Prayer Letter Archive

February 2003

Hey, you won't believe this but our phone started working! Talk about miracles. It only works during the daytime as the system works by solar power so when the sun goes down or on rainy days...no phone. But hey, I'm not picky. Thanks for praying!

NO barge yet but we had our mission plane bring us some meats and ice cream. WHAT a treat! Vegetables too!

We were having a good week until today when we made a supply run with the boat. Man, you would have loved it! We checked out the boat yesterday and found the batteries dead. We charged them during the night when the electric is on (about 7-11pm). This morning they were still dead. We finally jumped it and got it going. The seas were a bit rough so I had to slow down (at my crew's request). We were almost into calm water when I got a call on the radio. I could barely hear him so I put my head down close to the speaker. That's when Micah yells, "LOG!" I never saw it but heard the thud as it passed under the boat. We didn't see any water spurting up through the hull so we weren't sinking but saw the temp gauge go VERY hot. I was afraid to turn off the engine but assumed some of the tree got stuck in the water intake. Micah, even though he has malaria, went in the water (with the engine running) and tried to check it out. He couldn't see anything so we slowly proceeded on...with a bent prop. Since we were going slowly, I put a couple lures out in the water.

We came to an island to let off passengers. So, we shut her down and cleared the water intake jam. We tried to start it up but the batteries were still dead! We grabbed the 15 HP Johnson kicker and hung it on the boat. We took off again at a s-l-o-w pace so we put the lines out again. I smelled battery acid so I started to look around. One of the batteries was so hot you couldn't touch it, so I set it on the rear platform in case it exploded. Dead batteries are precious. The locals melt the lead to make fishing weights and I melt them down to make diving weights. While I was working we got a strike on one of the lines but he got away! That's the 3rd time I've missed a fish on that reel. Must be setting the drag too loose. I bet he was big too. We hooked up another battery and, vvvroom, it started. We got to our destination and as I was pulling up to the dock, I hit reverse to slow down. I then went back to neutral to idle but the gearshift broke so we backed away from the dock. Everybody on the dock was waiting to catch the lines but we were leaving! Finally, we got dockside and worked on the shifter.

After unloading a ton of cargo of food, fuel and the misso's daughter, I went to see if I could get the missionary's (Paul Wolff's) generator started. He thought the starter was bad so I switched it with another one. That didn't work. We figured out one of his batteries was bad so we changed it and the geni started. Whew, that was easy.

On our 2-hour return trip (by the way, it took us 4 hours to get there) the kids continued to tease me because I missed hitting another log ("Dad, you missed that one."...I ignored them but was thinking, "Shut up, I'm trying to concentrate"). We saw a large school of dolphins but because it was getting late, we didn't stop to play with them. Later, we saw a bunch of birds swarming over a large school of big yellow fin tuna jumping out of the water. I wanted to go have a "look" but was reminded we had no time to see the dolphins so.... we got home with no reverse and without crashing the dock too hard. I went to get the trailer but the truck battery was dead! Man, story of my life...dead batteries. And you wonder why I'm losing my hair. We got that going and as we winched the 3-ton boat on the trailer, the electric winch was going slower and slower. We were holding our breath to see if the boat was going to make it all the way on the trailer - another dead battery. We spun all four wheels and dug deep into the sand trying to pull up the beach. After a few tries, we got the boat in the shed, the kids gave it a bath and we went in to have a warm supper. Of course it was now cold.

So, that was my week. Trust yours was uneventful. Thanks again for your prayers and keep praying for a barge. Mieko's birthday is tomorrow but her presents are in our crate. She seems happy anyway. Maybe she don't know she ain't getting' nothin'. She does want to go water skiing for her Birthday. O.K., I'm easy.

Mark