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Pensacola's 1st Christian Maritime Ministry is here... Pensacola World Changers has just purchased a 70' LOA sailboat to be used by local Christian & Civic groups for outings, team building, Bible study's, etc; Also for our out of town groups that come down to bless the people of Pensacola with their hard work through roofing, painting, etc. After a long week of work they can relax on our beautiful waterways as they take in some of our FL sun!

A history of emails...

Monday, February 21, 2005; 11:23 pm
Hello praying friends! What a 2005 thus far! I rang in the New Year on a plane somewhere over the Pacific Ocean in route to South Asia to assist in the relief efforts of the sweet Asian people their affected by the Tsunami and things haven't slown down yet!

I feel a little unjustified even sending this email with all that is going on BUT I know God is all over this vision, He birthed it, He's working it out. In the midst of all of the pain and suffering and major needs we are assisting in at the moment, mainly Operation Wave of Blessing to the Tsunami victims (heading back over a week from today and will swing through China for beginning planning stages of outreach around the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing on the trip back) along with Pensacola World Changers, disaster relief edition, looking to replace 40 roofs in one week this July with 400 college age students!; God has decided to throw one more thing on the plate. An addition to PWC creating a community maritime ministry!

I've got to give you a little background. In 10th grade Mercy Ships visited P'cola and I was blown away at their ministry, this was the birthing. About 3 years ago I had a smaller vision to have a boat (or a fleet!) here in Pensacola to use to disciple believers, evangelize the lost, and unify believers around something all believers in the area could be proud of as an asset to the Church here.

The logic, Pensacola is a resort type community. People come here from all over to enjoy what God has blessed us with. Why not use His creation to bring Him glory and motivate others in a fun way.

Three years ago I saw a boat I had seen a hundred times before. A 65' sailboat in Bayou Chico. I just knew it was the boat God had chosen for this ministry, rotting to death in this polluted bayou. Over the course of the last three years I have personally visited, walked, and prayed all over this boat (have even taken a few friends by to see it in recent years)! I have prayed that God would use the boat to bring glory to His name! I called and emailed the owner to get very little response and a firm asking price of $80,000, much deeper than my pockets go. Even with the discouragement I continued to pray and call it by faith.

I have been bidding on a few boats since the storm to fill the same vision. A month after the hurricane I was at one of the local marinas looking for a boat coming up on auction. There was His boat up on blocks! I hurried home and emailed the owner to get no reply. Always discouraging! Yesterday afternoon I went down to the marina to look at another boat coming up on auction Wed. The guard wouldn't let me in to look at the boat I came to see. I knew I could see His boat from the gate so my curiosity took me around to the back road to take a peek! There was someone on the boat! I had to stop and find out the scoop. Come to find out these people had bought the boat for parts the day before through an auction I wasn't familiar with!

They explained to me that they were taking some parts off and then were going to sink it!!! Not that God couldn't bring Himself glory on the bottom of the sea, BUT not if I had a say in the deal! Already long story shorter.... I've met with the owner two days now and this is the perfect boat and possibly the perfect price!

Boat owned by God through PWC (pensacola world changers); a board/team made up of local church's/charities to run/make decisions on the boat. Boat available for teams (up to 25-30 people or so) from around the world, local Sunday school classes, church staff retreats, youth/college groups, etc. to take around the gulf, intracoastal to do discipleship, team building, planning workshops, etc. Evangelism on P'cola beach, Destin, Panama City. Pull up to boardwalks and shoot Jesus films, etc on a sail (by the way 6 sails on this boat, would that turn some heads!), etc. Who knows it could end up fulfilling another vision to run radio tower off of a boat off the coast of North Africa to transmit Christian radio into closed countries!!!

Approx $24,000 to purchase and get it in the water and more later to get the living quarters top notch. Leaders to see the vision and jump on it with enthusiasm. People to want to take "ownership" in it by working on it and helping us stay in the budget by putting hundreds of volunteer man hours in it. A team committed to the daily operations of the boat and would be available to serve as captain/host to teams on the boat. Church's, groups, to help with the annual budget of the boat (we could have a recommended nightly/daily rate per person on the boat but would still need to "scholarship it" when needed).

