Dear Friends,

We wanted to let you know what life has been like for our family, "Out of Africa" these past six months…..our first extended time in the United States in six years.

As you know we arrived home in June of 2006 and hit the ground running.Six months later Bill is back to the Congo while Ann and the children will remain in Maine until June 2007 enabling the children to complete a full school year.

It has been a busy six months as we look back at the many churches and friends we visited.

• We gave presentations at 90 churches, six schools, two civic organizations, and three nursing homes.
• We spoke to over 9000 persons.
• We visited 16 states in 4 time zones, and earned over 32,000 frequent flyer miles (not quite enough to get us back to the Congo).
• We were given a 1985 Buick sedan with over 300,000 miles on it which faithfully took us up and down the East Coast and around New England.We wish we could take it back to Africa!
• We attended 59 potluck suppers and lunches; and sampled 16 types of guacamole salad in the Pacific Southwest, 22 macaroni and potato salad dishes in the Midwest, 14 varieties of homemade soup in New England….and gained an undisclosed number of pounds.(My favorite dish was a fish chowder in a small church in Maine…If I remembered the name of the church I'd ask for an invitation again!)
• We got to know many of the toll booth workers in Central and Southern Maine and know most of the TSA workers at Bangor International Airport by first name.
• Bill spent his 50th birthday on the road; celebrating it 3 times after church services in Toledo, Akron and Zanesville, Ohio (on the same day).
• We were almost never in the same state on any given weekend…..but one Sunday we were scheduled to speak at the same church at the same time.(It was like a date)
• We met so many people, wonderful people…..people who have written us, supported us and prayed for us….including a 7 year old who was home-schooled and told us he had prayed for us each and every day as long as he could remember.

We have been blessed; not only by the opportunity to serve as foreign missionaries these past fifteen years in Haiti and Africa…….but by coming to know the family of God and the body of Christ from Maine to Michigan to California which has enabled and supported us all these years…and allowed us to follow God's calling.

We could not do this work without you!