Mr. Morton 

Mr. Campana proclaiming the guy's efforts in the name of the Lord God almighty!!!! 

The poster that the girls (sisters of all the guys') made for y'alls joyous return!!! 

Alan 

Wesley 

Home from New Orleans, safe and sound

Greetings!
Due to adverse conditions created by recent catastrophic weather patterns, we put together a team last Saturday and took several tons of supplies and distributed them in a western suburb of New Orleans. We drove all night Saturday, arrived at a campground owned by an acquaintance of Mr. Frank Campana at 0630 hrs EST (0530 local), and then caravanned with another group into LA. Having conducted reconnaissance and distributed our supplies, we left Kenner, LA, yesterday evening (Sunday). We took 145 gallons of fuel in drums (50 diesel, 95 gas) and used most of it. The last station we stopped at that had fuel on our way west was Tuscaloosa, AL. We took two vehicles: the Smith F-250 (diesel) pulling Mr. Reed's flatbed trailer with ~ 3 tons of supplies, and the Lummus' Suburban (Gasoline) with an extension carrying the generator and some fuel. The party consisted of Mr. Campana and his son Nicholas, Mr. Morton and his sons Michael, Cleveland, and Wesley, Mr. Lummus and his sons Arthur and Ernest, Mr. Sanders and his son Noah, and, of course, yours truly. Amusing events included having water in the diesel we had purchased and placed in our 50 gal. drum, causing an interesting 3 1/2 hr. delay this morning when the fuel we transferred at a stop in southern Mississippi shut our engine down at ~ 0100 hrs. Thankfully, we were able to negotiate the difficulty, and were able to make it home by 1100 hrs today. All went well, and we sustained no injuries worth mentioning. God be praised!!! We are currently in need of information concerning conditions particularly on the eastern side of New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain, particularly if anyone knows if Homeschooling Christians who may be in need of assistance -- food/water/medical supplies/evacuation, etc. We are maintaining contact with Vision Forum, and may participate in operations with them should the necessity arise.

The new hot tub! 

THe little boys 'helping' 

You gotta love Dadddy's truck! 

sweet brothers 

Alan hooking up the trailer 

Cousins David and Shalini 

Do you see a shmoe? (posted by one of his dear sisters... :D) 

Isn't he a darlin? KB 

Vacation in Cades Cove, TN, July of '04

Yours truly with my dear Aunty Lynda 

Bethy-Lynn takes aim 

Snakehandlers... LOL ;) 

Rangemaster for Rachel 

Ah, my new (old) violin has arrived from NJ. It has 1 crack, needs new strings and the sound-post will require setting, but it should be in order by next week.

In which my sisters take it upon themselves to attire my person in retro fashion...

Not exactly my standard fare, but amusing nevertheless...

Smiths, Mortons, and Campanas conducting fording excercises.

Pethtels visit

The Pethtel clan graced us with their presence last Friday night, and have been with us until this afternoon. Some of you may remember hearing that they kindly allowed us to drop in on them for a week in their home in Idaho Falls, ID, last March for the filming of, "Mr. Safeguard." Mr. Mark Pethtel having subsequently decided to resign as a Nuclear Contamination Engineer for the power plant outside of Pocatello, (?did I get that right?) he is now employed at the research facility in Oak Ridge, TN. We spent most of today (after church) going over film plans for the next year. Looks like the GCFA will begin seriously looking for sponsors for the Christian Film Hour, and we're looking at working with Manny Edwards on his next blockbuster -- the details of which may be released sometime within the near future. :)

In which the boys are playing after the film festival; Alan receives a costochondral separation and has lots of fun for weeks afterwards... LOL :D 

After the Film Festival on top of Stone Mountain with the Edwards Family 

Kressy has a little lamb :)

It's fleece white as Georgia snow, and anywhere that Kressant is, that lamb is sure to go... LOL :)
That being said, the sheep (we now have 3) keep eating our household plants, hence the enclosure we are now constructing for their containment. :D

I'm currently working on scripts for TV ads -- we're putting together a preview for the Film Festival, and need to film the commercials tonight and tomorrow...

Nice Hat!!!!!!
(Note to readers: this photograph was accidentally posted to my Blog by my dear eldest sister; upon such occassions as I am determined to remove it, I once again am reminded of the fit of hysterical laughter into which I collapsed upon first realizing its existence, and alas I find that I am incapable of aught which would result in its demise...)

Home again, home again (from AL)

The 2005 AL Uniting Church and Home conference (featuring Greg Harris) is over. We spent an interesting weekend just south of Birmingham at a trailer park. (LOL... Travel trailer, that is... :D)

The Smith train departed Griffin on Friday afternoon with 8 of God's precious lambs, and 1 Smith lamb named precious. :D ( He's only 6 weeks old, and must be bottle fed 3 times daily -- we couldn't leave him at home...) At the AL welcome center, we fawned over a truck and travel trailer w/ 2 kayaks and a canoe tied to the roof. Later, upon our arrival at our state park campsite, we were pleasantly surprised to have the 'yak truck pull into the campsite across from us. Moreover, they introduced themselves as the Roy family, also present to attend the AL Uniting Church and Home conference! After setting the camper up, we ran down to the Keen's -- they being so gracious as to prepare a regal repast for our hungry horde. Following the feast, we returned north to the Southeastern Bible College facility and wired the laptop into the sound system so as to enable the recording of Mr. Harris' presentations. To our surprise, the Pendleton family were also present in a supporting capacity, and their two oldest (Joel and Jacob) and I spent a fair amount of time in conversation over the next 27 hrs. Mr. Harris, as always, was full of excellent information, and we look forward to working more with him in the future. We had an exhausting but nevertheless refreshing weekend. Should have pictures within the next day or so.
Grace and Peace...