Far Side of the World

So much has happened in the past weeks.  I hardly know where to begin.  I realize that I often say that, but it’s true every time.  So much happens on Next Wave and this is such an intensive environment that people say that one year hear is equivalent to five years elsewhere.  So my reason for saying that a lot has happened here is due to the fact that if I haven’t written in a month, about as much as five months worth of stuff has happened.  It’s enough to wear one out quite quickly unless you embrace being flexible and just flow with the general well being of Next Wave. 

I could write a lengthy entry about how exhausted I am, but I would rather not put you to sleep in your seats.  To generally explain, I guess one can never quite know what to expect when facing the unknown.  I thought that I knew what to expect when we were preparing for DTS.  I thought that it would be hard, yes. I thought that it would take a lot of time and a lot of energy.  But what I didn’t know was how much time and energy I was able to give.  And, therefore, exactly how tired I am capable of becoming.  It reminds me of the story, The Horse and His Boy.  When Brea was running ahead of the enemy army going as fast as he thought he could.  Then a lion starts to chase him and he realizes that he wasn’t going quite so fast as he actually could.  That is the difference that I feel between anticipating DTS and actually staffing it. 

Something that a wise person said to me once was this, “Rather than stepping out of your comfort zone, try to broaden and deepen it and make it bigger.”   Well, I think that to make my comfort zone bigger I need to step out of it first, and then claim it.  I’ve been doing a lot of this in the past two years (well, just about two years), since my DTS.  I think that it’s one of the things that I most love about living in community.  Constantly I am held accountable to invest into the people around me—even if it means speaking up more than I am comfortable with or being more noticeable.  This is not just for my benefit, as I once thought, but also very importantly the benefit of everyone around me.  If I hold back, I am not only holding back from myself, but also holding back from lifting up, challenging and supporting my shipmates.  It makes me wonder what life would be like if we all lived this way—whether we live in community or not.  And in truth, the church is community.  Community isn’t defined by, “people that live in the same building or ship”. It’s a group of people dedicated to love each other.  That is the very essence of church.  Life here is challenging me a lot. 

The school began in Syracussa, a city in southern Sicily.  After spending a month there we sailed to St. Paul’s Bay in Malta.  We were anchored for a week in the bay that, according to legend, Paul was shipwrecked on.  Then we sailed a few hours North to Gozo Island.  We anchored in a natural harbour.  Crystal-clear water and jellyfish the size of dinner plates invited us to dive in.  We worshiped in a sea-cave by candlelight.  Then sailed two days and a night to Palarmo, North Sicily.  This was our first storm with the school on board.  It was fan-tastic!  I love storms when they push us towards our destination!  Everyone loved the sail despite empty stomachs and flying pots and pans in the galley.  We sailed past islands that looked right out of a fantasy movie, lighthouses and an island monastery.  We have amazing contacts in Palarmo.  The church there owns a home that previously belonged to the Mafia.  No joke.  We were blessed to be able to stay in a three-story beachfront villa over looking the Sicilian mountains and fishing coastline villages.  After spending a week there we had a three-day sail to the French island of Corsica.  Storm number 2.  This one was bigger though.  It was a force 7, if that means anything to you.  Sea conditions are rated between 1 and 12.  1 being glassy and 12 being a hurricane.  The weather turned and began hitting us from the bow.  This means that we were traveling 1.5 knots an hour.  That’s slower than walking speed.  We faced huge troughs of sea and swell and spray.  Needless to say it was hard to find someone not seasick that sail. Then we heard a sound that is possibly the worse sound in the world, the sound of a sail ripping.  There was too much wind for our canvas.  Our sails have been patched and re-patched, and the staysail just couldn’t take it.    We very much needed a port of refuge.  The port we were close to wouldn’t answer the radio.  We decided to go in anyways.  This was the port of Propriano, Corsica.  Absolutely breath-taking.  Huge, green rolling mountains tumbled right into the sea.  Lined with white sand beaches and sandy-coloured rocks. Little French villages nestled themselves in nooks in the mountains and shoreline.  They smell like French begets and croissants.  Beautiful, warm people.  The harbour master there was incredibly good to us and gave us the port for free.   It was hard to leave.  After a week in Corsica we traveled three days west to Palamos, Spain (near Barcelona).  This was a beautiful sail and redeeming to the seasick people aboard.  Gorgeous weather with a wind at our backs.  All our two sails up (no… I’m not bitter).  And the best part is………….at 7 am Ben and Grace came yelling into my room.  They shook me awake and dragged me upstairs.  It was difficult to understand what they were saying because I had just been up 2-5 am on watch.  Then it clicked.  They were telling me that there was a whale out side!  WOW!  I have prayed before every sail we’ve taken since February to see a whale at sea. And now on my last sail on Next Wave…God gave it to me.  =)  Maybe it sounds selfish, but I feel like it was just for me.  Like God was waiting and waiting until the last minute to say, “I love you, Tasha! See, there’s a whale!  I waited a long time to show you this because I wanted it to mean something to you.  To have value.  Love you.”  I still can’t get over it.  We are in Spain now, as I mentioned and will be here for the next month and a half.  Planning for out reach is coming along slowly.  I have never done anything like this, so I am learning a lot.   I have something else exciting to mention before I bring this blog to a close.  Matt, one of the crew from Vancouver-ish area, and I are dating.  =)  Which leads to more learning…dating in an intensive community setting.  And I am loving it! 

I think that’s about all for now.  There is so much that I can write here, but I think that I will save some stories for when I am home. 

P.S. Thank you to anyone who was praying for us this past week.  During the sail the engine was acting up very badly.  Then at 02:30 on the second night the engine cut out completely.  It’s spooky being in the open sea and the ship all quiet.  Our engineers are heros—they gave up so much sleep.  I’m not really sure how it got fixed apart from prayers, but we eventually got going again after a few hours.  Please don’t stop praying!