We feel like the average American family of four. Raising children while building a life and trying to do the right thing. We have an intense love of travel and meeting new people, and we would love to see all different parts of God‘s amazing creation. From the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney, Australia to the peaks of the Rockies in Banff, Canada to the beaches of the Bahamas and Brazil, and many other states and nations we have met awesome and motivating people. The inspiration we get from Christian brothers and sisters invigorates us.
Our extended family is spread out over the America’s and other continents, changing all the time, and although we try to visit often, there are sometimes years between reunions.
Leaving the laidback lifestyle of Arizona in 2004, we ended up in San
The Longs
Antonio, Texas. San Antonio is a great place to put down some roots and raise a family. Schools, then home schooling, work then business, and church then missions trips kept us busy until 2016 when Naomi left for full time mission work with the Pais Project in Natal, Brazil. The three of us remaining in San Antonio quickly decided to follow, and left San Antonio the next year for a liveaboard missions lifestyle. Plans, failures, new plans and boat changes later, we live on our lovely sailboat S/V Faith in the Bahamas.
Eric
Becoming.
It is the easiest way to describe Eric. Not what he was and not what he’s going to be. It’s the why that’s interesting.
Working backwards, to start, Eric is the incredibly fortunate husband of Mayra for the last 20 years. The mother of his two beautiful daughters is his best friend and soulmate. A farmer from Kansas, working in the furniture business in Arizona, meets a dance instructor from Mexico. Match made in heaven.
Raised by Christian parents, Eric has the blessing of seven siblings. Each brother and sister is special in their own way. ;) There were several mission trips overseas as he grew up, and Eric became interested in sharing the good news of Christ abroad. Some fun times in high school led to some crazy times in college, and after graduating from ASU, Eric was quite a ways from traveling abroad on mission.
After marrying Mayra in 1997, life’s expectations took over and career growth became a number one goal. In 2009, after working for "the man" for 16 years, being an entrepreneur was the next thing calling. A successful business led to a failed partnership which led to a successful business, this time with no partners. Time went by and Eric’s family began to travel on short term missions again. Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Brazil, Philippines and Trinidad were trips that made an impact and brought Eric back to his faith and spiritual growth. Once, when life got quiet enough, Eric heard the Lord say it was time. The story of Soul Sailors and Sailing Faith is the story of Eric and his family following God’s calling, after many years of avoiding it. Becoming what God intended and living into the life He designed.
Maya
Hola! My name is Maya Long and I'm a mother of two beautiful creatures, Naomi and Mia. I was born in Mexico and moved to the US in 1989. I met the love my life 8 years later. I was folklorico dance teacher, later an interior decorator.
I love to take pictures of the beautiful places we go and of my lovely family. I am very passionate about essential oils so I became a certified aroma therapist. I use the oils in my day to day life on the boat.
The Lord is my strength and my family is my life!
Mia
First mate & Dingy captain. 16 years young and Mia does it all. Born in Arizona, she shortly after moved to San Antonio, and lived most of her life there. She loves sports and was (and still is) a basketball superstar and played with a homeschool team in Texas. She started homeschooling in the 6th grade and claims it was the best decision of her short lived life. Now, she is boat schooled and loving it. Some things she enjoys doing are snorkeling, sailing, stand up paddle boarding, hanging out with friends and taking pictures.
Moving onto Faith is just the start of the rest of her life.
God has done amazing things in her life and continues to do so everyday!
Tito
Hi my name is Tito! I'm a Maltipoo. My parents usually introduce me as the boat dog but I'm more like the captain. I like swimming, playing with my toys and sunshine naps on the deck. When my family leaves me to take care of the boat, I like to climb into the galley and lick the dishes and counter tops so they are clean when they get back. I love food but I really just run on attention. I am guard dog, so I bark at anything that could be a threat to my family. It seems to really work. I love sailing!!
Naomi
Naomi is kind of the one who started it all, but hasn't gotten to enjoy the actual sailing part of it yet.
Naomi was also born in Arizona in December of 1997. She lived most of her life in San Antonio, Texas as well. When Naomi was going to start her sophomore year of high school at her local public high school, she decided that she wanted to be homeschooled. It wasn't her parents idea and there wasn't a pressing issue to do so, besides the fact that she wanted to travel more. Her sister was 2 weeks in to the 6th grade and she convinced her to become homeschooled as well. She then finished high school being homeschooled and did some traveling to places like Australia, Brazil, El Salvador, Jamaica, Mexico,
Cayman Islands and the Philippines that wouldn't have been possible if she was in public school.
In 2014, the family went on a mission trip to Natal, Brazil. There Naomi met some cool people that were a part of an organization called Pais. She talked to them about what they were doing there and quickly became very interested. In August 2016, Naomi moved to Natal, Brazil, committed to a full year of mission work with Pais.
Naomi's bravery and love for Jesus inspired and encouraged the three left to enter the mission field as well.