Contents: EDITORIALWelcome to this issue of Revelations. It is the first all electronic version Revelations - no more cutting and pasting of the pictures! I am still working on the scanning so I apologise if the quality of the graphics is lacking. As you read this, another winter refit has been done, and the 2001 season is underway, read on to find out more... As ever, thank you to those who have contributed to this issue. Please will you send anything (stories, thoughts, pictures...) for the June issue to the office by 1 June 2001. Will NEWSTim writes... Successful first weekend - Bookings update - Volunteer needed - Eagles Wings - Foot and Mouth - A blast from the past Successful first weekendThe early weekend booking (a group from churches in Banbury) coincided with the return of winter. Sailing to Harty ferry on the Saturday involved a brisk beat against a cold easterly wind in steady continuous rain. By the time they reached Harty at 1700 they had definitely had enough. Fortunately the Sunday gave them a really good sail back in much drier conditions. Informal sharing of Christian experience was a feature of a weekend that will stick in the memory for quite a while. Bookings updateMany individuals activities are quite encouragingly booked, here is a summary of the state of play: Easter Cruise: Probably just one place left (likely to be too late by the time you read this!)
What can you do to help us fill the remaining places?? (Hint...) Volunteer neededFor our one year volunteers we have always relied on people contacting us and coming forward to offer. On those occasions when we have used "standard" methods to recruit staff, the result has always been less than brilliant. I have to say that at the moment we have no one in view to succeed Tim Smith as full time volunteer in September this year. Not using "standard" methods does not include keeping quiet about our needs, hence this piece. If you, or someone you know, could be the person we need, please do something about it. Ideally we need someone, either a school leaver or a graduate, who has many years experience of boats in general, plus practical and people skills, and is a committed Christian who would like this experience of Christian service in a very practical context. Thanks. Eagles WingsRichard Peats and his team are working hard to have Eagles Wings ready for sea by Easter Monday (April 16) when she is due to set out on Duke of Edinburgh's award expedition training. At the moment the boat is still ashore in Mick Deller's yard at Gillingham pier. Her shiny new looking, but refurbished and repitched, propeller is sitting here in the office. She too has a new log and echo sounder. New sails are on the way. A new fuel tank and fuel line is being installed. Last season our programme was so full that Eagles Wings was rather under used. This year already looks like being different, with up to four weeks of the DofE exped work, plus a planned trip across to Holland and back, and the usual mix of day skipper courses, coastal skipper exams etc. This includes a new requirement from 2002 for skippers who run Competent Crew or Day Skipper courses to hold at least the new Cruising Instructor qualification. This will involve those of our skippers who are not full Yachtmaster Instructors in spending a day with me on EW, discussing the syllabus and teaching techniques. Foot and Mouth
But all this is nothing compared with the plight of our friends in other Christian outdoor centres who are facing loss of business, having to lay off staff, even possible closure. We pray for them and for wisdom for the authorities at this difficult time. A blast from the pastExtract from monthly bulletin for March 1991 (ten years ago). That was the time of the big upheaval caused by the introduction of the original Code of Practice for sail training vessels. Spot the things that have changed and those which have not. "Meanwhile the last month has, as predicted, been fairly extraordinary. Our surveyor carried out his Code of Practice insption today, and the news is good. There is still work to finish, but the vast bulk has been done and he did not pick up on anything we were not expecting. We must now complete the essential work over the next three days or so if the necessary bureaucracy is to produce our sail training ship certificate by Easter Saturday, when we sail. Launching is next Thursday, 21 March. At one point it seemed as if a miracle would be needed to get this far by now. In a very real sense there has been a miracle, in the amount of help that God has sent us. Days with only the resident team have been unknown recently as a steady stream of really useful people have given us many, many days of work. "One casualty (temporarily) is Eagles Wings. The new engine is in, but the stern gear is not, and some of the Code of Practice work remains to be done." And from May 1987: "Last time I wrote I mentioned that the whole of the money for Eagles