Prayer Letter Archive

August 2003

I wanted to thank you for praying for us during this season of lots of rain and rough seas. I just got back from Solong, an island village 36 nautical miles away, after spending five days there waiting for the seas to calm down. I had taken 9 young adults from the States who are in the country studying missions to this island.

The day before we left the seas looked calm. However, calm during our rainy season is anything but calm. Actually, we had no way of knowing that a storm was brewing. The brief news report was forecasting moderate seas so we took off early in the morning to beat the mid-day winds. We had a fuel blockage right from the start and lost time changing that. We weren't on the seas 30 minutes when we were very aware that the seas were no doubt the worst we had seen. We were running almost parallel with the waves. It felt like the boat was going to roll over three different times, which was probably due to my piloting error. I was "surfing" with the swells but some were too big to do that. So, I changed my technique and pulled over the backside when I felt the wave lifting us up. The new technique worked and we were able to calmly slide down the backside of the wave. This was better than surfing wildly on the front side and crashing into the valley of the swells with a jolt and BIG splash that covered the boat with water.

The passengers weren't afraid as they thought this was normal and that we knew what we were doing. (Little did they know!) We arrived at our destination with only 4 of the 9 passengers getting seasick. One guy threw up 7 times (must have been miserable) while another said when she opened her eyes she would see torrents of water against the glass so she chose to keep her eyes closed instead.

Being the observant, seasoned sailors we are, we felt the seas were too rough to battle for a return trip. We would be hitting the waves almost head on and, remembering the movie "Perfect Storm", we decided to wait out the seas. While we waited, we were able to help out the missionary at that location by working on his generator. We also helped him entertain this group of youth by taking them fishing. They caught 5 fish and we lost a lure and leader to something real big...sea cow, shark? We then transported them to another island for a cultural show and meal. The waves were still big so our supply boat was safer for the running around we did and the missionary, Paul Wolff, was glad we stayed. After a few days of strong winds, a rainstorm passed through which knocked down the seas so we were able to return on calm seas with long swells. It was an enjoyable ride actually. The next day the seas were up again so we were thankful for that small window of calm seas in which to escape in.

Once we got home it didn't take long to realize Joan wasn't happy as I had the boys with me and she could only think of losing half her family. She didn't sleep well while we were gone and the heavy winds and rain didn't help the situation much. She also isn't too fond of being left alone here and, as usual, something always breaks while I'm gone which adds to her worries. In this case it was the washing machine that quit.

All is back to normal now - lots of rain and muddy roads - except the washing machine is still not working. We celebrated Micah's 18th Birthday last night. They grow so fast but we're thankful for these years we've had with him. He will be staying with us until August 2004.

Thanks again for remembering us in your prayers.

Mark