Bad News for the Boat Ministry

In October of last year we recieved a donation of 5000 Euros towards the boat project from a foundation in Germany. While very generous, the donation was still not enough for us to complete the purchase of the motor and put the boat into dry-dock for the installation and final renovations. Since a year has passed and we haven´t been able to use the funds yet (because we were/are still trying to raise the remaining money needed which is between $17,000 to $20,000 dollars) the foundation has asked us to return the money back to them. We are not legally required to do this however we chose to oblige them and we are now in the process of wiring the money back to them.

We recently printed out a new ministry newsletter and just after we got them back from the printer we found out about this so unfortunately our newsletter says that we have approximately $12,000 usd in our boat fund. Now we actually only have about $3,175 usd.

While this was not mentioned in any official communication between us and the foundation, we did find out from a third party that at least one of the persons involved in this decision happened to read in our blog about how God provided for us to get a loan to be able to buy a house last year and there was suspect that we had mis-used the funds they sent. That was very discouraging to hear, but since we know it doesn´t have even a hint of truth to it, we were able to shake it off and not let it get us down. It actually made it easier for us to do what we had to do...send the money back and be free of any misconceptions that someone might have about us.

Of course this was disheartening and nothing like this has ever happened to us before but we have given this up to the Lord and feel like this only makes the situation ripe for Him to do something amazing and get even more glory for it! So we are excited to see what lies ahead for the boat ministry. We trust that His timing is perfect and the looooong road we have travelled so far and still have yet to travel to get to the goal, serves to teach us many lessons along the way!