Lumberjerks

Evidence that we do indeed have termites. This is from the top of the door of one of our cupboards above the stove (see the pile at the top of the first picture). Tina emptied the cupboard so we don't open that door any more and look what we have after a few days (the "droppings" have piled over the door and still "drop"):

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

We had a great Christmas here, yet missed our family! Most of the gifts on display here in this first picture are from Tina's parents (THANK YOU GUYS!!)


This picture is of Carter and his Mechanix gloves. He has been waiting to grow into the ones that I use and I found these kids sized gloves on eBay a while back and ordered them - he likes them a lot!


Kayla bought Tina a famous Baptist Haiti Mission poinsettia (I don't think that Lou was impressed):


The items in this basket that we bought here in Haiti are from Tina's parents: shortbread cookies and hot cocoa (this website rotated this image on me).


My parents gave us a couple nights rest at the Visa Lodge and a meal. The kids will enjoy the hotel's pool and we'll enjoy being able to play with them in the pool (although we have to figure out what to do with the dog yet). (THANK YOU GUYS!!)

On Christmas Eve night, we went to Pastor Rob and Patti's place to have a meal and exchange white elephant gifts. I brought a special gift for Mr. Kyrk - so he would remember a specific event (hitting the cow with the truck).


Patti had the kids act out a brief portion of the story of Jesus' birth. It was well done and very entertaining. I have a video of the whole thing.


On Christmas day, we also went and delivered Christmas gifts to the people in the hospital (and the nurses). The kids enjoyed handing out candy canes and other little treats, too.


Dr. Bernard gave us a gift of a well decorated cake that says "Merry Christmas" in Creole (again the image was rotated):


Also, on Christmas Day, the kids were treated to cotton candy thanks to Mr. Kyrk and his cotton candy machine. It tasted really good (I may not LOOK like a kid, but I did try some)! Yes, Carter has taken his gloves off for an hour or so.

Logs

I worked on the log splitter yesterday so we could clean up the large trees from the hurricanes. Mr. Kyrk and I then started to pretend to be lumberjacks and artists. He made a tree chair for children (demonstrating how to use it are Jonathan, Naomi, and Rebekah (right to left).


We spent a good portion of the day sawing tunnel in one large piece. It was Mr. Kyrk's idea to make a tunnel-like gym out of a few so we started that today. It is not easy to cut out the center of this log - it's huge and the big chainsaw barely makes it half way. I'll take more pictures when we are further along (or when I think to take my camera out when we work on it next).

I managed to bang up my hand pretty bad earlier in the morning while using the log splitter. I smashed the pinky side of the right hand and now it is swollen and hurts to type (not so bad that I can't type though). Just when I thought I was getting over a stiff neck that I have had for 2 days this happens...oh well. One of the Haitian guys who was helping this morning went to help to put the log splitter away in a shed and accidentally pushed the muffler on the engine with the palm of his hand. We had just shut it off so it was VERY HOT. He burned it pretty bad and didn't want much of the ice that we gave him to use.

We are looking forward to spending some family time together tomorrow. I may be going with Pastor Rob on trip Friday (we hope to be back that evening - we're taking the Ranger).

Goat, Trip, Ranger - Fixed, Log-Splitter

The last trip that Pastor Rob went on about a week ago yielded a gift. That gift was a goat. Yesterday, they had one of the workers butcher the goat and Kayla and Carter wanted to watch. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. I think that Carter learned a little more respect for life by watching it and Kayla just confirmed the respect that she already had. It was interesting to watch how they did it and interested as well to think that this happens to many goats each and every day because they are a primary food source here in Haiti.

Pastor Rob and I took a little road trip two days ago and I got some interesting pictures. Here is one of a tree with watermelon-sized fruit hanging from it (I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it myself):



We have a few events coming up today and tomorrow. This evening we’ll be eating dinner as a group and then going to Pastor Rob and Patti’s place to watch the kids present a play. They practiced a little bit yesterday for it. Then, tomorrow, Christmas Day, we’ll be doing a meal together again at about 2:30. But before that, we’ll be delivering Christmas gifts to people in the hospital. We have bags of hygiene supplies for the people who are staying in the hospital. I’ll try to get pictures of this and the kids play as well.

