Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Our Son Retired for the U.S. Coast Guard

We have been in Port Angeles for over two years now.  We first came here at the request of Jason and Shelli.  For the last year Jason was stationed in Ilwaco, Washington which was a 4.5 hour drive away. He came home every other weekend and we were here to help out in his absence.  While here we got involved in several ministries which included teaching a home bible study, teaching in the home school cooperative, teaching and preaching in church, and made some very good friends.

But three weeks ago, Jason left his Coast Guard unit for the last time. After 25 years of service to our country he has retired.  So what does that mean for us?  We are free!  We are free to resume ministry with N.I.C.E.  However, we have several things that we need to accomplish this Summer first.  We just got back from a week in Pinon Hills, CA and attended my nephew's high school graduation.  The weather was sunny and very warm which we greatly miss.  Aside from the graduation the highlight was that my sister convinced my Dayle to ride one of her horses.  Dayle has not been on a horse since a scary horseback ride shortly after we got married in 1971.






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On Sunday June 10th Dayle leaves for Mexico City to be with her sister (Ellen Parker) in Mexico City.  She will be there for three long weeks.  During that time they will be going to Cancun where both Ellen and Dayle will be speaking at a women's conference.

While my Dayle is away I will be quite busy working with Jason as we run water, electricity, and Ethernet cable for an RV pad in the back of the property.  This will be for Jason's RV which will be used as a guest house especially for Shelli's parents.  They will be here in July and we are all looking forward to their arrival.  

This Summer we hope to spend some time with Stephen and Neeley in Sacramento. Then in September we hope to begin a cross country trip with our 5th wheel trailer and then hopefully in January we will return to "active" duty with N.I.C.E.  But, of course, everything is tentative.  We don't know how much longer we will be needed to fill the pulpit in our church, and there is another nearby church that keeps asking me to come on board and serve with them in an assistant pastoral capacity.  

Now that Jason has retired he began to work as a handyman/small job contractor.  He is quite a talented craftsman and has already received several jobs.  He is not a fan of doing drywall.  So the deal is that he puts up the drywall and I will do the taping, mudding, and finishing.  We have completed one job together and it was so much fun working with my son.  I think we make a pretty good team.  So this too is something we need to consider when it comes to our future long-term plans.

So as you can see we have much going on and even though we have plans everything is dependent upon family needs and ministry needs. 

As for our health we are both now on Medicare and are in near perfect health.  We still have the normal aches and pains but we refuse to let any of that stop us.

Please pray for Jason and Shelli as they enter married life for the first time while not being in the Coast Guard.  Also pray for clear direction in our future ministry.