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"At Thy word, I will..."
Dear friends and family,
We trust that your new year has brought new opportunities to your lives and of course it's brought new challenges as well. Through trust, we build faith and through relationships, love grows. As we face the challenges of life, Charlotte and I trust in the calling that we have been given. In Luke 5:4-5, Jesus tells his disciples “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch…” and Peter answered, “Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.” Peter lowers the net and caught an abundance of fish. In his book Sailing With Jesus, Paul Chappell states, “Jesus calls his disciples to launch out. If we will pull up our anchor and untie our rope from the dock, it is still possible to be part of a great work of God.” To paraphrase Peter’s answer, because you say so, I will!
Peter’s trust in Jesus grew his faith. George Mueller, a Christian evangelist and Director of the Ashley Down orphanage in Bristol, England in the early 19th century, who cared for 10,024 orphans in his life, said it well, “There is no glory for God in what is humanly possible. Faith begins where man’s power ends.” With Mueller’s life of faith, he loved the orphaned children. Amazing Grace Maritime Missions (AGMM) seeks to share the gospel with the people in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico through medical and dental clinics on our ship, named Amazing Grace.
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Through our faith, God answered our prayer for someone to captain our vessel. In January, we met with Captain Ed Payne and his wife Marguerite. Captain Ed is a retired Master Mariner who served on several Mercy Ships and YWAM Ships vessels in the last 25 years or so throughout Europe’s Mediterranean Sea, Caribbean Sea and the South Pacific. They attended our gala last September and with much prayer he offered to help captain our ship. Furthermore, when Charlotte completed the Navigation and Seamanship course last fall, she learned that our ship requires a full firefighting complement of fire pump, hoses, firefighting suites and SCBA gear for fire safety. Capt. Ed generously offered to provide a fire pump and hoses, another answer to prayer.
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As we continue to pray and plan for our ministry, one of our greatest supporters provided a wonderful cabin at Bass Lake where we focused on articulating the value proposition of Amazing Grace Maritime Mission: Sharing the gospel through ships by providing medical and dental clinics as well as opportunities for our youth here in the States to experience the Mexican culture through serving youth group events at the local churches is our value proposition. A couple of weeks later, we presented it to a youth group who became excited about maritime missions.
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Also, as part of our fund raising strategy, we can accept used smart phones, cars, boats, airplanes, as well as, unused gift cards and corporate stocks on our website via iDonate.com. Through iDonate.com, they will contact donors to arrange for pickup of the used vehicle and haul it away. AGMM will receive the proceeds from the donated vehicles and other non-cash donations.
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As we prepare for dry docking, we began building relationships with a couple of shipyards in the San Francisco Bay. We met with folks from one shipyard in Alameda and another in Sausalito. They are both commercial shipyards that can haul out our 155 ton ship. We also began preparing the engines so that we can do sea trials. Our good friend Robert Hadley, a Chief Engineer for the Oakland Coliseum and the Warrior’s Oracle Arena, who we’ve known for the past 8 years through our homeschool group, volunteered his time with maintaining the ship’s engines. We were able to analyze the diesel fuel and clean out the Racor fuel filtration system as well as starting up the engines. Please pray for a ship’s engineer for our trip to the shipyard and Mexico.
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We continue to build our relationship with YWAM Mazatlán who started their first ship’s Discipleship Training School at the beginning of this year. At the end of their training, the students will serve two months on the motor vessel Pacific Link, a 125ft steel hull trawler, in Papua New Guinea. When Amazing Grace makes it to Mazatlán, we will be hosting these students aboard the ship and cruise the Sea of Cortez. Through these relationships, we have fallen in love with the Mexican people. We also have experienced Christ’s love through his provisions and through your support. We look forward to launching out because "at thy word, we will."
Faithfully,
Zeus & Charlotte
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