Better Late than never...Fall/Winter 2012

We had a great fall traveling down South and back up to Illinois and Michigan.  We had a great Thanksgiving and Christmas and we miss some of you all already knowing it will be many years until we can all be together again.  Praise the Lord for family and friends and safe furlough travels! 

 One of my favorite pictures...Springfield, Illinois

The Lincoln Museum in Springfield

 Lincoln's tomb in Springfield...Illinoisans and Lincoln fans will understand this one! 

 Lincoln's birthplace in Kentucky

 Daniel Boone's grave in Frankfort, Kentucky

 The graves and monuments to William Hickman and John and Sarah Gano in Frankort.  These were two Baptist preachers who were pastors and chaplains during the American Revolution.

The bench tells why I love to visit these sites..."Yea, I have a Goodly Heritage."

 

 Cabella's with Dad and Mom Burtt

 I took tons of flights around Thanksgiving trying to get people up in the air to see Ann Arbor

 

  

 

 Thanksgiving with Abby's Grandma and family

 Happy Thanksgiving from all the Burtts!

 Looking almost in vain for a good tree!

 Grandad cutting down the Christmas tree

Emily and Chloe

 A Peterson moment in the Dayton, Ohio Air Force Museum

An SR-71 at the museum

 

 

 

 



 Flying in a Piper Pacer with Terry Rushing in Oshkosh

First snow in New Lisbon, WI

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all the Sanderlins!

New Year Prayer Requests

I safely arrived in Milwaukee, WI on Sunday night and Monday morning began a seminary class on the "History of Revival" taught by Dr. Rick Flanders.  On Tuesday, BCM was able to open and occupy the new Heritage Center where our class and other college classes met for the first time.  What a blessing to be in this new academic building!  This week being the first of the semester is also the time of their spiritual awakening conference. Harold Vaughn and Rick Flanders are both preaching throughout the day and the evenings.  Honestly, this class and conference is perfect time for me as we prepare to go  back to serve the Lord in Cameroon.

I need to write a prayer letter soon, but I wanted to take time to post some praises and prayer requests.
-Praise the Lord for a safe and profitable trip to NC for recurrent flight training.  Pray now for a little bit more flight training necessary in Oshkosh before I go back to fly in Cameroon.
-Pray for my family while we are apart for these days.  We hope to see each other again by the end of this week.  Pray for their safe travel to Wisconsin from Michigan.
-Pray for my class and for the Lord to do a work in my heart as the leader of my home and ministry.
-Pray for the embassy of Cameroon in Washington D.C. to grant the necessary entry visas for our children to enter Cameroon.  The papers are being processed now.
-Pray for the county we live in in Wisconsin to dismiss my jury duty call as we have a lot of work to do to get ready to go Cameroon!
-Pray for our sending church in Oshkosh as go through a pastoral transition.  The Lord has been leading and preparing the church for this for three years.  We are blessed to be part of this work!
-Pray for Terry Rushing and Tom Needham as they fly the two planes together this week as part of a missions trip for a church from Iowa.  Praise the Lord for the successful completion of the first half of their trip.

I hope to post some more pictures in the future as I get things transferred to this computer later.  Please be much in prayer for us over the next few weeks.  We need the grace of God during this time of transition back to the ministry in Cameroon.

Happy New Year (and Merry Christmas too)!

Wow, where has the time gone?!  We had a wonderful Christmas with my family in Illinois and also a great New Year in Ann Arbor with Abby's family!  We have been so busy with the details of our travel schedule for December and January, I honestly and truly have not had time to post anything.  Also, I have been swamped with getting ready for Cameroon and the required paperwork.  Please pray for the signatures that we need now as we have recently mailed what we hope are all the required documents for entry visas for our children.

Oops, I was just going to post some Christmas pictures and I realized that I don't have them.  I am using a new computer, and have not transferred any pictures.

So, here are a few pictures from my trip to North Carolina where I am currently sitting!  I left my family in Michigan (I really miss them) and flew to North Carolina for recurrent flight training.  Jack Hunt is based in New Bern with Mission Aeroservices and Calvary Baptist Church.  He helped me get my instrument rating and commercial license in 2008 and 2009, so it was great flying with him again for my required two year flight review!