PLEASE, if you have any interest or ideas in helping with this call me or email me TODAY! God is moving and He has taught me an incredible amount of patience in this vision already (three years is long enough... let's do it!). What a story... from $80k to a reef in the Gulf to HIS glory! I feel very strongly about this and feel God has people standing on go ready to see this through to fruition, please help us! Also EVERYBODY pray right now for this boat, pray for the current owners, pray for HIS will to be evident. PRAY that the owner will be convicted to lower the price even more! I was joking with a buddy earlier... what if he gave us 5K to take it off his hands!!! You never know with an amazing Creator!

Thursday, April 21, 2005; 10:32 pm
Hey guys! It's been a long time since we've touched base about the boat, many of you probably thought it didn't work out... so did I for a while! BUT God is faithful as always! He only made us wait 4 years to get the boat and it took a hurricane for it to get within the budget He has given us!

This email is not to the regular "everybody" that when I'm in a hurry I just choose a premade list and press go. The 90-100 people receiving (versus the 1000 + that often get) this email are those that I really feel are going to be assets to the Kingdom in this project!

The last time you heard from me about this we thought everything was tied up and the boat was ours. Since then we've had some title and bill of sale issues, but praise God it is finally worked through, it didn't help much my being gone for 3 weeks back to Sri Lanka doing Tsunami relief and then 5 days in China for initial planning for outreaches around the 2008 Beijing China Olympics!

A little history... I've been burdened to help facilitate a maritime ministry here in Pensacola since 9th grade when the Mercy Ships visited the port of Pensacola. Since then the flame has been rekindled with 4 years of involvement in Greece assisting an assortment of outreaches there including a sports camp and maritime ministry! Over 4 years ago I saw a sailboat sitting in front of Bahia Mar marina (Bayou Chico). The boat just jumped out of the water at me and I knew it was the boat God had in store for this ministry. Since then I've taken multiple people down to this boat and have literally prayed that God give it to us and allow it to be used to reach Pensacola and the nations, as well as the people on board! The owner was interested in selling but wouldn't entertain an offer less than $80,000!

He had different plans... He taught us patience and faith pay off. Thanks to Hurricane Ivan damaging the boat and sending it to auction for salvage and the graciousness of Eric, Erica, & Alex (the people that bought the boat for parts from the auction); Pensacola World Changers, Inc is purchasing the boat for $12,000!!!!! $6,000 is due now and then $1,000 per month for the next 6 months!

Many have already pledged money, from $100 to $2,500 (thanks Larry), as well as an undisclosed amount that's in the mail (thanks Doug). One of the checks I've already received said on the memo line.... for a vision! I was so excited and couldn't help but praise God that He gives us vision to see things such wonderful things, that check was as much encouragement to me and the vision as it was financial help (thanks Bob!)!

Please consider calling or emailing me to let me know how He is prompting you to be involved. Rather with volunteer labor on the boat or financially, or if money is tight and time is out the window, let us know your praying for this vessel to be used for the Kingdom, both here in P'cola as well as abroad! It appears we will have our first work day on the boat this Saturday, we will be pumping the sludge out of the hull of the boat into 50 gallon drums, emptying all of the trash/junk into the dumpster, ripping out carpet, rotten wood, etc. It's going to be amazing!

This boat is 55 feet at the waterline, 63 feet of deck, and nearly 70' over all! The whole deck is teak, the interior is huge and will hopefully be set up to sleep 25+, and there is over 3000 sq ft of sails!!!!! It's going to turn some heads when it sails by!

The vision consists of having the boat literally owned by the Christian community and be available for all kinds of outings from just local day trips teaching team building, intense discipleship/Bible study, to 2+ month trips to many places around the world to assist believers, disciple crew members and spread the gospel into unreached places. The most common trip will probably be youth, college, young adult trips for long weekends around the gulf and intercostal waterways, most groups will probably come from around the southeast but I do already have one team that would like to come over from Germany!!!

Please come help us with the boat, and help us add an amazing, out of the box, asset that our local Christian community can be proud of!!! (any boat name ideas would be appreciated too!) Blessings.