Week #51 - "Meh-CAN-ick" :P
Engine work is dirty work, but this guy CAN do it, he IS doing it
08/29/2025
Chris – “Get Back To Work”
I am going to keep it real brief this week. I am in the middle of the engine rebuild, and I need to keep my head in the game. So far, we have received our cylinder head back from the shop in Brunswick, I have pulled the oil pan, pulled the old pistons, and removed the cylinder liners/ sleeves. I am currently in the process of cleaning things, and prepping to begin reassembling the engine! Exciting stuff! I am as nervous as I have ever been, but the process has been going reasonably smooth, so far. It has been difficult, draining work, but I am gaining confidence, and stacking up little wins along the way. I have made many “custom” tools (by “custom”, I mean crude and ugly) to accomplish the work in our confined engine-room space, and I have dumped SO MUCH more sweat on the floors of that room. Pray for me. I am praying for favor as I start the process of putting things back together, and looking forward to hearing the engine sing its first notes as she comes back to life! Hope you all are having a great week. We have big news, but I will let the rest of my family tell you about it.
~Chris (an almost honest-to-goodness mechanic)
Crystal - “Settle to Jump”
“So roll up your sleeves, get your head in the game, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, ‘I am holy; you be holy.’” 1 Peter 1:13-16 MSG
We are leaning into a leading.
When we left Annapolis last year after the show, I had a feeling that we were going to be back. It felt like a “see you later”. Funny, I just happened to see some of my last written entry from two weeks ago and it talks about how I am finally learning to settle where God sets me. And then I go on to say that we need a little more of our initial “jump”. It appears, I knew more than I knew. We successfully pulled the head of the engine off and took it into a machine shop to be rebuilt. We have it back and it passed their tests. Hallelujah! Chris has gotten all six pistons pulled. He then spent days pulling the cylinder sleeves. This is something that can be super difficult to do in a shop, on a work bench with all the right tools. Instead, he welded together scraps from the metal shop and used found wrenches and lots of ingenuity. He did all of it in place, on the engine mount. Contortion and unbelievable grit were employed. Anyway, today, Chris is detailing everything, trying to get it all as “sterile” as possible so that He can put it all back together. We are all feeling the ache of past failures at starting up Agnes. “I believe, Lord, help me overcome my unbelief.”
The plan is to head north to Annapolis as soon as we get her purring and have run and gotten diesel and oil in all the right places. Lord help us and Godspeed! Chris, Ellis and Conrad(pending clearance of age eligibility) have jobs with the electrical crew for the boat show. I also have some work lined up.
We met a couple at church last year when we had finally just found a place to be in Annapolis. Mary, the lovely lady of the couple, said to me, after just a short conversation, that she had a big house and if we needed a place….she gave me her card. I kept it. I texted her last week on an unprecedented whim of boldness. I’m still kind of confused how I asked a stranger(basically) if their year-old offer was still good to put up my family of 7 for a couple months?!!! WHO does that?! She texted back. We had a zoom meeting. They said “YES”! What?! WHO does that?! I think it is safe to say that the Holy Spirit is going before us. I think I may have found a little more of that “jump”.
The verse above; that first line feels like such a rally cry to me. It gets me on my toes with a whoop stuck in my throat!
“So roll up your sleeves, get your head in the game, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives.
Then the next two sentences talk about not slipping back into old habits, of rising to the new standard and using what we’ve been taught to do better. I see this as a continual challenge not just a “once you get saved”. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. Then it gets personal and talks about how we are to be like obedient children- not fearful or oppressed children, mind you.. He invites us to be His, to live as He lives, life full of energy and emblazoned with holiness. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, ‘I am holy; you be holy.”
We have learned so much about kindness, generosity and provision since embarking on this adventure. I want to rise on that. We have also been challenged to trust when there’s no clarity. I want to be so sure of my closeness to my Father, that I don’t question His gentle hand leading me, even when I can’t see where we are going. I want to skip alongside him, in step with His energy and soaked in His holiness.
Dear friend, you were made for more than just surviving. Get your head in the game and receive.
