Roger's Day - November 22nd

Roger celebrated his 47th birthday in fine style. Who better then to start the day with then his mother who brought him into the world all those years ago and his first born, Nathaniel. Roger and Nathaniel had gone up to Ft. Worth to spend some time with Roger's mother on Friday. They began Roger's birthday with a trip to the Allen art gallery. Mama Dee, Roger's mother, was shown around by my Uncle J.C. to see the large collection and hear about the paintings that my aunt and uncle had collected through the years. Being an artist herself Mama Dee enjoyed seeing the collection.
Lunch time was at Red Lobster. AND Roger celebrated the occasion in grand style by eating oysters on the half shelf.

Roger finished the day with supper at home in Belton. I prepared salad, chicken cordon bleu, green bean casserole, cold asparagus with sour cream, sour dough bread, AND Roger's favorite cade, German chocolate cake.
Afterwards he opened gifts from my Mom and our family (Kelly, the guys, and me) - stapler, Lowe's gift card, measuring tape, and his favorite gift, a STUD finder.

The evening ended with phone calls from Kyle, Jordan, my mother, and Roger's sister, Ginger.

Autumn in Georgia

Living in Central Texas has shown us a different landscape than East Texas (where we lived before moving to Romania). We don't think of woods when we think of Central Texas. There are a lot of live oak trees (that don't lose their leaves as winter approaches). There are some trees that change colors but not many. So when we went to Georgia November 8th-12th we awed by the colors we saw. God did an amazing job when he created trees. The pictures below do not adequately show the brilliant color. As I said it was amazing! I kept saying "look at that tree!"

Sights to see while driving to South Texas

Texas is such a LARGE state. If you have never been here you will quickly learn when visiting that the scenery changes drastically when traveling across the state and you can see some very interesting sites. We were reminded of this when we traveled to Angleton on October 31st from Belton.

You will see some interesting city and town names - Egypt, Moscow, Italy, London, Geronimo, Nacogodoches (oldest town in Texas and where Nathaniel was born), Kyle, and even Rogers. So when we saw the name we had to stop to get a picture of Roger with it.

You will also see a lot of German names. German immigrants came to Texas in the mid-1800's.

Washington County is the birthplace of Texas (1836).

Washington County is also where Brenham, the home of Blue Bell Creameries (founded in 1907). YUM! We enjoyed some Moo-llennium Crunch ice cream when we stopped.

Of course Texas is known of it longhorn cattle.

A Texas restaurant is Whataburger. It began in Corpus Christi in 1950. It is known for it very large hamburgers.

A first for us to see, a Texas size limo pickup truck.

A definite eye catcher, a "bomb" shell in a pasture.

In Southern Texas along and near the coast you will see Spanish Moss growing on trees.

Northway Baptist International Mission Conference

November 1st-2nd we were in Angleton Texas to take part in a mission conference. Jim Putnam, the missions coordinator for Northway Baptist Church has made several trip to Romania (Constanta by the Black Sea) over the last several years.
We enjoyed the weekend meeting people and talking about Romania. Roger spoke at the Men's Prayer Breakfast on Saturday morning (Melinda spent the day with the women on an outing to Spring TX) and to the youth that evening. Sunday morning Roger spoke in both church services and again to the youth during Sunday School. Melinda spoke to the children during Sunday School.

We stayed with Cindy and Mike Palmer while we were in Angelton. We enjoyed getting to know them and learned that Roger and Mike are VERY MUCH ALIKE! The Palmers are a great couple!

Jordan and Kyle on Halloween

For those of you who do not have Facebook here are pictures of Jordan and Kyle on Halloween. College students really enjoy dressing up!

Jordan (in the middle) with friends.

Kyle on the right. He is wearing a hat that Roger would like. In fact Roger has a green felt hat (from Romania) similar to it.

MEW Week October 2008

The week of October 20th we took part in the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor's Mission Emphasis Week (MEW). This was our 2nd time to do this. (The first time in October 2005.) We enjoyed getting to meet the other missionaries and hearing about their work and also meeting the students. The Lord is raising up some great students on fire and ready to be used by him in his service.

