Fishers of Men

Last summer I worked at Sea Otter Sound Lodge from May through mid September. During my time there, God taught me an important lesson about patience and persistence in prayer and His incredible faithfulness.

First I want to help you envision the unique circumstances in which this lesson occurred. This was a job like none I had ever done. The lodge I worked at floated in Sea Otter Sound in the Southeastern part of Alaska near Ketchikan. There were no roads connected to the lodge, the only way to get there was by boat or float-plane. The lodge floated securely in a protective cove, tethered to the trees on the nearby concave shoreline so it wouldn't get pulled out into the open ocean by the daily currents. The entire facility was made up of several large rafts on which buildings were constructed and each raft/float was connected together by ropes and bridges so that they could be removed and rearranged. On one raft was the Main Lodge building where the kitchen, dining, and living room for the guests who came to sport-fish. On various other floats were the guest-rooms where these paying-guests sleep in comfort. Another float had the Crew Quarters which was a 2 story building where crew (such as myself) abided on the bottom floor and the lodge-owners dwelt in a little apartment-sized flat on the upper level. There were various other floats including a landing deck, fish processing, industrial freezers, generators, food storehouses, workshop, fuel containers, boat docks, and the like.

During the summer months, the lodge runs non-stop. The schedule was that every 5 days 16-19 guests arrived on 2 float planes and concurrently the previous guests (with all the fish they caught) departed on these same planes. It is a self-guided fishing lodge, so each group of guests was assigned their own room and skiff to take out fishing each day. There were 2 types of crew members- inside crew and outside crew. The 3 inside crew members, myself included, under supervision and aid of the wife-owner, were responsible for cooking/preparing/serving all meals, catching the fish we served, cleaning guest rooms and common areas, laundry, and providing friendly and hospitable service for any guest needs. The 6 outside crew members, Jonny included, under supervision and aid of the husband-owner, were responsible for cleaning the boats, prepping the tackle and all fishing supplies, filleting, vacuum-packing, freezing all fish, and also helping catch fish and Dungeness crab to serve.

My typical day at the lodge (non including the day that the changing of guests would occur) would look like this:

4:30am- wake up

5- make guest lunches

6- serve guest breakfast

6:30- clean up breakfast and start making cookies

7- eat crew breakfast

7:30- clean up crew breakfast and continue making cookies and water potted plants

8:30- make dessert for dinner (carrot cake/rum cake/ baked Alaska/lemon squares/cobbler, etc.)

9-2:30 either go fishing if needed or take a break

2:30 put ingredients for dinner and lunch bread into bread machines and get them started

4pm- start prepping dinner food (making the various side dishes and whatnot)

6-serve guest dinner

6:30 clean up guest dinner

7:30-serve crew dinner

8:30 relax/ hang out with Jonny before going to bed and starting all over again

 Without going into too much detail of everybody elses job duties, I think you get the picture that we worked hard without a day off for 4 month straight in close quarters. Us crew members really got to know each other well!

As tiring as work was, one benefit of the job was the gorgeous scenery surrounding us constantly. Not a day would go by when we did not see sea otters floating in the bay, bald eagles soaring through the trees, humpback whales spouting or breaching in the ocean, nearby forested islands, jellyfish of all shapes and sizes, and glowing bio luminescent ocean at night (just to list a few of the natural wonders). Alaska is gorgeous!

Now that you understand the physical context, let me tell you about the spiritual atmosphere. The owners of the lodge were Christians and other than that I had one other Christian crew member (a recent Moody graduate)(until Jonny joined me 2 months in). The rest of my coworkers were nice people, but had an opposite moral compass from me. Their speech, chewing habits, choice of movies, and topics of conversation were perverse to me. I knew this was my new mission field, where God placed me to be His light. My goal was to love these people as best as I could and live out my faith before them without judgement or condemnation. There were 2 other girls on crew, besides myself, and I was the oldest of the crew-members. I particularly wanted to reach these girls. From the beginning, I could tell by their disinterest in spiritual things and love of the world that it would take a work of God to soften their hearts and draw them to Himself. So, I prayed for them and befriended them. I choose not to force any spiritual discussion on them and simply let Christ in me be my witness. As the season progressed, it seemed as though their moral state was getting worse, not better, and I'll admit that I started to get impatient with the Lord. I was praying for them and living my uncompromising life before them, but they seemed to continue faster down the path of self-destruction. This was when God began to impress on me the importance of patience and persistence in prayer over time. You see, I believed in the power of God to answer my prayers, bring their salvation, and change their lives for the better. But, I expected Him to act sooner rather than later, because what benefit is there to Him waiting (I thought)? But once again, His ways are higher than my ways and faith is believing without seeing. I surrendered to His faithfulness and righteousness. I prayed that He would open the doors for those conversations in His timing and give me the right words to share and any success would be all on Him (as always).

