When one stage of your journey is over, another begins
The 2nd month mark of this school has come and gone; 5 days ago to be exact. As such, our focus now turns to the final weeks remaining of this journey where our time will be filled with preparations for the exam to come, which will complete this chapter.
With this now in the forefront, you can imagine that all the time leading up to where we are now has been quite a busy one. For certain, busy is the appropriate word, though joy and new friendships made are proper ways to describe the time as well.
Our days on board have become a regular, but good routine. With vessels always needing work and maintenance, our mornings are well spent on various tasks around the vessel, from polishing, to fixing the rigging. In the afternoons we turn to our studies. Weekends are given as time to relax a little, with the choice of sleeping in for those desiring it, and swimming in the afternoons for those feeling adventurous.
What has made the last couple weeks even more enjoyable has been a couple YWAM outreach teams that came to serve the island, and were housed onboard for the duration of their stay. They stayed over 3 weeks; friendships were formed in the typical YWAM fashion; living with a group of young people who are all on fire for God, brings some surprising strong and cherished friendships over such a short period of time. Right from the beginning they were a blessing to have, and we were sorry to have to see them off. Shout-out to Paris Central!
Looking forward, our next week and a half will consist of final reviews and practice exams before we take our final RYA day skipper exam a week into the month of June, followed by a week of debrief. Then our final day, June 15 will arrive, and this leg of the journey will be complete. As such, these are a few prayer requests I would ask you to join me in:
– Pray for the exams, that we would be able to retain all that we have learnt up to this point, and go into the exam with peace and confidence.
– Smooth transitions from the learning to the serving. Once this is complete I will be returning to this vessel the beginning of August to start serving the ship as crew through the next couple months till their Blue Water DTS heads off on outreach. The complete picture of what my serving will be is still not clear to me, though there is a good portion I do know of.
The ship will be stationary for the duration of the winter, from October to March. During this time, the ship is handed over to YWAM Lesvos to run their refugee DTS. Once March comes back around, the vessel will start getting ready for the summer sailing, and next years Blue Water DTS, SONS school, and Bible school trips.
What God is to have me do during the ships stationary months is still not clear. There are a couple options, though nothing I can speak of with confidence, so prayer for guidance in this matter would be appreciated.
– As mentioned above, the Blue Water DTS is back after having been dormant for the last 2 years. This school starts in July, and the vision for this school by the staff is to have at least 12 students join. It is the number God gave them, so I ask you to join them in prayer for the school to come to its fullest, in students and in the next 6 months they will spend sailing, studying and growing deeper in their relationship with our God.
– Flights home. Yes I realize that I have left this quite late, but I am finally getting around to look at return flights, so prayer for cheap travel home would be lovely, as summer costs can be quite high.
For those receiving this update on the beautiful west coast of Canada, expect my return sometime within the last couple weeks of June. I will be at home doing some preparation for returning here to Lesvos, a little bit of work and diving hopefully, and also meeting with friends and family. If anyone wishes to meet up for coffee, (you can drink coffee, I won’t be), ask about what I’m doing or just spend some time chilling in fellowship together, just let me know and we can figure something out. I hope to have a night were I can invite everyone out to share more in depth what my life over the next couple years will look like.
Until next time,
Yours truly.
Joshua