All that Glitters...

 October 19th

            This past week we have slowly been making our way south.  Sunday the 14^th  we arrived in port to pick up our next speaker.  After a couple hours of waiting Theo finally remembered that the speaker wasn’t coming until the next day.  However, his forgetfulness allowed us to have a free day on Monday, and we just so happened to be about 30km from the Thermopylae, the site where the battle of the 300 Spartans took place against the millions of Persian soldiers.  The guys and I (along with one girl we brought along to take photos – I mean wanted to come) were super excited to visit, even though we were told that the monument was rather un-impressive.  Regardless, we managed to find a bus to the town, walk around in the rain for a bit and finally get directions from some locals on where the monument was.  The language barrier was pretty significant but we kept saying “Leonidas” and making a spear throwing motion until we were pointed down the road a ways.  When we finally saw the statue of Leonidas and the monument to the 300 in the distance, we could hardly hide our excitement as we ran and screamed like giddy school girls.  Pretty soon after we had climbed up onto the monument and removed our shirts to pose next to the fully naked Leonidas (he did have a helmet, shield and spear… or two).   After doing our best 300 impersonations (we all had just done 1000 pushups) we went up to Kolonos hill where some of the battle took place.  There was also an awesome hot spring that ran right along the hill.  The five of us were literally the only people around, so we had to walk to a gas station and have them call a taxi for us to get back to the boat.  The taxi was a little pricey, but it was a Mercedes Benz, probably the nicest taxi I’ve ever been in (and they wonder why the Greek economy sucks).

            The speaker this past week (and my cabin mate) has been an American guy named Mike Gunn, who is currently church planting while coaching American football in Istanbul, Turkey.  The first day Mike was telling me about how he planted a church in Seattle a while back with his friend Mark.  Turns out his friend is Mark Driscoll, and the church is Mars Hill, easily in the top five of influential evangelical churches in the world currently.  Through his involvement in Mars Hill, Mike got involved in Acts 29 international, which he directed for a while before more recently starting his own church plant organization.  It’s kinda funny talking with Mike (who also was almost a professional football player and has been to Everest base camp several times) cause he says things about the conversations he has had with Bill Bright, or Matt Chandler, or the conference he was at with Piper, all men who are rock stars in the Christian world. 

            Mike is also an incredible Bible teacher, as he has taken us through 1 and 2 Corinthians.  All of his teaching is on the Gospel and it’s implication.  He also does a great job of explaining Christianity and culture (he is working on a book about the Gospel and culture) and the Biblical model of moving from the Garden to the eventual city in the new Earth, and how Christians are to cultivate culture along the way; not abstain from the world but be influential in it, contextualizing the Gospel without changing it.  He has also been incredibly wise from an apologetics perspective, in both defending the Bible and attacking false worldviews.  It is always affirming when I have thoughts or beliefs on a certain topic that are verbalized more eloquently by smarter men.

            Adventures this week have included working out with Mike, de-heading and gutting a tuna fish on deck that Theo caught, fishing off the pier, exploring an abandoned fishing village, hiking through the bush up to some cliffs and climbing a bit, and shark baiting.  Shark baiting is when Theo lets out a long mooring line from midship and drags people behind the boat while motoring along.  At first there were a bunch of people on the line and Theo went kinda slow.  Then the girls quit after a few tows and it was just me and a few other guys left in the water.  My hands were already tired from holding onto the line and from working out earlier, but my pride wouldn’t allow me to quit.  Theo pretty much cranked the engine all the way up as I struggled to hold on without drowning.  I lasted a few minutes (probably more like 30 secs) at full speed before my hands cramped and I let go.  Apparently my face and arm waving made it appear that I was panicked as I was being dragged to my watery grave, but the truth is that I was totally in control and simply let go of the rope first out of humility so that the other guys on the rope wouldn’t have to.

 Another awesome “is this real life” experience happened the other night under the stars.  One of the students was brushing his teeth on deck when he noticed that when he spit in the sea it seemed to light up.  After further investigation, and confirmation from Theo, we found that we were in a particularly rich area of bio-luminescent micro-organisms, that glowed milky white when disturb.  Even though it was past curfew and kinda cold out, pretty much everyone, including myself, dove in and swam in the water.  Basically any movement resulted in a faint milky glow as seen from a distance, pretty cool considering it was too dark to actually make out anyone swimming.  In the sea though, it literally felt like you were swimming in outer space.  The water was pitch black, but the slightest move resulted in thousands of tiny little creatures glowing like stars all around your body  For sure one of the coolest experiences of this trip so far.  The actual stars were also pretty legit, and I got to see a few shooting stars go all the way across the horizon. 

