Happy 98th Birthday Aunt Midge -- Wow!

Cousin Carol Gunzel sent this wonderful picture of our hero -- Aunt Midge -- 98 years young!

Aunt Midge Gunzel, my mom's only sibling, is an amazing person. She is sharp, full of historical information, and has her venerable Norwegian humor. She just celebrated her 98th birthday with her kids (ya'll are still kids to me) and we have this great picture as a testimony to God's grace and Midge's perseverance.

Surrounding her are Joy (Davis), Jim, Marilyn (Anderson) and Carol. Cousin Dave was unable to join the celebration, because he is many miles away down in the southwest. Carol says, "...the little 2 year old licking her finger from the cake's icing. She'd stand there and poke her finger in the cake and look around to see who was watching her! That's Jim's granddaughter!" Looks like the cake was good.

Connie and I had the joy of visiting with Midge in February of 2006 and then a year later in February of 2007. We were very interested in her stories about her early days as a pioneer missionary to Mongolia in the mid 1930s. We have a copy of her interesting autobiography, with fascinating pictures, that tell the story of her trek to the Far East to become the bride of Uncle Stuart. God bless you Aunt Midge! You are an encouragement to all of us.

Labor Day Weekend Camping

Over Labor Day Weekend we took our Laredo to a nice campground right off I-95 at Selma, North Carolina. On Saturday we invited the Mincy family to drive out from their home in Clayton, about 15 miles away, to join us for a cookout. We had a great time hangin out together.

We grilled hot dogs and Wisconsin brats, and enjoyed the cloudy afternoon and the shade of the trailer awning. After the cookout ended the sun came out and the heat drove us inside to the air conditioned comfort of the trailer.

Inside we moved on to the activities of the day that included a rousing "Bingo" contest with priceless prizes. All the kids (including Sara and Dave) won prizes, and a good time was had by all! Then the day was topped off with old fashioned root beer floats. It was a great capstone to summer.
On Sunday Connie and I were able to attend Community Baptist Church in Clayton where Dave serves as Minister of Music. This vibrant church plant is a growing congregation meeting in a beautiful new public school. The church owns land adjacent to I-40 on the southeast edge of the burgeoning sprawl of Raleigh. We were very impressed with the ministry of this exciting church.