At Home In North Carolina

We arrived "home" to Burlington, NC on April 27 and where there for 2½ weeks visiting friends, family, churches and a school. We didn't get to see everyone we wanted to but we had a wonderful time and were so blessed by so many special people that the Lord has put in our lives. Throughout this whole trip we have been constantly amazed at how generous and open everyone has been to take us in and bless us, especially since there were 5 of us!!

Picnic at the Burlington City Park.

A visit by my best friend from high school, Christa Knight Dettman and her twin boys, Garrett and Jason (her oldest son, Ryan, couldn't make it because he was in school.)

We had dinner with my cousin, Renee, her husband Rick and their daughters, Julia and Amelia.

It was a joy and a blessing to meet Pastor Jim Mitchell and his family, the new pastors of our home church, Northside Presbyterian. Pastor Jim is planning to bring a mission's team to Bocachica in the winter.

Fellowship with the Ward Family, long-time members of Northside and precious friends.

The Nall's, also from Northside, took us under their wing one Sunday afternoon and gave us a tour of their restored country home and museum in a historical section of town. Mr. Nall was my mom's basketball coach in high school so we go back a long way!

The Helms family...Nancy and Less... Daniel, Charlotte and Patrick! We had a lively evening of good food and even better fellowship! The next day we were able to share about the ministry with their church family.

As always, it was a treat to meet with Sheldon and Deborah Southerland!! Mr. Southerland and I met about 20 years ago ... in high school he was the director of one of the schools I attended. He also helped to perform mine and Jorge's wedding ceremony! They are now the pastors of Friendship Community Church of God in Greensboro.

Jorge preached the sermon at Friendship Community Church of God. We are looking forward to having a team from the church come for a missions trip next summer!

This is the 2nd period Spanish class at Wesleyan Christian Academy in High Point.All the Spanish classes in the school held a fund raiser for Proyecto Libertad and they sent us an offering of $2000 USD! The money was designated to a few different areas such as Child Sponsorship and our Scholarship Fund. We were able to visit the school and speak to some of the classes about Colombia and our work in Bocachica. We are especially grateful to the teacher who organized the whole thing, Debbie Hopper, Brad Hopper's mom, who has served on staff in Bocachica.
Erika sharing with the students about Colombia...I am translating.

It's our pleasure to introduce you to the Southern Family...left to right: Jordan, Thom, Kyle, Tina and Alyssa. They are just the sweetest family and God has used them greatly over the years to bless us!! I went to high school with Tina and Thom and I are from the same church so we go back a good 23 years or so. We had the privilege of spending a lot of time with them while we were in Burlington. They invited all 5 of us to spend 3 nights at their house...they gave us all their beds and basically spoiled us! We can't say enough wonderful things about them!
Thom has led 2 teams to Bocachica so far and is organizing another one for early next year... we can't wait!



Breakfast with the Southern's.

Re-living childhood memories.

Through the Southern's we have been connected with Antioch Community Church (www.antiochchurch.cc ) in Elon. On Wednesday evenings they usually have home group meetings but this particular night several of the home groups decided to all get together at the church for a covered-dish supper and then to have us share about the ministry. This was the night that God totally surprised us with an offering of $11,400 for the clinic construction!!

HIKING AT HANGING ROCK

The Southern's invited us and some other friends to go hiking at Hanging Rock, which is near the Virginia state line. We had a great time and a good work-out that day!

You can see why it's called Hanging Rock.

Jorge and Thom climb up the hard way...

...Erika, Martin and Valerie too!

Conny...on top of the world!



Me and the girls...
Valerie (standing beside me), who served for 2 years in Bocachica, flew down from Ottowa, Canada to spend a few days with us... it was just like old times being all together again!

Bbbrrrrrrr!!!


ADIOS CONNY & ERIKA

We were sad to say goodbye to Conny and Erika... they left from Greensboro on May 14 to return to Bocachica... we have missed them a lot! We had SUCH a special time together, it truly was a gift from God for us all!!