December 20, 2006
Today I left for Florida. It was hard to leave my family, but together we have a dream to sail to the islands and preach the Gospel wherever we go. So…off I go to renovate our family’s floating home in Florida. Our floating home is the sailing vessel Seawing (see Psalm 139:8-9 KJV).
What a long drive to Florida…all 5000km of it! I drove through snow, rain, sunshine…all kinds of weather in my very heavily loaded diesel Jetta. United States Customs was very suspicious of this ponytail sporting dude with what looked like everything he owned in his car…talking of Florida, a boat and some crazy stuff. I was at the border for a long time as they dug through my car, make me fill out tons of papers and grilled me verbally…them and their dog. So…guess they thought I was okay, as they very unfriendly like, bid me a safe trip.
The trip was long, very long, punctuated by chances to speak to folks about Christ. I handed out a bunch of tracts along the way…like McDonald’s in somewhere North Dakota…passed out tracts to several and talked to two families of the Gospel, one professing Christ and the other not. I must tell y’all (I can say that as I’m in the south now) that I am more and more suspicious of a profession of faith now as I’ve met…probably hundreds now…profession Christians who can’t explain the Gospel, have a very sketchy conversion story and are living in sin and think they are still good-to-go. I believe that many pastors and preachers will have MUCH to answer for on the day of judgement…see Ezekiel 3:18-19 and 33:8-9.
As I write this…it’s all a blur…so many folks. I remember two really large men in a Walmart in Georgia; they grew up in the church, but one of them, though ‘saved’ as a child, was really rocked by the presentation of guilt before God’s standard of righteousness (10 Commandments) and left me very concerned. Another is the desk clerk from the Motel 6 in someplace Florida. She professed to be a Jehovah’s Witness from Queens New York…no inclination of Hell…no concept of the judgment to come.
I spent Christmas Eve and Day with our friends Cliff & Lynn Mahon and kids. They are full-time missionaries on a boat (
www.maritimediscipleship.org). It was good to be with them at Christmas. I didn’t think I’d miss my family so much then, but it helped to be with them and get to get down on the floor with their kids and play with their new toys. They live a frugal life…we spent Christmas at their ministry office, a converted storage locker, now an office. I love these people. They asked me to help them sail their boat to the Florida Keys and then to the Bahamas. It turned out that they’d enough crew for the trip to the Keys…and I bailed on the trip to the Bahamas. I felt like a real heal…joking with Cliff the day of the sailing (at Church in the Keys) that I was a really sucky friend…he said I was not. I took pictures of them as they sailed…broke my heart to see them go without me…it’s only a two+ day crossing to Nassau in the Bahamas but these are great and Godly people…good to be with them.
January & February 2007
The boat yard! I spend a HUGE amount of time in the Glades boat yard near Moorehaven Florida. This I a place where boats are stored on land (using stands) and a yard where one can work on the boat while it is up on stands and do things that are hard to do in the water…like work on the hull. The engine room has now had a complete transformation but it has taken a HUGE amount of time. The farther I dug into things, the more problems came up…we saw a HUGE mercy of the Lord; last time, we were with friends and sailing from the Keys north to here…the engine raw cooling water started to leak and spray around (including the back of the electrical panel…touch anything metal and ZAP). I ‘fixed’ it with duct tape…this year I (with a marine mechanic friend) began to take it apart to fix it…the exhaust elbow fell apart in our hands…if it had failed at sea, the engine would instantly begin to overheat and the cabin would fill with diesel smoke…not good…the Lord spared us though. We took about everything apart…ditched about 500 pounds of extra stuff and made the engine room simpler and more reliable. Because of this however, the interior renovations and carpentry suffered and are very much behind schedule…looks like will not be completed before I must return home.
February 11-24, 2007
THEY CAME!!! My wife & kids came to visit! It was so good to have them here. We packed up Mom and Dad’s boat and sailed south for the Keys. As forcasts were for near freezing weather at night…we traveled by the ‘sock-rule’…need socks?...go south! We had a good time, saw lots of dolphins, played in the sand and enjoyed being together. When I left them at the plane, I was a blithering fool…crying my eyes out as I walked to the car. So hard to see them go. I miss them terribly and am daily looking forward to seeing them again very soon.
After my family came and went, my brother came and stayed for a few days. It was very good to be with him. Though he lives close, I don’t get a chance to spend much time with him. I am so glad he came…got to visit, share the scriptures together and just plain laugh and enjoy being together…sailed up north to the little town of Gasparilla on Boca Grand (where the Bush family spends Christmas). We rented a golf cart and ran all over town (legal to drive them on the streets there). It was a fun trip and a great visit.
March 24, 2007
Today I drove over to West Palm Beach…or Jupiter to be most correct to go street witnessing with a friend from the Great News Network.
We went out on that night on the streets of West Palm Beach, witnessing and preaching the Gospel. One group of a dozen or so youth stood around while we talked of their pending death and the day of judgment…seems something really bothered one of the girls and she looked teary as one of the guys with her lead her away. These hearts were hard and not open to the truth.
