Illinois travels...Geneva, Dekalb, Chicago, Romeoville

Uncle Stan and family from Abby's Grandma Gardner's side of the family. They live in Dekalb.
Rain delay at U.S. Cellular field :( Made for a late game...
Our first baseball game of the year...and hopefully not the last :)
The game was tied 6-6 in the ninth, and one of the Sox players hit a single which allowed the player on second to come in and slide past a bad throw to the Yankees catcher to win the game! We had a great time and Bethany and Lloyd were able to come with us.

We had a wonderful conference in Geneva, Illinois, with Pastor Weesner and Calvary Baptist. The Lord provided through this gracious church a number of the items that were on our outfit and passage list. We always enjoy making new friends and this church was no exception. The tickets to the game came from a member in the church who has season tickets...thank you, bro. John!

Right now Elena is at a park in Romeoville playing with little Joanna.

More pictures from Hillsdale

Just a few more pictures of our time with Grammie and Grandad just before and after Emily's recital.

Emily's Recital

Emily had a home-school recital at Believers Baptist on Friday night. We surprised her when we showed up on the farm on Thursday. Emily did a wonderful job, and Elena sat through all the music and presentations pretty well. When Emily was playing the flute, Elena shouted, "Emmy, she play!" Grandad had not seen Elena since Christmas.

We are currently in a wonderful missions conference in Geneva, Illinois. The other missionary here is going to South Korea.

One of the members here has season tickets to all the Chicago sports teams, and it may work out for us to see the White Sox and Yankees on Thursday.

Spring is here

Caleb and Elena riding in a luxury wagon

Wow, we sure are enjoying the signs of Spring here. Some flowers are blooming in the back yard, the birds and squirrels are enjoying the seeds we put out, and Elena wants to go out all the time. We are getting ready to leave for a missions conference in Geneva, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.

My brother, Chris, is doing well in Cameroon. He will be working with Pastor Ernest and Chrysanthus this weekend holding a weekend Bible Camp in Ndop. Chris will be preaching one of the messages.

Flight Training in Northern Wisconsin

Elena is learning to smile for the camera now!
Elena and daddy pretend flying...
Abby and Elena came out to watch daddy take off in the "hapane" one morning.
Having fun in Wisconsin!

More Wisconsin

Elena and Reagan playing in New Berlin, WI. Jared, is Reagan's image copyrighted?
We stayed at Pastor and Mrs. King's house while they were away...nice four-wheeling country!

We finished two meetings on Sunday in western Wisconsin and are now back in northern Wisconsin for flight training this week. Pray for suitable weather :)

Scenes in Wisconsin

Elena and Grammie in Rockford
Elena in Rockford with Emily and Grammie and Tina
With Stephen and Tina at Camp Joy
Elena and Ella in Sun Prairie at Jessica's house
Elena and Wyatt
Baby Wesley...Jessica's newest baby.

Wisconsin Spring

Elena fell asleep with a sucker...the perfect way for her to pass the time.
It was so cold by Lake Superior.

This is Elena's newest game..."Where 'Ayna' go?"

We arrived safely in Wisconsin last week and visited our home church for the first time in many months. I will be preaching there tomorrow (Wed). We had a great meeting 6 hours away in Superior, Wisconsin on Sunday. On our way home we ran into a Wisconsin spring snow storm. The Lord protected us once from sliding off the road at 55 mph. That's when I realized it was sticking and I needed to slow down. Anyway, the snow turned to rain about half-way down the state and we made it safely to Oshkosh. We will return to western Wisconsin for three more meetings next week as well as some flight training.

Pray for my brother Chris in the mountains of Cameroon right now. We haven't heard from him since he left on the 5o mile hike to the bush villages. I am sure the Lord is blessing their ministry.

Back in Ypsi

Elena amusing herself on the final stretch of the long trip!
Uncle Jim is trying to bribe Elena with Cheese-Its to get her to come and see him :) We stopped to see Jim and Jill on our way back from our last meeting down South. We had a wonderful trip!
We got a bird feeder for our backyard here in Ypsi. We all love to watch the birds...but a lonely squirrel is the only one interseted in the food right now so we are feeding him.
My beautiful co-pilot seen here smiling at the airport in Jackson, Michigan. We flew together from Ann Arbor to Jackson and back (a short trip). We found a nice little restaurant on the field to go back to later.

We will be spending Resurrection Sunday at Ann Arbor Baptist Church with Abby's family. On Tuesday we will be heading back to Oshkosh, Wisconsin for the first time since before Christmas...too long! We have meetings in northern Wisconsin where no doubt winter will be lingering for a bit longer.

The Lord is good! We have experienced so many blessings from His hand. We heard from a church in Tennessee that just voted to take us on for support. We continue to eagerly anticipate leaving for Cameroon as the Lord enables us to go.

New Jersey Aviation Conference

New Jersey was a new state for us on deputation this year, and we just had our second meeting there last week. This was the church's 51st annual missions conference and the theme was missionary aviation. It was a real blessing to be invited there. Our good friends Jack and Jonnie Hunt were there as well as Les Zerbe, missionary to Alaska, and George Pine, missionary deputee to Alaska. Abby and Elena are standing next to brother Zerbe's bear skin at his display.

As you can see, we went to yet another old Baptist church. This one was Cohansey Baptist Church, the oldest church in South Jersey. It was one of five churches that made up the original Philadelphia Association, the mother of all Baptist associations.

I took one morning to return to Philadelphia. This time I was by myself. I visited the First Baptist Church, where the Triennial Convention met to begin supporting Adoniram Judson. Judson later preached here. The hymn "He Leadeth Me" was also written by a visiting preacher right after he preached here. The church was started in the 1690's. I couldn't resist having another Philly cheese steak sandwhich and also a Philly pretzel. I love this city!

Tennessee Baptist History

Here is another Baptist History site that we found along the way. Buffalo Ridge Baptist Church was the first church of any kind in Tennessee and was founded in 1779 by Tidence Lane. He was one of the converts and preachers from Sandy Creek, NC who moved to the Tennessee wilderness to start churches for the pioneers. He helped form the first Baptist association of churches in Tennessee not long after that. The church today is a gospel preaching growing independent Baptist Church. It was a blessing to see the church in its current state standing for the Lord.

We stayed at an awesome Bed and Breakfast in Tennessee along with several other missionary families during a conference we were in. This was the beginning of March. I have rarely been to Tennessee, but we really enjoyed it! We stopped at Pigeon Forge, TN on our way to New Jersey for the next conference. It was off season and on a Monday night, so the rates were so low!