souldare

Incline your ear to me;
    rescue me speedily!
Be a rock of refuge for me,
    a strong fortress to save me! (Psalm 31:2 ESV)

Every ADVENTure has unanswered questions.

Some of you may be asking what happened to Les and Kel. Did they abandon the ADVENTure? Our silence hasn’t been intentional, we’ve been acclimating to our new situation. It has suprised me how much energy it takes to get situated for living on a boat.

After travelling for a week from port to port, it was strange to not be planning for the next day. We spent Thursday doing laundry, evaluating what tasks needed doing before we travelled on Friday to pick up our truck and trailer, which we left in Demopolis, AL at the marina yard there.

Travel that took us a week on a boat, took 12 hours round trip via land. (We plan to trailer the boat further south in January and it’s nice to have a vehicle here to go pick up groceries and do other errands.) We also have our bikes in the back of the truck to use to get around.

After getting back Friday night, we went straight to bed. We are on a 5am-8pm schedule. We tend to get up with the sun and head to bed a few hours after the sun retires for the day.

Saturday was cleaning and grocery day. We took things off the boat that we used for travelling and brought on the books and Christmas decorations that I packed for December, plus the electric heater and the toaster oven. (Pictures to follow.) All in all, our first few days have been filled with the mundane. The same things we do at home in December, we are doing here, albeit with sunshine and warmer weather.

While we went about our tasks, I was thinking about Mary and Elizabeth. What did they do after the Spirit-filled leap for joy from John, the prophetic blessings from Elizabeth and the inspired praise song from Mary? Did Mary go back to Joseph after this reassuring visit? Did he send word that the angel had visited him, too? Did Mary and Jospeh get married before or after John was born? The Scriptures remain silent.

But I imagine that everyone was acclimating to their new circumstances. Maybe Elizabeth, was sharing her pregnancy experience with Mary, since they both were first time mothers. Elizabeth could tell Mary what to expect, since Elizabeth was about six months ahead of Mary with this new, unexpected joy of carrying a child in her womb. I imagine Mary staying with Elizabeth, and witnessing the birth of John. Maybe Joseph came to her and they had a quiet marriage ceremony with Zechariah officiating. And maybe they stayed on, so Mary could remain with her elder cousin and  all of them could wait together. Or maybe Joseph went back to Nazareth to work, while Mary stayed with Elizabeth.

The silence offers much to speculate about, but I am certain each person, in their own way was leaning into God in deeper ways than ever before. Maybe they even encouraged one another with words from the Psalms and Prophets.

In the meantime, we enter the third Sunday of Advent. A week of rejoicing and contemplating the joys ahead.

Here are some photos from the last few days of our acclimation at Pirates Cove marina:

What are you acclimating to this Season? How would silences be welcome in your situation?