Finally the rain came and it seems it won’t stop.  There have been all sorts of extreme weather phenomenon, with gale force winds and snow storms. Gladly we’re warm and dry ashore in the old farm house.

who wouldn't want to be out of the water?

Preparations are being made for a final push to finish our home at least to the point of being able to move in.  A team of builders from Tauernhof will be here end of February for about 10 days to install all external doors and windows, heating system, do the plumbing, electrics, plaster and tile the floors.  Rather ambitious it would seem, but the guys in Austria seem quite confident it could be done.  Eberhard from Germany has offered to truck everything we need so things might go as smoothly as possible.

Then it’s up to Sandra and I to install kitchen and in general furnish the place which we’ll do as funds come available.

August, a very active month in the Greek islands.  Everyone’s come away on holidays, trains, busses, ferries full, accommodation hard to find.  This August Skopelos hosted the regatta for a week long, hustle and bustle everywhere.  

Our Sailaways this year were mostly attended by German speakers.  Three of them where exclusively run in German language with the help of German speaking leaders.  However Sandra and I (Theo), as well as Matt and Dezi (crew) where far from understanding them, some groups though made every effort to include us by speaking English as much as possible which was rather nice.

Meanwhile the house building project continued throughout the summer.  Every time we were in Skopelos I’d check on the progress as well as receive updates from Stephen and Tanja who camped on the property for the whole summer as ground keepers.  They pruned the olive trees and worked hard to remove thorn bushes as well as helped us with shopping and laundry every time we sailed in to Skopelos.

Finally our summer weather has set in and we’re now experiencing the sweltering heat it typically brings.  We’re starting and finishing most of our Sailaway programs at Skopelos this year which will make for a more pleasant time between groups, far from the the city heat, noise and mosquitoes along the docks of he port of Volos.

Port of Skopelos

All our Sailaway programs are now full and this season we look forward to exploring further the outer remote islands of the Sporades group and possibly Skiros to the south.

Our guest speakers this summer are Gerhard Groumer  (pastor from Schladming), Richard Welsh (missionary in Albania), Chris Thomas (Torchbearers exec. Director).

Meanwhile the building project continues with a finish date of all the exterior work around September.  Stephan and Tanja are tenting on site and are presently helping with keeping the grounds, building stone retaining walls and will later help with electrical and other odd jobs on the house interior.

Our house viewed from the back

They intend to stay for the whole summer with a view to consider staying on long term.  We’re very glad to have them and they are already a great support to us whenever we sail into Skopelos, as they help with shopping and laundry too.

We hope some skilled volunteers will join us from November onward a month or so to finish up inside the house so as we can occupy it this winter.

After 6 weeks afloat we’re into the final week of  our Impact Training Spring course.  12 students, forming new friendships, growing together into a community of people with one main desire, to know God better and understand how He may use them to express His love in a needy world.

Spring 2011 students

Strangely, even in this unique somewhat removed environment, far from the influences of the world as we sail often into remote regions of the Aegean sea, distractions were often felt.  It seems our hearts are not at peace, even from a distance we want somehow to take care of things going on far away.  It seems to me that somehow this was rather characteristic of our group.  And yet the desire to learn and grow never diminished.  Within this conflict, people were being transformed as the Holy Spirit had His way in our community.

12 young people will soon be telling the story of what God has done and by His strength will go on to realize more of what He has purposed to do.  It’s a thrilling experience to anticipate the activity of God.

Meanwhile the building project on Skopelos has been underway.  On route to Philippi in northern Greece  with our students we stopped by to have a look.  The basement had been poured (concrete) and just today our engineer sent pictures revealing the completed concrete work ie right up until roof level.  In the next weeks the walls will be filled in and the roof built to cap it off.  Then we’ll be ready for teams to begin working on the inside!

cement work till roof level

Stefan and Tanja (from Germany) will arrive in the last week of June to oversee the following stages of development and also to see how they may fit into life at Skopelos and hence become an addition to our team there.

