OUR APPEAL
Our first and most important appeal to you is for prayer support! Prayer for the success of our mission, that we carry God's Word and Kingdom forward above all else.
For us personally: For wisdom and understanding. For compassion and love for every single person we meet. For our hearts to never waver; for determination and commitment to do the Lord’s will, no matter what. For insight in ministry situations and in different cultures and beliefs. For finances to carry out God’s work, and to keep the boat and ourselves sound, safe and healthy.
For the souls we meet: that they be touched by the love of Jesus Christ; that seeds be planted; that understanding grow; that relationships with God be introduced and increased; and that when we depat we leave behind us a solid foundation that will be followed through.
For our health, that the Lord bless us with long days and strength of body, to serve Him at our best.
For the logistical success, stability, provision and safety of our equipment and boat. Please pray fervently for all of the items listed below, or if you feel drawn by one or another in particular, please make that your prayer focus. For the provision of our needs, and the upkeep of the equipment that we do have.
(Praise note: already the Lord is answering prayers, and some of the equipment originally listed has been purchased. Thank you all for your powerful intercession on our behalf!)
Although asking for financial support goes hugely against the grain on a personal level, we know that the Lord is our real Source, and as a dear friend pointed out, making an appeal for sponsors and donations should not be above us (in fact, we probably should have done this ages ago!). So we must bury our pride in humility, lay out the facts, and let God move from there to supply our needs in whichever way He chooses - through our work, or by other means. "Pray that I might have the grace to let you be my servant, too!"
Due to our intense period of working to get the boat ready to sail, neither of us has had time to bring in other income. Yet there are many more things that we should fix, have, or carry, and these are the areas in which we are trusting the Lord to find the finances - either through bringing in work for us, or through - maybe, you! Perhaps the Lord has a particular role for you in this mission.
CHRISTIAN MATERIALS:
We have been given a supply of Gospels and tracts to carry with us, and I am able to print out our own tracts, bookmarks, and other materials for handing out. Donations towards ink cartridges, paper, and laminating pockets would be gratefully received! (Our grateful thanks to the Richards Bay Methodist Church for their support with finances for this.) - If you prefer to give us ready-printed materials, please bear in mind that you will need to ship them to our next destination each time, as we do not have a lot of cargo space on the boat. If your desire is to supply Bibles or other literature, you can specify what your donations should be used for. Such money will allow us to purchase in the countries we visit, in their languages, or organising a supply via a mission organisation within those countries that we can collect from, would probably be the best way to go. Bless you for being an enabler!
Note: if you are a missionary or other Christian organisation with specific needs in any of the areas we sail to, please contact us. We would love to serve you, however the Lord leads us! Our first plans are to stop at Mayotte (part of the Comoros Islands), which is a good first leg to get our sealegs back, then probably the East Coast of Africa (Tanzanizia and Kenya), then across the Indian Ocean to Sri Lanka and then Thailand and Malaysia. But all this is up to God; we will go, and trust Him to lead us. He has already redirected us to stop first in Comoros; we had not planned it, but He always has a reason for changing our direction. Amen!
THE BOAT AND EQUIPMENT:
Our boat was built in 1981, and to our knowledge has had little or no major maintenance (i.e. to rigging etc) since then. She was raced in Cape Town, including a Rio trip, under the name Spot On. In the mid-80's she was renamed Chamchela and taken up to Zanzibar for charter trips around the islands. In 1990 she came down to Durban to be
sold. She already needed work then.
We bought her in March 1991, intending to sell our house and renovate her over a two year period and then leave, but that didn't happen due to a financial crash. I guess the Lord didn't think we were ready just then, and He was right as usual, LOL! We began intermittent work on her 4 years ago (including her engine rebuild), and continuous work began in February 2005 when we moved to Richards Bay. With Andrew working alone for the most part, with some help from Shane Braun, this has taken a lot more time and thus far more finances than we had budgeted for (especially in mooring and club fees, and living expenses), and I also had to have unexpected surgery to remove a cancerous lump (we have no medical aid, so this was cash) - thus our budget was circumstantially eaten into. Now at the point where we feel we are able to begin our sailing and mission, Chamchela is seaworthy but we still lack in many departments.
We have been able to do the basics, but things we haven't been able to buy or do include the following:
SAFETY FEATURES:
These are all features that good seamanship requires be kept in the best condition possible.
A liferaft. We have a rubber dinghy and a grab bag of emergency items, but many countries we visit have legislation requiring a life raft, and although these are not normally insisted upon for visiting yachts, it does make common sense to have one and will make our way smoother with officials, too. Satan prowls like a roaring lion, seeking to devour ... we should not leave chinks for him to enter.
Our standing rigging is now probably 25 years old. It looks fine to the eye, but ideally it should have been professionally checked every ten years or so to ensure its integrity, and that there is no rust inside. To our knowledge, this is still the original rigging from 1981 and has never been tested.
