Merry CHRISTmas 2008 and 2009Dear Family and Friends, finally a Maas update!!
Amazingly, 2008 has come and gone. (All right about a year ago!) We pray that YOUR 2008 was a time of new or continued growth in our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Messiah, the Savior, the Son of the Living God. There is no other god above Him. PRAISE YOU, JESUS!
Because of Jesus and His love for us, we continue to volunteer full-time with Friend Ships located in Lake Charles, Louisiana. In 2008, Friend Ships deployed us and many other crewmembers to 3 different locations.
In April Steve was deployed with an all male crew to bring a donated houseboat from east Louisiana to west Louisiana (Lake Charles). It was a Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn adventure! Below he is pushing the houseboat with another boat on his right, which is also pushing the houseboat. Left: the motorless houseboat.
Our first deployment together was to Nevis, West Indies where we helped behind the scenes with a 5-day medical outreach. We left Port Mercy/Lake Charles Sunday morning on May 4th and arrived in Nevis Wednesday morning, May 14th. Several days later, medical personnel began arriving and on Tuesday, May 20th, the medical clinics were open and ready to serve.The site set up was stunning and over 1,970
patients were seen during the 5-day outreach. During the day children watched puppet shows, were taught Bible stories, jumped on the trampolines or in the bounce house. (We even took a turn jumping in the colorful bounce house!) The adults listened to educational lessons, preaching and watched God’s Story and Jesus films. Evening services were held and salvations were many—Praise the Lord!
We were part of the guest workers support unit meaning that we dealt with the doctors and nurses and stayed on the ship. We did not have interaction with patients or the people of Nevis, which was a let down in a way. But it taught us that if we say we are servants; we are a servant to all. It also taught that we do not have to have the glory of seeing people come to Christ knowing that we are the ones who are keeping the ground fertile. . .BUT as you can see, it wasn’t all work and no play!
Steve kept busy loading or unloading people from boats and the helicopter. He also kept two young men occupied as they worked together in the engine room repairing a generator, keepingthe watermaker going and doing fix-it jobs. He ferried our crew and guests by boat several times, but that was not his favorite job.
Steve made a memorable impression on our helicopter pilot
when he “dropped off” the pilot at the Nevis dock. He had a little problem of having the boat in reverse, so the pilot was left hanging on the dock railing. The pilot couldn’t get a foothold, so had to let go and went under in the 7-10 foot blue Caribbean ocean. He commented, “Don’t ask Steve to drop you off because that is what he will do!” (The pilot was a great sport throughout all this!)Debbie worked in the ship office and supe
rvised the domestics. She had a wonderful team with everyone doing an outstanding job. She prepared a lot of paperwork such as the Billet and Muster lists, which are necessary for everyone to know what he or she needs to do in the event of an emergency. She also prepared the necessary papers needed for the arrivals at Nevis and USA including crew effects and ship stores, plus did announcements, schedules, etc. When the guests arrived, starting May 17, she greeted them and helped them get accustomed to ship safety and living.
We sailed from Nevis Wednesday evening at 7:30
on May 28th and arrived at Port Mercy on Friday, June 6th. It was a very successful and beneficial medical outreach with the people being very grateful.
A Couple of Cool Dudes! (Returning from Nevis on MV Hope)
. . .AND THE HEAVENS SHALL DECLARE THE LORD'S GLORY. . .
Our next deployment took place on Sunday, August 10th. We left with 8 other crewmembers, driving 3 vehicles all pulling trailers, bound for our facility in Wilmington, California near Los Angeles. We, along with our Capt., were in a semi truck the entire 3-day trip.
The Wilmington facility has seen 56 million pounds of food come in and go out. The 7 weeks that we were there over 32,000 pounds of food was donated. God is such a faithful provider!!
Our crew was basically divided into a “warehouse” crew and a “boat” crew with some overlap of duties as needed. The “boat” team worked on a donated yacht, which will be used to minister to pastors in the Caribbean islands. They were getting her seaworthy, adding many beautiful touches to the interior of the ship, and getting engines up and running. The “warehouse” team did the office, phones, receiving and disbursing donations, cooking, and laundry plus the outside work of keeping things running or getting them to run, etc. At various times, Steve was part of both crews. Debbie was in the office.
The original plan was that after the yacht was finished we would head to Seattle where another donated ship (MV Integrity) was awaiting work to be done on her. Eventually, we would bring both of these vessels thru the Panama Canal and back to Lake Charles. Right: the yacht being lifted for dry dock.
However, on August 30th, Steve was flown to Port Mercy (Lake Charles) because of the threat of Hurricane Gustav. We received no damage, praise God, but Hurricane Ike was a different story; we had considerable flooding. Normally, the area where the people are walking is dry, but here they are in waist high water. Some damage occurred in several crewmembers’ trailers and also water was in the warehouses, but it didn’t get above the pallets, so most everything was safe. Crew and invited guests stayed on our two disaster response vessels, MV Hope and MV Mersea, while the storms raged. Steve was the only engineer and since both ships were in use, he was busy!