That’s all for now, I’d like to get a post up sometime about ship life and what I’ve been learning, but we will see what time allows.

God Bless

-BG

Sailing!!!

October 12

A quick update on my whereabouts:  Currently we are anchored back on the island of Skopelos, which kinda feels like home now that I have explored all of the tavernas, found the best gyro shop and hiked all over.  Last Sunday we picked up our second speaker, a dutch man named Eisbert Van Dyke (Eis for short) who currently works as a ski instructor and speaker for the torchbearers school in Austria.  Eis has been teaching at just about every bible school aboard the Encounter since the start, so he was able to share some good sailing stories, along with offering some great insight on the book of Galatians.  Eis is also a fan of fishing, which means our skipper has allowed a trolling line off the stern.  Yesterday Theo caught a decent size tuna, and proceeded to cut off the head and gut the fish on the mid-deck.  I learned that cleaning up fish blood is part of the deckhand’s duty. 

            Monday the weather finally changed from the light winds that had plagued our sailing attempts since early September.  Instead of doldrums, we got a steady 12 knot breeze with some strong gusts (probably averaged about force five-six conditions) from the north east as we headed south from the peninsulas back down to the outer islands.  The wind also brought with it heavy seas, complete with 12-18 ft waves.  For the un-initiated: that type of sea with that type of breeze from that direction equals an incredibly rocky ride.  It probably was some of the worst seas I have experienced, but fortunately the weather was nice otherwise.  The first 4-5 hours felt great.  Then I had to go below deck to secure some loose items in the cabin and my stomach starting feeling a little funky.  For about an hour or two after I was rather happy to just lay down on deck and not think about the roller coaster ride I was on, but then I felt fine and had a blast trimming and dropping the sails in the heavier wind as we reached out destination.  All in all a great day of sailing, although I slept extra well that night as my body still felt the rocking. 

            Wednesday I had the opportunity to join the students in an exercise of solitude and fasting on a “solo” day.  Basically I got dropped off by myself along some rocks on an uninhabited island around 1pm on Wednesday, with some water, an old sleeping bag, and my Bible for 24 hours alone.  I spent the afternoon hiking around, reading, and trying to find a suitable bed on an island without any level surfaces.  I finally found a small patch of rocks a few feet from the sea that was kinda level and had a nice collection of goat poo and some old Styrofoam pieces that made a pretty good mattress. I was pretty happy with it and hunkered down for the night.  Then the rain started.  At first it was only a few light showers only lasting about 15 minutes.  I fashioned a lean two with some sticks and a trash bag to keep my head dry and hoped my sleeping bag could handle the drizzle.  Then the zipper broke on my sleeping bag and for some reason I made up my mind to fix it at 1 in the morning.  90 minutes later I finally had it working again despite my wet (and at this point freezing cold) fingers.  Later in the night there was a heavier rain storm that pretty much soaked through my bags and all my clothes, leaving me nice and cold.  I got up in the morning and went for a hike to warm up (of course leaving my rain jacket behind) and got caught in a monster down pour that soaked me even more.  When I got back to my camp, I pretty much gave up on trying to be dry, (at least I was a little warmer with the sun out) and tried to read my bible, but ever 20 minutes or so the rain would start again, so it was a pretty futile effort.  I was picked up around noon on Thursday, still wet and cold but overall pretty satisfied with my solo experienced.  I had planned on reading a lot during the time, but the good Lord obviously wanted me to spend my time in prayer and reflection, since the rain prevented any extended reading.  It still was a great experience.  I never once got bored, frustrated, lonely or hungry and almost all of the students had the same experience, despite the rain.

            Tomorrow Eis leaves in the morning and we sail all day to the south (probably to some town I can't pronounce) to pick up our next speaker on Sunday.  Then we will probably spend some time sailing and going on adventures and going to bible class and eating gyros until the end of October when the adventure ends.  I hope all is well back home in the states. Hopefully Nebraska football can rebound and beat Northwestern this weekend.

