Seeing Old Friends

One of the joys of our furlough visiting is connecting with old friends.  Not old friends as in aged, but old friends as in people we have connected with in Haiti and now get to see on our US travels.  Our trip to Dayton, Ohio this past weekend was a great example.  Not only did we get to visit with the brothers and sisters at Redeemer and Covenant OPC, but were able to reconnect with our hosts the Benefiels.  Mark visited Haiti as part of a work team in November 2010.  The kids enjoyed him as he had been a missionary kid in Brazil and spent plenty of time playing Uno Splash with them while he was in Haiti.

The boys were also able to do a few fun things while in Dayton, all connected with flying.  Mark is working on his commercial flying license and does regular time in a 4-seat Cessna 182P.  Fun little airplane we took off on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon.  It was cold and calm.  Ben even got to try his hand again and did a couple landings at the small area airports.  We flew from Greene County to Urbana for lunch.  The airport had a great little restaurant where we could enjoy watching plenty of other light aircraft come and go.

Another highlight was a visit to the US Air Force Museum.  It is incredible how big it is and how many airplanes they have.  Three huge hangars, a silo with rockets standing upright plus a number of aircraft parked outside.  We were able to take a quick tour and saw everything except their collection of Presidential aircraft.  They also some very interesting aerodynamics demonstrations scattered throughout the displays that the boys enjoyed watching.  Lot of history and plenty of fast airplanes.

The girls enjoyed themselves as well.  The Benefiels has lots of kids toys for Esther to play with.  While we didn't see any snow on the ground, it was cold enough on our arrival for a few flakes to fall and then be caught on the tongue.  Heather and the girls enjoyed a Christmas brunch hosted at Redeemer OPC on Saturday morning.  We continue to be encouraged at the fellowship we have with our brothers and sisters through North America.  And now we are home for Christmas!

Below is a more extensive gallery of our time in Dayton.