The Last Lecturer (of Bible school at least)

            A few days (weeks) late on updating the blog (what’s new?), for which I apologize.  I’m currently in Korce, Albania, which is definitely not Greece, and I’m definitely not on a sailboat anymore.  But those details can come later. For now I’d like to share about the last week or so on board the Encounter. 

            After our speaker Mike left we had a free day, which allowed us the opportunity to rent cars and head up to ancient Delphi, a few hours from our anchorage.  It was an optional outing, so not everyone went, which meant those of us that did go had a little more freedom to do whatever we wanted.  That meant blasting European radio (which happens to all be techno for some reason), stopping whenever we wanted for ice cream (twice for me) and driving as fast as we wanted (just kidding, we drove really slow cause they were rentals).  Delphi is tucked up in the mountains next to a ski village, which I didn’t know Greece had.  It was quite a change going from the blue ocean to a ski town surrounded by rugged hills.  Ancient Delphi itself was pretty magnificent as well, maybe not as well known as the sites in ancient Athens, but I thought a more diverse collection of ruins and a really great museum.  After nerding out for a few hours looking at all the naked statues, we headed into the town for lunch and to walk around.    

The next day the students and Theo took the cars and headed to ancient Corinth, but I was left on the boat to make sure pirates didn’t attack, or something like that.  Fortunately I scared any would be buccaneers away, and managed to successfully ferry the students to and from the boat and the dock in the RIB while only nearly crashing once (the RIBs got a super sensitive throttle, and it was not my fault that the other boat I ran into was so close to the dock). 

On Monday we picked up our next and final speaker, Luke Thomas, who works at Torchbearers Sweden, is the son of the current Torchbearers director and the grandson of the guy who founded Torchbearers, so his credentials checked out.  His lectures looked at different times when God asked questions in the Bible, and how those exchanges revealed the heart of God and His character.  It was a different style of lecture then we had been used to, but incredibly enlightening and enjoyable. 

During the week Luke was on board, the weather was pretty nasty out (cold and lots of rain), so we spent about 3 days straight holed up in the doghouse, trying to keep our sanity.  Lots of card games were played, many a nap was taken, and a few different personas were debut from some of the students (and myself) to keep the mood light.  When the weather finally cleared, the wind also let up, and we took a nice motor to our next destination.  We caught three fish that day, which gave me plenty of practice in deheading and gutting, and also gave us the chance to eat fish for breakfast the next day, further boosting the notion that I am a man and will one day provide food for my family (which my wife will graciously cook - just kidding).  Luke Thomas also happened to bring his bagpipes, which I attempted to play without any real knowledge of how difficult they are.  Props to those Scottish lads.  The fact that they wear a skirt is made up for ten fold in their possessing the strength and lung capacity required to play the bagpipes. Fortunately Luke shared his talents on the ‘pipes, creating a perfect trifecta of things I like: sailboats, passing pretty scenery in foreign countries, and bagpipe music.  It felt like I was sailing past Ireland.  So that was our last lecturer, meaning the Kingfisher project was soon coming to an end.  Stay tuned (or refresh your browser) to check out my next post on some adventure filled final days!

 Blessings,

-BG

                                          A fish I caught.  Didn't end up eating this one.  

                                                          (thanks to Angelina Gonzales for the pic)