During the week the missionaries spoke in classes, seminars, took part in a progressive supper with the students eating food from other countries, worshiped with the students at chapel and FOCUS Wednesday evening and also talked with students at the Mission Fair (displayed items from our countries and organizations).

Our display at the mission fair.

Dr. Alma Rohm served for 54 years with the IMB as a single missionary in Nigeria.

John Robinson is also with the IMB. He served for 5 1/2 years in Romania and has been in Wales 11 1/2 year (current assignment). John stayed with us at our home during the week.

Ben Haley and his wife, Christine also served with the IMB in Ecuador. They served as International Service Corp missionaries. They each were Journeyman before getting married. Ben was in Uganda and Christine in Spain. Melinda enjoyed holding their 5 month old son. They will be serving in Missouri working with Hispanics.

Roger speaking at the Progressive Supper. Of course he mentioned he was very disappointed they did not serve Ciorba de Burta (Tripe Soup).

It was a great week. The Baptist Student Ministry did a great job in organizing the event.

Brownwood

On Saturday Nancy and Kimberly showed us some sites of Brownwood and Early (they are side by side).

In Brownwood is Howard Payne University. On its campus is Douglas MacArthur Academy of Freedom. The statue of General MacArthur is front of the building.

We drove by this building which Nancy had been told was the very first Hilton Hotel. It now sits empty. It does have some interesting carvings on the corners. Nancy also said it supposedly has a beautiful ballroom on the top floor.

Early Longhorns are the school mascot. These metal ones remind us we are now driving in Early.

Mom and I head out into Central Texas

On Friday, October 10th my Mom and I went to visit my sister, Nancy, her husband, James and their youngest daughter, Kimberly in Brownwood (two hours from us). My Mother had only been there once since Nancy and family moved there in March. James is the music minister at Coggin Avenue Baptist Church.

In some ways I am still trying to get used to the scenery of Central Texas. It is different from East Texas. It has rolling hills but much of it has what I call scrub brush. Yes there are trees but no woods like you see in East Texas.

Windmills dot the landscape.

We saw these wildflowers. They look like daisies but several grow on one stem. Do you know their name?

Some ranch gates were adorned with metal cutouts of Texas life.

We saw the historical courthouse of Gatesville.

Zephyr Baptist Church's steeple reminded me of churches in Romania.

Building Dedication at UMHB

Nathaniel and Kelly are not the only University of Mary Hardin-Baylor graduates. My mother, Marilyn Gore Phillips graduated from UMHB when it was still Mary Hardin-Baylor College (a woman's college). She and my Dad have supported the school throughout the years. When the time came to raise money to build a building dedicated to Christian studies my parents pledged their support.

On Thursday, October 9th the Paul and Jane Meyer Christian Studies Center was formerly dedicated. Nathaniel and I went with my Mother to the dedication. More information about the building and dedication can be read at http://www.umhb.edu/news/9260

The ribbon cutting with UMHB President, Dr. Jerry G. Bawcom, and First Lady Vicky Bawcom and Paul and Jane Meyer of Waco (on the right).

Mom and Nathaniel in front of the Donors wall.

On the floor of the lobby.

In the building is the Manning Chapel. It has beautiful stain glass windows. At the front of the chapel is one depicting Jesus.

Along the sides of the chapel are stain glass windows commemorating the work of missionaries who have served the Lord overseas - Lottie Moon (China), Adoniram and Ann Judson (Burma), William Carey (India), and Anne and William Bagby (Brazil). The window above is the Lotte Moon window.

October 3-4 - Family Weekend at Union University

We enjoyed attending Family Weekend with Jordan and Kyle. We were able to meet some of their friends. We saw them play intramural flag football. Their fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha has four teams. Their teams were undefeated. Eventually Jordan's team will play Kyle's. Kyle walking off the field from playing flag football.

Jordan on the field waiting on the ball to be snapped. (I did not get any good pictures of him playing.)

We attended the family supper on the evening of the 3rd with the boys. Here we are after the family supper.

On Saturday evening we attended the annual All Sing (talent show). This year's tribute was to songs of the 1990's. As one young man was finishing his song he brought his girlfriend up on stage and proposed to her. WOW what a memory! And she said yes!