We've been busy...

Greetings from the US, in Wisconsin!!

Well, we have been here for about 6 weeks now and have been busy and yet relaxing, too.  We have gotten to spend time with not only family here, but with friends.  It was a great time when we, along with our daughter, Christine and her son, Donny, drove north and spend a couple of days with some friends.  Don had not seen his friend, Louie, in almost 40 years.  And Louie gave Donny a real thrill twice while we were there.  Donny has Cerebral Palsy, and he was able to go on the 4 wheeler and help drive it.  Then on the pontoon and he was able to drive that, too.  We had such a good time.  And Don and Louie were able to spend some quality time catching up on the years apart. 

The photos show some of our fun with them.   Here is Donny driving and Louie holding on to help him.

  

Then, after we were out on the lake, he let Donny drive the pontoon, too.

 Shirley and I simply sat back and enjoyed out time catching up.

 On yet another day we headed to another town (Madison, WI) to go to the botanical gardens and butterfly enclosure.  That was a bigger family gathering there.... from left the right, Don, our friend and son's mother-in-law, Bernie, Gregory (grandson), Karen, Chris, (Christine's son), Dawn (Dale's wife), Dale and Donny.  Christine is missing, she took the photo.

The butterfly solarium was really great and we even had them land on us.  It was awesome to see just some of the butterflies they had displayed below.  So many are from South America and even Europe. 

 This is only one of about 9 display cases. 

 We also went to the zoo that day....Donny really loves the giraffes and they responded by coming right to him and putting their heads down near him.  The lions roared and even the penguins talked to us.

Yet another time, I helped Gregory get a display ready.  When he was in Haiti last spring, he decided he wanted to help promote our Bucket Ministry.  He did almost all the work himself.  He went out and bought everything (except Haitian printed material), bagged it and set it up.  This was the display he set up at our home church.  And the neat thing, it is directly below a painting done for the church, by a Haitian artist when a team had been down.  The church they worked with is a close friend of ours.  Gregory has been a tremendous help to us with this.

 On another day we went with family to a park in our county.  I remember as a teen spending a lot of time here swimming and walking on the "Swinging Bridge".
They now have a sign stating "do NOT swing bridge".  There have been many things added since I first spent time there.

 But we all had a good time anyway, watching the ducks, geese, and seeing the sights.  Donny simply loves going and doing anything with everyone.  And his mom is really great in that area....she loves taking not only him, but her other two places they enjoy.

 Dale and Dawn enjoy going and doing these types of things with their kids too.  Glad our family is like this!!

 Yes, we all went and Dale makes sure we get pictures to remember it all by.

For now, I'll have to close and get some work done here.  Don has been helping Christine with some repairs.  She is working so many hours it's hard for her to keep up with things.  This was a time we were able to step in and help just a bit for her.

We'll be back in Haiti the end of this month and then I'll do another update and share some new news with you.  The Lord has been with us this whole time here, and He has also been giving instructions on the future plans in Haiti.  Keep tuned in for more updates as they progress!!

Please keep us in prayer as we travel back to Haiti, but also in our ministry there.  And keep in mind  1 Thess. 5: 16-18  "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."