Gods Providence

When I was nine years old my Father built an eight foot El Toro sailboat which was responsible for my life long love of the sea.
I loved this sailboat, which I named Spray, and had a lifetime of memories:
Sailing on Commencement Bay in Tacoma, Washington during the summer when the bay was solid whitecaps.
Sailing with my friend in a winter gale on Commencement Bay; the wind tearing apart the mast boom fitting and having to beach Spray for our safety.
Rowing Spray on a small lake with my first girlfriend at a church picnic.
Rowing from Commencement Bay to Day Island and going directly under the middle of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and being caught in the giant tidal waves and tidal pools. My Dad had warned me to stay close to shore and I thought I was a goner but Spray, as she was to prove many times, always saved me.
Keeping Spray at my best friends neighbors house at Day Island, Washington so we could use Spray for fishing everyday of the summer.
Keeping Spray at the factory where I worked during the summer on a waterway in Tacoma and going salmon fishing after work with my best friend.
Fishing for salmon on Commencement Bay with my best friend and watching the bay turn black because of a squall generated by a giant cumulus cloud. We avoided the squall but when we got back to our moorage both our parents were waiting and concerned for our safety because they had seen the giant storm cloud from the family homes over five miles away.
Keeping Spray mmat my lakefront apartment on Lake Washington in Seattle when I got out of college and being able to sail every day on beautiful Lake Washington.
Using it as a yacht tender where my big sailboat was moored on Seattle's Elliott Bay.
My best memory was rowing the entire length of Hood Canal, Washington with my Dad.
I could go on and on.
Unfortunately the boat was stolen from the beach by Indians at West Seattle even though it was chained to a log.
Spray was forty years old.
I then bought a brand new clear finish - varnished El Toro and named it Spray II.
It was built in Washington's beautiful San Juan Islands by a master boat builder and christened by our family priest Father Joe Kramis.
The memories continued especially for my oldest boy.
I will never forget him racing Spray II on Seattle's Green Lake against other El Toro's sailed by adults. The wind was so strong Spray II went into a "death role" when the boat rocks side to side and is in danger of rolling over.
My boy is a good sailor though and he recovered from the "death roll" and finished the race.
Unfortunately he lost his love of the sea and Spray II has been in storage for years underneath the family cabin in eastern Washington far from the sea.
As a parent I always hoped all three of my children would regain their love of the sea but that never happened.
My children grew up on the sea in our family sailboat Little Boy Blue.
It is now going on three years and I can't get Spray II back and that is how long I haven't sailed.
But what does this have to do with God's Providence?
Within the last year my Father died. He said he was remembering me in his will but I didn't receive anything.
Then I remembered I always kept an oar for the El Toro he built in my station wagon and one day the Sea Scout captain brought me an oar he said had been on my sailboat. I had donated the family sailboat to the Sea Scouts.
I wondered if this was the original oar my Dad had made for the El Toro when I was nine years old.
If it was it would be over sixty years old.
It looked like it was because the construction was meticulous like my Dad would have done.
Then I remembered when I was eleven years old during a summer vacation on Washington's Hood Canal I was sailing with my best friend and he stood up when I was tacking-changing direction, fell, and broke an oar. I looked at the two oars and one was two inches shorter than the other.
I now knew for a fact that these oars were built by my Father. One was sixty two years old and one was sixty four years old.
What more could I want to remember my Father by. All the money in the world for an inheritance would be nothing compared to having these oars because of God's Providence.
My boy doesn't understand God's Providence and other Jehovah Witnesses don't either.
All I can say is all good sailors believe in God's Providence and the Bible says: "God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb."
If God gave me the oars he wants me to have Spray II that they go with.
I pray everyday for the return of Spray II so that I can sail again and Little Boy Blue will have a fine yacht tender again.
Months after the Sea Scout captain brought me the oar my brother sent me my Father's Rolex and said my Dad wanted me to have it. The Rolex is sixty six years old. My Dad would have been wearing it when he built the El Toro and when we rowed the length of Hood Canal.
The Rolex was given to my Father by my Mother and would have been his most cherished possession..
God's Providence again.
Thank you Lord.

Captain Bill Schweizer U.S.M.M., missionary
Mountaintop Sea Ministries International

Without menses-malice.