Update on Grandchildren

NICHOLAS (Wood) - entered boot camp about 10 days ago and will be there for the whole summer. Proud of his accomplishments with the military - ROTC at North GA. College next year. MEREDITH (Wood) - arrives home from 10 months on missions in Africa - June 20th!!! CALEB, REBEKAH, CHERITH, CALEB, AND HAVILAH JOY - Caleb is attending Southern Poly - working on his second degree...the family will come to live with us in January...YAY! HANNAH (Kimbrough) - in south Asia...we continue to long to see this precious grand daughter (our eldest) who is in her third year of not being in the States. ALL of us long to see her altho we are most grateful for her following after God's best for her life - teaching and loving on others for the glory of the Lord. KIMBROUGH, ZACH, SHAY, KATHRYN AND KALE: Still living in my Mother's apartment downstairs (with us). They have patiently waited for the closing of their house purchase...and are still excited to have their own home. NATHAN (Kimbrough) - celebrating his High School graduation this week. JACOB (Cantrell) - internship - respite and discipling on determining God's direction for life. KATELYN (Cantrell) - ACL repair. Difficult recovery. Physical Threapy has strengthened her knee but nerve damage has resulted in wearing a brace until healing takes place to give control of ankle movement, foot lifting and toe control...she has a great attitude...delighted that at last she can drive again. MORGAN (Bethea)- graduated from Auburn on the 7th of May. She is entering an internship with Night Light here in Atlanta next week and is living with us. What an absolute pleasure to have her with us!!! EMILY (Bethea) - finished a year at Auburn...internship at her home church First Baptist for the summer. STEADMAN (Bethea)- Senior in high school next year...received a cherished award at Trinity as 'outstanding Christian witness' - nice check with the honor! ALL of the grandchildren are subjects of great interest to us and the Lord is priority in their lives. Much to rejoice!!!

Trip to Man of War island in the Bahamas

Wes and I left on Wednesday morning (May 16th) and returned on Tuesday. We spent six days with our friends, Ann and Erik Shoenberg on the little island called "Man of War" in the Bahamas. They have a lovely island house...the water is exceptional beautiful. The island can only be reached by water or air..only golf carts and the roads are very bumpy and usually dirt. We attended a small church every evening for their Missions Conf. - met and heard great sharing by missionaries...made new friends...even sang in the impromptu choir two times...ate at the church three times with EVERYONE...what a great time of fellowship. Our return was - in hindsight - quite funny. We left the island on Erik's boat - a short trip over to Marsh Island to fly to Miami. On the way, the downpour left all five of us drenched! We opened our luggage and pulled out dry clothes which made us much more comfortable for the trip. Three of us enjoyed a boiled egg and a piece of lb. cake that I had brought along "just in case" and sure enough, there was no opportunity for a meal. The plane made its way to Miami and before long the pilot announced, "we have circled the Miami area so long that we are low on fuel...weather bad in the area and we could not land...so we will be going to Fort Myers to re-fuel". As we looked at the map, we could not understand - we were headed in the opposite direction of Atlanta!!! Because we had to go through customs at Miami, we could not exit the plane at Fort Myers... We returned and landed in Miami AFTER our flight for Atlanta time had long passed. Then for the re-scheduling!...the line was long after customs and lugging our baggage to the counter. At long last, we were seated in the waiting area, no seat assignments and the departure time was continuing to move forward as ramps at the airport were closed because of lightning...then along the way the dreaded words "mechanical difficulties". The stewardess kept holding our tickets (still no seat assignments) and she assured Wes each time he inquired that she was working on it. During the saga, we got to know our new couple friends much better: They have a ministry in Albania to orphans. Roger had been an evangelist previously and they are a musical, comedian, fun-type couple. Cherie can "bang" that piano in the Southern Gospel style and they both have nice voices. Their son, Buddy, has sung with the Gaithers. We had a lot of laughs and many opportunities for "giving thanks in ALL things!" The Rest of the Story: our names were called a little after 9:30 and our tickets returned with seat assignments in FIRST class - can you believe? Grand daughter, Morgan picked us up at the aiport and we arrived home at 1:00 A.M. Later, I learned that Roger and Cherie (they live in McDonough (south of airport) had been stopped by a policeman - 84 miles an hr. in a 65 mile zone...[she wrote] "Oh brother! Well...we actually laughed as we both snapped our seatbelts on (ha)....and he came to us and asked where we were going in such a hurry. Rog told him we had been to a Missions Conference in the Bahamas and been trying since 10:30 AM to get home from that little place and we were singing, 'Through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come......' He actually decided against ticketing us...said to keep it on the speed limit and go home and rest. PTL! A happy ending to our "When Everything Goes Wrong Day".