Year 2006--Part 2

We recently celebrated Good Friday. What was "good" about having crucified Jesus? Why did He have to die? He died because it was God’s incredible solution for the "Worst Day Ever." The “Worst Day Ever” when Adam and Eve turned their backs on fellowship with God and eternal life. For just as through the disobedience of the one man (Adam) the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man (Jesus) the many will be made righteous. Jesus Christ died instead of us. He willingly died as the sacrificial Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. Our sin. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. It was not only "Good" Friday, but actually should be called "Best Friday" because God gave us the gift of eternal life thru Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. For God so loved your name that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. It is because of Jesus' death and resurrection that we have such great hope. Easter Sunday should be called the "Best Day Ever."

Have a joyous Resurrection Sunday, filled with hope and new life in Jesus!

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!!!













Dear Family and Friends—Welcome back for the rest of our 2006 Update!!

In August, we traveled to Alaska with Debbie’s Dad. We met Dad in Denver and flew to Anchorage. It was a beautiful trip, going by train from Anchorage to Seward then traveling by catamaran in the Kenai Fjords seeing glaciers and their calvings, waterfalls, mountains, stellar sea lions, otters, birds, bald eagles, and lots of seals on the ice flows by a glacier; plus we visited Sea Life and saw birds flying UNDER water! We visited Talkeetna, but Mt. McKinley was clouded over, then took a bus tour for 13 hours in the Denali National Park. God’s creation is so awesome! We saw 3 grizzly bears with a mama and her cub almost within touching distance, plus caribou, moose and her calf, golden eagle, ptarmigan, artic squirrels, and Tiger trees, which look like scrawny sticks with pine needles and are very old. We trained from Denali to Fairbanks and spent most of our time in the dome car enjoying the scenery. Then for 3 days we were in a 12-passenger van with a total of 9 sightseers and 1 guide, driving along the Alaskan pipeline. We drove through some more amazing country side, including the crossing of the Yukon River on our way to Cold Foot, which took
12 hours. We took a 10-passenger airplane flight to Anaktubuk Pass Village—the most inland Eskimo village of Alaska. Our Eskimo guides opened up their new and old churches for us to see and sang “Amazing Grace” in their native tongue. Everything was wonderful! The next day we drove 12½ hours to Dead Horse, better known as Prudhoe Bay. We toured the oil fields and stood by the Artic Ocean then flew back to Fairbanks in less than 3 hours. We rounded off our tour with a stern wheel boat trip, an Athabascan Eskimo village tour, and a dog training session. On our own, we drove to North Pole attending church with friends of Dad’s and fellowshipping with them over their home cooked lunch. On our final day we visited the University of Alaska Fairbanks museum and then drove to Chena Hot Springs where we enjoyed the hot pool and Dad enjoyed their thermal heated greenhouse tour along with other thermal energy features. All of us enjoyed the Chena Ice House Museum where EVERYTHING was carved from ice, but we weren’t persuaded to spend a night in one of the ice beds at $500 each and temperatures of 20º!! AND coming back we saw Mt. McKinley!! We then flew to Portland OR and visited Debbie’s little brother and wife for a few days and on to Cheyenne and played with Brody and visited with Stephanie, Debbie’s step-Mom, and older brother and family. We had such a wonderful vacation with Dad and seeing our family!


When we arrived back at Port Mercy (Lake Charles LA) the end of August, the Spirit of Grace sailed 2 days later with a crew of 42 (including 2 children) to the great nation of Israel. We were privileged to keep the home fires burning this time and be prayer warriors for our sailing crew as they were while we were in Haiti. They delivered 5,000 cubic tons of medical supplies, bedding, linens, paper products, clothing, furniture, hygiene necessities, school supplies, building materials and more. These goods were received and distributed by Joseph Project, a wonderful humanitarian aid organization that works through a network of agencies throughout Israel that help those in need. Among the people that received help were war victims, new immigrants from many countries, terror victims, Arab families in need, the elderly, handicapped, orphans and the homeless. The Spirit of Grace crew was gone from September 2 to January 2 with 40 days spent in Ashdod and 83 days at sea. We had quite a celebration upon their arrival home!! For more info, log on at www.friendships.org
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Regular work continued for Steve as he was kept busy keeping the John Deere backhoe, golf carts, forklifts, International flatbed truck, Bantam crane, vans, crew’s cars, Kenworth semi truck, lawn mowers, and skid loader running. He also flew to Orlando FL with Friend Ships Director Don Tipton to bring back an RV. They had quite an adventure; Steve keeping the RV running on the 4-day trip home and Don driving it. Plus in 1½ hours Steve helped the warehouse crew load a 20’ container with food, rice, and mattresses donated to another ministry and bound for Haiti.