Peace and Respect

-BG

some students and me rocking the headbands

Adventures

October 6 (sorry I'm posting late, no internet on the high seas) 

Over a week since the last posts and lots of things to share! Time on a boat has a funny way of passing; days seem long and full of activity, but the weeks fly by and I’m left feeling like I left home yesterday.  I won’t go into a detailed list of all the stuff I’ve had the privileged of participating in the past couple weeks but I will share some highlights.  I left last you guys with Mt. Athos looming in the horizon. Well, we’re well past it now and have sailed quite a bit around the middle and eastern peninsulas on the northern Aegean.  I don’t ever really know the names of the places we are, because Greek is a horrible language to try to understand and pronounce, but I do know where we are on the navigation map (most of the time), which counts for something.  So no, I don’t know the name of the town we are currently docked in, or the name of the peninsula we have been sailing around for the past week.

            We picked up our first speaker (and also my roommate) nine days ago.  Hondo Wynn, an American from California who currently lives in Slovenia with his family, was an incredible guy to have aboard.  His lectures were thought provoking, insightful, challenging, and incredibly fun and engaging.  Hearing about his work with a missions organization called Josiah Venture (check it out yo!) in eastern Europe was super encouraging.  Spending time going on daily adventures with him reminded me why Americans are awesome to hang out with, and having one on one conversations about theology, the bible, missions philosophies and what the heck we are supposed to do with this life we have been given was pretty neat.

            To save time here is a list of adventures I went on this past week that will make my mom nervous and my friends jealous.

1) Caught mussels and crabs by hand for bait, rigged up fishing line and hooks, snorkeled and handfished for hours until I caught a fish.   

2) Swam to some islands and hiked around and through a bunch of fancy estates in my swim trunks.  Avoided all guard dogs.

3) Found an old log on an abandoned beach.  Fashioned canoe and traversed the seas on log canoe.

4) Tried windsurfing without enough wind.  Unsuccessfully windsurfed for several hours.

5) Found rock wall on island, rigged up climbing harness and belay system with Hondo.  Climbed rock wall.

6) Ate 3 gyros in one day.  (Highly delicious, minimally dangerous)

7) Spent the whole day alone on board while all the students and Theo travelled to ancient Phillipi.  Didn’t destroy the boat.

8) Swam from the boat to a beach resort and hung out with the nude Europeans. 

Those are just a few of the adventures from the past week or so, with many more to come.  Tomorrow, we leave and sail back around some peninsula to drop off Hondo and pick up our next speaker.  Pray for some good wind!

Until next time

-BG

The Outer Islands

Thursday we left Skopelos heading to the outer islands just to the northeast.  That night we anchored right off a small, uninhabited island and tied 2 stern and 2 bowlines ashore for fears of heavy wind later in the night.  The winds did come, but fortunately we were secure.  The next day we swam over to a shipwreck only partially submerged.  We climbed aboard and explored all throughout the different rooms, finding newspapers from 15 years ago and an old bottle of whiskey.  It was kinda like exploring an abandoned building except everything was tilted at an odd angle and the main compartment of the ship was flooded with water.  There were two other abandoned boats attached to the larger ship that we also climbed through.  One of the students managed to find an old baseball cap in one of the boats, which he now proudly wears.  I swam ashore next, and since I had my sandals on, wanted to try to make it to the top of the island.  There were no trails and maybe 500-600 feet of elevation to climb, but I managed to hop along the rocky parts and avoid most of the prickly bushes and overgrown olive trees.  At the top I had the pleasure of enjoying some incredible views, all to myself.  I climbed along the ridge a little and started back down this time heading more for our boat instead of the beach I had come from.  I hadn’t done my homework (nor brought the proper clothing; swim trunks and sandals don’t offer much in the way of protection from scratching bushes) and basically tried to climb back down through the thickest growth on the entire side of the island.  I was so deep in bush and growth that the sun was almost completely blocked out.  I kept telling myself that after a few more feet the bush would clear and it would be an easier walk back down, but after literally belly crawling (no shirt either) over and under bushes, and thoroughly scraping my entire body I admitted defeat and climbed back out through the bush, to the top and back down the path I had came, which felt like walking on a cloud compared to the forest of sharp things I had just rolled my body through.  The salt water was a good cleanse as I swam back to the ship, and after a good stretching session I felt pretty good, and was proud that I had made it to the top.

