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December 17, 2022December 29, 2022

Winter Update

The Short Of It:

We are still here in Elizabeth City, NC working on boats with Maritime Ministries. We didn’t make our original deadline of having the boat ready to move aboard by the end of the year, so we are taking some time to slow down and hear from God about his plans for our boat and our family.

We’ve just ended the busy season of boaters coming to stay in our docks as they head south for the winter. We have learned lots about the power of hospitality and met some cool people.

Come January Aaron will become the “dorm dad” for the men’s dorm here at the college where Maritime Ministries is located. Unless God changes our course, we have committed to staying here till summer. Which means moving out of the RV and into a dorm parent apartment here on the college campus. We will continue to train with Maritime Ministries (which is located on the college campus) and work on fixing up our boat “Selah.” Our dorm parent apartment will have a view of the Intracoastal and the docks (and it’s own washer and dryer).

Dock Happenings:

The mizzenmast is back up! We re-installed the mizzen (rear) mast. Yay! It took about 15 volunteers to hoist this baby back in place. This was a major repair and it’s quite the accomplishment to have it done.

One thing I love about being here is there always seems to be a steady flow of visitors coming and going. Many are one timers but many come around enough to become friends. One such friend is pictured here teaching Aaron how to tighten the rigging (all those wires that keep the mast in place) on Selah after the mast had been re-stepped (put back up)

Cruising season

October and November are busy season on the docks of Elizabeth City, as the hurricane season ends in the south, boaters head for a warm place to winter. Most cruisers we met were headed for the Bahamas and surprisingly most of this years cruisers were French Canadians. Most spoke great English though. This fall busy season the ministry touched base with about 95 different boats/boaters. We learned lots about the power of simple hospitality and free hot showers!

Two boaters made an impression on me. One was a Canadian lady who knocked on the RV door to ask for a ride to the local vet to collect the ashes of her beloved 16 year old dog who had passed away while they were docked here. As we rode home from the vet she said, “I’m not sure why, but if all the places he could have died, I was glad it happened here at the Christian college. For some reason it brings me peace.” I wasn’t quite sure how to minister to this couple during there loss, but Gods comfort and grace supersedes our abilities to “get it right”

The other boater was actually a kayaker. He slipped in on a busy day on the docks and it took us a while to realize that the kayak tied to the end of the docks wasn’t the accessory of a larger boat, but the main mode of transportation for Bob. After receiving a bad diagnosis from his doctor and not having much family around, he decided to jump in a kayak and pursue a dream he had of kayaking from Virginia to Florida. Probably in his late fifties, early sixties, his equipment and kayak were very basic. We offered him a stay aboard one of the ministries sailboats for the night on a real mattress with a proper pillow. He told us he had spent several nights tied to trees along the banks of the Intracoastal with the kayak as his bed. (We later learned that his story touched one boater so much he bought him his own sailboat to continue his journey on!)

A busy day on the docks and a rainbow! Although the majority of boaters are couples, I was a little surprised how many boaters came with kids and even a couple babies!

Two of my favorite boats from the season

Rielle and I and our other MM crew helped sailing journalist Emily move her boat. Another boater who’s come around enough to become a friend of the ministry, Emily and I had several conversations about my Christian beliefs.

The Annapolis Boat Show

We got the join the ministry at the US Sailboat Show which is a huge boating event that takes place every year in Annapolis, MD. The only non-profit at the show, Maritime Ministries attends in conjunction with “Kings Fleet,” an international network of boats in ministry. The goal in attending is to network with other boaters and to spread awareness about boats serving a greater purposes.

At our boat show booth. You can see Everett is thrilled to be there, next time we will leave the kids at home.

Abel at the docks of the boat show. The highlight of the boat show was being able to tour lots and lots of beautiful sailboats. Piles of shoes abounded on the docks as no one is permitted to wear foot wear while touring fancy boats.

Not your typical parking problem. Annapolis docks during the boat show.

Boat Parade

We hope you and your family had a great Christmas! We got to participate with Selah in the city’s annual boat parade! After spending a few hours with friends decorating Selah, the day of the parade the boat would not start (battery issues). After hours of trouble shooting by our leader Dan, finally at 5:30pm the engine turned over. It was a cold night but a blast!

