Kingfisher Project

Update February – 2012

theo — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 09:26:26 +0000

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.

Reunion!

theo — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:41:07 +0000

Message from Torchbearers International.

We are delighted to announce that Torchbearers is hosting a series of conferences across the USA and Canada during 2012.

These conferences will help reconnect us with some of the thousands of alumni across North America (around 20,000) and give us the opportunity to clearly and effectively communicate what is happening in the ministry of Torchbearers.

The conferences will be held at churches and will run from a Friday night through to late Saturday, or in some cases, Sunday morning.

We have an exciting line-up of speakers, centre staff and guests for each weekend so check out the dates to see who will be where!

Also, for all you past Bible School students, why not take the opportunity to arrange reunions with your fellow Alumni from your time at Bible School?

Let us know here (reunions@torchbearers.org) if we can help facilitate these!

The current dates (subject to final confirmation) are:

Denver 30th & 31st March Colorado Christian University, Denver, CO

Milwaukee 13th & 14th July Elmbrook Church, Brookfield, WI

Abbotsford 20th & 21st July (venue not confirmed)

Portland 3rd & 4th August Imago Dei Community Church, Portland, OR

Calgary 17th & 18th August (venue not confirmed)

We hope there will be students and staff (current & past) from all of our 26 centres around the world.

For more detailed information and to sign up, go to www.torchbearers.org/tour.

Update – December 2011

theo — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:19:55 +0000

Sandra outside our temporary winter home

We sailed back to Skopelos beginning of November with 3 volunteers, (Daniel, Ben and Tani) to help prepare for our winter at the property. The local contractors had finished up with building the shell of our home. The rest of our olive trees where pruned and the grounds cleaned up thanks to Steffen and Tanja and the first vegetable gardens where prepared.

Meanwhile Sandra and I worked on the old farm house on the property to make it livable for us to stay in this winter since our new home is yet to be finished. With a bit of paint, curtains and rugs on the floor it’s amazing how quickly and cheaply one can make a home. At this point we still have no indoor running water, but that will change in the following weeks. An old wood burning cooker was found and made to work again so we have both heating and somewhere to cook.

The day after Christmas however everything changed. Sandra had a strange sense in the wee hours of the morning, as though her life was being sucked out of her and she was about to black out. That night she was taken to the health center and in the morning by ambulance to hospital on the mainland. After an angiogram it was clear she was in a critical condition, her remaining open artery was about to completely block up, only a trickle of blood was getting through. The other one (aorta) blocked up a year ago. Immediately she was sent to Thessaloniki for a quadruple bypass. Now three weeks later, we’re back on Skopelos and Sandra is recovering steadily. Thanks to the grace of God we hope soon to resume a normal life.

Update – September 2011

theo — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 12:59:21 +0000

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.

ship’s cook needed

theo — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 09:29:49 +0000

We’re looking for a full time cook who would be able to join our crew for the summer seasons starting April 2012. contact us for more details if interested.

Update – July 2011

theo — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 09:56:32 +0000

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.

Fall 2011 – Impact Training

theo — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 20:25:14 +0000

One last female place has come available on our Fall 2011 Impact Training course.

Be quick to secure your place for this once in a life time training opportunity!

Sailaway 2011 – Last Places!

theo — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 19:59:28 +0000

All places are now filled for our Sailaway programs this summer.

Hope to have you aboard next year! Remember to book in early.

Update – June 2011

theo — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 22:30:52 +0000

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.

Update – April 2011

theo — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 17:44:24 +0000

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.