~Crystal
Ellis - “Full Circle”
It sounds like we will in fact be going back to Maryland soon but it all still kinda depends on progress with the engine. I sure hope the rebuild works, I don’t know what we’ll de if it doesn’t. It’d be a low blow for the whole family but I think especially for Dad cause he’s been working so hard. But on the other hand, it’ll be such a huge load off of all of our hearts if it does work. I know I said last week I wasn’t real keen on going back to work in Annapolis again but I think I’ve changed my mind (again-I keep going back and forth). The blood-sucking hordes of hell are starting to reemerge again and I’m ready for a change of scenery. We’ll be going back to the same town, job, and church as last year but here’s where it gets interesting: we’ll be living for two-ish months with a family we’ve only ever met a couple times at the church there- I’m real interested to see what that’ll be like. Two months is a long time to put up with us, I hope it’ll be a good fit.
~Ellis
Conrad - “Another Adventure On Land”
This week we have been doing a lot of work prepping the boat for a couple of months without us. Once we get the engine running, which should be in only a couple of days now, we will be heading back up to Annapolis to work in the boat show again. In theory, we could probably be in the water in the next couple of weeks, and I think that everybody wants to do that, but we feel like God is calling us back up to Annapolis for a couple of months. It feels wrong a little bit to finally get this close to getting the boat in the water and deciding to put it off for so long but it makes sense to wait. We have been offered a job and a place to stay for free for the whole time. Also, even if we did get in now we wouldn't be able to do much because of hurricane season. I don't know what God has in store for us but I know that it is good and that he will grow us through this upcoming experience.
~Conrad
Oliver - Good Trash Free!
During the past month I have been working for Rhonda and the sanding crew. But this week, Rhonda didn’t have enough work for me so I got “let go”. I wasn’t sad about it, I was starting to miss the free time in the mornings. The very next day, I got hired by the boatyard scrapper, Doc. The first day we worked, we were just picking up huge chunks of fiberglass, wood, and scrap metal. The next day, we helped him actually take a few things off the boat. Then after that, we got permission to go on the boat and take anything we wanted. We got a bunch of expensive hardware, some brackets for kayaks, some teak, a spool of electrical cable, a bow pulpit, a maybe-working windlass, a cool cutting board, and a few other little things. I am glad I got that opportunity. It was pretty cool.
Dad is a crazy person! I have no idea how he is still moving at all. But he is making great progress, not letting the problems get in his way. I am proud to be his son, and I hope when I grow up, that I will be just as tenacious as him. He is gifted with lots of engine-uity. Thanks for reading!
Hidden treasure.
Jasper - “Hopes & Drea-sticker’s”
This past week we all have been working more than usual so that our boat doesn’t fall apart while we are away on a two month trip to Annapolis, MD, where some of us (Dad, Ellis, and maybe Mom and Conrad) will work at the Boat show. The rest of us will collect fun things: stickers, knick-knacks, ect. Possibly buying a couple things: shirts, souvenirs, things we need for the boat, and so on, and so forth. We will also be starting school this Monday, so we’ll be working hard on that leading up to the show.
The Gunther Family (a family that we had met last year at church) offered us their house for free while we’re there; we accepted the offer gratefully. Thank you Gunther family you have blessed us tons, we are thankful and super glad that you offered.
And to wrap things up, our engine is almost ready to start getting rebuilt!! Thanks to Dad and some helpers, we have gotten out the pistons and the cylinder sleeves. We hope that when we get back we will only have to clean up a little and then just get in the water. Anyway, that’s all I know now, so, see ya.
~Jasper
Posy - “Random”
If you pick up three dice and roll them trying to get three of one number in one roll, the chances are you will roll twenty times before getting triples. You try it again, this time it takes three tries. It varies. If you pick up two dice, that’s a different matter, you can roll doubles pretty frequently. There's a chart with readings of my experience for my dice rolling.
Speaking not of which, if you know much about a boat you will know what a winch is. There is the inner circle and the outer circle. The inner circle turns with what is called a winch handle. It slowly turns the outer circle. There are two speeds on most winches. On Thursday, I figured out that one speed is two times faster than the other speed.
Did you know that the manatee's closest relative is the elephant? Also, there’s a little guy that looks like a beaver with a mouse head and tusks that is a close relative to both.
~Posy
Chris…if you think you know what “hot” is, just wait! The huge blanket of prayer that is and will continue to cover you is going to be bulked up!!! I’m so, so proud of you, Chris, and so blessed to see the man you’ve become. I can’t even imagine the joy and glory the Lord is experiencing by your faith and obedience.