Jesus & Company Part 2

JESUS

& COMPANY, PART 2

The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world,

and all who live in it.

—Psalm 24:1

JESUS

& COMPANY,PART 2

Don and Sondra Tipton

FRIEND SHIPS PUBLISHING

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION

© 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

Jesus & Company, Part 2

Cover photo by John T. Wong/Photolibrary/Getty Images Copyright @ 2012

FRIEND SHIPS PUBLISHING

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ISBN: 978-0-578-12339-4

Friend Ships Publishing 1019 N. 1st Avenue

Lake Charles, LA. 70601 U.S.A. Tel: (337)433-5022

Printed in the United States 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my mother, Gwendolyn Irene Tipton, a remarkable woman who has served God for sixty years. She is the greatest inspiration of my life. While I was still being formed in the womb, Mom asked God to give me wisdom above all else. I have her to thank for whatever wisdom I draw from Him.

Always ahead of her time, Mom became one of the first professional female race car drivers. At the age of eighty-seven, she is currently recov- ering from an injury sustained while flipping her golf cart. Slow down, Mom. She taught me to think big and persevere. She inspired me to take chances and trust God. She showed me how to love and share and care. She trained me to never ever give up.

For the past twenty years, Mom has traveled the world with us, sailing to Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and throughout Central America, providing help to people in need. She resides at our home base, Port Mercy, serving in a variety of ways. Her life is still being poured out for the benefit of those around her.

My wife, Sondra, and I along with our children, Ron and Teri, and Mom’s great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren all know the love of the Lord because of her tenacious prayers, her endless support, and her warm and joyful ways. Thank you, Mom! This book is dedicated to you with the love and respect of your entire family.

CONTENTS

Dedication

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1 Lock and Load

Chapter 2 Unexpected Friends

Chapter 3 Even Our Very Lives …

Chapter 4 A Moment in Time

Chapter 5 A Nation at War

Chapter 6 Spies in Disguise

Chapter 7 Out of Time

Chapter 8 Bushwhacked!

Chapter 9 The Firefighting Camp

Chapter 10 Even if They Were Pure Gold

Chapter 11 Blow the Whistle, Throttle Down

Epilogue

PREFACE

This book is a testimony of the unusual events that occurred over the course of many years while serving the Lord and depending on Him for literally everything. It is written in the hope that by reading these stories the reader will gain a better understanding of the loving nature of our Father, watching Him act on our behalf as we invest in helping others. We believe these stories demonstrate how much God loves and cares for people in need and for us, even when we are of absolutely no account to anyone but Him.

They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.

—Revelation 12:11

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To every crew member and guest worker, past or present, who has come for even a single day, those wonderful people who have pushed Friend Ships toward the goals God has set before us, your handprints are forever engraved on the work that we accomplish. Thank you for your service to our great Lord and Master.

It is truly your story these pages tell. Men, women, and even children of faith have come and continue to come each day to work hard and to serve well. We know you have been blessed because, as the Bible so rightly says, those who help the poor lend to the Lord, and He pays unequaled dividends. You are exceptional people. There is nowhere on the ships or in the ministry that does not bear your handprints, you who are willing to put your own plans and priorities aside to serve His plans and His priorities.

INTRODUCTION

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injus- tice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.

The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun- scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

—Isaiah 58:6–12

CHAPTER 1

LOCK AND LOAD

The World War II cargo ship Spirit of Grace was anchored just off the coast of the island of Guanaja. Her landing craft sailed through the crystal blue Caribbean Sea, traveling back to the mother ship from the storm-ravaged village of Savannah Bight. As the craft pulled alongside the hull of the stately ship, the crew made fast the lines. They prepared to off- load tons of food and drinking water from the large holds of the freighter. Spirit of Grace could lay off the coast of any country. She carried two big landing crafts that her powerful thirty-ton cargo gear could lift and splash into the ocean. Owned by our nonprofit corporation, Park West Children’s Fund, a humanitarian aid organization operated under the name Friend Ships, the five-thousand-ton ship was a huge asset to our work. Once filled with relief supplies, the fifty-foot landing crafts could sail ashore and occupy any beach, maneuvering through even shallow streams up to villages and communities in desperate need. We felt like God truly had His own invasion fleet. Who would have thought it possible?

