Enjoying South Carolina

Jeanie and I are enjoying our furlough time in South Carolina. The greatest thrill is to be the resident grandparents for the first time in our lives. Our daughter Patty and her husband Luke live here in Camden where he is the assistant pastor at a local church. This week Patty gave birth to a new little girl, Caroline Hope Tolbert. Caroline joins Anna Kate who is 20 months old. Jeanie is in Grandma heaven.

She has been over at Luke and Patty's house helping out while I continue my work as Operations Director for Campus Crusade for Christ, Latin America - thanks to my very fast internet connection.

We have been able to do a little touring around South Carolina. On Thursday we took in the South Carolina State Fair. We learned about the benefits of negative ion bracelets (no sale there) and elephant ears (we shared one). It was really a great piece of Americana to enjoy and remember as we prepare to move to Costa Rica.

Last week we visited the Kensington mansion about 40 minutes from Camden. It is an antebellum plantation mansion. The house was beautiful, but the history is also tragic as it was all built on the backs of slave labor. The older gentleman who gave us the tour was a real storehouse of local history and stories.

This week I have spent a lot of time working on a relief project proposal to bring aid to our 50 national staff members who live and serve in the countries of Central America. Heavy rains this month from a series of tropical storms, have brought devastation and misery to the area not seen since Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Floods have caused widespread damage to infrastructure, housing, agriculture, commercial interests, churches, schools, and government institutions. Total losses to the economy will take months to calculate and years to recover. God has supplied funds for emergency help to our staff in the area. Please pray for our staff and all of the people affected by the devastation.

Below is a photo from the city of Quetzaltenango in Guatelmala.