Hi everyone.  We are leaving Kona, Hawaii tonight (Thursday) and we will be landing in Manchester, England by Saturday morning (with a few hours in a few airports along the way!).  The plans that we know of, as of right now, are that we will board the S/Y Next Wave in Liverpool.  We will be there for about 2 weeks, working with the churches in the area and street ministry.  After that we will be heading over to Ireland and th Isle of Mann.  From there we head over to the Continent.

We want to thank all those that have made this mission possible.  God does provide and he does amazing things, but He uses people to do it.  We are all His hands and feet!

We did make our fees to be able to finish our training and to go on our outreach.  But as we travel and work with people, we still need funds to help those that we come in contact with.  Please, continue to pray, and if God leads you, please consider partnering in us as we reach the people of Europe.

Here is the exact tour of the Next Wave: 
http://marinereachministries.com/?page_id=218

Hi all.  We have been able to stay in Kona through our lecture/training phase.  For us to be able to go to Europe on our outreach, we still need $5,893.  Actually, our outreach is $3,125 and our balance for training fees is $2,768.  Even if we don't make it to Europe, we need to at least pay up our balance.

Please pray!

We would just like to thank those that have had faith in our ministry over the last four years and especially over the past two months.

Allen and Debra Baisley, Don and Cathy Doherty, Teresa Hines, Pamela Rios, Otis and Barbara Curling, Freda Wilkinson, Libby, Cynthia Bauer, Jay Carpenter, John and Sarah Crowder, Charles Littleleaf Native American Flutes, Fonzy, Nelson, Victor Luwellen and Leroy and Nancy Hardy.

We need $4,300.  We received $2,000.  These fees are to cover our housing at the base in Kona and everyting needed to prepare for ministering in Europe.

Total, the cost seems unreachable.  But with long term partners contributing at least $20 a month, we can reach our goal.

We really appreciate all the prayer from all of you.  Thank you for your help.

Aloha!  We have four more weeks here and then we go to Europe!  Being in YWAM means living and supporting in community.  Each person here contributes to the ministry.  We do have finances from investments and things that we are able to meet most of our expenses.  Our youngest daughter is still living in our house in Virginia, so we still have finances involved with a house, and we have the expenses of being here and continuing this work.  However, our finances readjusted for this year and we cannot continue to fund both a house back home, which our daughter is living in and maintaining, and us here doing this work.

We need to have $4,316 by March 12 or we will be leaving Kona.  And by the end of March we will need an additional $5,893 for us to be able to go to Europe.

When we go to Europe, we will board the S/Y Next Wave and go from Liverpool, to
Belfast, Dublin, France, Netherlands then Germany.  In each port we will be
doing evangelism, working with local churches, and helping those in the inner
city around the ports.  We will also be helping establish teams that will
go to the London Olympics this year.  We will be doing ministry wherever
people congregate.  For example, in Germany, we will be going to one of the
larger music festivals and just sharing the love of God and Jesus with anybody
that we find

We know that when God prepares, He also provides.  But we do need to let people know what our needs are.  Please continue to pray for us as we continue this journey.  If God puts on your heart to partner in prayer with us in this work, please contact us and let us build a relationship with you.  If God wants you to contribute, please click over to the Partner with Us page.

God give you His peace.

So we have been in Kona, Hawaii now for about a week.  It feels like we have all ready been here a month.  It is interesting how time compresses itself when you are in this process.  By the end of the week, you feel like you have been around a month.  You can barely remember what happened at the beginning of the week, much less what happened last week.
Our first week in Kona, we met with the Medical DTS and had Loren Cunningham speak with us the entire week.  Darlene Cunningham also was able to speak with us one day.  Loren founded YWAM over 50 years ago.  It was amazing hearing the history, but also the vision he still has for YWAM and the next 50 years!
This week, we are meeting with the All Nations-All Generations DTS and Dean Sherman is with us.
We still have five more weeks here, then Sarah and I and 4 others will be heading for Europe.

This is our last day on Catalina, and it really is a wilderness.  We did make it into town three times while we were here!  If it rains at all, the roads become impassible.  I know I keep saying it, but this is not a resort!
We leave for Kona, Hawaii on Wednesday.  The YWAM base in Kona has about 900 students at it right now.  So from our small group here, we are going back into the real world.
This really has been a wilderness time for us.  It was just us and our teachers and God.  We have had Brian Brennt, Kenny Peavey, John Dawson, and just the last week we had Dan Sneed.  It was interesting, since the speakers don't coordinate with each other, but every speaker spoke about our New Identity in Christ, what that is, what it means, and how to live it out.

Hawaii here we come!