With the help of Christian, Brent and Marcus and two solid weeks of work, the Encounter’s  rig was tuned, her hull painted amidst a hoard of other projects and now she sits pretty in the port of Volos as two more volunteers Christa and Peter cleaned her inside and out in preparation for the arrival of our Spring school students.

We pray each one of them will truly have an encounter with God that will be life changing and that will launch them into a life of service for His glory sake.

Meanwhile the building project continues, with the final collapse of the stone cottage which was to be renovated.  This came about by the torrential rainfall soon after the excavations which ultimately undermined the house.  So now we start from the beginning.  Probably better this way, although we will miss the charm of a half a century old building, so full of history.  Further we have just received notice that the needed funds (50,000€) to complete the first part of the project will shortly be coming in to our donations account.

We are so often overwhelmed by God’s timely provision.

Finally the building project is launched!  A new (traditional looking) two storey building of approx. 100 square meters in total area is to be built  4 meters away from an existing stone cottage.  These two buildings will in time be connected and the area between them will provide an outdoor patio.

Meanwhile an existing house (illegally built 30 years ago – hence will in the end be demolished) has been restored to the point of usefulness to facilitate work teams over the summer who’ll be volunteering to help out on the project.  Two couples have now committed to help oversee the work.  They’ll be able to co-ordinate the various skilled workers as needed.

Water and electricity has now been connected to the property, a road has been opened up through the olive trees for trucks and machinery to access the site and so all is go!

We’re rather excited as to the new possibilities this project will provide.  Initially a home for Sandra and Theo and then a place to host various groups.

We’re now into the last half of our Fall Impact Training course with a group of 12 students full of life and expectations giving themselves fully to what will become for them a once in a life time experience.  I trust they’ll not just come away with stories to tell of wild seas and idyic Greek islands, but also of how they began to think differently, and how the truth set them free from those things that have enslaved them so long and are now looking ahead with a sense of excitement and expectation of what will continue to do in and through their lives.

Whilst we’re out here at sea, two guys, Christian and Stefan have begun to clear the land in preparation to fence it.  We hope this winter to begin with the renovation of the stone cottage and so establish the first home.

Also our first harvest of the olives will happen this December and January.  We’re looking forward to a good yield.

Some major changes have taken place since our last update.  Purchase of property 8.600 sqm (approx. 2 acres) and receiving the S/Y “Genevieve Challenge” which was donated to Torchbearers by Release Foundation.

That same property we had intended to buy a year ago came back on the market.  The owner contacted us with a new offer and so finally the sale went through in March 2010.  this is to become a shore base for the ministry and in due time a place of retreat and training.  In the Fall this year we’ll begin with the building of the first residence to be the home of Theo and Sandra.

In March 2010 the Genevieve Challenge was donated to Torchbearers.  In the process of the re – registration of the boat the name was also changed to the sailing yacht “Encounter”.

Presently we have a full crew of students aboard participating in Impact Training.  They are a very keen group, looking for answers to questions that would reorient their lives so that they might count in the building of the Kingdom of God.

Gladly this season we are at this point 99% full.  We’ve also added a second Impact course in the Fall and are presently taking bookings for Impact 2011.

We pray there will be a real encounter with God over the course of this summer.

The SY Genevieve Challenge is painted and now we’re in the last of the preparations to receive our students for Impact Training 2009!  We look ahead with anticipation as we’ll be living in close quarters with a group of people we do not yet know over the next six weeks.

Meanwhile our papers finally came through just days before we left Skopelos island, – to say we’re now recognized by the authorities as a non-profit organization, however too late to go through with the purchase of the land we had our eye on.  We’re now looking into a second piece of land that interested us, but will not pursue this till the end of our sailing season for lack of time.

To help facilitate things we’ve rented an apartment in the port city of Volos which is our base of operations for the summer months.  This will give us a place to store extra stuff as well as give us a chance to get away for a couple of days between groups to recuperate as well as provides facilities for laundry and freezer as we stock up at the start of the season.  We’ll also make the apartment available to friends that would like to stay a few days as they pass through or even come to sight see in the Peleon area, if interested write us an email!