Well, we have been building the Shining Star (Steel Hout Bay40) since 2008 and only now have we got around to starting up a blog... they say "there's no time like the present..."
The history and motivation behind this project began while Dale was attaining his Navigating Officer's ticket in 2004, where we believe God gave us a clear vision to become involved in a sailing ministry and more specifically to use our own vessel to accomplish his works in spreading the Gospel to remote, least reached or difficult to reach coastlines.
The following four years saw us get married, sail a catamaran to Mozambique for World Mission Centre, join Operation Mobilisation to serve on Logos Hope, work hard in our respective jobs, Dale earn his Yachtmaster Instructor ticket, buy a Hout Bay 40 hull and deck, join Hellenic Ministries, have a blessed baby boy and now we are so close to finishing the building process and pursuing the Vision.
In 2008 we met Johnathan Macris from Hellenic Ministries in Athens, Greece. He was speaking at our church early in the year and in his sermon he mentioned his brother led the SAILING ministry. SAILING ministry!!! We were so excited to here this since we had not yet received any specific direction as to where to take this boat we were building. The rest is an exciting tale of meeting another Skipper, Alex Macris, with the same heart and vision for missions with a vessel, belonging to a global network of Christian skippers, attending 2 annual Skipper's Conferences , visiting Greece and making a decsion to join Hellenic Ministries in their endeavour to evangelise the Greeks and all the world.
Forgive me for cutting a looonnngg story short, if you would like to know more about who we are and what we working at please feel free to leave a comment and we will respond ASAP.
For now, we missed the season to sail to Greece earlier this year but have decided to serve HM for 2 months from May to July. Dale left for Athens on 4th May to join Alex and his crew for SV Morning Star who are on an educational sailing trip to Samos. Jack and I will be joining him next week on the 18 May.
We look forward to hearing from you
Natalie
