An Adventurous Crew

The Cape's Crew: is comprised of family, friends and co-workers. Often the crew can gain its identity from their Home Port or flag, as well as, from their vessel's type or name. You've already heard a bit about our family and no doubt more should be said about their role in the crew! {They might want to worry some about that - if they like?] The "sense of ownership," a popular idea today, came - for the sailing crew - from the honour of serving together.

Crews are chosen according to their talents and abilities and are selected from every quarter. Ships need a "cast of hundreds" to sail, to maintain and to keep them provisioned. We are privileged to serve with the Cape Crew.

One example of a ship's crew size is found in the amazing military sailing and school ship, the Gorch Foch, a three-masted barque. This barque has a crew of 12 Officers (+ 65 regular crew and the ability to train some 160 juniors.

The Gorch Foch, Russian Това́рищ IPA [tʌˈvarɪɕɕ] The Gorch Fock I (ex Tovarishch, ex Gorch Fock) was originally built as a school ship for the German Reichsmarine in 1933. She was taken as war reparation by the USSR at the end of World War II and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union sailed under the Ukraine Flag 1992 to 1993 as the Tovarishch. Then, in 1995 she was transferred to Newcastle - upon - Tyne for repairs that were never begun. Finally, she was moved to her home port Stralsund, Germany, where she was re-named Gorch Fock (as in 1958) on November 29, 2003.

As I was explaining. our rather large "crew" includes members from "many ports" and they are all volunteers! The roster includes our own and many other families and individuals. The list includes the Cape Church Ministries Institute and Onafhanklike Baptiste Kweekskool students, interns, the members of churches such as Faith, Paarl Valley, Swartland, Tygerberg, and the Afrikaans & Multilingual Church Planting Teams! Others serve the crew from far away, they've remained behind; which, for some, speaks of months or years apart and, for others, speaks of lifelong separations.

Crewing speaks of the service for the greater-good. Such service succeeds when each crew member individually takes responsibility to advance his or her own level of personal mastery while responding to their own inner sense of self-motavating vision. Crewing's efficiency depends on the collective mastering of the crew's shared and modeled Team Vision. Forming a crew requires the dynamic of fellowship. This fellowship begins, in an all-volunteer crew, by identifying a definite stated purpose or goal for the cruise. The Crew's shared purpose must be carefully maintained by its officers. The navigator, is only one example, of one who must be systemic in his charting the stated course.

Fellowship is the opportunity to renew the focus of all and the shared purpose and goal must be periodically revisited by all concerned. Such fellowship (more than just "many fellows-in-a-ship" ~ forgive me for this bit of 'fluf,' please.) amidst the crew describes their spirit of serving one another and others to the Glory of the Lord. In the case of the Cape Crew, these are far more than mere words, the Lord has seen fit to truly bless the Cape Crew with a strong grouping of fully committed partners - all fellowshipping and serving out of true Love for Christ.