ALON CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP

Boat Outreach - Tahlita

Currently the yacht is in Cape Town.

Early history of our boat outreach ministry

Some years ago (1999) after Davit and Sara’s son Gad had completed his high school career he spent a short season with YWAM. Having lived his whole life in a Christian community this was done to expose him to a different perspective. It seemed like the Lord was leading Gad and one other young man from Alôn to do a sailing school at a Sailing Academy in Durban. They were involved with different jobs and thereafter came the opportunity to embark on their first cross-Atlantic Ocean sailing. This contributed to them gaining valuable ‘hands on’ sailing experience.

Some years prior to all this it seemed the Lord was indicating that Alôn would also be involved with sailing as a means to disciple people and to take the Gospel to different nations. Soon thereafter (early 2000) the Lord instructed us to purchase a boat. In a remarkable way they found what appeared to be the first boat to be purchased. In the process of assessing whether this was to be the boat a young man was saved in a very dramatic manner. It turned out not to be the boat, but the young man continues to grow in his salvation.

Shortly after that the first boat was found, God released His peace and we had to trust the Lord for the lump sum of money. The normal procedure followed as we paid a small deposit and trusted God for the rest of the finance so as to pay cash. We named this beautiful 37 foot boat, Tahlita (March 2000).

Gad and Richard started preparing the Tahlita in Cape Town and eventually the day drew closer for the big departure, to sail from the Southern tip (Cape Town) of the African continent, a journey of about three months at sea with very few stops in between.

In need of finding more crew we noticed an advertisement of a 22 year old man at the Royal Yacht Club (Cape Town) for a position to get himself to the Mediterranean. We contacted him and invited him to live with us for two weeks before departure. During those next days he became ‘born again’, baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit. Today Anton is still going on with the Lord and is a part of our community.

The journey took the young men three months: leaving in May 2000 and arriving in Cyprus during early August 2000. Since then they have been active in sailing between Cyprus, Turkey and Israel.

The boat is being used for:

· A means of transport and doing outreach work wherever they go.

· Doing sailing schools with the call of learning more about God and His ways.

· A floating home along the coast of Israel or wherever.

· A tool for discipleship and learning to work as a team.

During the end of 2001 Gad sailed Tahlita over to Israel in order to study at “Ulpan” in Ashkelon and had rich contact with many people in the marina. We already felt at that stage to sell Tahlita and to trust God for a bigger boat. We prayed a simple prayer back here on the base that if God wanted the boat to be sold, somebody would spot it in Israel and fall in love with her. Well, Gad phoned days after our prayer not knowing what we prayed and said that a lovely young Israeli couple saw Tahlita, fell in love with her and wanted to buy her immediately…and that’s exactly what happened. We sold her with sadness and joy and felt we should start looking for a new boat on the South African coast.

It was a difficult search with perseverance needed and having to trust the Lord to lead us to the next Tahlita. At one stage we thought we had found her in Durban and signed the “Offer for Purchase”. However, the next day the owner sold her for a better price to somebody from the U.K. – we left Durban with a heavy heart and could not fully understand God’s way in letting us miss out on what seemed to be a great opportunity. But, we knew that God was in control!

Isaiah 55:8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.

On take-off from Durban airport, we were encouraged by the famous song by Rod Steward “I am sailing” which echoed over the sound system... we were wondering whether the Lord was still going to provide for us to buy a boat in Durban…and whether we would start the journey to Cyprus from there (even though we would have preferred to buy in Cape Town as it’s minutes away from our Cape base, Petach Tikva).

God’s ways are always the best and His purposes are greater than our own understanding. When we were about to give up on finding a boat on the South African coast, a boat became available when we least expected it…in Durban…and at a very good price. Ironically, we had to return to Durban to view the boat and discovered that this gift from God was a much better deal than that the first boat we felt we had lost.

So, within a month after we bought her, the new Tahlita sailed out from Durban harbour not with Rod Steward’s song, but rather with the blowing of the “shofar” that echoed from the boat of another group of believers who were moored near to us in the marina at that time.

So, the new Tahlita has been sailed down to Cape Town and awaits the Lord's further leading. May God lead us forward in this special part of the Alôn ministry…sailing forward in God’s plan and purposes.

Isaiah 45: 6 “so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting men may know there is none besides me. I am the Lord and there is no other.”

- Alon Christian Fellowship also known as Alon International -