Day 8 - Air travel to Lansing, MI via Atlanta, GA

This will be my final log entry for this year's mission trip. I will admit that it was extremely difficult for me to leave this year from the Dominican Republic. The people are tugging on my heart. Only God knows the work He's doing in my heart. But, I will say this...I can hardly wait to return next year, hopefully, with my lovely wife, Sandy. She wants to help out in the schools however she can.

Oh, yes, I almost frogot to mention the tennis re-match (grudge match) between TEAM GOBLE and TEAM MIRACLE (Christopher Thomspon and me). You might be curious as to why we might be called, TEAM MIRACLE, don't think too long and hard because it's actually very simple--it's really a "miracle" that these two gracefully aging men can still compete at such high levels against younger men and boys--like Jim and his son, Jamie. Well, needless to say, but the re-match came and went and TEAM MIRACLE was still standing tall (and exhausted) after holding off TEAM GOBLE for 10 games (6-4) in the hot, scorching sun. I will admit that the sleep on the flight was very much needed. How about you, Christopher???

Again, I want to thank all of you for responding to God by providing me with both prayer and financial support. The monies that seemed to be in excess was not. God already had plans for the extra monies when I arrived at the Guest House on Sunday evening. Through your generosity, we were able to provide extra monies to our three Dominican worker friends, a translator for medical personnel, one month's salary for a security worker at the Jim Smith School in El Rosario, and gifts for the Guest House staff. :)

Check out Solid Rock Missions @ http://www.solidrockmissions.org/index.htm

Our flight left from sunny 90° Santo Domingo only to arrive in rainy 45° Atlanta some three hours later. We lunched at the food court until our flight left Atlanta around 8:00 PM. We arrived in Detroit to muc colder than expected weather. Jim Goble, our team leader, was unable to drive us home since the flight caused him some problems so I drove all of us back to Lansing. The drive home from the airport seemed like it would last forever.