Debbie’s supervisor sailed to Israel, so while she was gone, it was a busy time. Debbie received a donation of water maker filters for the Spirit of Grace and got a full refund from DHL by filing for a ‘delivery date failed’—both were answers to prayer and such blessings! Another big project was preparing for the International WorkBoat Show, held in New Orleans, which included asking for donations of lodging, preparing Friend Ships online advertisement and attending the actual show to meet and thank the many companies who donate to us. She also received a “YES” donation from Princess Cruises to ship supplies from Galveston to Roatán. Thank you, Jesus!!

It was great that Deb’s Mom and step-Dad visited for a week in early November. Debbie and Mom (Ruth) worked in the office together and Earl and Steve worked in the yard.

December 4th, a gift from our Iowa friends was delivered—a 28-foot, 5th wheel trailer with a slide out. It needs some minor work, but it doesn’t leak! We moved in January 14th and are enjoying it tremendously!



So many highlights this year with the Haiti Medical Outreach, Alaska trip, Deb’s parents visiting, a new home, but the biggest has got to be that ALL of our kids came to Port Mercy for Christmas!! IT WAS SO WONDERFUL!! (Picture on the good ship Hope—Top row, l-r: Stephanie and Brody, Sonja and Lydia, Jason, Kendra, Doug, Steve. Bottom row, l-r: Hannah, Debbie and Abigail, Caleb, Glenn.)


Glenn, Sonja and the kids were here from the 18th-3rd, so they got to see the Grace came home. Stephanie, Jason and Brody were here from the 23rd-27th and had to drive because the Denver airport was shut down due to snowstorms. Kendra and Doug arrived in the wee hours of the 24th and stayed til the 30th. They treated us to barbequed shish kabobs, which we enjoyed at our 5th wheel trailer. We had such a good time together!! (Picture of Grandkids in Grandpa and Grandma's cabin on the Spirit—counterclock wise: Lydia, Caleb, Hannah, Brody, and Abigail. We toured the Tabasco Company on Avery Island, then traveled via the back roads and saw thousands of water birds and an alligator sunning itself on a round bale that was stuck in a canal ditch. The Maas Mass was also privileged to serve and bless the crew by cooking Christmas dinner. SO MUCH FUN AND SO MANY BLESSINGS!
Highlights of our kids include: Stephanie is working at Sierra Trading Post. Jason was discharged from the Marines in November. He since has joined the National Guard to train as a helicopter mechanic. Kendra passed her comps and is now an official Ph.D. candidate! Glenn is studying for the M-Cat (a medical test) so he can apply to medical schools. (Picture of KIDS in Spirit's "Upper Room"—Sonja, Glenn, Stephanie, Kendra, Doug and Jason.)

We love you! Thanks for sharing our 2006!! From the S-D Maas', Steve and Debbie! XXOOXOXOOOXOOOXOXOOOOXOOXOXOOXOXO

YEAR 2006--Part 1

February 2007
Happy President’s Day, Happy Valentine’s Day, Happy Martin Luther King Day, Hap-Hap-Hap-Hap-Ha—a—a—a—pyy New Year, Merry Christmas, and Happy Hanukkah!!!!

Obviously we’re a tad late in getting our annual missive out to everyone. Believe it or not, preparation was started in September 2006, but then time just snowballed and now it’s already February! Unbelievable!!

The Lord opened many new doors in 2006. For instance we went up in a hot air balloon. It was tethered, but still very exciting. We’ve been in the states now for an unprecedented amount of months, more than 2 years! (It’s not as strange a feeling as it was the first year and it truly is a blessing to be closer to our family plus we love Port Mercy just like we loved Roatán.) We had several friends come see us—a high school girl friend who Deb hadn’t seen since the early 1990’s, a great couple from Rogersville MO, and our special friends from Iowa, that we met in Roatán first because they volunteered for Friend Ships, plus the new family members that the Lord allows us to meet as they come and go or come and stay at Friend Ships. What a privilege to become better acquainted with God’s church!! And then our journeys . . . more about them later.

Our entire family was together twice this year, once in honor of Grandma Picklepuss Pace who passed away in March at Cheyenne, Wyoming. What a legacy she left—47 children, grand children, great grandchildren, great-great grandchildren and all their spouses plus her famous homemade ketchup, which Deb’s brother is now making for the family. M-m-m-m! It’s been an adjustment without Grandma around. We all miss her. Debbie was blessed to have Grandmas for as long as she did.

