Sea of Desperation....

The waves of emotion have finally made contact with the heart. All of the crazy experiences combine with some serious homesickness has left R void of hope and joy today. Proverbs says a crushed spirit dries up the bones. This is a good picture of R's condition. Two major things that God has longed to teach R during this season; 1) it's not about R and his story, but about God and his story.  Essentially R's whole life has been about self-reliance and self-dependence. Not really having much security growing up R thinks and has always thought that the buck stops with him. All of his glories are his own and so are all of his failures. Recognizing God's authority and sovereignty are difficult feats in R's world. 2) God is a God of abundant blessing. R believes this is true just not for himself. He doesn't feel it's right for him to ask God for abundance. He doesn't feel he is worthy of a huge blessing. He resists the idea that he, just for who he is, is extraordinarily special and loved.
Both of these truths are being severely attacked by an enemy who wants him dead...and if that can't be achieved physically then dead at heart.
These last couple of weeks have continued to be a struggle to actually get the boat ready to fish. Two steps forward, one step back. Progress, but slow and tedious. As the fish have started to come in, R is still making his boat actually ready to fish, which I think has been discouraging for him. Yesterday, after getting all the hydraulics finally plumbed he realized that is pump was putting out only 100lbs of pressure when it needs to be putting out about 2000lbs. This is the way they pull the huge net and fish on board, so its pretty important. He was able to get a cannery to agree to buy his fish yesterday and a phone number for someone to lease out a skiff. This was definitely good news but hard in the face of the boat STILL not being ready.

R really needs your prayer to believe the truth:
- that God does not leave His children high and dry
- that this story is God's story and thus so are the successes and failures
- that despite his brokenness its still ok to ask God for abundant blessing
- that hope and joy do not require an extra emotional reserve in order to seek
- that we will be ok financially and familially
- that God uses the ridiculous and foolish in His upside down kingdom to do great things for Him

Pray:
- that the hydraulic pump is an easy fix
- that Kenny comes to town ASAP
- that a skiff is found to lease
- that the net is easy to repair and make ready
- that just like all the other nets we've thrown out that God will fill this one to meet our needs too!

thank you community for all your prayers and support.

D

Phase 3.....

There is much to tell this update. The boat was successfully mended by a some wooden shipwrights out of Washington who came up to Cordova to help us. Final cost on this was about $5500 less then was projected so we were grateful for that.  It took about a week to fix everything and then another few days of extra repairs that R could do himself. During this time 2 things happened. First off, R didn't get a single call back on any of the jobs he put his feelers out for. Secondly, he had a conversation with Rob in Kodiak who previously offered to help R once he got to Kodiak to make any extra details happen and this phone call R explained how he ran into a sandbar and that fixing the damage was going to cost us nearly all our money. Rob told R that he would GIVE us a skiff and a sane (a small boat and a net valued at 20k-50k) to use for the summer and if we made money then we could pay him something after the season. This was like a miracle to hear so we started to consider the possibility of R still going to Kodiak to fish as we had planned. Rob also said that the season still hadn't really even begun to peak yet and so essentially R wasn't missing anything. After some consideration it seemed that going to Kodiak was the open door and staying in Cordova working on someone else's boat was not. So we proceeded to head that direction knowing full well that Kenny, the captain who agreed to fish with us probably wasn't going to leave his other job that late in the season. R had never been able to get in touch with Kenny this whole time because his phone was off. Seeing that we missed the date we had set with him (July 1st), we figured we were just going to have to find someone else with a fishing permit once we arrived. However, the day before R was going to leave for Kodiak, Kenny, called him back.  He told R that not only would he definitely fish the Lord Willing no matter when he got there, but that August was by far the best month of the season. He said that because R was willing to pay him in acual fish that he would leave his other job anytime to join R and his boat. WOW! We were really not expecting that. So everything fell into place for us to still fish our boat this year in Kodiak. With disaster still fresh in our minds and hearts, this felt like the biggest gift and relief we ever experienced. Ok, now R just had to actually get to Kodiak. He still had about 300 miles to go which should've taken him about 40 hours. In reality it took about 3 days because it was such bad weather that R had actually packed food and water next to his survival suit and life raft in case they had to make a hasty exit off a sinking boat. He said that being out in the middle of the ocean like that, in a storm no less, was absolutely terrifying! He said he was praying non-stop for about 8 hours until the weather calmed down. The last 12 hours of his journey he said the sea was as smooth as glass. During this time he almost ran into a 90ft whale that surfaced about 10 feet away from his boat. R said the whale acted almost irritated as if the boat was in HIS way. That was an experience. He also said they saw an ice berg just floating out there in the middle of the ocean. He made it to Kodaik last night at about 10L30 pm. Today he hit the ground running, making connections with people and setting the boat up to actually go out and fish. We are still a few days or maybe a week away from fishing but HE MADE IT! Thank you, Jesus! Thank you for reading and praying.

Praise:
- for arriving in Kodiak safe and in one piece
- for Kenny and his permit
- for the continued favor R seems to be getting despite tough situations
- R's willing heart and humble attitude
- for the man today who offered R another boat engine (the same one he currently has) for free

Pray:
- for repairs and final fishing necessities to be completed quickly and easily
- for the right connections to be made with the people who can help
- for our dollars to stretch to just the right amount to complete all these last details
- for a cannery to be willing to buy our fish
- for peace and gratitude to be the song of R's heart
- for a continued interconnectedness in our family

Thanks!

D