May 27, 2007 – St Matthews, SC

Our first furlough meeting was on May 27, just four days after arriving in the States. Prior to our furlough, we had decided to upgrade our presentation to DVD. Bill bought a program scanned a few pictures and used digital photos we had been collecting for the past few years. A friend in PR volunteered to help record our narration. Permission was granted for our use of two songs as background music during the presentation. Everything was ready to burn, when we found a problem. The program would not burn – correction, would not recognize -- the DVD. Finally, the project was put on hold until our arrival in SC.

Teresa’s brother-in-law, Rick Roth volunteered to help solve the problem. When it seemed the problem was solved, we popped the DVD into a player and viola! a great picture, but no sound. Rick took the problem home and tried a few other ideas until one worked. He dropped the DVD off and we headed out of town for our first meeting.

On Sunday evening, Bill set up the presentation and everything seemed fine (a suspicious circumstance). When he showed the video, everyone was short and fat! All we could do is explain that while some folks in PR are short and fat, not everyone is! We all had a good laugh and then we moved on. Bill introduced the family and gave a few details about each person. He mentioned that Bethany had been learning to play the guitar, but had to leave hers behind for furlough. After the service, a family told us they wanted to give her a guitar. It is a solid mahogany ¾ sized guitar, perfect for our travels! The Lord is good!

The church also gave us some food supplies which have been a real blessing to us as we begin our travels. There are so many expenses as we begin furlough, that it has been good to have this special provision. Many thanks to Pastor Medlin and the folks at Faith Baptist Church.