Also the houseboat broke loose, but Steve and Captain were eventually able to get her back to our dock. Debbie was very grateful when Steve flew back to Wilmington September 20th. By then the decision was made to respond to the Galveston, Texas mayor’s invitation and give aid to those who were hit by Hurricane Ike. (Right: Steve's hair-do after getting the houseboat back to dock. . . . . .lots of wind!)Our third deployment began on October 1st when we left California and headed to Lake Charles arriving in the wee hours of Friday morning, the 3rd. Preparing the Hope and Mersea for sailing
was the first assignment; however, the Hope had a computer problem and had to stay behind for 9 days.We were part of the crew that brought the Mersea to Galveston on October 8. (Debbie's first time as helmsman!) By the next evening, we fed hundreds of people between 3:00-6:00 p.m. That was just the beginning; by the end of our stay we had fed thousands, up to 2000 per day! The menu was chicken or ribs, mashed potatoes or rice, veggie, fruit, candy and drinks. Days were long starting at 6:30 a.m. with Morning Refreshing (our corporate devotions) and ending anywhere between 8:00-11:59 p.m.
Friend Ships' dining café, called “From Jesus with Love,” was a great place for people to relax, sit down and enjoy a home-cooked hot meal. It was also a great place to be introduced to the Lord Jesus Christ. Friend Ships became acquainted with the Billy Graham Evangelical Association Rapid Response Team and these Chaplains came to our tent every evening to minister to the hurting people. They were another Godsend since it took all of our energy and time to prepare and serve the meals. These folks were available to visit with the people, listen, share about Christ, and pray with them. With statistics from the BGEA starting October 31 and ending on November 20, the following were touched: 822 people were prayed for, 30 people made first time decisions (which included a family of 10!), 13 people rededicated their lives, and 9 people prayed a prayer of assurance. Other stats included over 60,000 hot meals distributed plus the uncounted ready to eat meals and drinks that went out each night; 58 houses were either gutted, had contents removed, or yard work done including a church; 92 people stayed aboard the ships with 50-100 people serving as day workers, plus 35 Billy Graham Chaplains were housed on board.Steve was busy keeping the generators going and once Hope arrived, connecting the two ships together with power via one set of generators. There was also the usual maintenance on the ships plus fueling and keeping the reefer trailers, forklift, cars and trucks going. He was called to the site several times to get propane burners to light or the power washer, bobcat, etc. running.
Debbie was thrilled when Hope pulled in on October 17th because she had 35 people to house arriving the next day! The empty cabins on the Hope were put to immediate use! Again, she greeted guests and helped them adjust to ship life.
We returned with the Mersea on Tuesday, November 25, at 9:30 p.m., worked one day and then had 4 days off—a very lovely time to relax and catch up on sleep. The next week we were once again privileged to attend the International WorkBoat Show in New Orleans.
In December we had our monthly vacation and headed to Wyoming to visit Stephanie and grandson, Brody, Debbie’s parents and brothers and drove to Newcastle to visit with Jason. Then we flew to New York and visited with Glenn, Sonja, Caleb, Hannah, Lydia, and Abigail.
Stephanie returned to school full time at the local community college in Cheyenne studing multi-media and continued to work full time as a retail associate at Sierra Trading Post. She and Brody went to Maine for a friend’s wedding and then to New York to visit Glenn, Sonja and the cousins (Caleb, Hannah, Lydia, and Abigail) plus visited Aunt Kendra during the Balloon Festival in Albuquerque with Grandma and Grandpa Reynolds.
Kendra and Doug lived in Albuquerque while Kendra finished getting her Ph. D. She finished her dissertation in October and defended in November. Doug worked on several archaeological projects in Nevada, California, Oregon and Idaho from May to December.
Glenn and Sonja, Caleb, Hannah, Lydia and Abigail were in Rochester, New York in 2008. Glenn worked at Highland Hospital, a few blocks away from their home. They enjoyed Highland Park, which was across the street from their apartment and a great place to go sledding. They also enjoyed the Strong Museum of Play, the library, and activities at church including Small Group and AWANA. They had visits from Stephanie and Brody and us. On a sad note, Sonja's Dad passed away. Note the creative picture: Hannah, far right, is the only person who is not a reflection from a mirror while everyone else is looking at mirrors.
Jason is doing good.
It was great to visit
him over a weekend.
him over a weekend.
THE GRANDKIDS!!
Hopefully our 2009 CHRISTmas letter will be posted soon!
We love you all! And love to hear from you, too. (However, we greatly dislike forwards!)
Have a very Merry CHRISTmas!
Blessings from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Baby who was born to die on a cross for our sin, Steve and Debbie