Warm and buoyant. Wearing winter jackets under life jackets was a tight squeeze

Rielle and her friends help hang lights (left) Selah the night of the parade (right)

That’s all for now. Thanks for following along on our journey!

Laura

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September 19, 2022September 21, 2022

Redemption

Old boat yards and marinas in down town EC

Our first week here in Elizabeth City I found myself experiencing an unfamiliar, unsettling feeling. I was so excited and anxious to get here but upon arrival the reality of the risk we had taken in moving here and the distance that now lay between us and all things familiar made both Aaron and I feel very vulnerable. There was no familiar rhythm to the days and no certainty of when ”normal” would arrive again. Sitting my my RV in a town that 7 months prior I didn’t even know existed, I had one of those, “if you had told me a year ago today that I would be here today I wouldn’t believe you” moments.

But needless to say we found our new normal and I continue to stand amazed at how smoothly everything continues to go in this new chapter of our lives. The word “redemption” has been on my mind a lot recently. For me this season here working on sailboats feels like a season of redemption. When we encountered problem on the RV, We turned to the internet. I have spent so many hours in the last two years searching the web for “how to fix RV…” We didn’t know what we were getting into when we bought our RV and often felt very alone in our repairs and renovations. Not many of our friends and family could offer advice when it came to recoating rubber RV roofs or eliminating black water tank smells. Lots of repairs felt overwhelming and daunting. Our best hope was often the YouTube video with the most views, or the RV forum with the most legitimate sounding web address. It was trial and error and often making it up as we went. I have learned so much the hard way in the last couple of years!

Work here on our future sailboat home, Selah, has been a complete 180 from our RV experience. We are surrounded with a wealth of knowledge and experience in the staff of Maritime Ministries. Here as we prep to re-paint the deck someone hands me a can of paint and primer, all the tools I need and tells me exactly how to do the job. How refreshing! No hours of google searching here! Although Selah is slowly becoming ours, she will truly continue to belong to the ministry and therefore we all (us and the other staff here) work as a team to get her ready for her next adventure with our family (hopefully starting this winter!). I feel the opposite of alone in this work, and our work together on her is always the highlight of my week. I feel a bit at times like a kid back at summer camp, exhausted at the end of the day but throughly enjoying myself and confident that God has me where he wants me!

I think of the old worship song, ”He gives and takes away. He gives and takes away. My heart will choose to say blessed be your name.” What God has taken from our lives in our trials since the pandemic, he is now giving back, in more ways than a single blog post can convey. I am acutley aware though of all those still waiting for their season of redemption, for the giving, for the rain, for answers to the question of, ”how long Lord?” I hope this small piece of my story can be an encouragement to all those waiting, that he sees us, he sees you, and he will not waste your tears, nor will he wipe them away, but rather I think he saves them to water the new seeds that though you can’t see them yet, are sprouting beneath the surface!

Getting our hands dirty – repairs and renovations begins!

We have gotten good at taking out MM’s boats and enjoying the perks of boat life but now the real work begins! We have started making all the repairs and adjustments to Selah to get her ready for more adventures. Lots of sanding and painting and varnishing are currently taking place, as well as a major repair to the aft (rear) deck of Selah which involved removing the mizzen (again rear) mast.

Rielle prepping for teak sanding and varnishing. Although her brothers prefer to play she likes to be involved in as many projects as she can.

Before and after – our first of many teak restoration projects

Removing the mizzen mast in order to repair the deck beneath it. This was quite the operation and took about seven people to accomplish (side note this dock and all the boats pictured here are owned by MM)

Where the mizzen mast used to be – The top skin of the fiberglass deck is cut open to remove the rotted core. Here again! so thankful for the knowledge of these two men!

Laura (at the top) learns how to climb Selah’s mast from experienced climber Rachel (below). Climbing the mast is often necessary to make repairs to lines and equipment that live up there.

The kids doing playdough inside Selah while mom and dad work on various projects above

Other Happenings

The college was in need of a talent musician to lead worship for their weekeday chapel service, good thing this guy was around. Aaron’s taken on a part time worship leader position here at the college for the fall semester. Its been a great getting to know the staff and students here better! Not wanting to be left out, Laura was also able to give her talents to the college. It didn’t take long for the college to hear of her talents from their new worship guy. Laura (and Rielle too) painted this 6 ft tall, prodigal son, faux stained glass stage decoration for a recent multi-church youth event here on campus.