Wings had not yet come in. The evening before we were due to meet the previous owner at West Mersea to actually take the boat over from him a phone call from one of yourselves offered just the amount that was still needed. As usual, God's timing was perfect. It was good to be able to tell Robin the next day that the balance owing was on its way. Adrian and Hugh brought her safely back to the Medway..." Whilst it seems like a very long time ago, here are three pieces looking back on Tall Ships 2000... Boston to Halifaxby Catherine Bertrand The Sunday morn was fresh and bright, the day we went to sea. I was sent out to the bowsprit, the jib top to affix I was feeling rather silly and a little damp besides But as time rushed past us, the wind began to gust, Next morning all the rain had gone, and there was still a breeze, The rest of the short voyage passed with nearly not a hitch, And yes we may have ripped it [*], but oh it was a sight, So now is time to say farewell, and goodbye to the sea [* It was only small and we found a friendly sail repairer in Halifax]  Memories of TS2KIt is a part of virtually every trip on Morning Star, but it caught me unaware as we sat around the table after our last evening meal in Amsterdam, and no it is not playing the spoon game! It was the let's go around the table and say what the best thing, the worst thing and the thing that we would remember the most about the trip. I had the misfortune, (or is it fortune?) to be sat next to Steve and he decided that we would go around the table starting with me. I am not the fastest on the spot thinker so my comments were not particularly profound or what I really wanted to say, as it has taken me quite a while to work them out. I could of course have come out with: best bit: the crew; worst bit: there were no bad bits, it was all good; and what I will remember: the whole trip. However, that would have been taking the easy way out and would not have done the experience justice, so I thought that I would write down some of the things which to me were memorable. They are in no particular order and some are good and some are not so good, but I will remember them for a long time to come.
 And what is left?by Mike Maconochie So, Tall Ships 2000 is all over. Such memories are in themselves enormously enriching. They have become part of what we are. Perhaps more importantly, some will have learned that to turn one's back on the comfort and apparent security of the reassuringly familiar, to live life perhaps less safely, but more adventurously, to feel all the stress of the enormity of an undertaking, and still go, is a formula for a life worth living. Those who discovered that on TS2000 (and most did!) will have had their lives immeasurably enriched. Some, we hope, will have learned, that the call to follow Him, is no less demanding, but offers rewards, which, even when the memories of TS2000 have faded into nothing, will endure for all eternity.  Thought for the quarterThe E-word*I used to think that because some people are given to be evangelists (Ephesians 4:11), others are not. So it was fine for me not to tell people about the Gospel because I was clearly not called to be an evangelist. All I had to do was to live my life as Christ-like as I could and from people around me seeing how I lived, they would see how my faith made a difference in my life and... so believe, at least start asking questions and then may be move on to commit their life to the Lord. I have increasingly come to realise that there are two problems with this point of view. Firstly, I am a human being and so tend to slip up, and to be blunt, my attempts at being Christ-like are at times feeble. So how must I come across to a non-Christian? (This is not to put down the importance of striving to live as Christ-like a life as possible.) Secondly, whilst some are indeed called to be evangelists, I believe that we are all called to tell others the good news (see the Bible, Matthew 28:19-20, and other places). OK, I hear you say, but how do we do this? Personally, there I very little that I find more difficult than telling others about Christianity. This is daft, my faith and all that it means is an amazing, wonderful thing in my life, so why am I reluctant to tell others? I don't have the answer but I do know that if we trust in the Lord and step out in faith, He will equip us with what we need to do His work and surely will be with us always, to the very end of the age. [* Evangelism] |
HTML Edited Apr 2001 by Mark Wigmore
On the face of it, our work is not affected by this horrendous epidemic. We operate out to sea from a base in an urban area. However, we have had one three day activity cancelled through a blanket CCF restriction on field day type trips. It is possible that groups or individuals (eg those quarantined on farms) may not be able to travel to Chatham. I also wonder what foreign authorities will think when we arrive in their ports.