I remember one older man, a ‘water’ bottle in hand, claimed to be a Christian, but seemed unaware of sin and judgment. Later on, we went to an open-air mall sort of area and talked to various folks. Was an interesting night.
The next day, my friend Jonathan and I were the surprise speakers at an adult Sunday school class. We opened with introductions of who we were and then turned to the class with, “I’m laying in front of you with a knife in my chest, bleeding out…I’ve got two minutes to live…I’m scared of Hell….HELP…HOW DO I GET TO HEAVEN?” We tag teamed back and forth barking out the 120 second countdown…just about no ability to verbalize the Gospel. We later asked who, in the last six months, had made a point of witnessing to a stranger of the Gospel of Jesus Christ….one person had witnessed to three, the others…none! By the end of the class, one had walked out and the comment sheets came back with a couple negatives, but the others commented that the whole church needed to hear this message. Two of the attendees were convicted of their need to be active in the sharing of the Gospel, one asked to come along on the street witnessing. Praise the Lord of the Harvest for one more worker…pray for more!
I later sat through the church service and sermon…me things the pastor himself needs to study the message of biblical evangelism too. Scary what passes as a Gospel proclamation these days….real sobering.
March 31, 2007
Hi all. Friday, Paul Holmes from Airdrie Alliance Church came down for a couple days of sailing about and a couple days of working on my boat (my preoccupation lately). Because my boat is in the middle of a construction project, we drove over to my parents boat, took them ‘hostage’ and went cruising for a couple days. We went down the river and out to Fort Myers Beach…walked around there Saturday evening and then back on Sunday, up the river to the marina where Mom and Dad maintain a boat-slip.
Saturday evening was fun. Fort Myers Beach is very much a different town than Fort Myers…a beach/surf kinda culture…party/spring-break atmosphere. As we approached Times Square, we stopped to see the end of a street magician’s performance. As it ended, I approached the small group of youth in front of me with boldness and some million dollar bill tracts. I pointed out the million dollar question on the back and asked where they thought they would go when they died. I walked them through the Law of the Lord…showing the whole Gospel. One of them is a profession Christian, but on the spot could not explain the way of salvation to me. One young man seemed very convicted of sin.
Later, walking down the beach, I found a group of slightly older youth. These took million dollar bills, and about three of the five or six stood around while one of them answered questions about himself before the Law of the Lord. A couple of them were profession Christians, but where making light of the presentation of the Gospel to their friend…can you can ‘false convert’?
A number of other took tracts, but these conversations stood out.
April 4th, 2007
Today I worked the whole day on my boat, putting up strips of cedar on the walls. My parents drove over to give me a hand, as I have a real sore foot.
A couple days back my slip on shoes (Crocs) began to bother my left foot. Than night, I went to bed with the chills…thinking it was heat stroke, I just drank lots of water and went to bed early. The next day, I found it really painful to walk on my left foot…it was swollen HUGE! Paul (a friend visiting from Airdrie Alliance Church) made me sit down and brought a bucket of hot salty water to soak it in…it just got worse. After dropping Paul at the airport for his flight home, I began to get concerned about my foot. I consulted a pharmacist, who looked pretty concerned and sent me straight to a doctor. I eventually found a doctor, who would see me. I explained to them that I had been working with these shoes on and no socks…getting dirt and sawdust in my shoes and causing an abrasion…they began to ask about bug…spider bites. I’m learning that there is a Brown Recluse Spider that likes to bite people’s feet…if you react, you can actually DIE from the bite…nasty! The doc sent me home with a bag of medication to take (courtesy of generous drug company samples). This morning, I found that I felt pretty good…’till I tried to stand up and go make coffee…WOW did it hurt and was it ever swollen! I put the coffee on and brought up westjet.com to look for a possible flight a home…turns out I could have flown home tonight for $141…but after the day decided to stay. Through out the day I was able to stay seated for much of the day, measuring, trimming and gluing finish wood to the boat, while my Dad did the cutting above deck for me…I was able to soak my foot in ice and water...seems to be bringing the swelling down a little bit…pain down a bunch!
Tonight I went up the highway a bit to #WOK for Chinese food. The girl serving me spoke with a strong Chinese accent…seemed right from China. After paying for my order, I gave her a $1,000,000 tract (
www.livingwaters.com). I pointed out to her that there was a million dollar question on the back…would she go to heaven when she died. There was a language barrier…I paused and then sat down to wait for my order (yep…wimped out). I watched as she read, read and re-read the message on the back…called out to others in the kitchen, showed it to them, and then re-read. She offered it back to me, when I told her it was for her, she thanked me and re-read it. While this was going on, I was bowed in prayer, asking the Father to send the Holy Spirit to fill the place, convicting these people of sin, righteousness and the judgement to come. Pray for the folks at #WOK in Fort Myers Shores, Florida.
