Starting out together...

Well, this week is where we “divide and conquer”. Lee gets to go to Virginia to visit her daughter, Chrissy, and grandson Sam, while Doug heads overseas to train children’s workers.

As you probably already heard, Doug will be leaving on Tuesday, October 9, 2007, for a gathering of expatriate children’s workers in Dubai, in the Middle East. In many of the smaller middle eastern nations, Islam is the state religion. However, there is freedom to worship and witness within the ex-patriot community.

The workers expected will come from many nations as well as many different denominations: Anglicans, Catholics, Orthodox, Armenians and Evangelicals. Fortunately, everyone expected speaks English!

Drop by for a visit: www.beyondwordsconference.com

Co-sponsored by Grain de Ble, a Swiss organization with a branch in the Middle East, and the Bible Society of the Gulf, this conference seeks to offer creative training to those working with children in this part of the world. A staff of instructors from the US and UK will assist locals in learning methods of instruction, some of which, they may have quite possibly never experienced before. Some of the subjects will be drama, worship, puppetry, fitness and of course, ventriloquism. That’s Doug’s department. His three workshops will be An Introduction to Ventriloquism, Voicing for Ventriloquism and Writing for Ventriloquism. Hopefully, some will learn a new skill with which to present the Gospel to their congregations.

The conference begins on Friday night, October 12 and continues through Monday evening, October 15. Hopefully, only a mere 4 hours after the closing prayer, Doug will board his plane for the ride home. Air travel time will be approximately 15-16 hours in the air (plus lay-over time in London and 8 hours time difference). Look for him to get home by noon on Tuesday, the 16th.

On Thursday, the 11th, Lee will head south to Virginia Beach to visit her daughter Chrissy and grandson Sam - who just turned 5 last month! Chrissy & Sam came north last year for Sam’s birthday, and we all had a WONDERFUL time celebrating. This year, Lee will be with them for HER birthday - Friday, the 12th! Yes, Doug is not happy with missing her birthday, but considering the circumstances, we’re both glad that she’ll be with Chrissy and Sam. With all the fancy plans, Doug is a little jealous that he doesn’t get to see “the kids”.

Look for Lee to arrive home on Monday night, the 15th.

Well, that’s it for right now. Seeing that Doug is taking the computer to Dubai, he’ll be doing most of the blog updating. So, keep checking in, and we’ll keep you posted!

Thanks for your prayers!