Niel has always dreamed of having a yacht. He already has a name picked out -- Outreach. Odd name for a boat, you say? Well, it makes it possible to use the boat more often when it has the name Outreach -- because when someone calls or visits the office looking for Niel, we can truthfully say, "Sorry, he's out on Outreach; can he call you when he gets back?" or "Niel is out on Outreach for another few weeks; call again next month." Perfect. Well, we go from glory to glory and in the same way, we often take baby steps towards our dreams. Someone in our town just gave us a boat. It's nowhere near a yacht or Niel's ultimate dream boat, but we now have a boat. It's red, made for fishing, and has two motors; that is where my boat-knowledge ends. We are excited to have it and plan to make good use of it.
On Saturday we took all the staff out with the boat to Sterkfontein Dam (third largest dam in all of South Africa -- basically an enormous lake). We went dam-exploring in the boat, tubing (great fun!), and... sun-burning. Yep -- most of us got more sun than we'd planned on or really desired. No, I'm not blushing...
We still need a name for our boat. Niel says we shouldn't name it since it's not THE boat yet (kind of like not naming the pig you're going to make bacon out of next year?!); but I think it needs a name. Naming it is not conceding that you've reached the pinnacle of boat-ownership, it just means you've given the baby-step-glory-to-glory-in-between boat a name. Now, all we need is a good name... (Feel free to offer suggestions!)
We are really blessed to even have the boat. It is wonderful to be able to enjoy the remaining weeks (hopefully months!) of summer with our staff family and friends on the boat. We are looking forward to many more boating expeditions -- and will surely pack stronger sunblock next time!