The Ford Aspire Has Been Replaced!

Many of you were aware my little 1995 Ford Aspire had seen better days. We'd saved up a decent amount toward a dependable used car but in researching the market and determining an appropriate car, discovered that what we thought was a decent amount was about half of what we'd actually need. Just when we'd accepted the fact that we'd need to nurse the Aspire along for another year or two, a donor contacted us and gave a gift enabling us to have a local dealer (who specializes in finding cars for missionaries) begin looking for the right car at wholesale auctions.

Three months later the Lord provided the right car, at the right price, inside our budget! Special thanks to the special donor who helped met our need for dependable, long-term transportation! We continue to praise the Lord for His perfect timing in providing this car.

It's a 2008 Hyundai Hatchback with 24,000 miles on it. It's totally clean and has a bit more zip than the old Aspire. There's an amazing amount of room inside this little car. It's a 5 speed standard transmission with roll-up windows and manual door locks. I LOVE roll-up windows and manual door locks...and it's still under factory warranty for another three years!

I expect to be driving this car through 2025!

First Batch of Salsa in 2010

Things have been rather busy around 368 McClain these past few days. Let's get you caught up on the salsa story. Last Saturday's blog featured getting ready to make the first salsa batch of 2010. A week later we're just getting around to posting the pictures!

It wasn't a huge batch, only twenty pints all together but it's still TWENTY pints (which works out to about twenty weeks of salsa as I typically eat a jar a week). When cooking up the first eight pints we added 1/4 cup of finely chopped cilantro. The second eight we played it straight. The third batch we had more fixings than tomatoes (bell peppers, banana peppers, onions, and jalapenos) and so ran the four pints with half the tomatoes but the full complement of fixings and added a half tbsp of basil. Ever tried Italian salsa? That's kind of what the basil batch tastes like. It might make a very interesting pizza topping...

The raw materials of Batch A in the pot and on the stove.

The salsa kitchen with resident chili chopper and Cocker Salsa Cops.

Quality Control

Karen canning the salsa

Lord willing we're going to eke out another salsa session before the vines go bad and the weather goes cool. It's going to be close...it'd sure be nice to get another 20 pints put away.

Stay tuned to the blog. I hope to get everything caught up here over the next few days.

Karen's Side Street Salsa Kitchen Opens!

We weren't sure we'd even have a salsa season this year...it has taking FOREVER for our tomatoes to ripen, our garden suffered all summer from the heat, and by this time last year we'd already had 52 quarts put up!

Green tomatoes everywhere as we head into September.

But there ARE some red ones.

Karen harvesting this morning.

The peppers really LOVED the hot summer.

The heart of the salsa...

Rapid Response to Gabon, Africa

Dale, Paul J., and Andy are off to Gabon, Africa to disassemble and crate a Cessna 207 for shipment to MMS. Clipping a taxi cab and a light pole during an emergency landing on a dirt road, the airplane was damaged beyond Air Calvary's ability to repair. Air Calvary contacted us to see if we could help them and we are blessed to send this Rapid Response Team over to start the process of returning this airplane to mission service.

Dale, Andy, and Paul J.

The airplane, the taxi, and the light pole.

Damage to wing strut, leading edge of the wing, and the landing gear.

Damage to flaps and control surfaces

Damaged tail section

You can see the airplane is in need of substantial repair. Dale, Andy, and Paul J. should have the airplane disassembled and crated over the next two weeks. We expect the guys back in Coshocton the first week of September. It will take the airplane a bit longer to arrive as it will travel by boat and then truck before arriving at our hangar facility sometime in October.

We appreciate your prayers for Dale, Andy and Paul (and their families here) as they're away in Gabon, Africa.