Saturday the weather cooperated fantastically and we were able get some great sail training in.  For one of the first times we were able to turn the engines and move under just sail power.  It was great practice for me to trim the sails and help the students tack and jib quickly.  We anchored for lunch and then left for our next destination, about two hours away.  The wind was a little lighter, so we used a little engine with the sails up.  Any disappointed from the light air was made up for when a group of dolphins swam with us for a bit.  I was right up on the bowsprit when 3 dolphins started twisting and turning through the boats wake just below me, I think the first time I have ever seen dolphins while sailing.  Saturday night we anchored in a small bay next to an island with one resident (a monk) and one building (the monastery)

Sunday was our free day, but in the morning all the students and Theo climbed to the top of the island and visited the monastery.  The monk there spoke great English and talked to us for over an hour, an interesting mix of Orthodox history, his own life and a very sad idea of grace and forgiveness.  After the monastery we motored further along the island for a great lunch and some swimming.  Theo took us over to some caves where we were able to swim through an underwater tunnel.  Theo is a former dive instructor and so got in the water with us and showed us where to dive and how far to swim underwater to avoid surfacing too soon.  I had expected a much longer/difficult dive into a marvelous underwater cavern, but basically just had to swim down about 10 feet and 30 forward to get from one side of the cliff to the other.  Still, it was a lot of fun and a good chance for me to practice diving and equalizing, which I currently suck at.  Next we went to some cliffs to climb and jump off of.  Two of the guys jumped from about 50-60ft but my hip surgery (or more likely my dislike of heights) kept me to climbing a little lower down and jumping maybe 15 feet, which hardly qualifies as anything more then jumping off the bowsprit, which I do almost everyday. 

We left again and our currently anchored in a super calm bay with about 3-4 other sailboats.  I took the opportunity for a nice swim and used shampoo and soap for the first time in about 10 days.  Still no real shower for over 2 weeks but it felt good to wash a bit.  I’ve been rocking a pretty sweet Mohawk for about a week now, so I don’t have too much hair to wash, which has kept my overall grossness level to relatively low, and it’s amazing what two small cupfulls of fresh water can do to rinse the saltiness off.  

Peace

-BG

An American, Greek and Russian walk into a monastery…

Wow! Lots to share from the last few days.  It’s Saturday evening as I write this, but have no idea when I’ll have Internet to post.  We are anchored next to a monastery on one of the outer islands just north east of Skopelos.  Today was the first real day of sailing where the wind and weather cooperated.  When we finally turned the engine off and were just under sail power, I couldn’t help but smile.  We did a good bit of training today tacking, jibing and trimming.  My duties are becoming a little more specific, as I pretty much just focus on trimming the headsails and the foresail, and everything related to anchoring.  If something goes wrong, I try to fix it, which so far has mostly involved me running out on the sprit and pulling the jib free from the staysail as we come across upwind (lots of sailing jargon there, basically I walk out on the part of the boat that sticks out in front and pull on some ropes while trying not to fall in, or the latest danger brought to our attention: castration).  The students have done a fantastic job of learning their tasks and becoming fast and exact.  On Monday, the three teams will all switch sail stations so it will be a little bit of a learning curve at first, but we should do fine. 