Boring Car Stuff…

I got the Ford Ranger running yesterday. When the suspension broke, it took out the oil filter. They found a new one and filled it up with oil. Somehow in the process of driving back home, they over-filled the engine with oil. That oil was all throughout the intake, including the intercooler. I took it all out of the car and cleaned it all up with gasoline, brake cleaner, and carb cleaner. I drained the oil and replaced the oil with the correct amount. It started real hard (the battery was pretty warn down from having the hazard lights on for so long), but it started nonetheless. I took it for a little drive to “get the lead out” and it seems to be just fine. I’ll be keeping an eye out on it because there may be a small oil leak. I also put touchup paint on the spot where the cow-catcher from the Landcruiser wore a hole in the paint.

I worked on a log splitter that they have here yesterday as well. It ran enough to cut a couple logs and then it quit. We have a generator here with nearly the same engine and so Mr. Kyrk and I spent about an hour replacing various parts and we got it to work again. We took it to an area and split wood for about an hour (I like working with wood – there may be a little lumberjack inside of me). We used the four-wheeler to pull it up from a shed to the shop and to pull it around. It sure is nice to have that four-wheeler!

Wild Adventure

Boring Car Stuff...

If I bored you with the corn grinder post, you should be fully satisfied after reading this post.

I was getting multiple things done on the computer yesterday morning and was feeling like I was making progress. I was going to chill out for the afternoon before going to a Christmas dinner at Pastor Rob and Patti's house at 6 PM. At 11:30 AM, I got a call from Pastor Rob and he asked me if I wanted to go on a trip. Always willing, I said "Yes, what do you have?" He told me that Mr. Kyrk had a problem. He did not hit a cow this time. The truck's front, upper, driver's side A-arm came apart and punctured the oil filter. The truck was DOA on the side of the road about 4-5 hours away. They sent one of the Haitian guys they were with to go see if they could get a new oil filter and find a mechanic to replace the bolts. My mission: To try to find the right bolt by bringing a bunch that should fit (one bolt was missing and the other was stripped out) and bring an oil filter.

I have been doing a lot of oil changes lately and have not been so good about throwing them out (probably because I have been so used to recycling that stuff instead of throwing it away). We had no new oil filters, but did have one used filter sitting near where I change oil, so I grabbed that. Pastor Rob was deciding what vehicle to take (what was left for the day was NOT the cream of the crop for vehicles). He suggested taking a newer Nissan Patrol that is sort of a prized possession here. I thought it was a good idea (of course because it's a nice, new, cushy vehicle). We gassed it up and I asked if it would be OK if I drove instead of one of the Haitian drivers we have. He didn't see a problem with it. Mr. Jeff is the driver that came with. Of course Carter wanted to go, so I let him come with, too. That made: Mr. Jeff, Carter and Me in the truck.

We started driving and I called Mr. Kyrk after about an hour to see what's up. He told me that they found an oil filter and some bolts that would go through the hole with nuts on the other side. (By the way, I very much dislike the way Ford designed the front suspension setup, but I won't get into that here). He was on his way back and he told me to meet him at the Mission's beach house which is 2-3 hours away from the Mission.

We arrived there and I called Mr. Kyrk. He told me that he was about an hour away. So what do you do at a beach house with an extra hour of time on your hands - go swimming of course. Carter and I stripped down to our boxers and took a nice swim (making sure to look out for sea urchins and jellyfish). Mr. Jeff went to one of the guys who stays at the property (not at the house) and borrowed some of his swim shorts.



Our time was up - Mr. Kyrk called and we got packed up and waited along the road by the entrance to the property. He came and they had to fill up with oil every so often and they topped it off before we took off. The "cow catcher" from the Landcruiser was in the back of their truck because they picked it up after leaving it at a pastor's house - they had no room to bring it back with it not mounted after hitting the cow earlier in the week. The cow catcher was wearing a rather large size hole in the paint on the outside of the bed - oh well...what to do?

We got about two-thirds of the way back when their truck started to smoke from underneath. Then it started to really smoke. I mean REALLY smoke.

Picture a Ford Ranger.

Picture a large white billowy cloud in the sky.

