Still alive and well

Hello! I really am still alive! Sorry for the delay in posting. Our computer crashed just before we returned to D.R. and we had to reset everything. That has delayed me in getting pictures posted. I have to learn how to access them as we installed a new program or something. So.....photos will be coming. We have exercised much patience the past 2 months with electronics etc.

We're back!

We are back in the Dominican Republic! We got our internet set up today. We got here last Thursday. The Lord helped us so wondrously! None of our checked in baggage was overweight and we got through security with no problems. Everyone was kind and friendly to us - not always the case.

Our flight landed a half hour earlier than scheduled. We were the last ones off of the plane because we sat near the back, and it was easier to let everyone else go before we tried to ferry 6 stuffed carry ons and 6 personal items and 4 kids off. When we got to the customs line, no one was there and so we walked right through. We got to the luggage belt and our luggage had already been pulled off and some guys were waiting there with it. We loaded it onto carts and walked out to the curb, where our taxi was waiting for us. Doug called ahead and scheduled a Christian man with a large vehicle to come pick us up. That made us feel better traveling out of the airport at 10:30 at night!

We were on our way to a mission guest house 15 minutes after the original time our plane was to land! We did not go to our house until the next day since we knew we would have to move furniture, wash sheets, etc before we could sleep there.

God has been so good to us! The church is alive and well with good reports! Several people have gotten saved and several more are making steps toward God! These answers are a result of our ladies' prayer meetings. They are holding daily prayer meeting at the church Monday through Friday from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. God is moving and they are encouraged! Thank the Lord!

More news and pictures coming later.........

Update on Regina and plans

Thank you to all who prayed for our appointment last Friday. The doctor firmly insisted that she does NOT need surgery and to do surgery on her at this point would be very unwise. She is making good progress. Thank the Lord!

So we are continuing our plans to leave at the end of the month. So until I get back here to blog, I will be packing!

Plans and prayer request

We have finally purchased our tickets to return to the D.R. at the end of this month! So we are beginning to pack up our stuff and prepare for our return.

Regina has had a relapse of her lazy eye. She is visiting a specialist here who wanted to do surgery on her before we go back.

It is a long story, but we are in the middle of 2 different opinions from 2 doctors concerning Regina's eye. One doctor said she did NOT need surgery and gave us the go ahead to return to the D.R. Another insisted that her lazy eye will not be corrected without surgery. We had already purchased our tickets when we got the last doctor's opinion saying she should have surgery. We have been trying to decide what to do - what is best for Regina, what God wants etc. No clear answer has come.

Regina has an eye appointment this Friday and we are hoping that her eye will either have improved or gotten worse. If it has improved, we will plan to return as scheduled. If it has gotten worse, we may reconsider surgery and change our tickets.

Would you help us pray that God would have His way and make His will clear to us? We are very anxious to return to our field of labor, yet want what is best for Regina. We have been praying for the Lord to heal Regina, and if He would choose to, we think now would be a good time! *Smile* Seriously, the Lord IS able to heal her, and maybe this is what He has in mind! We want whatever His will would be.

Especially pray for the appointment this Friday - that somehow from it we would have clear direction as to what to do.

Thanks for your prayers and care.

A buck at last!

Finally, after 12 years since I last got a buck, I shot a buck again. I got it on the last day of season.

Deputation & Thanksgiving

We had a service at this church. It was kind of special to me because a long time ago this church was closed and my grandfather re-opened it. I believe he was the pastor of it for a while. Although I never met my grandfather (he died before I was born) I cherish the fact that this church is in operation because of him.

Oops! This should have gone with the Thanksgiving pictures. One of my older brothers and sister-in-law with their grandchildren. Can you believe I'm a great aunt?!?

Holiday sights and sounds

We so enjoyed spending Thanksgiving this year with our family. Last year we were in the D.R. missing our family here, and this year we were here with family, but missing everyone there. Our hearts will be forever torn no matter where we are.

It was wonderful to taste all the delicious flavors of Thanksgiving. We were so happy to be with our Gram for another Thanksgiving.

This is me pictured with my 2 great sisters. Most people don't know I come from a family of 8. I'm the youngest.
We enjoyed going to a local live nativity. It was fantastic!

The children got to pet the animals in the barn.

December fun

Hurrah! Doug got a doe last Tuesday. We were soooo delighted to have the meat! We all love venison steak and have missed having it the past 2-1/2 years!

Canning the venison. It doesn't get better than this!
Snowball fight!

Jonathan got in on the fun, too.

These 3 guys were trying to push this big ball to make a fort.

'Houn Toons

Imagine our surprise when a certain singer from Alaska dropped in for some early Christmas caroling. He's the "coolest" guy! I hope he makes out better than Frosty the Snow Man.

Snowball fight

Yesterday was the first day off of school for snow. Daddy got in on a snowball fight with some of the neighbor children and our children. Here's a video of D. getting an earfull of snow.

