May 12 Peter's Birthday - Saturday May 13

Happy 30th birthday, Peter!!

After our visit we drove to Spartanburg to stay with Stephen, but he was not home when we arrived.  We decided to get a snack and tried to call him, but no answer until about 7:00 pm when he got home.   He told us that he had to have the foundation corners reinforced and that the joists under the house were bowed.  The house is over 50 years old and he did have it inspected before he bought it.  It’s just costing him some money to maintain it. 

Saturday, May 13

We left Stephen about 9:00 am and started toward Mannington, WV, for our next meeting.   The drive through North Carolina had lots and lots of road work being done, mostly on the median.  I guess infrastructure is in need of fixing.  NC highways were very clean and neat and some spots had beautiful wildflowers in the median or under/near overpasses.  Pretty.  Virginia looked well-kept also, but there were also spots of construction going on also.  West Virginia is rolling hills and plenty of greenery.  I was wondering what’s all the fuss about carbon emissions when there are so many millions of trees and mountains that can absorb this supposed “bad” gas.  Anyway, it was a beautiful drive and we arrived about  5:30 pm at the hotel.

A small business

The roads were carved from these rock mountains...

We called Pastor Bowman and they came over from Mannington and took us to dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant, which we have been to before.  They are regular customers as the wait staff called them by name.  The food was delicious as always.  I had veal parmesan, which I have not had in years.  Excellent. 

We were taken back to the hotel and then headed for bed.  

Thursday, May 11 - Friday May 12

Today we drove to North Carolina to meet Merry Sensing who lives in Morrisville.  We arrived about lunch time.  Merry is Japanese and we’ve known her since the early days in Japan.  She has a dog named Sukoshi which means “a little bit” in Japanese. She invited a friend over and the four of us had a lunch of tonkatsu, which is fried pork cutlet, Japanese style. We had a nice conversation.  Merry’s husband is not yet saved. They live in a new house on a corner lot with the entrance on the back side where the garage is. 

 About 4:00 pm we left to go to Fayetteville and see Ruth and Bob Bunting, friends of ours from IBC back before we moved to Japan.  They are both retired and still funny.  They have a dog named Gizmo who was not too friendly.  

After dinner we played a  card game called Hand and Foot, new for us.  Once we got the hang of it, it was pretty interesting and moved quickly.  We stayed the night and slept on a wonderful mattress.  Would like to take that home with us to Japan.  

Bob, Ruth and Gizmo 

 We left the Bunting house about 9:00 AM and drove south to Lattimore/Shelby area of North Carolina, West of Charlotte.

Along the way we saw the Bread of Life Baptist Church

We stopped in to Ambassador Baptist College to visit the campus.  The Dean of Men, Mr. Dillon, met us and gave us a tour of the place.  Graduation was last week, so there were very few students around.

It is a beautiful campus, which I believe is all paid for.  There are several dorms for the ladies and the men in separate locations. 

We talked with the President, Dr. Beal, for a few minutes.   Then Mrs. Dillon, Dean of Women, took us on a short tour of one of the ladies’ dorms.  Looked to be very nice and efficient, easy to keep clean.  Sara should do well there come the fall.   

May 10, Richmond, VA

We went to Landmark Baptist Church in Richmond, VA for the Wednesday night service.  We met Pastor Don Sumpter, who took over from his Dad in the last couple of years.  The church was in the process of getting a new floor, so the tile in the lobby was gone.  There was a good number of people in the service.   Pastor Sumpter announced that Dr. Eugene Parrisher, long time pastor in Virginia, passed away that evening.  He was one of our early supporters.

This lady came to me and asked if I remembered her.  This is Tovah Gerber, my flower girl nearly 34 years ago!  She and husband John, have six daughters and are members of Landmark.  It was really good to see her.  All the girls are precious.  Here she is back in 1983, just shy of three years old. 

Monday, May 8

 Bright Maryland Day today.  We took Seth to his friends' home near Hagerstown.  Ruth and hubby Don have a huge farm  as shown above from their dining window.  There's also several bird feeders out another window.

Don and Ruth 

Maryland Sunset

Seth played piano and sang in Portugese.  He's a second generation missionary.