(Pics: Barbara with Next Wave friends; Barbara, Grace, Me, and Randi (R-L); Italian friends fish dinner; Me eating lil' silver fishies; my plate of fish food!)
Barbara…This is a bit of a crazy, God story.
So one day I meet a girl from a closed communistry country, Barbara, who has come on our boat. I’m wondering, “Well, I haven’t seen her before. How did she get here?” It seems once she walked on, Captain Lehman and Grace were like, “You must stay here.” So Barbara bunked two nights in Randi and my room. Okay, so here’s the back story. Randi and I learned as we chatted with her that night. Barbara was visiting a friend in France who she had met and stayed with during the Olympics. After visiting her friend in France, Barbara didn’t have plans but got on a train south to Italy. Barbara said that she kept being drawn to the water and to boats. When she arrived in Catania, Sicily, she even insisted on finding a place to stay near the sea…the only place (inexpensive also) was a camping/motor park. Once she’s at the park, she sees a motor home with a fish symbol on it, goes to the camper and says that she saw the fish and wonders if they are Christians! They are, and they are my Swedish friends from church. My Swedish friends bring her to the Next Wave, being that it is a boat filled with Christian young people, and a better, cheaper place for her to stay.
Barbara is a Christian in a persecuted, closed communist country (sorry I can't say where)! She went to an international school in this country growing up where her teachers were Christians, unbeknownst to the government, and attended an international church there, where these teachers worshiped. She met Jesus through these “international workers,” who are committed to take the gospel to all the world! Barbara then attended university in the U.S.A. where she was a witness for Christ to other students and her teachers alike. Missionary to the U.S.! Fun, huh…God’s pretty cool at the extraordinary! Barbara felt that God may have led her to the Next Wave, and she’s praying about coming back to the ship either to become short-term crew or attend a DTS (Discipleship Training School). Please keep her in your prayers…she told her parents of her plans, and they seemed okay with it, even though they aren’t Christians.
Another interesting thing about this meeting with Barbara is that my roommate Randi did her DTS outreach in this same closed country for 2 months, so knows some of her language and was able to easily connect with Barbara. And I brought a book about a man from this country who became a Christian and then was persecuted there (in the last 2 decades), and was in the middle of reading it when Barbara came. I felt I should leave this book on the boat for Barbara to read when she comes back (and also Randi) because Barbara doesn’t know all the heritage of what God has done and is doing in her country through the blood and suffering of missionaries and native Christians there. Since I am writing about this, I highly recommend this book (e-mail me for the name if you want to read it). This is the most transformational book I may have ever read, other than the Bible! If you ever think you have it all together as a Christian, this book will destroy you, but also open you up to God’s grace that you can never earn your way into the Father’s embrace. It’s wrecking…I feel like I have less understanding of Christ’s walk for me now, but I also know what God says to me that I do not have to walk in this man's shoes because He created my feet to fill my-sized shoes. God will help us through every situation, scenario possible…through His strength! Amen-cuz I don’t have enough of anything to handle this world, but He does. That’s reassuring.
“When you’re faced with such trials, the key is not to run from them or fight them, but to embrace them as friends. When you dot his you’ll not fail to experience God’s presence and help” (p. 312).
Fish Dinner…
With Francesco, Francesco, Bernardo, Simona…
Two guys that Dustin, Randi, and I met at church wanted to visit the boat. As we were “trying” to speak with them (Francesco knew very little English and Bernardo didn’t know any), we talked about how some of the guy crew loved eating the horse burgers (seriously, horse is like a delicacy here), but these guys were emphatic that we not eat horse because you will be served bad meat, from horses that were injected with a lot of steroids, some are race horses, which would make you really sick and/or “crazy in the head.” Yeah, well, I already knew I don’t eat horse…I had my own horses growing up. But I did try just a bite once, on the street cuz the horse butcher gave it to our group. Yuck. So not into eating my pets! Then I said to the guys, “I haven’t had fish yet, and we live on a boat in the sea, and I love fish.” And they started telling us we have to try fish here because it is so good, “the best,” Sicilians would say! Everything is “the best” in Italy! So they invite us to dinner at their home (I was not trying to coerce a free fish dinner out of them, I promise).
Saturday is the big day, and Dustin along with his wife Kari, Randi, and I are picked up by Francesco, another Francesco, and Simona (our Italian missionary friend to Argentina who speaks perfect English and helps us out even while she is on vacation). It was an amazing dinner of amazing fish and calamari and filled with fellowship by lovers of Jesus! Another reason why I love Italian families and hospitality! You feel like you have entered in and always been a part of their family!
I have become quite comfortable here, making this home, to some degree. One of the leaders remarked that she appreciated how I really take ownership of the boat and ministry, that I act like I am going to be here for 2 years, even when I am leaving in a few days. I sincerely appreciate her encouragement. I hope this is a strength of mine—adapting to new situations, learning from it, and hopefully, contributing to it.
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