Heading To Honduras!

Hello! Karen here. Greetings from the "warm south" where we had pipe-freezing temps of just 4 degrees last night! Some say we brought this cold weather with us from Ohio but I tell them we left plenty of it back there. One Ohio friend posted a picture of their thermometer the other day that read -21!!!! Yikes! I think we moved south just in time!

Rus Rus Hospital with waiting villagers

Two weeks from today I will jump from the frigid to the hot and humid quite quickly. You may remember I took a trip to the remote village of Rus Rus, Honduras for a medical brigade last February. MAG brought air service to the village so the medical clinic can be used once again. For several years now IHS has brought a medical team in February and we are so thankful! That has been the only medical care for some 25,000 people in that forgotten area of Honduras. I look forward to greeting our resident MAG missionaries once again and to reuniting with some of the villagers in Rus Rus. I've been listening to my "Coffee Break Spanish" on line hoping to be able to say at least a few words to the people there. MAG's Director of Pastoral Ministries, Carlos Paz, has translated a couple of lines for me that I particularly want to be able to say like, "So good to see you again" and "You have grown!" That will give me at least one thing to say to each child and adult who I see again! Keith has been very tolerant of my blaring Spanish lessons as I work around the house.

My travel plans are to fly on February 13th to San Pedro Sula, Honduras and fly back to Atlanta and then Raleigh/Durham on March 1. Sean Donnelly, MAG's CEO will be flying with me as well as many of the IHS team members. Wes will pick Sean and I up in the Cessna 206 and get us into Rus Rus as he did last year. When that happens will depend greatly on the weather.

Speaking of weather, I've got a pile of stuff getting ready to be packed to go. It's rather challenging to think of what to take with you to be comfortable in temps in the 90s when you're shoveling snow and running heaters under the sink to keep the pipes from freezing!

A most important need for me as I prepare and go on this trip are your prayers. Those of you who prayed me through this trip last year may recall how God answered those prayers in His overcoming many concerns for me. My fears were calmed. I slept well. I was safe and enjoyed the people. I remembered some of my high school Spanish and was able to use it. I stayed healthy before and during my trip. AND no creepy crawlies invaded my space while I was there! Some of that may seem trivial but they were real needs for me to make that trip and God answered my needs through your prayers. Would you please pray for me again this year?

Please pray for all who will be there. Wes and Denise (MAG's resident missionary/pilot couple in Rus Rus) have a lot on their plate for such a big event. 19 of us will be descending on them. That means preparing many things, not the least of which is finding places for everyone to sleep and flying in enough food and then preparing that food for all those extra people for a couple of weeks. No small task! Every meal takes much preparation and planning.

I hope to be able to send home some blogs while I'm away like I did last year. Keith and I will try and keep you informed!

Be Directly Involved!
If you'd like to help with the expense of my trip it would be a tremendous blessing. Please make the check out to "Missionary Air Group", designate it for "Karen for Rus Rus", and mail it to:

Missionary Air Group

PO Box 5160

Burlington, NC 27216

If you would prefer to give by credit card you may do so through our parent organization of Harvester's International Mission via "Network For Good" by clicking here. Please use the same designation of "Karen for Rus Rus".

Whether you give, pray or both, thank you for the blessing of your participation! If you want to be in further touch with me personally feel free to drop me an email at KarenSDodson@gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you!

Snow, MAG, Houseguests, and Feathered Friends

Snow
Greetings from Arctic North Carolina! Apologies to everyone living north of North Carolina who are surviving temps much colder than we are down here, but I'm sorry: -2 is -2 and in North Carolina...how often is it -2? Rather often this year I'm afraid, but it's not our fault. We didn't haul winter south when we moved, Canada's just doing a poor job of keeping their cold penned up-north. Sheesh. 17 winters in Ohio and never a frozen pipe. First winter in North Carolina and we have frozen pipes...go figure. And yes, we did get some snow.

See, it DOES snow in Graham, NC!

Missionary Air Group
As the new year gets underway we're finding ourselves going several different directions at once: Honduras, Guatemala, and Burlington. We have a mission team heading down to Rus Rus (January 30-Feb 10) to put on a VBS and a youth evangelical outreach for about 60 kids from two villages .

Then Karen returns to our jungle hospital in Honduras (February 13-March 1) to assist with a week long medical brigade we're hosting through International Health Services. This is the brigade Karen participated in last year. She's already beginning to organize her medical field gear and is freshening up her Spanish!

