Today the blue skies have returned to Williamsburg. Yesterday was cloudy, foggy, and occassionally drizzly. We wandered around some shops, but nothing picture worthy. In the end of the day we visited Jamestown and decided it was worth another trip today, so that's where we went.



There are two places to visit at Jamestown, a recreated settlement, manned with re-enactors, and the original site, which is largely preserved as an archealogical site. The pictures above and below are from the settlement. An interpreter showed how a 17th century soldier loaded and fired his rifle. The first attempt was a dud, which was more realistic, I thought.

There are four replica ships which may be toured, docked at the James River. They give a sobering idea of what transatlantic travel was like 400 years ago. It also instills a deep respect for the abilities and vision of the men who risked their lives for the prospects of a life in the New World.

This last picture is of the church tower at the original Jamestown site. It is the only original structure still standing that dates back to the early 1600's. There's something wondrous looking at brick that haven't been touched since they were laid by men 400 years ago. I guess that's why we visit places like this. Anyway, we had another great day and will be sad to leave tomorrow. It's been a great vacation, thanks for tagging along!

Yesterday was Christmas. Michele's knees were bothering her, but we still managed to take in a walking tour of the holiday decorations, in between raindrops. Pictured below is a sampling of what we saw, our favorite being the gingerbread kitty being tied up with string by the gingerbread mice. Too cute!

We also made way for a team of huge oxen following their master. When he stopped, they stopped. When he walked, they walked. It's fascinating to see so much strength under such pastoral control.

In the end, the rain won out, and we spent the afternoon in our room watching a video on the restoration of Williamsburg. Then we had dinner at a local restaurant. Still a great day, despite the poor weather. We hope yours was joyous as well.

Today we cruised the shops of Williamsburg and then took a carriage ride with a gentleman named Tom and two horses named Captain and Ranger. It was another beautiful day with crisp air and blue skies.

As the sun set on Bruton Parish we headed to the Court House for the ceremonial firing of the guns and some caroling prior to the lighting of the Christmas tree.



















The crescents were lit for illumination and a bonfire was lit for warmth. We sang some carols, after which the tree was lit with 5000 lights. There was a huge crowd present and a warm sense of community permeated the event even though we were all technically strangers.





From the Court House, we headed back to Bruton Parish for a Christmas Eve service. It always moves us to think that George Washington and other founding fathers sat in this very sanctuary over two hundred years ago, trusting in God to direct their paths as they planned and accomplished events that would change world history forever.

Have a Glorious Christmas!

Several months ago we decided to take an honest-to-goodness vacation at the Christmas holiday, so we made reservations for a week at Colonial Williamsburg. On Tuesday we loaded the van and headed for Virginia. The drive was one beautiful snow scape after another, but the roads were clear. We checked into our hotel, a beautiful room in a newly refurbished Hampton Inn, and had a lovely dinner at a local restaurant. Then we headed to the Governor's Palace for a candlelit concert. Five musicians in period attire played period instruments, and a soprano sang several arias. It was a great start to our holiday.

This morning we got up when we felt like it, had a monster breakfast at Cracker Barrel, then headed to the restored area. If you've never been here, I highly recommend that you visit at least once in your life. There's something for everyone, whether you like architecture, history, horses, crafts, trades, guns, or just a relaxed atmosphere, it's all here.

In the photo below, we are standing in front of the Governor's Palace just prior to touring it. Later in the day we attended an "Irish Christmas" musical presentation which was also very excellent. You meet the nicest people at these activities, and it's good to see families with small children. The kids really seem to enjoy the whole experience, despite the absence of electronic diversions.

We'll keep taking pictures and try to post a little something each day. Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

This morning we woke up to a coating of wet snow that enrobed every branch and twig. For us, this really makes it feel like Christmas time. If you live in an area where you might play volley ball in your shirtsleeves on Christmas, you might not understand. Weird as it sounds, we prefer snuggling by the fire to grilling over a fire this time of year. May you have a Merry Christmas, where ever you are!

Have you ever seen a herd of reindeer cupcakes? Well, feast your eyes on these seasonal creatures that Michele made for the kids at Coshocton Christian School! They were such a big hit that Tim didn't even get any leftovers.

Recently Michele had the opportunity

to help make costumes for a local theater group. She made two bonnets and two vests for a production of "The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge". We attended the opening night show and enjoyed seeing the actors wearing her handiwork. During the intermission she was taken backstage to meet the cast. It was a great night!