Winding down deputation

We are on the tail end of our deputation schedule with only 2 missions services to go!!!! Hurrah!!! We are finding ourselves very weary of travling, but very thankful for all of the friends we've made and seen.

We've traveled around 9,000 miles and only had about 3 times off since August 16th that we could attend a regular service where we didn't have to speak!

Our last 2 services will be:

12/6/09 - Beavertown God's Missionary Church - Beavertown, PA 7:00 PM
12/13/09 - Mahaffey God's Missionary Church - Mahaffey, PA PM

Looking forward to seeing all of the wonderful people at these churches! Join us if you can.

It's hunting season!

We have no success stories to report from our hunters today, but I thought I'd post this picture of a little hunter who is all excited about Daddy hunting.

Brandon has a deer hunting game that he plays on the computer and last night we told Jonathan how Daddy was going to go hunting for a real deer. He replied, "I like your hunting game, Dad."

He also came into the bedroom last night and said, "I gonna shoot a big buck" and then he posed like he was shooting a gun. He sure will be excited if Daddy gets to bring home a live deer!

Thanksgiving blessings

Thanksgiving is past, but my heart still rejoices in so many blessings the Lord has given. This year at Thanksgiving, I thanked the Lord the most for my 3 greatest blessings:

1. Salvation
2. A loving husband
3. 4 healthy and beautiful children

It made me even more thankful when I realized that there are an awful lot of people who do not have all 3 of these. Some have only two.

Thank you, Lord, for your blessings on me - not just for the 3 above, but for the 100's of blessings beside.

Special guests

We were privileged and delighted to have the Dickensons - missionary friends - stop by and visit us last week. We had been hoping to connnect with them and it worked out for them to come by our house on their way to their next deputation service.

We got to entertain them in just a small way like so many of you have entertained and taken care of us. I found it very fun taking care of missionaries!

It was so fun talking to them. For some reason, we have a lot in common. :-)

They treated us to a few songs that they sing in their services. Such lovely songs and beautiful voices!

Then we took the children to the nearby playground. We all had a blast!

This is both of our families together - except for one! Oops! Somebody's missing! I have no idea how that happened!!

This was their cute little guy. He would smile every time I called his name. He was playing on the steps and when I called for him, he came crawling after me with the cutest grin.

Whooooo's there?

The children happened to notice an owl sitting in our fireplace.

It was definitely an owl and he was sleeping.
Doug didn't know exactly what to do, so he called a neighbor friend, and he said he'd be right over. He confidently reached in, grabbed the owl, and pulled it out.

It was neat to see the owl close up and with its eyes open.

More sights from Deputation

Before any more time gets away, I must sit and post some more pictures of deputation. It seems life is busier than ever these days - traveling, packing and unpacking, homeschool on the road and catching up on days at home, catching up on bookwork, laundry, meals and housekeeping, fall activities and revivals etc. It seems at times we're hardly ever "home". Anyhow, here's some more pictures for you to enjoy.

We visited an air zoo in Kalamazoo, MI. There really is a Kalamazoo! One of the neatest things to me was this actual space ship engine. There are 4 of these under a space ship.

Here is a picture of a space ship with the 4 engines underneath. I didn't realize how big they really are!
The children got to help pick corn at one place we stayed.

The next fun part was husking it and feeding it to the horses.

The horses sure enjoyed their lunch. And we enjoyed the corn. It was yummy!

We enjoyed meeting the Isbells in Tennessee. They treated us royally!

Bro. Isbell got tickled that Jonathan ate 3 bananas one morning for breakfast. (Actually, 2-1/2 because he didn't finish the last half of the last banana). Jonathan stole their hearts and they tried to figure out a way to get us to leave him behind.

I would post a picture but I'm afraid I'll get in trouble with them. :-)

The Isbells took us to a battlefield near them. We had a great time and learned a lot about history.
The cutest little soldier I've ever seen.

Another cute little army man.

We enjoyed catching up with our friends, the McDonalds, in Tennessee. Our children were all close in age so it was kind of neat that each one had a playmate.

The day we were to arrive at their place, we baffled Ryan when we told him we were staying at McDonald's that night. He couldn't figure it out and kept saying, "Nuh-uh." We finally told him it wasn't the restaurant "McDonalds" but our friends, the McDonalds. :-)

They are pictured with 3 of their children. Their other baby was inside sleeping when we took this picture.

Doug and the children enjoyed 4-wheeling at Edwards.
We enjoyed a wonderful service with the visitation of the Holy Spirit at the church where Daniel & Angie Edwards pastor. We always enjoy being with them!
Regina and Jonathan had their birthday on the road. Remember they were both born the same day.

Jonathan got cupcakes for his birthday cake and Regina chose to celebrate her birthday with a friend when we got back to our homebase.

Trying to catch up

I know I haven't been keeping up with posting recently. We've been doing a LOT of traveling and have not always had internet connection, and when we were at our home base, I've had scads to catch up on. I have lots to post and will do my best to catch up (as life allows) over the next several weeks. Keep checkin' in.