Visitors, Elephants, and Spring

Lord willing, we've just had our last frost warning for the next eight or nine months. The grass is growing, trees are leafing, and flowers are blooming. And now that our latest Coshocton Flyer is out, we thought it'd be fun to bring you up to speed on the personal side of things.

Visitors
Over the past two weeks, we've been blessed by visits from Karen's brother and sister-in-law (PA) and from my mom (CA).

Cindy & Steve in our hangar.

Karen, Mom, and me in our backyard.

Feeding Elephants in North Carolina
Some friends recently sent us a special donation with specific instructions to do something fun with it...so we did! We bought "Back Stage Passes" to the North Carolina Zoo's Elephant Barn and were introduced to, and allowed to feed, the local elephants! It was totally fun. You haven't LIVED until an elephant blows his trunk on you. Believe me...it's kind of a warm, wet, aromatic, somewhat sticky, slimy, windy, very memorable experience. Sorry, no photos of THAT moment...

A "handler" introduces us to one of the elephants inside the elephant barn.

Karen feeds a slice of sweet potato to a young (11 years old) elephant.

A portrait of one of our newly-met tusked friends.

Spring Arrives
Shortly after we moved in last fall, Karen planted some bulbs in preparation for our first southern spring. There was a lot of excitement and anticipation as she watched and waited for the first blooms in the midst of surviving one of the coldest winters in NC history. 

 Daffodils

 Tulips

Missionary Air Group

We'll get back on the blog track over the next few weeks. We have reports from Honduras to share, news from Burlington to pass along, and updates from our flight program in Guatemala.

Thanks for your prayers and your gifts which make it possible for us to transform lives in the most remote regions of Honduras and Guatemala (and also feed a few elephants in NC)!