Thank you for your perseverance to continue to check this blog despite the infrequent posts! We intend to do better, but the pace of life just keeps pushing the blog to the bottom of the list of things to do.

Speaking of things to do, we are in process of mailing out our recent newsletter. If you're not on our mailing list, or want to get a jump on things, here it is...

One of the recently completed projects at MMS is a Cessna R182, owned by Moody Aviation for pilot training. It had a nose gear collapse on landing and was trucked to us for repair. When the repairs were complete, Moody's director of flight training traveled to MMS to fly the plane back to Spokane, Washinton. Here is a video of the plane's departure prepared by Paul Jones, one of the men who worked to restore the plane to service.

#22 The Moody Bible Institute Cessna 182 Returns to Service from Paul Jones on Vimeo.

We have been back from Wisconsin for two weeks now, where we represented MMS Aviation as part of the Missions and Humanitarian Flying feature of Airventure 2009. We went early to assist in the setup operations and remained to the final disassembly 12 days later. Michele worked as a dining room supervisor for MASA (Mission Aviation Support Association), from 7AM to 8PM nearly every day. I rotated shifts at the MMS display table in the IAMA (International Association of Missionary Aviation) tent with 32 other missions.

A separate tent located near show center was known as the 'Life Tent', and bore the banner, "We Fly 4 Life". Inside the Life tent were a series of 9' x 7' pictorial banners that told stories relative to the missions theme. Missionaries with field experience worked shifts inside the tent to elaborate on the banner stories and answer questions that visitors had.

There was also a mission presence at the Seaplane Base in the form of Edgar and Geisella Schreiber and Karl Neilson from Canada. They flew in from Canada in the Cessna 185 that MMS had restored three years ago. Edgar's plane was newly mounted on the amphibious floats that had also been restored at MMS. He took the opportunity to make several flights with other mission pilots who had thousands of hours of floatplane experience and made some great connections in the process. I even got my first floatplane ride!

Too many things happened to chronicle here, but our photo album is posted for your perusal. Enjoy! -Tim

Photoshop.com Album

For the past two and a half years MMS has been restoring a Cessna 206 operated by a mission in Honduras. The airframe was so corroded that a large portion of it has been replaced with new parts. That project is nearing completion, with new paint, and reassembly of the major components, it looks like a new airplane.

From this................

To this..............................

Stay tuned for the final wrap of this project and the airplane's return to service in Honduras!

As many of you know, one of our cats, Red, died suddenly the day before our departure for California. Our remaining cat, Frankie, walked around looking for Red for awhile after our return, so we thought we'd better get her a companion before too much time passed. The local Tractor Supply Company keeps animals from the local shelter in their store, so we went to look.

Sure enough, they not only had kittens, but a brother and sister who had been rescued from a busy highway. We couldn't seperate them, so we took them both. Frankie now has two playmates, Lucy and Herbie. They are the perfect kittens for us, although Frankie is still adjusting to the idea.

They play hard and sleep hard! It's tough to get much done with the entertainment they provide.

The week following our return from California, our daughter-in law Jessica, her mom Dee, and grand-daughter Sophia drove out from PA for a weekend visit. We had a great time! Of course, we toured Longaberger and Dresden, but also rode the Canal boat and had some fun with a tee-pee Michele made.

Sophia celebrated her 5th birthday just before coming to Ohio, so we extended the celebration with one of Michele's custom birthday cakes.

The weekend sure went fast, but grandpa got to play, and grandma got her nails painted!

Slide show-Relay for Life, 2009

Cheryl and her husband Paul came up with a great way to honor our loved ones, that of a slide show that ran continuously showing their pictures. This was a very moving experience, especially to walk into the camp and see my dad's at his and my mom's 50th wedding anniversary party, the year before he died. This impacted others as well and gave us great encouragement to keep walking and praying.

CMA Relay for Life Headquarters

Inside of our tent, you see Cheryl W. and Jim P. They spend countless hours attending meetings and planning for the event. Jim's personal goal is to have some one from our church walking the track the entire 24 hours. I'm happy to report that we accomplished this goal, again! Thank you Jim and Cheryl for all that you do to make this a huge success!

Chapel

Here is the inside of our "chapel'. This was donated for use by one of our church members for the weekend. Hanging on the wall are pictures of friends and loved ones who either have cancer or have died from the disease.

The chapel was a first for Relay for Life here in Coshochton.

Thanks Bill and Shirley!