Aaron and Dan (the head of MM) take the colleges entire college basketball team sailing on Selah for a team-building outting.

We took a long weekend trip to Florida for Aaron to play some shows and to celebrate this guy turning 4 with cousins galore!

We took the kids for a field trip an hour and a half north to Williamsburg, VA to learn some history

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January 19, 2021January 20, 2021

RV Reno – Contrast

The concept of contrast has been a topic i’ve pondered over many times in my life. As an artist contrast is everything. You can’t make a picture without a black line to stand in defiance against a white background. As an art student, you are told that the more contrast a drawing has, the more it will stand out from other drawings. When I thought I was all done with a drawing my teacher would say, “Now go back and make your highlights even brighter and your shadows even darker.”

I can’t help but think about how these lessons in art relate to life. Contrast not only makes for a good picture but also for a good life story. We love to hear about a person who has over come a dark valley to stand in the light shining on the mountain top. We don’t like to see a man kicked down but we find joy in the news that he got back up, more joy than in the man who stood all the while. No one makes movies about the man who always stands, no one remembers him.

But alas, to be the man who has fallen down. To stand in the valley and not see the light or to wonder if we will ever see the light this side of heaven. We all know the movies will have a happy ending, but sometimes for us we are not so sure.

This year has been a valley for our family. Like many many others this pandemic has taken our lives from plan A to plan B, C, D, only to eventually land on plan Q. At the start of 2020 my husband and I were looking to buy our first house. With my husband being self-employed, this was a big deal for us, but when we both lost our jobs to the pandemic we were left to do our best to make lemonade from our lemons. It would take me a few months after we settled into our plan Q to admit to myself how disappointed I was that we could no longer buy a house. Even though it feels petty to say, because I knew people would lose their life to this thing, I often found myself angry at how much the pandemic had taken from me. As ugly or ungrateful as my emotions may have been. I knew the need to be honest with myself that I was upset.

So what does this all have to do with before and after pictures of your RV your asking by now. I want to share with you the contrast of my RV reno, and I hope in a small way it brings you joy. But I was hesitant to share these pictures at times because it adds to the “Hey look at me I posted a cool picture” world we live in, which leaves many of us feeling jealous, left out, or less than.

This is just one contrast of many in my life. One way that God has given me some light in my dark valley. But in other areas of my life I, probably like you, am still in the valley. Waiting on God’s timing to lift me up. I don’t claim to have the strength to rise again, but I live daily by God’s grace. I hang on to my mustard seed of faith and say, “I believe you are good and totally in control God, but help my unbelief!” May my valleys be used to show how great a God I serve!

I’ll close with lyrics from a song by Hillsong (dont worry more RV reno pictures below)

“In the crushing, In the pressing, you are making new wine, In the soil, I now surrender, You are breaking new ground”

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Kitchen Tidbits – Although I told myself I would take good before pictures as soon as we bought the RV, I failed. The one picture below was the only true “before” picture I took. The kitchen photo above was half renovated before I took this picture. At this point I had already painted over all the wall paper and laid new flooring.

This picture was taken the day we moved full-time into our RV, as you can tell from the picture the weather was rainy which delayed our departure. The window coverings in this thing drove me crazy and didn’t even last 24 hours before I got my screwdriver and took them down. Even fully drawn, the original shades covered a good 6 inches of the window. I need me some sun shine!

My curtains we originally white, but then I remember I had three kids…so I painted my white curtains in the design you see above. It was bit of a risk but I loved the end result!

I also reupholstered the couch (which may or may not be held together mostly with hot glue…but hey 6 months in and we are holding strong!) I chose what I have discovered to be the most ideal couch fabric for kids – Faux leather vinyl! This wonderful stuff doesn’t absorb any liquids your kids may spill (or pee) on it!

The faux ship lap wall behind our dining table was actually my husband’s idea. We did not set out to rip out the original banquet but after discovering an active water leak behind the built in benches we came up with this design. My husband also build these benches and found this table for us for only $38 at an antique mall! I hate to admit it, but sometimes his ideas are better than mine!

the end! Go find your own contrast!

-Laura