Friend Ships
Latest Update (August-September 1999)

"SPIRIT OF GRACE" SEATTLE

"Spirit of Grace" had a very good sail from Honduras to Seattle, arriving to her temporary home on Lake Union as the guest of Coastal Transportation. The ship encountered rough water in the Caribbean and off the coast of Oregon but the voyage also had times of smooth sailing with cool and beautiful weather. Much of the time the seas were calm and the sunsets beautiful. The crew praised God for the beauty that surrounded them.

It is time for Grace to go to drydock for regular maintenance and repairs. This is a very expensive procedure and God has provided for this through a very gracious donor and some movie work for "Grace". This month, we are bringing the ship to Los Angeles to star in a Disney movie and earn funds to pay toward her shipyard expenses!

ROATAN, HONDURAS

Things have been very active at The Village and Base Camp in Roatán, Honduras. We have been blessed to host nonstop, visiting teams from the States and there have been great accomplishments, much laughter and praise, sore muscles and sunburns! Much progress has been made on the new building. Cement was poured, nails were pulled, poles were set, and deck was installed. The Roatán garden has been enlarged and fitted with an irrigation system. Our team has also been preparing the land for the upcoming rainy season and organizing the food warehouse for the months to come.

A second session of computer classes was completed. The class in Oak Ridge was held on a "key" that is accessed by ferry boat where the breeze blows through palm trees, children play on the white sand, bordered by the tri-colored Caribbean Sea, providing an amazing atmosphere in which to teach/learn computers. Both classes were filled with very enthusiastic students, eager to learn. Computers to be used in the Friend Ships Academy and to be placed in various schools throughout the islands were programmed and prepared. Instructor Manuals and Web Site Manuals were created.

The house staff has been blessed with guest volunteers who love to cook, bake, work in the garden, clean house, and do laundry. Hens are laying eggs and the garden is yielding tomatoes, okra, cucumbers and cantaloupes. The second planting of corn, squash, cucumbers, bell peppers, onions, radishes, and many herbs are in various stages of growth, thanks to all the volunteers that have put in time digging, planting, and weeding.

A dental clinic was held with a team of 8 dentists and assistants. Many patients were seen and treated free of charge. Each one received prayer and many made a decision to follow Christ! Thank you Lord for Dr. Mike Roberts and his wonderful team who have blessed the people of Roatan for the past three years!

"SPIRIT" GALVESTON

Special guest workers have helped to accomplish several strategic engineering, electrical and refrigeration jobs. The deck department has reorganized areas of supplies in the warehouse. Resource development received donations of seed for Roatan, tuition to an electricity seminar for one of engineers, parts and much paint for the "Spirit of Grace" upcoming dry dock, painting supplies, teaching tapes from Joyce Meyers (a favorite teacher of the Friend Ships crew), tapes for the video department and many other items. The office staff is also busy translating computer information for the classes in Roatan and translating the great evangelistic movie "God's Story" into the Albanian language.

HEADQUARTERS LOS ANGELES

There has been a steady stream of teams coming to help us and they are a great blessing. The groups and crew are working on organizing supplies and many other jobs. Two of our much needed forklifts and a pallet stacker have been repaired and put back into service. We received a donation of a wonderful electric pallet jack. The warehouse has received donations of medical supplies, Bibles, wallpaper materials, 99 cent store surplus and 40,000 pounds of delicious frozen salmon! A great friend of Friend Ships took his refrigerated tractor-trailer to Tacoma, Washington, picked up the fish from the organization that donated it and delivered it to our warehouse in Los Angeles. We were able to accept this wonderful gift because another corporate donor had just delivered a 40' freezer container to hold the product until we distribute it. Now this great company is sending us a second container because they heard we had filled up the first one!

Storehouse One had truck troubles this month and the truck was not able to run for more than two weeks. Then an anonymous donor paid a company (a wonderful company who charges us only for parts) to completely repair our truck and in the first two days we had it back on the road we were able to collect almost 90,000 pounds of beautiful food. God is so very faithful!

Carpentry, welding and engineering work are in progress on the Friend Ship "Faithful" to ready it to travel to The Village in Roatán. Plans to refit the Friend Ships tug boat are now in the works. We have welcomed many new wonderful long term, short term and guest crew members.

The accounting department has just completed the records for the past fiscal year. For this period, the Lord allowed us to be able to distribute and in many cases, deliver 16 ½ million dollars worth of goods to people in need! Wow! This work is such a great combined effort of us, you, outstanding companies and generous hearts everywhere!!

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