Our kids are in birth order and ages of our grandkids were as of March 2006: Stephanie holding her Brody (13 months), Kendra and Son-in-love Doug, Debbie holding Hannah (3 yrs., 7 months), Steve holding Lydia (25 months), Daughter-in-love Sonja holding Abigail (4 months), Glenn holding Caleb (5 years and 8 months), and Jason. Caleb, Hannah, Lydia, and Abigail belong to Glenn and Sonja. But all the grandkids belong to Grandpa and Grandma!!

In late April, Steve was named Chief Engineer on Friend Ships vessel, M/V Hope, for the Medical Outreach to Haiti. Hope and M/V Mersea sailed for Haiti May 2 at 12:30 p.m. and arrived at 11 p.m. on the May 9. Steve did an outstanding job as Chief Engineer! He was up early and late, but the Lord was his strength and wisdom. He often made the comment, “Well, I’m a whole lot smarter tonight than I was this morning!” Steve not only kept the ship going and the generator working so we’d have A/C but also the ice maker, coffee maker, water maker, etc. He was off the ship and into the towns of Port-au-Prince and Carrefour 5 times when he either delivered or returned a container. PICTURE: Steve is pulling the support site container onto the roll back truck, a former wrecker truck.

Debbie was Domestic Supervisor on the ship and then as guest volunteers arrived she welcomed and orientated them to Friend Ships, rules and ship ways, assigned cabins, etc. She went to the medical outreach site the first week keeping patients ready for the medical providers, meeting the needs of the crew, etc. The drive to the site was between 45-60 minutes one way on roads that were similar to Wyoming’s cow trails. She also flew once in Friend Ships helicopter from the site back to the ship and was privileged to visit 2 orphanages, one of which was for HIV infected children. ;o( She was pleasantly surprised that the facilities were large, airy, clean, and beautiful. During the following 3 weeks, Debbie prepared documents for offloading the cargo, continued with domestic duties and debriefed the guest volunteers prior to their departure. PICTURE: Debbie and co-workers praying for a patient.


During the 3 weeks of medical and construction work, hundreds and hundreds of people accepted Jesus as their Savior and Lord. Since Friend Ships worked through the local churches, these baby Christians were prayed with and will be led by the local pastors, so they have a church to grow in. Also Friend Ships crew prayed with each patient on an average of 2 or 3 times before they left the site. Additionally over 2850 patients were examined, treated and given medicine; over 2100 patients were seen for reading glasses; 222 patients were seen by the masseuse and/or chiropractor; 66 patients were seen by the dentist with most having 2 teeth pulled, and over 4200 people were fed while they or their family members were waiting to be seen. We left Haiti June 8 at 1 p.m. and arrived at Port Mercy (Friend Ships in Lake Charles) on June 17 at 10:45 a.m. In the middle of that we stopped off at Montego Bay, Jamaica (and swam in the bay!) for 36 hours because a tropical depression had hit between Belize and Cuba. IF we had left when we wanted to instead of when God wanted, we’d have been in the middle of it. God’s timing is always perfect, if we’re patient enough to wait for Him. On the way home, the fantastic domestic crew scrubbed down every one of the 59 bunks (well, at least 7/8) and made them up for the Disaster Relief Training that ran June 26-30.

On the eve before we arrived home, the traditional Captain’s Dinner was celebrated with a delicious turkey dinner and all the trimmings. Original creative poems, The Night Before Haiti and O, Captain, Our Captain, were enjoyed plus a stand up comic, the ‘demon’ within the Capt., and a captain imposter. PICTURE: The ‘demon’ within (Steve), Capt. Stan, and the captain imposter (Debbie).

Almost 50 people from around the country plus the regular Friend Ships crew of 50ish attended the first Friend Ships Disaster Relief Training. Our super talented leaders lectured on a variety of subjects that were very informational for the workshops the students were involved in. Workshops included: food ministry who made our dinners every evening, house to house ministry, roofing and heavy equipment, radio ministry, and site support (disposal of garbage, poop cleaner upper and ship cleaning). We were the ship parents and hosted the guests and again Steve was in charge of the Hope. He and many others also had their first helicopter ride!

Well, this is the first half of our 2006. Stay tuned as more will be coming!! We love you all and miss you tremendously. We certainly appreciate your emails, Christmas updates and phone calls. Keep in touch!! God bless! Love, Steve and Debbie