THE WATCHES OF THE NIGHT

The Watches of the Night                                                                                                       November 30, 2010

Last night we began getting into some rough waters around twenty-two hundred. We found out very quickly how well we secured for sea, as things that were not secured properly went crashing to the decks. Throughout the night I would wake up, fearing that my laptop would fall off the shelf I had placed it on. So I tossed and turned and did not get much sleep. The loneliness and distance of loved ones back home seemed very great last night as my heart struggled with contentment. As the waves of the sea rocked our boat my own doubts and fears swirled around me causing m heart much turmoil. Yet Jesus is greater than all my fears and He is mighty to save and to sustain me. As I lay awake in my rack, listening to everything banging and rolling around, I had to surrender once again to God’s perfect and beautiful plan. The Holy Spirit comforted me with verses from the Psalms, bringing to my mind Psalm 23, 91, 130, and some others. He is my Shepherd, under His wings I find refuge, and His promises shine brighter and stronger than all my fears and doubts.

I went to watch, feeling very sea sick for the first time. With all the rolling and pitching out boat has been doing, my stomach was all in knots. The mess deck was a wreck as I got my cup of tea. Coffee grounds covered the floor and as I walked by we hit a roll and I went sliding across the deck, knocking a pan of oranges off a table in the process. I did finally get my tea though. Watch was long and we nearly lost MID II which is one of our small boats. The pin had come out of the cradle it was secured to, which caused it to dip and snapped one of the lines. So I had to round up some people to take care of that.

Up on the Bridge it is something else to watch the waves crash over the bow of the boat and the water was reaching up all the to the Bridge where we were at! All the weather decks and outside decks are secured to everybody because the waves and rolling is so bad. So it has been sort of exciting this morning. It is almost sunrise, which is nice because throughout the night it was so dark we could not see how high the waves are so now at least we can see what is going on, but it is all cloudy and gray outside, but one thing I know for sure even though I cannot see the sun shining, it is beyond the clouds that surround us.