By the end of the summer, God's grace poured out on me as He opened those doors. A few weeks before the end of our job, one of the girls came to me and asked me what advice I would give to someone who is spiritually lost! In tears, she explained to me her struggles with religion and told me that after spending the summer observing myself, Jonny, and the other Christians, she saw something different and desirable in us. She literally said "you seem like you have an actual relationship with God and I want that. How do I get it?" That is the widest open door to explain the Gospel that I have ever experienced! After explaining how to have that relationship with the Lord, I prayed for her. I told her that I had been praying for her all summer and she said that meant more to her than I could know! A few days later, the other girl also wanted a spiritual discussion and I explained the Gospel to her and gave her a Bible to read (she had actually never heard the story of Jesus before)!

I praise God for allowing me to see some of the fruit from that summer. Community evangelism/discipleship is very good! My heavenly Father is so patient with me and gracious and faithful and wise! This experience of being a fisherwoman (in more ways than one) gave me hope and enthusiasm for being a missionary. I hope this story can inspire you to keep praying with patience, faith, and trust in God for whatever community mission-field you are currently in.

Sea Otter Sound Lodge

Bald Eagle

Humpback whale right next to the boat!

Buz, our local Sea Otter

My daily cookie baking

the 50 pound Ling-Cod I caught

The Yellow-Eye I caught on the 4th of July

My first Silver Salmon

Some Halibut are bigger than me!

We had a big catch that day

The female crew!

Float plane taking away our guests.

Main lodge dinning room

Kevin pulled up an octopus

Exploration adventures

Exploring the surrounding islands

Team work

Jonny at the helm

Kyaking on our break

Its a long road ahead!

Outdoor adventures with my man

Shooting the glass bottles we lined up on the distant logs

2014 SOS crew

We jumped in the freezing ocean!

Alaskan sunrise view from the lodge

Blessed to Be a Blessing

This concept was first explained to me when learning about God's plan for Israel. He chose to pour out His blessing and favor on the nation of Israel in the Old Testament in order that they might take what they received and bless the rest of the world (which was ultimately accomplished through producing the Messiah, Jesus). In the same way, we as believers are richly blessed by God, loved by our Father, so that we might not keep it all to ourselves but share His love with the rest of the world. We are continually blessed in order to be a blessing. This concept best describes my experiences in the past month.
When my YWAM DTS program finished, I still had a month left on my visitors visa so I decided to travel around New Zealand with some friends before heading back to the States. My friends Jonny and Matt shared my love for backpacking adventures so we made a plan to hitch to the southern most part of New Zealand (Stewart Island) and treck an extreme 10-day trail around the Island. God provided us with amazing hitches for the journey down. Our second driver picked us up with the intention of having me babysit his toddler in the backseat while he drove! We shared about our faith with each of our rides and God was faithful to get us to our destination (hitching is always a test of faith for me). We loaded up our backpacks with 12 days worth of food (my pack was over half my body-weight, 50+ lbs) and we began hiking. It rains an average of 265 days a year on Stewart Island and we had been warned it would be a muddy and cold treck. However, for the 10 days we were hiking, it only rained once and there was only one time when I sank to my knees in mud (so glad to be wearing gaiters like a good NOLSy)! We sensed that the favor of the Lord was with us and the people we met on the trail enjoyed the benefits of this favor, too. My companions and I received abundant blessing including the rich conversations we shared on the trail, gorgeous weather, a kiwi bird walking across our path one morning, accident free hiking through treacherous terrain, tents and huts to shield us from the multitudes of sand flies at camp, and many other things. I could go on and on sharing the details of this wild adventure, but for now I will move on to describing the next part of our travels.
When we made it off the Island we hitched to Queenstown to meet up with our friend Jill. Jill had found a place to stay with a woman from the local church named Paula who uses her house as a ministry by boarding non-believers. Paula graciously allowed the men to tent in her backyard while I shared a bedroom with Jill. Much to our surprise, 2 of our fellow YWAM friends (Sam and Lucas) showed up to camp in her yard for the week as well. We were so blessed to have a place to stay all together and in turn we were able to bless Paula by cleaning, cooking, praying, and talking with her roommates. While in Queenstown we spent time with local believers, encouraging them and sharing testimonies of our experiences with the Lord. We enjoyed many beautiful hikes with some of the most epic views I have ever seen. It was while in Queenstown that Jonny asked me to be his girlfriend and I happily consented. One particularly awesome story from our adventures was about a German guy named Julius who had been traveling around on his own and hitched a ride with Sam and Lukas in a different part of the country. They ran into him in Queenstown again and a third time on a trail. He camped with us for a day and toured around Milford Sound with us. During our hours in the car, I shared the Gospel with Him (which Sam and Lukas had previously done as well) and we blessed him as much as we could (buying him dinner, driving him wherever he needed, etc). He just kept unintentionally meeting up with us in various places that eventually he had to admit that it could not be coincidence. We prayed with him and fervently for him. We found out after we parted company that Sam and Lukas met him again the following week on Mt Cook. I love backpacker evangelism, even on the road!
After our weeks in Queenstown, Jonny and I decided to visit Scott Brown's campground. Scott was one of our favorite speakers from DTS (the one who taught on discipleship and Jewish evangelism) and he had extended an invitation for any students to visit his family and stay on their campground in Dansey's Pass. We hitched over there (again, the Lord was faithful to give us amazing rides to our destination). Scott graciously let me stay with the family in their house while Jonny tented by the river. We had such a peaceful time slowing down from our adventures to focus on prayer and Bible study. Scott frequently hosts Israeli travelers at his campground and while we were there 2 young adult girls came through for a few nights. We joined with Scott in some spiritual discussions with the girls and it was incredible to see their interest in learning about Jesus and the New Testament while expressing their frustrations with the legalism of Judaism! The discussion reminded me of my own experience on outreach talking with Liron from Israel.
Jonny and I helped out as much as we could around the campground (repairing a rock wall, installing some shelves, raking leaves, and planting grass). Needless to say, we did the most we could to return the blessing of Scott's family's hospitality. The Browns insisted on us joining their family morning devotions and evening dinners, truly loving us as some of their own children. At the end of the week, Scott was scheduled to teach for the following week back at YWAM Oxford and we were able to ride up with him. My final 2 days in New Zealand were spend back on base talking with a few YWAM friends and organizing all my stuff for the flight home. It was bittersweet to be leaving the beautiful country where I had experienced so much spiritual growth and had such rich fellowship, but I knew God would give me grace for whatever He called me to next. As I look back over the last month, I am overwhelmed by how blessed I was to take part in such a beautiful adventure with amazing people and I praise the Lord for His great kindness towards me!

