…”Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit”…

Loading the 18 pallets of rice and beans

Dear Friends of Sea Hope

The Lord continues to bless and guide us.  Our third trip of the year was to carry food to a ministry that operates a Christian school for 550 students.  This school was in a new area for us.  The week prior to the trip, Benn and Stacy Malmanger and their 3 children arrived from Wisconsin to help us do some maintenance on Sea Hope.  They were also instrumental in loading the ship.  Just days before we sailed, we were informed the IOS Children’s Home would be receiving some newborn infants.  One child weighed 3 pounds and the other only 2.  Thankfully we were able to purchase a substantial amount of formula and diapers for the children, but Mary and Stacy could not find clothes to fit them.  A local church sent several bags of clothes to give to the Haitians and one bag contained clothes that would fit these premature babies.  God knew exactly what was needed.  Praise Him.  This trip was also unique in that we did the deliveries boat to boat without going to a pier.  Both the delivery to the school and the children’s home went as smoothly as they could have gone.

Benn and Stacy Malmanger....Benn repaired our fiberglass muffler, and a bunch of other things

Aspen refinished the wood in the pilot house

The Malmanger boys worked on scrapping and sanding the gunwales

Loading is a labor intensive process...but the Lord provides

Controlled chaos....

Mary and Stacy opening the bag with the premie clothes....lots of crying and praising

First time doing a boat to boat transfer

Amazing how much they can carry in a load

Folks coming out from the Children's Home

The children's home load took 8 minutes to get off the boat....but it was about a year's worth of formula for the newborn premies

Health

Mary and I went to North Carolina in May to meet two new great grand daughters, attend high school graduations and a granddaughter’s wedding.  Little did we know we would both end up in the hospital.  My reason was an episode of AFib.  Medicine quickly put my heart back in proper rhythm, but the follow up monitoring and testing meant we had to postpone our return to Puerto Rico, and thus postpone a mission trip we had planned for June.  Mary felt a bit light headed one day, and as a precaution we took her to the emergency room to make sure it was not a mini stroke or worse.  She had a form of vertigo that cleared up after about 24 hours.  Subsequent physical therapy helped her.  Initially we wondered what the Lord was telling us, but when it was all said and done, what He said was…”you are in good health, keep on going”.

Meeting Penelope, our youngest great grandchild

Not the way I wanted to spend a week end, but thankfully the heart went back into rhythm and is physically sound

Hannah, the number 13 grandchild, graduated from high school

At the wedding for our Number 9 grandchild

Emily and Sam had a beautiful wedding...

My mom and I at the granddaughter's wedding

July Haiti Trip
We returned to Puerto Rico on Monday 14 July after a grandson’s wedding.  Immediately we went to work loading the ship and making preparations for a mission on Monday 21 July.  It was a whirlwind of a week.  Thankfully one crew member and Kevin and Emilie Falde and 3 of their children came a few days early.   With the extra help we were able to load a container of physical therapy equipment for a clinic and a large amount of school supplies for Hosanna Baptist Christian Schools before the main load of 18 pallets of food arrived.  On this trip we served 8 different ministries and organizations.

The Falde family really worked to get the boat loaded. All of the heavy exercise equipment was loaded by Kevin and Josiah....

An overhead view of loading Sea Hope

Due to the odd shapes and sizes, this was a difficult load

Thankfully everything made it to Haiti

Community Coalition for Haiti was one of the organizations we helped. They have waited several years for the exercise equipment

This equipment is truly needed

Pastor Kerlando Jerome of Beraca Baptist serves in the mountains. The people, especially the elderly, do not have enough to eat. He shows the compassion of Jesus throughout his community.

Killick and Nehemie Aristide serve in Les Cayes. They use some of the food they received to feed their Vacation Bible School children and staff

There is a tremendous need for workers in this field

Nehemie is one of the most effective witnesses I have ever seen...

The crew for this trip. For the first time, more crew members were from Puerto Rico than the mainland

Maintenance & Upgrades

After the crew left, we welcomed a missions team of 11 from Neuse Baptist in Rolesville, North Carolina.  They were able to tackle several jobs that have been on the “to do” list for years.  The jobs were necessary but just never made it up the priority list.  Sea Hope is in far better cosmetic condition today for their efforts.

The 11 man team from Neuse Baptist at the Raleigh airport

Pastor Shaffer working on the port solar panel support

Pastor Josh working in the heat on the gunwales. The heat here can be oppressive

Mary feed well throughout the week the team was here

Vicky Shaffer was Mary's right hand help...literally and figuratively

Michael Lindsey did a wide variety of jobs from working on the wood at the boat entrance to the windlass

Even at 83, George worked outside on the small boat the entire week....

Mixing paint....not a fun job but necessary

Putting on the storm shutters...it is hurricane season

Victoria painting the cap rail

Victoria enjoying the view. The last day we did a short sea trial for the team

Need Crew Volunteers

We have been blessed this year to execute four major missions delivering food and supplies to over 17 churches and 8 other organizations plus a shipyard maintenance period. We have had sufficient volunteer crew members for all of our trips. But  we need more volunteers.

The main criteria you must have is a heart to serve (and a US passport). If you do, then there is a place on SEA HOPE for you.

A typical mission lasts from 5-7 days. A volunteer’s main cost is round trip air fare to/from Puerto Rico (on average about $500). . Beyond that, lodging and food are provided. A passport is required.. We will pair you with an experienced crew member to teach you what you need to know. Please seek the Lord’s guidance about serving on SEA HOPE. If interested, please email me at captain@myseahope.com.  This includes ladies to help in galley (kitchen) and with ship's hospitality.

Please keep us in your prayers.  This has been our busiest year to date and we are still looking at doing a couple more missions before November. 

Serving HIM Joyfully,

Buddy and Mary Puryear