Backing up a couple of day…. Tuesday afternoon I had free and decided I wanted to hike up to the monastery and check things out.  Being on a boat with 14 other people definitely means solitude is tough to come by so I was excited when I was freed up around 16:30.  I walked out of the harbor and started along the path uphill.  Two little dogs followed me out of the harbor and would be my companions for the duration of my hike.  Every switch back they would run ahead and then wait for me.  They would even come if I whistled, and waited for me outside of the monastery when I made it to the top.  I was a little crunched for time but was pretty committed to making it up to the top, so I paced it out pretty quick.  Fortunately it was cool and there was even a slight rain/mist, so nothing too extreme in the physical exertion category.  When I finally made it the monastery door, I definitely confess I paused for a moment and contemplated the chances of me being stolen by some witches and cooked in a stew.  I was on top of a hill I had just hiked without passing another soul for the past hour, and no one knew where I was.  It was misty and overcast, perfect witch weather.  The monastery looked like an old castle.  The sign on the door said ring once and wait patiently.  I had just hiked for an hour uphill and certainly wasn’t going to stop at the doorstep so I rang the bell, and waited for what felt like an eternity as I replayed all the witch movies I had seen in my head.  Sure enough, an old hobbled nun limped over to open the door, barely up to my waist in her state, with teeth coming out every which way and long whiskers on her face. “Great,” I thought, time to get thrown in a big pot with some frogeyes.  What’s worse was that this witch/nun was offering me some sort of food from a jar.  Fortunately, I was too smart to fall for the "candy from an old person that’s really poison" routine so I politely declined.   If my facetious account of a witch has run too far, I wasn’t in any danger of being tossed in a cauldron, and the old nun who greeted me turned out to be named Miriam, and had lived at the monastery for six years by herself (she did look exactly like a witch though).  Miriam only spoke Greek, but fortunately another man who was visiting the monastery, Thanneus spoke Greek and English.  Thanneus grew up on Skopleos but had since moved to Sciathos and was just visitng.  Thanneus was very friendly and helped translate what Miriam was saying, and asked lots of questions about why an American was visiting a monastery alone at the top of hill on an island in the middle of the Aegean Sea.  The monastery was pretty incredible, an outer wall with rooms for visiting pilgrims to spend the night and inner structure that was the main chapel.  The chapel was ornamented to the extreme, with every surface being carved, painted or plated.  After spending a few minutes marveling in the middle of the chapel, I was startled (more like scared to death) from someone coughing a few feet behind me.  I had walked right passed a pilgrim sitting in the shadows quietly.  Eventually the lady, who happened to be Russian and a Greek Orthodox, told me in broken English that she was visiting for religious purposes.  The two visitors, Miriam and myself managed to talk for a little bit through the translation of Thanneus and the broken English of the Russian - one of the stranger conversations I’ve been a part of.   Thanneus offered me a ride back down to the port, which I happily accepted, since I would have been late for dinner if I had neede to hike back down. 

Wednesday we had free all day, so after breakfast and packing our lunch all the students and I headed into to town with the goal of renting vehicles to explore the island.  I had my eyes set on an ATV or dune buggy, but most of the rental places required an international driver’s license.  After checking about 5-6 places and always being denied for lack of proper paperwork, we went up along the main road a little further to one of the last rental places in the area.  Nikolas’ Rental Shop seemed pretty sketch from the get go, which meant we probably had a good chance of renting our vehicles there. Sure enough after a few minutes, my American driver’s license and a friendship discounted price we tore down the road in two dune buggies and one ATV.  Some of the girls had rented two cars so together with our three vehicles; we made quite the envoy travelling around the island.  Our first stop was the monastery I had hiked the day before.  The ATV made quick work of the rocky switch backs and we all spent a few minutes walking around and greeting Miriam.  Next we travelled along the coast for almost an hour to another beachfront village for lunch. Taking the ATV on the road was fun, but the handling sucked, so I had to take turns pretty slow but I was able to go about 70-75 kph, which was a lot of fun.  After lunch we somehow managed to navigate up into the hills of Skopelos to another old monastery.  After a quick walk around we rotated through the vehicles and I ended up in one of the dune buggies.  Although not as powerful up hill as the ATV, the buggies handled really well and could drift corners like a dream.  We found a big puddle at the bottom of one of the hills and decided it would be fun to go through it.  It was probably only 6-8 inches deep of water but was more then enough to completely soak us and cover us in dirt and mud.  Since we were already filthy at this point we figured we might as well go through the puddle again, and again after that.  We ended up at this cliff with a walking path down to the beach and an off road path to a light house at the very tip of the island.  At this point I was driving a dune buggy, which were “supposed” to stay just on the roads, but figured any path made for vehicles could be a road, so we went tearing down this mud filled bumpy path to the light house.  Between driving right next to a vertical cliff and getting thoroughly soaked several times while drifting around some of the corners, the path was an absolute blast and the views from the lighthouse spectacular.  After a quick swim at the beach to wash off and regroup for our trip back down to the harbor, the guys left on dune buggies and the ATV while the girls took the car to the Mamma Mia church.  I’m sure the church would have been cool, but being able to fully open up the throttle on the way back down without having to wait for anyone else was too much fun.  Later that night we all dressed up a bit and took the vehicles to Theo’s house for a great home made meal.  I was able to sneak out for a bit later for a late night ride back to the coast, but the headlights on the ATV weren’t strong enough for me to be able to drive fast and safe so I headed back to the ship.  That's all for now.  Check out my other post about sailing to the outer islands.  

Keep Well 

-BG