Stewart Island Hike

Sunset over cloudy mountains on Stewart Island

Stewart Island diverse wilderness

Sunset over the ocean on Stewart Island

Hut on Stewart Island

Stewart Island

Jonny, me, and Matt ready to hike!

Kiwi bird!

Waiting for the tide to go down in Stewart Island

Taking a break from hitching to eat some chocolate

View from the top of Ben Loman peak near Queenstown

Me, Jill, Jonny, Lukas, Sam

View of the Remarkables from the porch of church in Queenstown

Morning light on Queenstown from the top of the Remarkables

Me and Jonny

Closer up

New Zealand in the beginning of Autumn

The remarkables from Queenstown

Routeburn Falls

Jonny, Sam, Me, Jill, Lukas

View on the Routeburn Track

Clouds resting in the valley on the Routeburn Track

Mossy Forest on Routeburn Track

More beautiful mossyness on Routeburn Track

Routeburn Track

Misty waterfall on Routeburn Track

"moss-stache"

Kia photo bomb

Milford Sound

Julias, Sam, Lukas, Jonny, Me

Jonny's tent by the river on Scott Brown's camp ground

Rock wall Jonny and I repaired on Scott Brown's campground

Story Portraits

When we arrived at Byron Bay, we had 2 weeks without any preset scheduled ministry. So, our team spent a day in prayer seeking the Lord about what He wanted us to do. As we asked our Father to speak to us and reveal how we could best show the love of Jesus to this hippie surfer culture, He began to put some new ideas on our hearts. Thus, our unique ministry of story portraits was born. This ministry involves teaming up and approaching strangers sitting on the beach or in the park or hanging out on the streets and asking if they would share their life stories. We were to listen, ask questions, and take their picture. Often this encounter alone will lead to them asking us the same questions and we have the opportunity to share about our mission of sharing the love of God or sometimes we even get to pray over our new acquaintance at the end of our conversation. We take their photograph and get their email address. Then we regroup and spend time praying/interceding for the person. We ask God to speak to us again and show us how He made them and what He wants to speak to them. The Lord is always faithful to give us words and pictures/visions to share (I love listening to God, it is always a step of faith). Next we write out the life stories in a creative fashion and include the photograph in an article format. We incorporate the words from God and explain in the end that we prayed over them and share the encouragements that Jesus spoke to us for them. We then email the final product back to them. It is awesome to spend so much time showing one person that they are beautiful, valuable, uniquely created, and loved by God. We have received extremely positive responses from those who have received their story portraits from us. 
You can join us in praying for the salvation of the ones we have spoken with, their names are Ben, Sophia, Alvaro, Omra, Tree, Allison, Max, Aaron, Karen, Claire, Bernhard, Elliott, Felix, Viktor, and Anton.

Now we are starting the Impact Summer ministry joining with 4 other YWAM teams in an evangelism camp. Every day we hold big events on the beach (like volleyball tournaments, free pancakes and chai or BBQ, Sha Bang a Bang (youth all-nighter on New Years Eve), etc) and invite the public so we get to meet people and share Jesus with them. Please pray for our ministry in these next 2 weeks. I am expecting to see many salvations as the Kingdom of God invades Byron Bay through us!