When the landing craft had finished filling her belly full of rice, beans, corn, canned meat, and drinking water, thirty of the ship’s crew members, including my wife, Sondra, and me, climbed down the Jacob’s ladder that hung alongside the hull and found a secure place to sit on top of the sacks of food and cases of water that were piled high on deck. We settled in for the twelve-mile journey around the island to a remote village called Mangrove Bight.

The craft set sail for the open ocean. We found a break in the reef and cut into the large rolling seas. We had been directed to the secluded Mangrove Bight because the people there had received so little help. Their village had been lush and tropical, but now their homes and fishing boats had been smashed to pieces against the mountains by a four-story-high tsunami created when the ferocious Hurricane Mitch made landfall. The storm had left the villagers with little shelter, transportation, food, or drinking water and no way to fish, which was their primary source of income.

By the time we approached the village, it was dark. Local fishermen spotted our boat offshore and quickly came to help. They brought small skiffs to meet and lead us in through the dangerous reef, guiding the craft through a maze of sandbars and rocks. The guides shined a bright flash- light, blinking turn left and then blinking to the right. We crept along in the dark at one or two knots toward a small damaged pier.

The landing craft was designed to be able to run up on the beach; it had a very shallow draft. That was good because at times we had less than three inches of clearance over the jagged reefs.

As the vessel slowly and carefully approached land, we saw smolder- ing fires illuminating the outline of partially remaining structures and makeshift tents that lined the shoreline. It was an eerie feeling as bonfires burned on the beach and the air filled with smoke. We heard the sound of children crying in the night and the hum of a few small generators. Aside from the dim light the generators gave and the low smoldering fires, the community was bathed in total darkness.

The scene looked prehistoric, the skeletal remains of hundreds of hurricane-ravaged palm trees cracked in half, their jagged ruins pointing upward, and the steep mountains looming in the background. I turned to Sondra and said softly that it reminded me of a scene from the Vietnam War movie Apocalypse Now. I felt like we needed to lock and load as we approached an unknown and potentially dangerous camp that had been bombed out and destroyed.

The craft pulled up to the pier, and our men leapt ashore to catch lines and secure her. We turned off the engines and set down planks to serve as a gangway. When our eyes adjusted to the darkness, we saw whole families watching us as they each huddled together under a single piece of light tarp stretched over a small frame. We distinguished the welcoming faces of hundreds of people near the pier, waiting to greet us. Among them were excited children assembled on the shore, and behind them was the stun- ning sight of complete destruction that was Mangrove Bight. Great piles of debris filled the landscape, which was littered with makeshift structures and mangled trees.

We were quickly greeted with big smiles, a sense of relief, and heartfelt joy. Help had finally come! The villagers said they had never seen a boat as big as the landing craft enter their shallow coral-infested harbor and asked if we had sailed the vessel all the way from the United States. We explained about the mother ship at anchor twelve miles away on the other side of the island.

We learned that the residents of Mangrove Bight had a healthy love of God, so in anticipation of the Lord answering their cries and in faith, believing someone would come to help them, they had gathered up lumber from the rubble to erect a community warehouse. When they had seen that help was coming, some of the men had quickly nailed a small lamp to the outside of the building and connected it to a generator so we would have light to off-load the landing craft. They called the warehouse by its Spanish name, bodega, and asked that we store the goods there, where they would be safe, secure, and dry during the frequent rains. I was pleased to see that the bodega was bigger than our boat, so the goods we delivered would be well able to fit.

First we carried a big missionary pot from the craft, along with some pans and propane burners so the galley crew could prepare soup for the entire village. Then we brought out guitars, and someone made makeshift bongo drums out of empty pots. Everyone from the village came, and each brought with them a cup or a bowl to have dinner. Many people told us they had not heard music since the hurricane, and they gathered around to make a joyful noise as they praised the Lord. What beautiful worship it was!

When we had all finished eating our fill, the villagers and crew formed a line to off-load the supplies. It stretched from the landing craft to the warehouse. We made a plan that each family would receive all they were able to take to their tents before we started to stack what remained in the bodega.

Mangrove Bight had no cars or trucks, but within a few minutes the pier filled with wheelbarrows and lots of helpers to load and transport their goods. Hand over hand, the food and water came up out of the boat. We tossed the boxes and bags from person to person and stacked them into the many wheelbarrows, and then the villagers carted