For Dave

These pontoon planes were at the Willow plane dock across from the airport in Willow, Alaska. I actually saw one flying about an hour before this. There was a small business advertising excursions into remote parts of Alaska, hence the pontoon planes.

Alaska

The name brings thoughts of snow and cold. Looking from the plane window, all I saw were mountains and more mountains, most of them covered with snow.

And (Andy) I saw a couple moose as we were landing, so maybe I won't have to stop on the road!!! I didn't get a picture, though, hm-m!

In spite of the snow-covered mountains, summer flowers were blooming outside the airport and it was forty-something degrees.

New Friends

Allona and Vova made some new friends in Franklin, PA on Sunday when we visited the Wesleyan Methodist church.

Grandchildren

Here's a Kodak moment that our son caught of our two grandsons the other evening. I tried about six shots. They were moving in all of the ones where the lighting was better!!

Starbuck's Experience

Among coffee-lovers, we hear over and over about Starbucks!! (Uh-huh, Katrina, your name is included here.) So we wanted our younger coffee-lovers to get a chance just once to see what it was like. Here they are.

Georgia

Can't finish off my pictoral journal without pictures of our stop in Georgia, even though it's been most of a month ago. I've been wondering how much the flooding has affected the areas we were in.



Brother Dennis Hartman took us for miniature golf and then to the paddleboats. Allona and I stopped to enjoy the water lilies.

This train really attracted my attention because it reminded me of Independence, KS and then had a plate on it that looked like it had something to do with PA as well.

The children really enjoyed the sirens and lights of this fire truck. Thank you friends for showing us around.
Here's Dave and Brother Hartman shooting the breeze. (Another privilege of being home, men to chat to.)


We visited the Bible Methodist church and parsonage in Columbus. The Goings had a new pet.

And here are the rest of the Hartmans, Gail and Susannah.

Camping

When given the choice our family chooses to camp most of the time. We prefer state parks where we have scenes like this. The raccoons especially liked the ice cream that spilled on the table and the ice cream carton that we were waiting to throw on the campfire.

This was Allona's alarm clock and Vova's congregation!! I don't think I got the whole group. This was in a private RV campground. Most of the time our pop-up looks pretty out of place in the middle of nice motorhomes.

Yellowstone

When we looked at the map going from Mitchell, SD to Emmett, ID the route was over 200 miles shorter going through Yellowstone. We have never been there. So we chose the shorter route. : )

One of the first sights was this moose. This was as close as my family wanted me to get and the best my telephoto would work.



Another sight was Yellowstone lake. Here are our children goofing off in front of it and then a scenic shoreline view.

A pond of lilypads.

The Yellowstone tour bus.

Daisies at the roadside.
We went right by Old Faithful so we stopped.

Around the "mud pots" the mud has strange colors from the minerals in the water.

Another hot spring called blue star because of the colors in the water.
"Is Old Faithful ever going to blow?"


YES!!!

Deputation

Going from church to church and home to home and visiting with different people every week. Travelling miles and miles and miles and miles . . . It looks like an extended sightseeing tour by the looks of our blog. I've posted some of the sights on the blog but it's more.
It's trying to convey a "binocular" glimpse of Ukraine to people who have never been there. It's trying to convey a sense of the concern for people who need God and a bit of an idea of what missionaries do.
It's trying to say what God would direct us to say and to reflect on a weak, limited human level His glory.

Wall Drug

We stretched our legs in Wall, South Dakota, stopping at Wall Drug.
This is what I liked best. An almost real-looking jackalope.

Ottawa

A project that Dave helped on in Ottawa, Kansas was fixing up this church sign.

For Mom

We didn't pick them but we thought of you when we saw them and got the picture for you.

Strange Buggy

We saw this big grocery cart on a trailer in Iowa. It has a car-sized engine down below. The driver sits in the purse/child basket up high.

Travel Thanksgiving

I would guess that we've hit the 20,000 mile point on deputation. To date, we've had no serious vehicle problems. Dave has done some general maintenance.
The only emergencies have been replacing tires.

Indiana

In Indiana we went to Greenbriar Holiness Church where Vova was attracted by the pastor's cool motorcycle.


And to my parents where we celebrated Daddy's 82nd birthday.

We tried to help out a little around their place, too.

Beauty

The elderly women in the conservative Ukrainian churches love to sing a song about Lake Genesaret and how it reflected Jesus' image. The song says I want to be like that lake on a clear day and clearly reflect Jesus. That's what I thought of when I saw this lake.
And here's another bit of natural beauty at the side.

Missouri

We went to three churches in Missouri, this time through. Our children had time for learning activities . . .!

At Granby, Vova had a chance to try on a volunteer fireman's uniform.


Allona and Vova both enjoyed fishing in the privately stocked pond.


Even Dave took a short spin.

New Mexico

From California we travelled to Torreon, New Mexico. These beautiful rocks were in the desert in that neck of the woods. It's Vova sitting on top.

I really like quirky, different things. So do most of my children. That's why when I saw someone putting on this pair of socks I couldn't resist the photo.

This slender fellow made my family jump. He was collected dead on the road especially for those who hadn't seen a rattlesnake.


We rested one afternoon.

Then we worked the next day getting ready for Keep Youth Camp. Allona and Vova emptied the shed, checking for traces of little squeaky rodents.
Vova helped Nathanael fix the fence and gather firewood and . . .

One of the youth activities is to see who can climb this mountain across the valley. We are looking at it from 7,100 feet or so. Darwin McCasland holds the record, making it in 15 minutes.

Down to Los Angelos

I spent a good part of the day on the phone as we traveled to LA, confirming and scheduling services.

But when we got there, God blessed us with a good service in San Bernardino. It was a real encouragement to see a church that was closed a few years back up to an attendance of 43 with new converts.


The members were kind enough to feed us pizza after service and do a quick addition so that it was a birthday party for Allona. Her birthday was Sunday, July 12th. Here's the cake.


A couple of new little friends for Allona, this time
.

Maybe the highlight for Allona was pretending to drive Sonya's cool Mustang!

After this service we met Rita and Marta who had visited Katrina and us in Ukraine. They took us to an excellent restaurant where we ate all we could hold. Then we went to watch firemen fight a fire in Pomona. Two houses were a total loss and everything behind one house up to a stone wall. We watched around an 1 1/2 hrs because Vova was totally fascinated.

On Sunday, Rita and Marta went to the Church of God Holiness (that Katrina had introduced Rita to) with us. After that they took us for a picnic at the Pacific ocean in Santa Monica. Vova started to bury Rita in sand.

There was a peace demonstration on the beach.

The Santa Monica skyline.

Because we had many more miles to go to the next stop, Saturday we had filled our car with gas and lots of drinks in the cooler as we left Rita and Marta to head across the desert toward New Mexico. We stopped driving in Kingman, Arizona about 1:30 am.