This is day six of our Alaskan cruise. Just to remind you, I’m writing this on Wednesday, July 16th, several days ago from our actual date. This is a cruising day, headed to the final port of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. We won’t reach that port until tomorrow evening at 5:30 p.m. and will stay in port until 9:30 p.m.
So what do we do on a day like today besides look out from the balcony at miles and miles of water? In the down time, we read and study. We’ve learned how to play Pickleball and are headed to open play in about an hour. We’ve gone to a lot of onboard events. We’ve met some nice people and had good conversations with them. Though we’ve tried to find openings to witness, the first mention of the Lord either shuts the conversation down or you find out that the person is a believer.
And we’ve attended the feeding of the 5,000. Remember on Tuesday, I told you that there were 4,905 passengers and 1,500 crew members on board. So, this has been the feeding of the 6,405. Let those numbers soak in for a moment. Three meals per day equals 19,215 fed each day. Multiply that by seven days and you have 134,505 meals. Granted, on port days, some people will choose to eat off the ship. But many of the onboard restaurants are open late so the food is almost always available. Never once do they run out of ANYTHING which boggles my mind! Unfortunately, I know I weigh more than when the trip started and first thing when we get home, it’s time to shed the cruise weight.
To say that this trip has been wonderful is an understatement. We have been blessed through the years to take some awesome trips but I think this one tops the list. And it’s all because of our church family.
First, there was the kindness of your gift last year as we celebrated 30 years here in the ministry. There’s no adequate words to express our gratitude for that.
But the most important thing you blessed us with was your prayers. The forecast for this trip was supposed to be typical for Alaska – rainy drizzle and cold. One of our excursion guides said that it rains or drizzles about 300 days out of the year. Our first day in Sitka started with drizzle as we got off the ship. As soon as our feet touched the streets of Sitka, the drizzle stopped. And every day after that was perfect, beautiful weather. Why? Because there was a bunch of people in Bryan, Ohio praying that their pastor and his wife would have a great time and perfect weather. The Lord answered those prayers in the affirmative!
Perhaps without knowing it, you were living out verses like Philippians 1:4. “Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy.” We practiced 1 Thessalonians 5:25, “Brethren, pray for us.” And you responded with 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray
without ceasing.” And the last part of James 5:16 says, “…The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” Thank you for those effectual, fervent prayers!
I want to close with a verse of Scripture that I’m using out of its context but the application is sound. Please take time to read the verse IN context because it tells another story. But as I said, the application is sound.
“Ye also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf.” (2 Corinthians 1:11)
