Where does one begin when one is so far behind in blogging?  Let me start off by saying that I am well and enjoying the summer.  Here’s a summary of what’s been happening over the last couple of weeks…

Sydney:  Below is a famous photo of my dear friend Sydney Dobbs who died last month.  He was 98.  Like my grandmother, he was the present holder of the Boston Post Cane and former Cushing town moderator.  Parliamentary procedure was his expertise and I own a Roberts Rules of Order because of him.

He served in World War II for almost 5 years.  In 1987, Steve Heddericg's 1983 photo, above, taken at Cushing's annual town meeting, won Parade magazine's National Bicentennial Contest, "We, the People." It showed resident June Champlin conferring with moderator, Sydney Dobbs, at right. That picture became part of a permanent exhibit to honor the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution. So well did this picture catch the spirit of a typical town meeting that it was used by the Courier-Gazette for years, to head the various listed annual town meetings of mid-coast Maine.

I could write so much more about him… he left a mark in many sports and civic affairs.  He and his wife Bettina were so instrumental in helping our family during the days of Blount vs. State of Maine.  The cove where they lived will never be the same.

Michele: She had planned to be here for a month but that stretched out to 8 weeks and I don’t know how Randy stood it… all alone for so long.  We lost Nicole to summer camp after two weeks, and then Stephanie left for a summer missions trip on the 24^th of June.

She had never flown before, has issues with motion sickness, but was excited to go nevertheless.  When they arrived at the airport, Michele told anyone who should know that Stephanie was a new flyer.  For that they gave Michele a gate pass and she was able to see her get on the plane.  Unfortunately, she was quite sick on the flights, but loved flying anyway.

Because they were leaving so early that morning – like 2 AM – Michele and Stephanie stayed with Crysten until it was time to go since she would be traveling with them.  What a sport!  “The girls are asleep,” Michele assured me, “and you won’t hear from them again.”  Yeah, right. 

I had crawled into bed and heard Carrie moaning.  I went in and found her very restless, but asleep.  I decided not to wake her up and left to have her fall back into a deep sleep.  Later, I heard her crying and quickly ran in to scold her for making so much noise.  She obeyed and stifled the sounds, and I settled her in to go back to sleep.  The next event was Justin running into my room.  Carrie was vomiting.  Was she ever.  Turns out even her lunch hadn’t digested at all.  There is was… all over the bed.  Poor Carrie.  She was so good about everything.  I got her cleaned up and the bed and settled everyone back in.  She did sleep soundly for the rest of the night. 

Justin’s headaches were the reason he came.  He has not had relief from them for months.  He saw two specialists in their field and they both decided after 8 weeks that they had done all they could do.  He’s gone home to see a neurologist.  Pray for Justin.  On a scale from 1-10, the headaches have gone from a 9 to about a 3… so there is improvement but not a complete healing.

We had our “last supper” with her in-laws, Aunt Kathy and Miss Toni the night before they left.  Alan helped fix the door that wouldn’t open from the inside of their Suburban, checked the fluids and set up the carrier on top of the car.  They drove to Harrisburg, PA airport and picked up Randy who had flown in for a weekend of Family Camp with his family, including Nicole (but minus Stephanie) who works at the camp.

Luis:  For 11 days we had the pleasure of hosting one of our Guatemalan missionary friends, Luis.  He left behind his wife and 2 year old twin girls.  He was there for the hospice garden party at Fieldstone Gardens and caused quite a buzz with all the guests of the event.  He’s very outgoing and willing to share with people.  I had set up a booth of Guatemalan items for people to buy and we were able to raise quite a bit of money for him that day.  God was good.

After the party, Toni, Crysten, and Kathy joined us for a pizza supper.  On Sunday he spoke at Winslow Baptist and was hosted by their missions committee at an afternoon BBQ.  We got quite a severe thunderstorm as we were saying goodbye and it covered a large area all at once.  We needed the rains that came with it.

Congratulations go out to Christian Jacobs who graduated a year early from homeschooling.  We drove to the party that was in full swing and ended up staying for supper and enjoyed some good fellowship.  I missed the formal part of the festivities but heard that Bob gave Deborah (the primary teacher) an honorary degree for her efforts.  Cute idea, don’t you think?

