Northeast Trip 2

Sandy and I left Quebec, Canada and drove down into New York state. Since the Brian Williams family had just recently moved to New York, we wanted to spend some time with them. (They have actually been staying with Jim and Sylvia Martin and will be moving into an apartment in Buffalo on September 1.)

Here's the Williams family when we went out to eat. There is Brian, Emily, Leah, Lauren, and Lucas.



Lauren is trying to teach me something.



Brian's steak didn't come cooked as he wanted it, but he was nice and ate it anyhow. Then he mentioned it to the waitress and got a new steak and potato for free. Here he is with his second steak of the night. Pretty smart.



On Sunday, we went to church near Rochester with the Booths and Martins.
Here is Dana and me after church.



While we were in Rochester, Sandy and I stayed with our son, Nathan, and his wife, Rachel.
(They are a nice looking young couple.)
This is on the Erie Canal.




Here is Jim Martin teaching on Wednesday night. He did a good job.

The FWB home missionaries from Pennsylvania and New York had a regional meeting near Rochester. We met in a motel meeting room. Here is the group before one of our sessions.
We had a great time discussing and listing things on the white board.

And we had a great quote from Tom Jones - "They ain't comin!"

We had pizza that night and I got the picture just as Tom opened his mouth.

We did go out for one nice dinner. With all this eating, you can see why I'm fat.

Nate and Jenna Altom

We took a boat ride on the Canandaigua Lake.

Brian and Emily Williams

Jim and Sylvia Martin

Allen and Jenny Hall

The captain needed help and some volunteered to steer the boat.

This last guy almost wrecked us, so we gave it back to the captain.

Dana and Betty Booth

Tom and Pam Jones

Sandy Atwood, Sylvia Martin, and Emily Williams

Here's the whole group in front of the motel.

It is truly a privilege to spend time with all of our home missionaries. They are salt of the earth people. And they are friends.

I thank God for them.

Northeast Trip 1

My wife, Sandy, and I drove on a long trip to visit home missionaries in the northeastern part of our country and Canada. We had held two regional meetings with church planters.

We drove over 1200 miles to get to our first stop - North Kingstown, Rhode Island. Bill Reynolds is the church planter there. Attendance is good in their rental building. Bill showed us the plans for their new place and it looks great. Bill hopes to have their land paid for by next spring and start building.

Here is a picture of the Reynolds family: Christy, Michaela, Hannah, Billy, and Sarah.

We forgot to take pictures of the Sunday morning service. But the Reynolds took us to a great pizza place. We got a picture of Bill and Christy eating.

Bill and Christy and Sandy and I then drove to Bangor, Maine. Jeff and Donna Crabtree from New Brunswick, Canada drove down to meet us there. Bangor is about halfway between the two. We had sessions in our motel room where we talked about assimilation and unity in your leadership team. (Sorry for the smudges on these pictures - we didn't realize that our lens was dirty.)

Christy got tickled about something.

We drove down to Bar Harbor for an afternoon. The ladies found some sunglasses to try on.

Bill and Christy had some cool sunglasses here.

Here's Jeff and Donna with Bar Harbor in the background.

Here's the whole group.

We had a great time together and some interesting discussions. We appreciate the good work of the Crabtrees and Reynolds!

Leaving Bangor, Sandy and I drove up through Maine to Quebec, Canada. We saw a moose on the side of the road in northern Maine.



At the border, Sandy and I must have looked suspicious, because they detained us for about 45 minutes and searched everything in our car - even cases for our glasses and Sandy's purse (that took awhile).

We finally made it safe and sound to Quebec city to see Danny and Dawn Elliott and family. They had finally got their furniture after sleeping on blow up mattresses for several weeks.

Here's a picture of the family with the city of Quebec in the background.

Danny had told me about a Quebec dish called poutine. It is french fries and cheese curds covered with gravy. Danny and I added sliced meat to the top. It was delicious! (Of course, it has my 4 favorite food groups - meat, cheese, potatoes, and gravy). If you get to Quebec, I recommend that you try it.

We didn't get a picture of the poutine, but we did get one of us eating ice cream for dessert. It was also delicious. I might think about moving to Canada.

Here is Sandy standing in front of a mural with the history of Quebec.

Summer Elliott is showing her Wii skills.

Here's Danny and Joshua in their apartment.

Autumn looks a lot like her mother.

We appreciate the Elliotts and the time we had together (and the good meals Dawn cooked)!
Danny and Dawn start language school soon. (People in Quebec speak French). Pray for them as they learn the language and build relationships with people.