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!