Me, I'm rather buried under administrative stuff. It's what administrators do. Get buried. When there's only two of you in mission administration, one of you has to be President (Praise The Lord I'M NOT PRESIDENT!). But Sean, who IS the President, actually wears a ton more hats than I do and is buried even deeper under administrative stuff than I am. That's part of the reason I'm down here...to help him be less buried. Now THAT's what I call missionary job security!

Here's a shot of me and Sean learning "Joomla" through a conference call/on-line training session with our web designer in New Hampshire. No, Joomla is not a new computer game. It's a way to manage content on our upcoming, new website. Our training took place in MAG's "Pepperstone Annex."

Karen (standing, right) distributes agenda packets to MAG's Board of Directors prior to their annual meeting last weekend at MAG's International Headquarters.

House Guests
We continue to be blessed by house guests stopping in for an overnight along their travels north and south (It's okay to stop in even if you're heading east or west!). It's so fun to be a place of rest, food, and fellowship for weary travelers. Please consider stopping in so we can minister to you in your hunger, tiredness, and road rage. Good food, a warm bed, and obnoxious Cocker Spaniels. It doesn't get any better than that. Mi casa is su casa!

Josh & Reba were heading south.

Braden & Lydia were also heading south but they had already stopped in on their way north! This is the second time they've made the Ohio/Florida trip including us as part of their itinerary.

Feathered Friends
We are totally blessed by having some thick woods right behind our little back yard. And in those thick woods live a lot of birds. In Coshocton we fed a lot of Sparrows. LOTS of Sparrows and an occasional Cardinal. Here, we feed all kinds of Cardinals (up to 20 at a time) and we're still not sure we've seen even ONE sparrow. Here are a couple snaps of some of our new feathered friends. I'm sure there'll be more photos coming...

Eastern Bluebirds and a Carolina Chickadee

Cardinal

Thanks for your love, gifts, and prayers that enable us to deliver "Help and Hope by Air" to the remote peoples of Central America!

Rus Rus Christmas Fiesta & More!

Rus Rus Christmas Fiesta
Wes & Denise, our missionary pilot-mechanic family based in Rus Rus, Honduras recently conducted their annual Christmas Fiesta for the villages of Rus Rus and Mahbita. This is always a well anticipated event in the region.

Cooking fiesta food!

Pastor Benigno brings a Christmas message.

The village children await the gift raffle.

MAG's East-West Missions Team: VBS & Youth Outreach

Carlos, our Director of Pastoral Ministries is organizing a team combined of volunteers from the East and West Coasts. The MAG East-West team is traveling to Rus Rus, January 30 and will stay through February 10th. They'll provide a VBS for the younger children in the morning and a week-long youth outreach in the afternoons as the focus of their trip. They'll also help Wes make some small repairs to the hospital. Be watching for updates from the team as the begin their trip.

This is Nedi, one of the local children looking forward to the VBS.

This is Elvin, a local youth who'll assist our team and help with the outreach.

Work Continues on "Seven Alpha Charlie" at MMS Aviation In Coshocton, Ohio
The process of preparing "Seven Alpha Charlie" for service in Guatemala continues to move forward. Here's a photo of Scott, our Director of Aviation Maintenance and Paul, our Guatemala Program Director, inside the fuselage of the airplane. Paul is working with Scott at MMS Aviation while awaiting his return to Guatemala later this month. Lord willing, the airplane will be ready for Paul to fly later this year.

Scott & Paul inside 7AC, our Cessna 206 being refurbished at MMS.

Thank you for your gifts and prayers which make this ministry possible! 2014 looks to be an exciting year for MAG and the remote peoples we serve.

Tanner Learns A New Trick and It's A Cocker Spaniel Christmas

Wow. 2014 is here. It's been here for a few days now. Christmas is over, the New Year has arrived, we're four months into life in North Carolina, and all our friends in Ohio are gearing up for sub-zero temps with more snow and ice. It seems Canada left the barn door open again! Just so you know, it's even predicted to be down to 7 degrees here overnight Monday with a 51% chance of snow. Stay warm everyone!

We hope these snapshots bring a smile to your face!

Just before Christmas, Tanner learned a new trick! 

He was so PROUD of himself!

Tanner protects "his" Christmas Tree and presents from Tucker.

Tanner & Tucker discuss who's going to open the first present.

Tucker decides to help Karen read Christmas cards...

...while Tanner double checks his inventory.

There's nothing quite like a Cocker Spaniel Christmas!