the air as we sailed into the Med with Spain on one side and Morocco on the other. Hard to explain but one wonders about all the sailors through the ages that were celebrating as those pieces of land came into view.

The school has had an amazing week. With the backdrop of the beauty of the city, we were involved in our first full week of classes which was really hectic. I have wondered all week how I was so favored to come on this journey. Early in the week, I was sitting on the keyside with two others praying for one of the students. As we were still listening to God’s promises for this student, my eyes were filled with the glory of this city. Tough job, but someone had to do it.
For one of our evenings, we sat on the beach to discuss the various issues of our community and then just had fun burying one of the students in the sand.

But best of all, I never tire seeing how all of us grew in our understanding of God this week. In a city with many churches, we went out a couple of times to pray for the city. One group met a street person who felt as if his life was over due to a stroke. The group prayed for him and later tried to find him to give him some food.

As we leave tomorrow of Ibiza, I pray that we will all continue to grow more like our Heavenly Father.

Sailing the Spanish-Portugese Coast

We sailed from Bilboa, Spain with the excitement of knowing we were about to embark on our longest sail of the next 4 months. From Bilboa to Lisbon, Portugal, we were told the sail would take approximately 4 1/2 days. Last night we were sitting at a cafe overlooking our ship in the Lisbon harbor realizing that at 6 knots an hour, we have taken about 3 weeks to travel from Liverpool to Lisbon. If we jumped on EasyJet, we could all be back home in about one hour. The wonder of modern transportation!

But at the moment, I wouldn´t trade an easy plane journey for the lessons that I am learning aboard the Next Wave. Sailing down the Spanish/Portugese coast, we have talked a lot about the conquistadores who sailed to the New World from these shores. How amazingly bold they must have been to set sail across the world in ships that dídn´t have the conveniences of our modern ship. Aboard we have two from South America..one from Argentina and one from Paraguay. Both shared with the group that the conquistadores slaughtered most of the native people of those countries as they stripped the wealth from the region for the glory of their rulers. The Portugese would also bring thousands of Africans to the New World as slaves. Unfortunately their colonies suffered severely from the conquest of those cultures.

They would also have brought Christianity with them but the mixture of state power and religion has not been a blessing to the people who were forced to convert. Throughout this time period of the explorers of the 15th century, the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal enforced a Christianity that would eventually lead to the Jewish community being expelled in 1492. These Jewish communities fled to the Ottoman Empire where they lived safely under Muslim rule.

Thousands of people in Spain and Portugal died as inquisadors investigated the Christian walk of the ordinary and famous alike. None were safe from being sent to prison or to the stake if their observation of the faith was found wanting.

As we have been sailing along the coast, I have found myself praying often for revival in these two countries and for the scars of the past to be healed.

Today Portugal is a poor country in comparison to most of Western Europe but from our two days here, there is such a wonderful warmth in the welcome we have received. It is a treasure of a country to be explored and prayed for.

This evening we leave for our next sail to Malagar which lies just inside the Straits of Gibraltor. ...hometown of Antonio Banderas and Picasso. On the last sail, we had huge dolphins jumping out of the water and flipping onto their sides as we worshipped on deck one afternoon, so we all look forward to seeing what new wonder we will see on this next sail. One can't help, but be impressed with the beauty of God's creation and saddened by man's fallen nature in response to God's goodness. But thank goodness for the goodness of God who has redeemed us through His Son.

Donde esta Biblioteca?

As a new sailor, I had several stories about travelling through the Bay of Bisque. It is renown for its very uncalm seas and so we all prepared for a bumpy ride. Instead we were blessed with 48 hours of calm seas that were so much fun. The 12 to 4 Watch Team saw dolphins swimming around us in the phosphorus algae which was a wonderful treat that helps one be glad that they were the crew awake at that time of night!

The next morning I was sitting with my mp3 player enjoying some quiet time with God when the word "whale" echoed around me, and I climbed as fast as I could to the deck. I managed to see the back of the whale as he took a couple of dips. The team had seen two whales surfacing and diving as they followed us for a short period.

All of this wonder of nature just provides the most amazing backdrop for a group of young people, school staff and the ship´s crew to learn how to live out the teachings of Jesus. Our shool theme is ¨None shall live for himself¨and living on a ship with around 31 other people, there is
plenty of opportunities to see how much grace and mercy we need from God to live our life of faith. Over this sail time, the staff set up deck chairs and we started praying with each student. We asked God for him to show us how He designed each one. As we listened together, we heard amazing descriptions of each one.