That's what the truck turned into (only it wasn't in the sky). The engine was racing and the smoke was pouring out. After a couple seconds, Mr. Kyrk comes running out and away from the truck with something in his hand. It's the key. The truck was still running (i.e., RACING) and the key was out. And the smoke was pouring oil. The engine had a mind of it's own and was revving really high and then slows down. Revs really high and then slows down. We were trying to think of what to do. I toss out the suggestion of pulling fuses thinking that we'll pull one that stops the fuel pump or something. We pulled a couple and nothing. By now there was about 50+ people that came to watch our show (we should have charged admission so we can pay for repairs). One guy from the crowd came and jumped in the drivers seat. He put the car in 3rd gear and popped the clutch - the engine finally died. (Note to self: when stuck in Haiti or anywhere else with a manual transmission vehicle, with an engine that continues to run wildly, without the key in the ignition, while it is smoking so profusely you can't see your hand in front of your face, kill the engine with the transmission - I never claimed to be a know-it all mechanic, but now I know yet one more thing - I feel humbled).

As God would have it, this all happened in a fairly safe area. We did go through an area where we were called by the lead truck and told to lock our doors. This was not that area. Where we stopped, we were able to get a tow strap to tow the vehicle back (we bought it without delay on the spot - how's that for quick delivery Christmas shopping). That was the good news. The bad news was that it was a short strap. If you have ever towed a vehicle (and I have towed a lot - right Mr. Dorr?), you know that a strap on the longer side is better than one on the shorter side so the person being towed can have time to brake and the person doing the towing can see the strap to know when there is slack.

We started to go and Mr. Kyrk called me on my cell phone to tell me that his brakes don't work very well (because the engine wasn't running there was no vacuum assist) - go slow.

I don't have a whole lot of detail here, but just know that if Haitian traffic isn't bad enough with the poor, narrow roads and all the possible distractions, imagine doing it at night, in rush-hour like traffic, while towing with a short strap, without good brakes in the towed vehicle, up a mountain while using the parking brake so you don't roll back when letting off the brake (I could have used a third leg), while trying to search for the right combination of gear, speed and power, and a whole mess of other things. There were a couple times where I thought I was going to hit another vehicle on the side of the road or coming towards me (and some of them were large dump trucks). There were a few times where I thought Mr. Kyrk was going to have a reverse impression of the Nissan logo on top of the Ford logo. We did have a couple of rough jerks with the strap, but all in all it went very well (considering). Mr. Kyrk is a great driver with lots of mechanical sense - he made sure that tension was on the rope as much as possible and did everything right (he knows A LOT more than just that - this part of what he knew made it a bit easier to do the towing).

We got the truck back to mission without further mishap - for that, I am very thankful. We even got to start eating our Christmas dinner with everyone before they all had finished eating. Now it's Sunday. The Lord's Day. The day of rest. Then comes Monday - the day to try to figure out what happened. I have a few ideas for where I want to start looking. There is certainly no shortage of work here.

Corn Grinder

This was my project for most of yesterday. It is a gasoline powered corn grinder. When the mission used to have chickens, they ground up the corn using this tool. The only downside for the people Pastor Rob is going to give it to is that the engine seems to be able to start only with the electric start option. There is a spot for a pull-cord, but it take more turning that what a cord could provide to get it running. I may be going with Pastor Rob next week to drop it off - apparently the roads are REALLY bad to get there.

Look at the open belt drive - there is NO WAY this would pass OSHA inspection in the US.

Visitors

Today we were blessed to have some visitors! The couple with us are Tom and Chris and they are adopting Stevenson. Tom and Chris went on their first trip when we did back in the middle of 2007. We met them first at the airport in Miami on our way down and struck up a good friendship from the beginning - they are great people! We have stayed in touch and they came to visit their future son. They also stopped by to say "Hi." They were also gracious enough to ask if there was anything that they could bring us and we gave them a list and they brought things that we requested. THANK YOU TOM AND CHRIS!! It is such a blessing to have people come like this and bring things for us. Since we continue to get things stolen from customs here through the mail in Haiti, it's nice to not have to worry about it. As you can see from the pictures, the boys had fun playing together!



This picture is of us with Linda. Linda is the person that saved Lou's life. She convinced the orphanage director to take Lou in. The director didn't want to and wanted to send him to an institution where it certainly would have meant a disastrous life for Lou. If Linda didn't do that, we would not have Lou and we would not be here. Linda also brought us a few goodies (like peanut butter and twin sized bed sheets - - THANK YOU LINDA!). Linda is a great blessing to us as well!


Boring Car Stuff...

I finished up the white Pathfinder today - everything is all welded up and the parts put back on. I took it for a 15 min ride down to the grocery store with Carter (to get Tina some eggs and bread) and it stayed together (yeah!!). Now I'll take the wheel off, clean off the welds, and paint it with the paint that is anti-corrosive and very good (although it is lead-based). If I grow a third arm, all is not lost - I should be able to get car work done faster once I learn how to use it.

