A religious family that set sail from California, to the Kirabiti Island in May has survived, amongst experiencing catastrophe at sea! Hit the jump for detail!
The family originally from northern Arizona headed to California in order to set sail to the Karibiti Island in efforts to gain more religious freedom. The family claims to have embarked on their journey to the island due to “what they consider government interference in religion”.
Weeks into their journey, the Gastonguay family,
“hit a series of storms that damaged their small boat, leaving them adrift for weeks, unable to make progress. They were eventually picked up by a Venezuelan fishing vessel, transferred to a Japanese cargo ship and taken to Chile”.
The 24 year old mother Hannah Gastonguay expressed that she had chosen to travel to the small island being that it was one of the least developed countries in the world. The major issue causing the family to leave the states occurred when Hannah and her family had become “fed up with government control”. They did not believe in issues such as:
“abortion, homosexuality, in the state-controlled church,” she said. U.S. “churches aren’t their own,” Gastonguay said, suggesting that government regulation interfered with religious independence.
Among other differences, she said they had a problem with being “forced to pay these taxes that pay for abortions we don’t agree with”.
The family lived in Arizona, later moving to San Diego where they lived on their boat until they set sail for the Island. The mother even delivered their now 8 month old baby girl on the boat.
Although the family experienced many hardships including huge storms damaging their boat, running out of food leaving them to just “some juice and honey”, they stated that they never lost hope.
“Still, we “didn’t feel like we were going to die or anything. We believed God would see us through,” she said”.
They are currently flying back to their homes in the United states. My opinion? I guess people find their peace differently, for some it includes being stranded on a sea for months; Something I would consider chaos!
Via DailyTimes