A stack pack or lazy jack. Our sail cover is about 10 years old and the tropical sun has all but destroyed it. Tears and gaping holes have appeared. The sail cover protects our mainsail from the UV rays of the sun, so it's an essential piece of equipment. Our mainsail required a lot of repair work when we uncovered it. However, we have a huge mainsail and really should have a proper stack pack - or failing that, a new sail cover and a lazy-jack (a system of ropes that roughly encloses the mainsail, so that when the sail is dropped it comes down to the boom in a controlled fashion instead of flailing off sideways in the wind - which can be a dangerous situation in bad weather.)
Our mainsail has been patched before, and we have just had it patched again, very cheaply by hand (yes, I do intend to learn to sew, just as soon as we have the time and a machine, LOL!). The sailcloth itself still is flexible and in reasonable condition, but it can only be mended just so much before it gives in. To have it professionally repaired and the leech replaced would be wonderful - or better still to have a new mainsail would be ideal. Sponsors of a new mainsail could have their name blazened across it!
(ANCHOR PRAISE: We now have a "Chinese Bruce" anchor and a good length of anchor chain; thank you!)
(WINDLASS PRAISE: Andrew has rebuilt our windlass and windlass position, with the help of Bernie and generosity of Simon off Ahoy!. Thank you guys!)
New liferings ("horse shoes"). Ours are very old, and we question their ability to hold someone up in the water!
Like all boats, ours generally is in need of continued renovation and maintenance to keep her safe. All this requires ongoing finance.
FEATURES FOR MORE COMFORT:
There are many other features that would improve our comfort (and, I suppose, therefore our safety), both during actual sailing and for our daily living, but these are not absolute necessities:
An alternative source of power to keep our batteries topped up and our refrigerator working. Currently we run the engine once a day to do this, but if the engine fails we are without power. We are in need of a wind generator, or solar panels, and the rollbar to hold such equipment on the stern of the boat. We are currently negotiating for a second-hand rollbar, which we need funds to have re-shaped to fit correctly on our own boat. Ideally a new one, made for our boat, would be better. (PRAISE REPORT: We have a windlass! It's a very old Rutland, but it works, and was sold to us at a good price by Des and Sue. Marnie did the stainless steel work, building the pole to hold it as well as the fiddles for our stove, very reasonably priced, too. Thanks, to all of them, and to the Lord!)
More protection in the cockpit - we currently have a new spray dodger, but this only covers the front end of the cockpit. The centre and the steering position itself are totally exposed. We would envisage needing a steel frame covered with canvas or PVC, that can be rolled up at the sides, creating a soft-top "doghouse" for protection during bad weather. (If we can get an equipment rollbar, that would automatically form part of the structure.) Ideally this "cave" should reach from the spray dodger back to behind the steering position. Most of the time our Hydrovane self-steering will point the boat, but we will need to be in the cockpit on watch at least every 15 minutes even when we aren't at the helm ourselves.
A new awning, to protect the boat when at anchor from the tropical sun's heat, and give protection from the rain. Awnings make a HUGE difference to the conditions below. The unshaded heat creates a sauna below decks, which also degrades our foodstuffs, medications, toiletries, etc. Our current awning is a tarpaulin that was given to us by our friends Larry
and Tracey on Freedom,
but the glue is now coming apart and several seams have parted company, never to return ...
A hand-operated sewing machine that will handle canvas work, so that repairs to the sails, canvas and other items can be done by ourselves.
Insect screens for the hatches, to help guard against malaria mosquitos and other nasties.
Lee cloths, which tie to the lifelines along the length of the cockpit and help shield us from the wind and spray.
Wind chutes, canvas shapes which channel cool breezes via the hatches down to the living area below when we aren't sailing. This saves not only our comfort zones, but also our foodstuffs, medications, etc.
Hatch covers, canvas covers which protect our hatches and what's below (inside) from the effects of the tropical sun.
Non-slip for the decks. In wet weather, a slippery deck is dangerous. Our decks have a special industrial-type nonslip - little diamonds cut into a rubber material. We have found this to be the most effective non-slip we've experienced on any boat. After 25 years of exposure to the sun, it is rather the worse for wear. It is still safe in most places, but should be renewed soon.
Provisioning: As I am currently battling a diabetic problem (and trusting the Lord to fix it in His time), provisioning is not as simple as for most sailors. I cannot eat starches in any quantity, thus the usual stalwarts of rice, potatoes, pasta and beans are not possible for me. My diet requires high protein and fresh vegetables, and some fruits, if I am to avoid having to go onto Insulin treatment. This means we need to do short legs between stops to provision, and it also means more cost than for most people. We will be catching fish as often as possible, and we are trying to nurture a small vegetable garden on the boat, and growing sprouts. But gifts towards our food (and medication) budget would be very gratefully received.
A Canning Cooker (specialised pressure cooker for preserving), and glass preserving jars. This would enable us to bottle our own pre-prepared meals, which would save us money and allow us to prepare canned food in a healthy way.
This list will no doubt be added to and subtracted from as we go along.
If you would like to contribute in any way to our mission equipment or finances, please click here.
©2006 Maverick Ultra-Media and ChristLight.org
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