The Story

The scoop on the Shortbox and the cow is that Mr. Kyrk was driving along (going on a one day trip up north) at about 50mph and went around a big dump truck on the side of the road that was broken down. As soon as he came to the rear of the dump truck, the cow jump out from in front of the dump truck into their path and he hit it. The damage was pretty bad, but not so bad that he couldn't make it all the way back here (about 3+ hours). They had to fill the radiator up every so often because the radiator fan hit the radiator when it was pushed it and put a small hole in it. The big defensive front guard shoved into the hood, quarter panel, and everything else in the way. The original front bumper got pushed around and it punctured the front passenger side tire (he bought a new one on the road). They are planning to bring it to a body shop here in Haiti (it surprised me that they exist here, but they do have them). We are all very thankful that Mr. Kyrk, Juanis (spelling?), and Darlin are OK!

In Haiti, it has been known that people get real upset (even to the point of killing the driver) when people hit and kill their animals. When a cow is all you have and you have been taking care of it and need it for food, money, whatever, you can kind of understand why they would be upset. However, many people actually DO care about their animals and thus keep them tied up or fenced in. This area where he hit the cow is pretty know for animals jumping into the road. It is not like in the States where on highways there are regulations for how far the growth of grass, trees, and shrubs need to be away from the road surface. Here there are trees and bushes that are so close that you can scape the side of your vehicle as you drive by. With no fencing on the roads, the animals are free to wonder onto the road surface. This is Haiti.

Boring Car Stuff...

Yesterday, I built a battery box for under the hood of the old Landcruiser because a new battery for it didn't fit in the old one. I also rewired the tail, signal, and brake lights so that they work now (only one back-up light worked before). I also managed to pull the frame back together of the Pathfinder that I posted a picture of a few days ago. I used a come-along to pull it together, then I welded it and added a welded-on support strap. I am sure that it is NOT as good as new, but I hope that it at least lasts a few months (if not more). We shall see. Today I plan to put it all together and drive it around to see what happens.

Udderly Unfortunate

2008 Toyota Landcruiser Shortbox at 50mpg + Haitian Cow = Damaged Truck + Dead Cow


(more to come later - I was not in the vehicle and everyone is OK)

Manger Scene

We moved a table that we had in our place to a new area and have labeled it an art table for the children to use. Kayla got real creative and started to make this manger scene (since we don't have one). It looks awesome! She says that she has two more wise men to make using the kivet (toilet) paper (there is a shepherd on the left and one wise man on the right). I'll get a shot of the final masterpiece when it is complete.

Tree, Creatures, Transmission - COMPLETE!

We went for a walk on Sunday and the kids climbed this tree. Here is a picture of two of our great children:


I have a few stored up pictures of some neat creatures. Check out the streak behind the snail with no house.




Boring car stuff...

I am VERY tired and sore! I got the transmission done yesterday after working on it all day. I took it for a spin and it works great - shifts like butter. Thanks to Anes who used to do a lot of the car work, we both wrestled the very heavy transmission into place. I was never as dirty as I was yesterday after putting the transmission in. The dirt on my back made it through my shirt and got my back all dirty. It took a lot of scrubbing to get all the dirt off, especially my arms. That is a job that I am happy to have finished! It's great to know that this one job saved the mission well over a $1,000 US dollars. That's what God called me to do here, He gave me the ability, and that's why I am here. A great big "Thank You" to all who have donated to help us be here!

Dogs, Peas, Fuzzy, Transmission

While everyone is away upstairs (including Neal for the weekend), we are baby-sitting the dog and we invited her over to play. They had a great play date in our house this evening.


A worker came to our house today to sell us some broccoli and peas. Tina and Lou were getting the peas out of the pods, I was weeding an area in front of the house, and Kayla and Carter were playing with the other kids. Just in case...Tina does not have two black eyes, that is a shadow across her face.


While cleaning out the weeds, I found a large fuzzy caterpillar.



Boring car stuff...

Here is a shot of the transmission and transfer case. I degreased it and will degrease it one more time before putting it in next week.

Cool, Carter, Moth, Transmission

Things are going well here. It pretty cool in our house most of the time (I know it's nothing compared to our former MN winter, but in the house we rarely feel warm). Our indoor temp rarely reaches 70.