    So, we have been here two whole weeks!  It feels like a month!  Yes, we are on Catalina, but this is not a resort island like we have on the East Coast.  We are at Emerald Bay, which is actually a Boy Scout Camp.  The nearest town of about 100 people is about 6 miles away, but takes about 30 minutes by car to get there.  Avalon is the big resort city, but it takes a couple of hours to get there.  Yes, it is gorgeoeus here, and we can go hiking, kayaking, snorkeling, but the entertainment is what you bring with you!
    The first week, Brian Brennt was with us this week.  We had an awsome time.  This last week Kenny Peavey was here.  This coming week, John Dawson will be with us.
    We will be on the island until Feb. 8.  We then go to Kona for 7 weeks for the rest of our training.  We have four outreach teams.  One will be going to Ensenada, Mexico, one to Belem, Brazil and the Amazon River, one to Australia and Papua/New Guniea on board the Pacific Link, and one to Europe.
    Sarah and I will be going to Europe and  board the S/V Next Wave.  We will be going through the port cities of England, Ireland, and into Germany and the Baltic.  More details to come!

As of January 1, 2012, we are back in Los Angeles.  We were given/loaned enough money to get plane tickets to get here.  We arrived Sunday, January 1 about midnight.  So our New Years Day activity was flying across county.  I believe we will be doing a lot of flying this year!  We were able to stay in a hotel for Sunday and Monday night while other arrangements for our housing were being arranged.  As of Tuesday, we are at the YWAM Los Angeles base in Lakeview Terrace (in the LA area).

On Friday, we will depart Long Beach for Catalina Island to begin our Discipleship Training School (DTS).  We still do not have the money for both of us to do this.  The fees for this DTS are $4,400 each.  That's $8,800 for both of us.  The outreach portion will cost between $1,200 to $3,500 each, depending on where we travel too, which we won't have a definite location until later during the training.  (During our time in Virginia we received $240.)

We are still in need of funds and would ask for prayer partners and financial partners for our ministry.

I should also say that our daughter, Stefania, who has been a YWAM missionary for about 3 years now, is also with us.  She also just returned from Uganda two weeks ago.  She will be one of our group leaders for this DTS.  Yes, that makes her one of our teachers!  She also needs long term support, as she will be staffing with YWAM Ships for several years.  Her blog is stefaniacurling.weebly.com

Sarah and I were married in 1985.  We have four children, ages 25, 23, 21, and 19.  Two live in Virginia, one lives in California and one is a missionary with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) and for the past 3 years been either in Colorado or Uganda.

My background is oceanography and environmental engineering.  Many years ago we looked at going onto the YWAM Mercy Ships, but we really weren't ready for that at the time.  So, I worked for the State of Virginia in several different environmental agencies for almost 20 years.  During that time, we worked in several different ministry positions in whatever church we were with:  youth, children, puppets, etc.  I also have been working on obtaining a Master's of Theology, but haven't finished that yet.

My scientitific/environmental background never really fit into any ministry we were involved with, so I gave it all up to try and go into full time ministry.  For the past seven years I also worked in several small churches in our area and we have had a home group in our house.  But nothing seemed to really work.

Our daughter in YWAM was leaving Colorado to go to Uganda, so we packed up the car and headed west to see her off.  After she left, we kept going to Los Angeles.  We had no plans for when we got there.  All we had arranged was a place to stay for a few weeks while we looked for work and a place to stay.

Within three days of being in Los Angeles we were placed in contact with Brett Curtis.  Brett has been with YWAM for almost 30 years and was with the Mercy Ships when they were still part of YWAM.  Brett was just in the beginning stages of organizing YWAM Ships-Orange County.  He referred me to Mountain and Sea Educational Adventures (MSA).  MSA teaches marine science to middle and high school students through science adventure camps on Catalina Island.  So a week later, we were on Catalina and I was teaching high school students oceanography.

The reason Brett knew about MSA is that they are partnering with each other to develop an Environmental Stewardship Ministry that can become part of our YWAM ministry.

We finished up the season and came back to the mainland moving in with YWAM Ships-Orange County in Hutington Beach. We worked helping to organize the base and it's up coming training sessions.

The shorten version of all this is that  everything I have ever done, and gave up, and everything that I have wanted to do, has all come together.  As of today, we are in need of funds to be able to go through our training and to be able to help run and support the ships and needs of the people we are helping.  Afterwards, we will be working with YWAM Ships, what ever and whereever needed

That is my story and Sarah's is just as amazing.

Sarah is an artist and has never found an outlet for the type of art that she has always envisioned, until now!

The best way to describe what she does is "integregated portraiture."  It combines photos, written word, art, etc. to teach others about a person's culture, not just a picture of a person.

I will let Sarah further explain her story on another post.