We are getting ready to start our Journey to Africa and hence we hava a new blog. We have already traveled across the USA and are making our final preperations for our "Gateway" class to begin. We will be in Texas for about 6 weeks studying the scriptures as well as ship safety training in our preparations for a life onboard a Mercy Ship. When we leave Texas we will be spending 6 months serving onboard the M/V Africa Mercy. The M/V Africa Mercy is a 499-foot 16, 572 ton ship. It is the world’s largest charity hospital ship. The purpose-built hospital includes six state of the art operating rooms, intensive care and ward bed space for up to 78 patients. Jen and I actually met while serving onboard the M/V Anastais which was replaced by the Africa Mercy.

We have made it to Washington

We have made it to Washigton. But before we did there were a few more destinations.

We spent 4 days Kayaking and camping in the islands of Voyageur National Park. We saw baby eagles (fledglings) and lots of beavers and loons.

From voyageur we went to North Dakota, oh yeah. ND actually wasn't that bad if you like open space. We stopped and saw the two Albino Buffalos at the Buffalo Muesum in Jamestown, ND and then Continued our drive to Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

While there we saw many more buffalo and I saw my first Prairie dog in the wild. It almost reminded me of the Painted Desert how there were painted pyramids.

The final stop on our journey across America was Glacier National Park. We saw Big Horn Sheep and Mountain Goats there as wel as some Glaciers soon there will be no Glaciers there do to climate change. But they will still call it Glacier National Park since that is how they believe it was formed.

Too many places to list.

While in New York we visited with Seth and Kayanne and then traveled from my brothers place, north to Canada. We passsed the waters of the 5 Great lakes spending time on Lake Ontario, Lake Huron and Lake Superior. We Drove to Lake Ontario and had lunch and then continued driving until we reached the bruce penninsula. We spent the night there and woke up for a sunrise cruise (Ferry Ride) on the MS Chi-Cheemaun across Lake Huron.

Chi-Cheemaun means big canoe in the local tribal language. The front part of the "canoe" actualy opens up to allow vehicles to drive on.

Afterwards we spent the rest of the day exploring Manitoulin Island(the largest island within a fresh water lake) by foot and kayak.

The next day we drove off the island towards Lake Superior(largest fresh water lake by surface area in the world). Then we explored the Pictured Rock National Lakeshore by foot and almost by kayak but the waves were at 3-4 feet crashing against the rocks so we turned back and took the 38 mile, 2.5 hour sunset cruise to see them instead.

The next place we visited was the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. It was very similiar to Pictured Rocks but the waves were again 3-4 feet crashing against the rocks. We did take a hike along the rim which had random drop offs into the lake. We saw some kayakers but they had all decided to turn back.

New York AKA (Family Reunion)

We went to my family reunion in New York it was the first time in 5 years that my entire immediate family was together. Now there are quite a few new additions. My wife of course being one of them and 4 new neices. Below are the before and after pictures. Abbey was techinical in the before picture though you may not see her.
















August 2003 - Five years Ago


August 2008



Neices - Abbey(4), Arreil(2),Makayla(1.5), Katelynne(2)

Pennsylvania Journey

While we were in PA we visited with some of my friends from Houghton College and with Thom from Mercy Ships. We enjoyed the time we spent with all. Houghton Friends and Future Alumni.
Thom and the loaded Truck

We also went to the Hershey Chocolate factory it was difficult to get Jen to leave I almost had to bribe her as you can see below..

The Journey has begun.

Jen and I have decided that we are going to return to Mercy Ships for 6 months. We left our home in NC and started our journey north through Washington, DC. We visited with some friends there (The Brown's and Maggie). While there we went to the New Air and Space museum



After leaving DC we went Gettysburg


and Lancaster County(Home of the Amish) notice the baby buggy seat(car seat).

We also stayed one night in gordonville just for fun..