12 Years As Husband & Wife!

God blessed us with a special evening at The Village Grill to celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary Monday. The daytime staff was fantastic at helping me organize the evening (thanks Vivian and friends), the food was excellent, and the meal service was memorable and masterful in the best ways possible. Thank you for making our meal so wonderful Fonya, and for taking our picture to comemorate the event!

Thanks also to Keith Phillips, the florist, who blew us away with the magnificent arrangement of 12 yellow roses! 

And thank you to each one of you who love and care for us and partner with us in ministry here in North Carolina. Without you there, we couldn't be doing God's work here.

12th Wedding Anniversary: Village Grill; Burlington, NC

Blimping Around????

Despite a beautiful day and a morning out with my hubby for various appointments and shining smiles after a cleaning at the dentist, my heart was still feeling just a bit low. As we drove home via the back roads we found a new roadside stand and bought some local corn and fruit. The road also took us by the airport. Now, it's not unusual for us to drive by the airport but today my heart lifted as I looked over and saw a HUGE Snoopy!!!!! Really! Maybe you don't know it but I am a total Snoopy fan. There at our little airport was parked the Met Life Blimp, aka, "Snoopy 2"!

The "Snoopy 2" parked at our little airport.

Needless to say, we decided to stop and take a closer look. We are privileged to have the pass code for the airport gate since our MAG hangar is there. This allowed us to park the car and walk right up to the team vehicles. There we met Ryan who is part of the team for the Snoopy 2. It takes a team of 13 to manage this blimp. Four ride in the gondola and fly it. The rest travel in the vehicles with all of the landing equipment and various odd things one needs for traveling 11 months out of the year. They carry 2 of everything they need for the blimp to land because if something doesn't work.....well, let's just say you can't land a blimp without the very specific gear it needs. As you can see in the photo, the nose of the blimp is tethered to the red and white pole. That is all that is attached! As the breeze blows it simply floats, or "kites", and can rotate 360 degrees around as well as up and down. There are weights placed in the gondola to keep it balanced but not touching the ground. Lots of physics go into the working of this aircraft! It was absolutely fascinating.

Much to our surprise and delight, Ryan offered to allow us to sit in the gondola of the blimp, gave us the tour and let us float around in it!!!! Way cool!!! He took off weights to allow us to float higher and explained all of the joys of being part of a blimp team....a "Blimpie" as he called himself.

Keith takes his turn at the controls.

Karen enjoying the ride.

Me and Snoopy...one happy girl. :oD

Keith waits for Ryan to add weights to bring him back to ground level.

Sometimes we just need a lift and today God gave us a very special, literal, lift! What a blessing to just see and be close to the blimp! But to get to get in it and kite around and hear all of the details from one of the team members? That was over the top blessing. God didn't have to give us that opportunity but He did and it encouraged my heart. God gives us good things that we would never even think to ask for!

If you watch the golf match this week and see the Snoopy 2 Blimp in the air, we saw it up close and personal!!!

Snapshot Update

Hello faithful blog followers. Here are some quick pics to update you on some recent events:

There's nothing like having lunch with the Mayor of Graham, Jerry Peterman. I was blessed to enjoy a fantastic meal with him at Mex-Am Restaurant downtown, just off the court square, as part of a community development research project.

Here we are (4 &5 from left) inside The Burlington Royals' clubhouse after assembling player "goodie bags" for an upcoming road trip. Karen and I joined the Royals' Booster Club to help support the young men (17-22 years old) starting their professional baseball careers far from home as part of Kansas City's rookie level Appalachian League affiliate.

On the home front, my nephew, Dean, and his brand new bride, Ali, made the move from Southern California to our home in central North Carolina last week. We're blessed to have them with us as Dean starts a new job, they adjust to southern living, and look for their first home.

And we had our second Salsa Harvest. This time Ali and our neighbor from across the street, Maureen, took part in the experience. Neither of them had made salsa before. Karen is a good teacher and Ali and Maureen were excellent students.

Karen blanched as Ali and Maureen chopped enough raw materials to make 16 more pints of finished salsa! WooHoo!

Thanks for your friendship, gifts, love and prayers that enable us to minister in North Carolina. We're enjoying taking our faith into the local community and reflecting Christ's light wherever and however He leads.