Max Temp - 77.5
Min Temp - 58.4
Max Humidity - 92
Min Humidity - 54

Carter loves to drive the four-wheeler around and does it just about every day. Today I was changing oil in the generator room and he came by. He was happy to have me ask him to get the four-wheeler and trailer and then come back to me. I loaded the trailer up with a barrel of used oil and he drove it down to where we dumped it. He had Jonathan (4), Kyrk's son, on the back and those two have been driving around very frequently lately - having fun and doing boy stuff. Carter asks Neal, who is here for four months doing landscaping, if he needs any help so he can use the four-wheeler and he loves it when he needs help!

Here is a picture of a moth that was near our window (in high resolution). It was about 5-6 inches in wingspan:


Boring car stuff...

After trying to figure out why the newly assembled transmission and new parts didn't work correctly, I started to take it apart. In the process of taking it apart, I found the area that was preventing the transmission from turning and closely examined the parts. Kyrk has been a big help providing second opinions and a second set of hands to help put things together and take them apart. We found the part (or set of parts) that was causing the problem. A snychronizer ring was cracked and no longer round and turning like it should. We bought and replaced the set and now it works beautifully! I assembled the rest of the transmission and now I am awaiting a new clutch disc and throwout bearing - then it'll be time to put it in the truck. I am always so excited to start a vehicle after working on it like this and to see it work. By the grace of God, I have gotten this far!

Don't Climb Me

Things aren't going the greatest in the shop-life (they are OK in the house-life). So I took a little walk around and came across this tree. It appears to be God's creative way of the tree saying "Don't climb me!"


Here is a shot of one of our two Nissan Pathfinders. The roads here are not kind. The circles are parts of the frame that I will be attempting to re-weld back together as soon as I take off all of the parts connected nearby.

Like Dad

I finally gave in. After years of asking to be like dad and have a shaved head, I finally shaved Carter's head. He has to start working on the beard. We don't really like his hair this way, so he started growing it back the minute we finished. Now to keep the sunburn off...

These Kids Are A Big Weight On My Back!

Nice Day, Dominos

We had a great day with Sandi and Cullie today - they bring us lots of places and it's great! We are very thankful for them! We left at 9 AM and got back around 2 PM. We went to town and did a little shopping at a market and got some good deals on storage baskets to help us get a little organized. Here is a picture of us (not me - taking the picture) with Cullie in the middle and his son David on the far right:


Afterwards we went to Domino's Pizza (our first time since being in Haiti) and went to buy treat afterwards. Here is a picture of our children at Domino's (I think Lou was saying "fromage" which means "cheese"):

Transmission

The home for the transmission extra piece has been found!! God is good!! That part that I didn't get lined up caused me to find the missing location for the extra part. It is circled below in orange. If I didn't put that part in wrong and have to take it apart, I wouldn't have found where it went.



Here is a big grasshopper that was next to our screen door this morning:

Much to talk about

Monday we got our boxes that we have been waiting for since August. It is nice to have that gone from our thinking. The most important box of the group came from my parents (with many good things like a board game that we like to play that my dad made (pegs and jokers):


Lou took this picture...just kidding - he was sleeping


Carter's and my RC trucks, and pillows!!). It came and it looked like they dropped it from the plane without a parachute, but somehow NOTHING was broke inside of it.

There was a couch and love seat in another apartment here at the mission in another building and it was offered to us instead of the one that we have now (which isn't too comfortable). We sent it a couple days ago to get recovered and the love seat came back today. It is pretty nice and more comfortable. The couch should come today. This is the Mission's furniture and I believe that we'll end up either paying for the re-cover or helping to pay for it. It wasn't too expensive - pretty cheap really by US standards. It will be nice to have more sitting area!

I got a nasty cold a couple days ago and am slowly getting over it. Kayla got it a day after me and had a fever last night. Carter and Mom seem to be doing fine. Lou seemed to get it a little bit but not as bad. Mine was so bad that I took a "sick day" here and didn't do any work Tuesday.

Carter found this awesome caterpillar yesterday. Look at the big fake eyes near its head.


Boring car stuff...

I got the shift rails and forks on the transmission of the Landcruiser put back on and I have one part that I didn't put on right, so I have to take it apart a little bit to fix it. I hate to admit this, but there is an extra piece. Kyrk and I were working on it together when we took the shift rails off and we think that this little piece came from that area, but nothing makes sense. Once I fix this other part that I got wrong, we'll put it together and see if we can figure out what isn't working because that piece is missing. I can't believe that it isn't necessary - we'll have to figure out where it goes. I post a picture later of the piece.