At the end of the sail, we arrived in a small village called Castro Urdiales outside of Bilboa on the Northern end of Spain. It is so gorgeous and a fun place for us to spend one day ashore. It has beautiful hills around the village and a cathredral overlooking the harbor. Unfortuntely, I can´t upload photos here the library´s intranet center but I will do that later.

Interestingly, the village is 2000 years old and was started by the Romans. Today is part of the Basque region of Spain...one could spend several weeks here roaming the mountains. But instead, we will head off for Lisbon, Portugal tomorrow evening. The next sail is 4 1-2 days and we hope it is as calm as the last one.

After this short time at sea, I want to let you know that any movie you have seen about sailors and pirates that shows them walking straight on ships is fiction for sure! We are all walking like Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean. That funny swerving walk he did in the movies is the real sailor at sea bouncing with the waves!

Our First Port

After around 85 hours of sailing, we have arrived in L'Orient, France. As we left Liverpool, with friends from the Oval and from Liverpool waving good-bye, it was hard not to think of all the sailing vessels that used to leave the harbor sailing for unknown lands. We just had to give up communications for a few days but when one is connected all the time to the world, those days felt like we had transitioned into another world.

Our first day was supposed to be fairly calm but we had a "baptism by fire" as the sea decided to be a mixture of waves going in all directions. So we had a very bonding experience of all looking green together and discovering how to throwing up over the bow with grace! But after 12 hours, the sea calmed down and the rest of the sail was incredible. On day two, we had dolphins swimming alongside of us all day and night. I will never forget looking out across the water and about 12 dolphins were jumping out of the water as if they were running to catch up with us. Once next to ship, they would dive in and out of the front of the boat. I love Seaworld but this was beyond that experience.

The school was divided into 4 hour watches with the crew and so around the clock each team trimmed sails, kept watch and just generally spent time getting to know each other. I stayed on a day watch and got up each morning at 6 to join the 4 to 8 crew. Who wouldn't jump out of bed to be able to sing and prayer together as the sun comes up over the water! It isn't hard to praise God in the midst of such beauty.

We leave tomorrow to sail to Bilboa, Spain where we will be for a short stop and then on to Lisbon, Portugal. My hope each day is that we will grow in our understanding of God's work in our lives and to experience the richness of his love that we want to share with those we meet on our travels.

I will post pictures later....but I better run to catch my boat!

So long landlubbers...I'm going to sea

I've been living on the Next Wave now for 7 days and what an adventure it has been. I have bruises on my head, legs and arms from just adjusting to small places. All of the dts staff except for Dan have never lived on a ship before so we have been busy learning about boat life as we prepare to receive the dts students tomorrow.

Part of our training has been to learn to tie a few knots (memories of my girl scout days) and then climbing up on the boom as well as helping pull up the sail. I also climbed almost to the top of the mast but decided to save going all the way to the top for another day! We have just had lots of fun laughing and being stretched by the new experiences.

But against that backdrop, the crew and our school staff have been preparing ourselves to train 11 young people. The slogan for the school is: "None shall live for Himself" with us focusing on teaching from Romans 12 and Colossians 3. Living in such tight quarters for four months will give each of us loads how to live out the gospel from the inside out!

The students arrive Saturday, and we then will commission the ship on Sunday. We are going to give the students one day of getting acquainted before we leave on Monday. At this point, we will be sailors for the next 85 hours of sailing to the coast of France. Keep us in your prayers as we are hoping for outstanding weather. Details to follow!

Starting this Journey

I'm 12 days away from leaving for Liverpool and boarding the Next Wave sailing vessel with my DTS crew of 6. My emotions as I think about our life aboard our vessel for the next 4 months range from total excitement/eager anticipation to at times thinking I've taken on a bit of a huge challenge!

As this year has unfolded, I felt that it was time to lead a DTS again and return to Turkey via water. Over these weeks, we will stop in France, Spain, Portugal and then enter the Mediterannean. Each week we will be stopping at a new port where our speaker will be flying in to join us for the week of teaching.

I'm hoping that starting this blog will help me keep in much better touch with each of you that follows my journeys.