It wasn’t all work for Luis as he got to caddy for Jeremy when he, Dan and Pastor Wayne took him golfing.  He has never golfed before, so he was more than happy to caddy.  That evening Dan and Melissa hosted a pie social for Luis and many came.  They were a huge blessing and encouragement to him.

On Tuesday we didn’t have anything scheduled so I gave Luis a tour of Waterville, including Curves and Windows Plus.  Luis graciously took time to pray over these two businesses with their owners.  Bless him.  Stopped by Uncle Dean’s store, too, but he was gone.  We made contacts with my bottle redemption lady who takes such an interest in what we do in Guate, and tried to connect with Jen at the Bakery but she was out, too.  Kathy came down for supper and delicious strawberry shortcake.

Luis got invited to play indoor soccer – something he does well – and met a young man from Ghana.  A few nights later Bob J brought them together at his house for dinner and Luis was able to spend a lot of time discussing spiritual things with him.  Pray that his eyes will be open to God’s love and that he will want a personal relationship with HIM.

Dean and Kathy, Bob and Mary took Luis to the ocean for “Lobstah” one beautiful day when the tall ships were in Boothbay.  He loved that.

On another day I drove Luis to a teen camp in Durham, ME.  Things went very well and the students really impressed me.  I was not expecting that.  They were attentive, respectful, friendly, modest, and polite. They all seemed to get along very well. We really enjoyed our day there.  They also took up an impromptu offering for Luis. 

That evening Eli, Kaleb and Isaac came for an overnight with Justin.  During Bible time, Luis had these boys circle Justin and lay hands on him as Luis prayed for his healing.  A special moment for them.  This is a typical way of praying with/for someone in Guate.

Afterward, Michele read the account of Joshua at the battle of Jericho while the kids re-enacted the story.  They had such a great time.

Kathy loaded up the kayaks and joined Bob, Crysten, Luis and I for a trip to Dunn’s camp.

We stopped at a Dunkin’ Donuts along the way and waited in a long line for our service.  “Has Luis had a whoopee pie yet?” Kathy asked.  I explained that I had brought him one for our lunch.  “Whoopee?” he asked.  “What’s whoopee all about?”  I thought we had explained ourselves well, but when he stepped up to place his order his asked,

“Do you have French vanilla cappuccino?”  “Yes, we do,” replied the girl politely.  With confidence in his ordering skills, Luis then added with exclamation, “and whoopee!”  She was taken aback (as we were laughing)”We don’t have whoopee.”  It would be days before Luis dared to ask about whoopee again and finally realize what it was we were laughing about.

Many of our friends were at Dunn’s for a week of family camping.  The weather wasn’t so great but it didn’t stop us from enjoying a lazy trip down the channel in the boats.  Toni organized a pot luck supper on Luis’ behalf.  He was able to share his story with the folks and do some much needed fundraising.

Friends took him to Freedom Café for a nice meal.  On his final Sunday here, he did the morning sermon at Cornerstone.  He had shared his testimony at prayer meeting.  In the afternoon he went to the county jail for a service there.  He used to minister in the jail in Guatemala.  He was moved by the men that were at the meeting. 

That evening we went to church with Kathy.  Out of the blue a man asked if we needed any sound equipment.  Luis desperately needed some but so didn’t Curves – for the 4^th of July parade.  Amazing how God works out seemingly insignificant details sometimes.

Kevin, Lisa and Erika had us over after the service for pizza and some games of pool.  Luis has had about as much experience with pool as he has with golf… but, we had fun anyway.

On his last day here I took him shopping for his wife and girls.  He came with a list.  Melissa and Loralei had been great to give him some clothes and shoes.  Someone also gave him money specifically to spend on his wife.  American Christians are some of the most generous people in the world.  I know God will bless all the ones who blessed Luis.

Dan and Melissa took him to the bus station that would take him to the airport.  The kids stayed here with us.  On the way they met Toni at the Red Robin in Augusta for lunch.  His plane was delayed for three hours in Boston so he didn’t have much time to enjoy the room we got for him on his layover in Miami.  Other than that, the trip was uneventful and he was happily reunited with his girls. 

That’s enough for one night, isn’t it?  There’s more… Marie, Katelyn, the 4^th, meeting Ian, milfoil, raspberries, etc.  Stay tuned.

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