Several have asked how we are doing because I have not been
posting to my blog. Since we left Texas
the middle of June, the time has just gotten away from me. Do I have more work or am I just getting too
old to keep it up? It could be a little
bit of both. We went to Woodstock, GA
the middle of June to help our daughter, Leigh Ann, move into our son’s
house. She has lived in an apartment the
past three years and her close next-door neighbor moved to Tennessee. Ronald’s renters moved out of his house so it
was a good time for Leigh Ann to take it over.
The house and yard were in a big mess and it needed a lot of work.
We stored our furniture in the basement of our Sharpsburg house
two years ago when we rented the house to travel full-time and live in an
RV. When we arrived in Georgia in June,
Ron rented a truck and moved our stuff to the basement of Ronald’s house. He was so busy repairing things on the house
and helping get some of the yard cleaned up , we had no time to put up shelving
and get our stuff straight in the basement.
I helped Leigh Ann unpack and get her things straight in the house. After two weeks, we left to fulfill
appointments to give reports to churches in Tennessee and Kentucky.
We stay in Corp of Engineers parks for two weeks (their
maximum stay) and report to churches in the surrounding area as we travel
through. First, we visited Red Boiling
Spring and Moss, TN. From there, we went
east to Pikeville, KY and then returned back west all across the state of
Kentucky to Paducah, ending with reporting to churches in Hickory and Benton,
KY. From there, we went to Nashville,
Columbia, Spring Hill, Culleoka, Brentwood, Franklin and perhaps churches in
other Tennessee cities. While in Nashville, we saw friends and family
members that we only get to see once a year.
I will not mention names for fear of leaving someone out.
We had an enjoyable stay at Rippaville Plantation in Spring
Hill, TN for about 10 days. Our friends
in Benton, KY go there with their 5th wheel camper for Mule Day each
year. We did not know about the hook ups
that are available on that plantation.
We were parked a long way from the highway next to the barn which is a
museum of ancient farm equipment. We
walked to the cemetery nearby to see graves of the original owners and their
slaves. There is one slave house still
standing. We had too much to do to tour
the mansion. If we go there next year, I
hope to see it inside. It is a very
lovely southern house and plantation.
We traveled to North Alabama and parked in the back of the
Kennedy home (dear friends from way back).
If I tell you how far back, you’d think it’s too long for me to even remember. It was a great week while Ron gave a report
to Mars Hill and then we left for Huntsville to visit with the Mastin Lake
church. We have such dear friends in
both Florence and Huntsville so we had a wonderful time seeing everyone.
We returned to Woodstock, GA on September 24th
for Ron to fly to Dallas on the 26th. He was invited to speak at the Airline
Ambassadors Convention. The flight
attendants that go to China to meet and bring the children back to the U.S. for
surgery (and take them back after recovery) are part of this volunteer organization. It was a very long day for Ron but he
thoroughly enjoyed being with this wonderful group of tender-hearted helpers of
China Mission.
We parked in Ronald’s driveway again in Woodstock, GA and
began to put up shelving and get our stuff organized in the basement. It was just piled in the floor everywhere
from the men who helped us unload. It
was quite a job but we completed it before we left on October 17th. Now, our children do not have to go through a
house full of stuff when we are gone from this earth. I know that is always hard for those left
behind. Now, the boxes are in the
basement and ready for a garage sale or give-away (or they can call someone to
haul it all off).
Our renter is using most of our furniture so what we moved
is mostly household stuff. We went
through our clothing and gave a lot away and decided what we could handle in
the RV for both winter and summer seasons.
We have scaled down to bins underneath the RV for the off-season
clothing.
We got to see a few friends and churches in the north
Georgia area. We really needed more time
there but the work was demanding and there was too little time.
Ronald came home for 10 days. It had been two years since he had returned
to the U.S. His wife, Gigi, from the
Philippines planned to come but could not get a VISA. He came alone. He had to get dental work done that included three
crowns. That was a very important part
of his trip home. He spent a lot of time
working in his yard and moving some of his special items from a storage shed
into the house. I really felt sorry for
him because it was not a vacation for him.
He worked completely up to the night before he went back to China.
We left Woodstock the day after he went back to China. We stopped in Lagrange and Albany to report
to churches. We spent a few days at Lake
Seminole park near Chattahoochee, Florida.
