Cars In The Garage, Visitors, Turkey, and A Tree

Milestone Of Moving
One of our goals soon after taking the last box out of the moving van, was to have both cars in the garage before the end of the year. Well, we beat that deadline this past week! It's one of those milestones of moving when you get enough of your your stuff stuffed away to actually use the garage for your cars.

There's still a lot to organize and straighten, but at least we can get the cars in!

Visitors
God has blessed us with a steady stream of visitors since we arrived in town. Our latest visitors were Sam & Mary (with their daughter Cathy, from Greensboro) friends from our church in Fresno, OH; and Tim & Michelle whom we served with at MMS Aviation. It was wonderful to spend several hours catching up with Sam and Mary and Cathy and to host Tim & Michelle for a couple days to include our first Thanksgiving in North Carolina.

Karen, Keith, Mary & Sam

Tim & Keith

Michelle & Karen

Thanksgiving Day

Karen whipped up an amazing Thanksgiving Dinner for the six of us (Karen, me, Tim, Michelle, Tucker, Tanner): turkey, candied yams, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, green beans, southern-style biscuits, and pumpkin and pecan pies. Yum, Yum. That's not to mention the candied pecans and pretzel/Hershey's Kiss/M&M/mashes laid out for snacks.

Karen removes the turkey.

Biscuits!

Christmas Tree

After Tim & Michelle departed this morning, we ran up to a farmer's market to pick our Christmas tree off a lot. It's one of the few trees we haven't cut down ourselves in 11 years. It seemed a bit odd to not have to drive into the Coshocton hills to claim our tree with a saw, but when it was all said and done, we ended up with a tree at home that we still needed to saw on.

 Tanner and I get ready to string the tree lights.

Karen adds the single strands of tinsel to finished the tree!

Praising Him For All Things
It's been a wonderful week of Thanksgiving. We praise the Lord for his physical, spiritual, emotional, and relational blessings. We praise Him for each one of you who keep us in ministry through your friendship, encouragement, prayers, visits, and gifts!

Honduras: Emergency Evac, Medical Supplies, and More Power

Emergency Medical Evacuation
On Sunday Wes received a call requesting an emergency medical evacuation for a critically wounded gunshot victim up the village of Wampu. Wes made the flight to Wampu, picked the patient up, and safely transported him to Puerto Lempira for the life-saving medical care required.

Loading the patient into our 206.

Moving the wounded man from the airplane to the ambulance.

Loading the patient into the ambulance at the Puerto Lempira Airport.

Additional Medical Supplies Donated To Rus Rus
Hospital Rus Rus received another 206 load of donated medical supplies. Wes flew to the island of Roatan to retrieve this blessing. With the Stateside donations already received, the pharmacy in Rus Rus is now fully stocked!

Boxes and boxes of medicine and medical supplies loaded in our 206!

New Generator in Rus Rus
A new generator was recently purchased in the US; shipped to the port of La Ceiba in two crates; trucked to the main airport; picked up and flown into Rus Rus by Wes; assembled, installed, and hooked into an newly wired air base/hospital power grid! This high efficiency generator has the capacity to power our entire base using 1/6th the fuel of the existing, older/larger generator on site. More power, less fuel. It's win-win in Rus Rus!

New generator.

What's It Like In Graham, NC?

Woods Turning Color Behind Our House

Now that we've been here nearly three months, we've begun to discover some of the special places around our new home here in Graham, NC. One thing we're especially thankful for are the trees. We always loved the trees in our neighborhood in Coshocton, OH and are so happy to have lots of trees here right behind our back yard. They've been a joy to watch as their leaves turned the bright colors of fall. Now that the leaves are thinning out a bit, we see deer in the woods and are entertained by the squirrels playing in the trees. There are also many birds attracted to our back yard for birdseed. Lots of Cardinals come and go along with Mourning Doves, Carolina Wrens, Chickadees, Tufted Titmouses and various others that we grab the bird book and try to identify. We also have a walking trail around the outskirts of our development. It's been a great place to get some exercise for us and the dogs. Tucker and Tanner love exploring the new territory!

Tucker and Tanner out on the Trail

Centered around the historical Alamance County Courthouse, downtown Graham is a quaint little area with much to offer. We enjoy the "small town" feel and can pretty much find everything we need nearby. There is a great little restaurant on the corner, Barrister's Cafe, where we can eat outside while enjoying the sidewalk tables or take an inside seat with a view of the town square. Barrister's has good food and they make some of the best homemade fries around!

Barrister's Cafe on the Square

On the opposite corner of the town square is The Graham Soda Shop. They make their own ice cream and boy is it rich! Yum! It's not Tom's Ice Cream Bowl, but it's a great place for a three scoop sundae or malt. Keith really likes a scoop of Double-Chocolate, a scoop of Vanilla, and a scoop of Black Cherry with chocolate sauce and caramel. They make their own potato chips too!

Makes you want a malted milk shake doesn't it???

The Graham Soda Shop

Right behind the soda shop is Colonial Hardware, the local hardware store. Every small town has one and we found it! It's fun to walk through its aisles and see what's there. There are always some seasoned handy-men on staff ready to help you solve whatever technical problem you came in with! They've been friendly and helpful to us as we've tackled the many household projects that have needed fixin'. We missed their "Pig Pickin'" in April....maybe next summer!

Colonial Hardware Graham, NC

Off the beaten path of the town square, we've found the biggest and most amazing apple fritters south of Miller's Bakery in Charm, OH! Hard to believe but true. Daily Donuts makes their donuts fresh every morning (most of us would call it night!) and we have often been there to gather up some fritters and donuts to share for breakfast. You can even pick your own donut and they will fill it with your choice of fillings! Look out Miller's, you've got some competition here in Graham,NC!

Daily Donuts Shop

Jim's Hot Dogs is another cultural icon. Known for its wide-ranging variations of hot dogs, the menu provides options you can't even imagine when considering a bun, a frankfurter, and condiments. It's become a regular stop on our rapidly developing "tourist trail" for our visitors.

Jim's

Graham is a nice little town. We are enjoying finding the local places that give it it's uniqueness and personality. For a small town that has nearly been engulfed by the surrounding larger cities, it is striving to keep its identity and its heritage and we plan to support the local businesses as much as we can to stand with them in that effort.

City of Graham Flags