Luminaries

Here are 2 of the luminaries that we had at our camp site. They have sand and then a candel is placed inside and lit at 9 PM and remain until the morning.
While we walk, we have a "baton" if you would that we carry, it is actually cards with people's name printed on them that we can pray for while we walk.

Relay For Life- May 2009

The past 4 years our church has participted in the American Cancer Society's "Relay For Life". Our team captin is Jim P. and co-captin, Cheryl W. Each year the fair grounds become a "camp" for 24 hours. This year our church provided a mobil chapel for prayer and meditation for those who desired to do so. We raise money by selling luminaries, candy bars and walking the track. Each organization can choose a fundraiser of their choice. This year's theme was "Celebrate Hope". Tim sold candy bars, walked and I sold luminaries, walked and did the graphic's for our church and camp site.

Meet Ruth

As you can see, Ruth has a beautiful smile like Hee-Ran.
Ruth has a beautiful singing voice and sang with her school's chior, having the lead vocal voice.

We miss the girls already, they left a beautiful mark on our hearts.

Meet Hee-Ran

As you can see from her beautful fun smile that she was fun to be with. She blessed us with her beautiful singing voice before leaving for home last week. It was great to watch and see her and Ruth make friends, do well in school and to hear their English and comprehension improve in such a short time. We will miss both girls very much!

"Bear claws"

This past school year we've been blessed to have 2 young women live with one of our church family members. Hee-Ran orginates from South Korea and Ruth from Indonesia. Both girls attended Riverview High School, and you've probably gussed that the school mascot is a bear. For their graduation party at church I made 50 cupcakes for them. We were in CA, so we had to miss the party, but I'm told they were delicious!

Cupcakes

Each month during this past school year, I would theme out cupcakes. I ended the year with "Everybody's Birthday" cupcake. I found a great web site that carries a large extensive candy mold inventory, so I've been able to purchase assorted molds.

Meet "Frankie"

Frankie, joined our family last July. She has beautiful blue eyes, so she's named after Frank Sinatra. She loves to flop down and roll around, enjoys "watching" the birds from the windows or screen doors. Running up and down the stairs and across funiture are some of her fun activities.

"Red" our beloved cat

Tim and I love our cats. We've had many over 31 years of marriage. All sizes, colors and temperments. Red came to our home and hearts from a nephew who had one too many, 12 years ago. He was a "Garfield" type personality. Laid back and cool. One of our vet's told us that he liked orange cats the best because they were "so cool". Red had many redeeming qualities. He liked to play "ball", throw a wad of rolled up paper and he would some times catch it in his paw, then bat it around, and then bring it back to one of us to throw again. He would often wake Tim up 5 minutes before his alarm would go off, he would gently paw at Tim's mouth. He would lay next to me and let me put my arm around him and he would then fall asleep. He even learned to "love" our newest cat, Frankie. Unfourtenly, Red retured to his Creator May 27, the day we were to leave for vacation. He appeared well the night before and then in the morning, was unresponsive, a quick ride to the vet and 2 hours later he was gone. No one is sure what caused his death, doctor did feel a lump on his liver. We sure do miss him, Frankie too.

On Saturday, May 30th, our niece Elizabeth Stogner was wed to David Wainright in a beautiful outdoor ceremony by Canyon Lake in California. Elizabeth's bridesmaids were her sisters, Emily and Laura, and cousin Lia.
Parents of the bride, Gregory and Angela Stogner, were as calm as they were elegant. A wonderful reception followed, bringing their special day to a close. We were so thrilled to be able to share the event with them!

This is a Cessna 337 owned by LAMP (Luthren Asssociation of Missionary Pilots). This bright red aircraft had been operated in Canada where the color would greatly enhance visibility in snow. It is at MMS for a dual engine overhaul and various airframe work. The unique arrangement of front and rear engines gives the power and reliability of a traditional twin engine aircraft without the assymetrical thrust experienced with an engine failure. In other words, if you lose an engine in a 337, the remaining engine won't try to pull you to the left or right.

Here is the rear engine mounted vertically by the crankshaft flange. This position allows access to every part of the engine for disassembly.

Notice the shrinking size of the engine as Paul Jones (left) and Scott Grote (right) remove components from the engine assembly until it is nothing but individual parts. Some of the subassemblies and critical parts are shipped out to specialized subcontractors for overhaul or inspections that look for defects beneath the surface.

This is Paul's first engine overhaul so he's getting great experience for his next engine, which will be the one on the front of this same airplane!