We flew to the Outer Banks where I met with a lady who drove us around looking for Sanderlin family sites.  We saw Sanderlin Swamp, Sanderlin Road, Sanderlin Cemetery, and a host of Sanderlin families still scattered throughout Currituck and Camden Counties.  This is the area where the Sanderlins first came to America.  What a blast connecting with my past!  My brother Jim has been busy putting all the genealogy together, and I was trying to find a grave of our ancestor who was a Baptist preacher associated with the first Baptist church of North Carolina (founded in 1727).  He died in 1855 but he may be buried in an unmarked grave as we are having trouble finding any records.  No wonder I have always liked North Carolina!

I finished my training this morning and drove up the Roberts house.  I'll be reporting to one of my supporting churches in Raleigh tomorrow!  What a trip!

 Preflighting the Cessna 206 Stationair

 In front of bro. Jack's missionary pilot prayer map.  He has helped train so many missionary pilots over the years.

 Instrument training on an FAA approved simulator.

 Getting ready to land at Currituck County airport neary the Outer Banks in NC

 The sign speaks for itself!

 This historical marker tells of skirmish here where Col. Sanderlin led a battalion of local soldiers for the NC militia.

 The oldest Baptist church in NC where Rev. Lemuel Sanderlin was pastor for one year in 1845.  He is buried in this county, but I couldn't find the grave.

 This Sanderlin grave is in the church cemetary.

Getting ready to leave from the airport.

This is an awesome airplane!  

The Cessnar 172 RG Cutlass that I finished my recurrent training in this morning.  What awesome weather, flights, fellowship, scenery, and memories!  

Fall Travels and Activities 2: Indiana, Michigan

On Sunday, I preached and presented our ministry to a new church in Indiana.  On Monday, we went to Ft. Wayne, Indiana for some history.  We stopped at the replica 1815 fort which was a safe haven against Indian attacks for the settlers in the area.  It was here at this fort that in 1820 Isaac McCoy and his family arrived for their work of reaching the Indian tribes for Christ. McCoy started preaching the gospel here and soon had baptized several starting the First Baptist Church of Ft. Wayne.  He baptized them on the banks of the river that we saw that still flows by the fort and through the town.  We went to the current building and meeting place of the church and saw a monument that my friend from the Baptist History Preservation Society put up in memory of Isaac McCoy, his family, and his ministry.  Take some time to read the monument in the pictures below.  

We are now in Michigan, and you can see some of the things going on here in this post and in others to follow. 

 A Peterson moment simulating an Indian attack (Chloe is my favorite actress here).  We can do this since we have Cherokee blood!

 This was the chief of the Miami tribe...

It is good to connect with our Baptist heritage lest we forget where we came from, what we are doing, and where we are going!  Isaac McCoy is a Baptist worth learning about as he is also a big part of American frontier history as well as home missions.  He was indeed a "friend of the Indian!"  

Back in Michigan!  I took Philip and Elias flying on Tuesday.

Uncle Adam building a fort for the girls.

Aunt Katie playing with the kids!

Yuta and his brother playing for a group of friends.  

Fall Travels and Activities 1

When we came back from Florida, the Fall beauty was definitely gone, but we have sure been enjoying the mild temperatures.  There was one winter day in Wisconsin last week, but the persistent warm weather has been great for our travels and activities with family and friends. 

Our supporting church in Florida also has a Christian school.  The founder of those ministries was the inventor of T-ball, and they gave us the stand and a box of balls.  I plan to take them to Cameroon, so my kids can grow up with baseball.  Definitely a difficult sport to transport!  Thanks Adam and Pastor Brainard!

 Elena has a great left swing!  Switch hitting runs in her genes.

 We had a great missions conference in Wisconsin.  I had the chance to preach to some bus kids and workers from Milwaukee!  

 Stephen and Tina came to a night of the conference.

Missionary Christmas and banquet at Falls Baptist.

I don't have a hunting license, so on opening day we shot skeet with the Andersons at my mom and dad's farm in IL instead!

Emily used my new gun...it was all loads of fun :)