Temp, Trip, Bugs, BCS

Our new low temperature was recorded a few nights ago: 58.4. I know to family back home that sounds warm considering the sub-20 degree temps that you had this morning, but you guys have carpet, windows that close, and warm clothes. Our indoor temperature seems locked 67 degrees. I find myself taking my time checking out the generator (it's much warmer in that room).

On Sunday I went with Cullie (the former mechanic of the Mission who is still a mechanic and lives about 1 mile up the road) to check out a house that he was working on. After we checked it out, we went for a tour. He was on his Honda 200R and I was on the Kodiak 400 four-wheeler. It was a blast and we saw some great views. I got to see more of our neighboring areas. Cullie and I are going to try to get out and do that again (my family and I don't get out much - it would be nice to bring Tina some time, too). I am starting to want a four-wheeler of my own to get out and about (Mr. Storm - any recommendations?). The Kodiak that I use has some ownership issues and related questions surrounding it. It needs a lot of work (one thing is the frame which had broke and been welded back together crooked), but we don't want to put much work into it if it isn't ours and the work will not be reimbursed.

It is really nice to get out and see how some other Haitians live. There is a different feeling when being outside of the Mission grounds here. We are somewhat isolated from the normal daily life of the Haitians just outside of our walls/gates which can be a good thing and a bad thing. I really enjoy getting out.

Here are a couple new bugs in high resolution. Check out the feet on that cricket - his body was about 4 inches long. The centipede was about 5-6 inches long.



Boring car stuff...

I got all the parts that I needed to put the transmission back together in the Landcruiser. I got both gear stacks assembled and then started working on the shift forks. There was a spring loaded ball bearing in one of the forks and it got stuck in the shift rail. There was no way to get it out without breaking something, so I had to cut the shift fork apart to get it out. Now I have to wait until the parts come in. I am so glad that I took pictures with my camera of the disassembly. It has helped greatly and I don't know that I would have put it back right without the pictures.

I am almost done with the cage for the new Landcruiser. I built the doors (that was NOT easy to get it all lined up) and now have to find a way to secure them with a locking mechanism. Then we'll be painting it and putting it on. It'll be nice to have that project done (and the transmission).

The Canter was brought elsewhere to have the tranmission and transfer case dropped. It showed that the fingers on the clutch pressure plate were VERY worn to the point that they were pushed backwards almost 180 degrees (four of the fingers were broken off) and the throw-out bearing was trashed. The gears in the transfer case were also toast. 3 of the four gears had significant damage. We'll be taking it somewhere to either replace the whole thing or just the transfer case side of it. I don't know where they take things to get them repaired, but as the Mission's mechanic I sometimes feel like I should be the one doing the work. We don't have the proper tools to handle a transmission as large as the Canter's and, with just me in the shop, it's hard (if not impossible) to do some things by myself - like this. I am still getting used to the way things are done around here.

Ken's Field Journal

My first post to the BHM "Ken's Field Journal" is now live. I hope to have a posting about weekly for the first little while and then after that, perhaps monthly. Check it out here. You can also go to www.bhm.org and click on "Ken's Field Journal" on the left-hand navigation bar. If you want a feed, click on the RSS link on the BHM website.

Our Thanksgiving Day

For us, until the evening it was pretty normal. I did more work on the cage for the Landcruiser and then spent a couple hours playing with the kids before we went to dinner. We played frisbee (monkey in the middle) and basketball.

When it came time to eat, Patti had done a great job putting the dining hall together. The kids helped to decorate with placards/nametags on the table as well as signs on the walls.

(once again, blogger rotated this image on me and I can't fix it - this is Kayla's picture)

There were beautiful napkins with part of Psalm 100 written on them. The turkey was well cooked and the mashed potatoes and corn tasted great - everything was great including the pumpkin pie.

(I should have taken the picture before we dug into the food)

We had Dr. Bernard and his wife attend as well as Bricie and her husband Gregory (and three children). Those two families live here on the mission with us and we invited them to celebrate this American holiday with us.


Pastor Rob talked a little bit after dinner and thanked everyone of us for being here and playing a part in where the Mission is today - he does a great job here! We are so thankful for Pastor Rob and Patti!