The park is just across the state line into Georgia. Ron reported to the Chattahoochee church on a
Wednesday night and Baker, FL the next Sunday night. We stopped one day in Baton Rouge, LA to meet
with Joan Ni, our Chinese worker. Joan
coordinates all of the children coming to the U.S. for surgery and handles our
bookkeeping. It was a special day to be
with her, meet her children and have dinner with her husband at a wonderful
Japanese restaurant. Their friends
(Chinese) own and operate the restaurant.
The food is wonderful and presented very beautifully. I told them I think it’s my favorite all-time
restaurant.
Ryan and Rachel Swanson, an American couple working at the
Refuge of Grace Christian Cere Center since June of this year, returned to the
U.S. for a visit. Their
hometown is Pontotoc, MS. We had never
met them so drove from Baton Rouge to Grenada, MS. We went to Oxford, my hometown, on Wednesday
night and met Ryan and Rachel in Bruce, MS for lunch on November 2nd. After lunch we drove from Grenada, MS to
Texarkana, TX, stopping in Greenville, MS for gas. We
arrived about 10 p.m. that night. We have a place to park overnight at the
Hampton Church of Christ in Texarkana.
We left about 9 a.m. for Lewisville but had to stop to have a tire put
on the trailer that pulls the car. Ron
noticed tread showing on the side of one tire and was concerned that we would
have a blow-out. That stop took about an
hour (found a tire place in McKinney, TX).
We arrived at the Hickory Creek, TX Corp of Engineer park on Lewisville
Lake about 3 p.m. (We are about 3 miles
north of Lewisville, TX.)
Do you feel tired already just reading about our
travels? It has been a very busy five
months. I actually thought it had been
six months from the way I feel. We have
put many miles on both the RV and the car.
We are thankful that we have been in good health that allows us to keep
up with this schedule. It is grueling for
a healthy couple, much less someone our age.
We are working on our computers all the time we are
parked. The weekends are very busy with
the church appointments but the weeks are also busy with the incoming
workload. Someone said this keeps us young
. It will either help to keep us going
or wear us out sooner. I’m not sure
which!
We will spend November and December in the Lewisville, TX
area. We want to have some time with our
home congregation but Ron will also report to some of the other churches in the
Dallas area. We don’t just go back to
sit and relax. This is our usual way of
doing things.
The work in China is progressing as well as we expect. There are always some problems to work out
but Ronald has been such a blessing to our work. He gets the blunt of the problems and saves
us from having to make so many trips back and forth. The trips to China are not getting any
easier either.
Gigi, our sweet daughter-in-law, has a VISA for another
month in China. She met Ronald in
Shanghai on his way back to China. She
may be successful in getting the VISA renewed for another month or two. They
are working on that as I write this. After
she’s been in China six times, it will be easier for her to get a longer
VISA. We had difficulty getting
Ronald’s VISA for his return to China this time. The Embassy claimed the policy had changed
on business VISAs so they had to receive a letter from China. Then they complained it wasn’t on
letterhead, which this remote government does not have. They wanted the government to FAX it to them
– but they have no FAX machine. These
are Chinese workers at the embassy. Ron
finally asked them if they had been to the really remote areas of China because
they don’t seem to realize the way things are done in the country. Finally, after they talked with the
government, and Joan Ni got involved with a friend she knows that works at the
Embassy, they released the VISA for another year. Ronald still has to leave the country every
three months to get his Passport stamped unless the government is kind enough
to extend it for him right there.
Thanksgiving will be coming soon and we wish a happy holiday
to all of our family and friends. We
had our family Thanksgiving dinner one night with Ronald, Leigh Ann and Tatum
(our granddaughter). It has been years since we have all been
together so it was a very special occasion.
We also enjoyed going to church services together as a family for two
Sundays. Gigi saw our picture made at
the Thanksgiving dinner and said we had one empty chair at the table and it was
hers. That’s true – we regretted that
she was not there to enjoy it with us. We missed her very much.
I will try to do better keeping everyone posted on our
whereabouts. Even if there’s little
time, I’ll post short segments. There’s
been a lot of interesting things and happenings along with the travels. If I write more often, I can remember some of
these things to make my writing more interesting to read. Until next writing, may God bless you.
