We've been having fun at the Moose Lodge! Yes, Dan and Gaye are members...we joined in order to do the monthly ballroom dance lessons. Then, however, we found they have a "Pickers' Circle" on Tuesday nights, and we've been showing up with our guitar and bass. We've made a bunch of new friends, and have a blast playing old bluegrass and country tunes, rock and roll songs from the 60's and 70's, and whatever else anyone knows. We eat dinner there before the picking starts – Gaye and Dan both like the "Moose Chips!" (fresh cut and fresh fried potato chips).

We also just started teaching an in-depth Biblical discipleship course at our church, titled "Self-Confrontation." It's a curriculum developed by the Biblical Counseling Foundation. Dan and Gaye both have completed the course, and have also both received the "Level 2" training, so now our pastor has us instructing the class! It's quite a commitment – 24 weeks of classes (Which we anticipate taking us through April 2015).

We have new foreign exchange student! His name is Hugo, and he's from near Rouen, France. We only have him for a short time (we were the "emergency backup family," picking him up at the airport after less than a week's notice!). It's been a delight so far, though; he's great kid, and curious about many things in the U.S. (for example, we introduced him to Southern-style barbecue!)

In other news:

• We went to Ohio together at the beginning of August to attend a reunion of Gaye's old church singles' group! We got to see many of her old friends from Fairhaven Church (some of whom Dan knows, too, from attending the same church after we were married!).


• In August, we went to a marriage retreat with our church, at Callaway Gardens (a lovely place – you should go, if you haven't been).


• Dan took Gaye to the Air Force 67th Birthday Ball – she wore her sequined ball gown, and Dan wore his Air Force mess dress uniform!

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Just in case anyone reading this hasn't heard yet...Dan was diagnosed almost a year ago with probable early symptoms of Parkinson's disease. HOWEVER – there has been a lot of recent research into effective treatments – and Dan is currently keeping his symptoms well controlled! Go to Dan's Thoughts for lots more on this topic.

Dan has been having fun getting ever more deeply involved in the Celebrate Recovery leadership! Besides having co-led a 12-Step group, he was recently called on to take over the meeting-to-meeting leadership of his small group (because the regular leader hadn't been available).

Dan is also excited to be teaching (with Gaye) the "Self-Confrontation" course at our church. He and she have both sensed a call of God for them to be involved in some sort of couples' counseling ministry...and, so, this seems to be the first step!

Dan no longer flies small airplanes (due to his Parkinson's), but still is VERY active in playing the bass, both for worship (in our main services, and recently backing up Gaye at a ladies' conference), and with the Moose Pickers' Circle!

He still loves to go shooting, though we're on a short hiatus from our target shooting adventures. The rules for the foreign exchange student program that Hugo is under say he's not allowed to shoot guns. So, we're just biding our time, and hoping to get back to the range in November!

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Gaye went to Ohio for a few days in September to attend the memorial service for her Aunt Judy, and while she was there, got to visit with her whole side of the family.

She also led the worship music for a recent ladies' conference at our church; babysat a little guy named Dalton overnight for a good friend; still sings on our church worship music team; leads her "His Angels" group of ladies (and hosts the occasional game night); is active in the children's ministry at the local Celebrate Recovery program; and manages to makes time to meet Dan at the gym on base two to three times a week!

She's been shouldering most of the burden of having Hugo living with us... she drives him early in the morning to a local church parking lot, where he catches a bus for school, then picks him up at 3:30 p.m. each day.

We're hoping that Hugo can get placed with a family that has a kid the same age (preferably who attends the same school), because that'll be better and more fun for him than hanging out with us old fogeys!

Please click here to see Gaye Leigh's Rules For Getting Older!

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She did it! Yay! Anne graduated from Middle Georgia State College with her Associate's degree in art! She'll be parlaying that into a Bachelor's in fine arts, continuing her education at Columbus State University in Columbus GA. Anne kept busy baby-sitting, doing lawn work and house-sitting to earn money through the summer.

In celebration of her graduation, we took a pontoon boat ride on Lake Blackshear and enjoyed a picnic lunch on the water in August, with Anne and her boyfriend, Ben.

We drove Anne to Columbus State to help her move into her dorm for fall semester. She's enjoying her art classes, and is doing well! Things are definitely different at our house now that she's really away at school.

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Allen's birthday was at the end of June, so now he's 19! (Amazing...just one more year, then we'll be out of the teenage years!)

Allen is all done with his second semester at CGTC in heating and air conditioning technology, and has received certification to do HVAC work! However, he has decided to stop attending college (at least for now)..so please pray that he can find work quickly!

He came on the pontoon boat ride with the rest of us (and brought a friend, David). He's been spending a fair amount of time lately with his core group of friends, which we support..it gets him out of his room!

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We have a new foreign exchange student, named Hugo Franceschetto. He's from France, and has been having a good time acclimating to Deep South life in the U.S. He's attending the Westfield Academy in Perry, Georgia, as a senior; playing soccer in a local league; and making lots of friends, both at school and at church. More about Hugo is above...so you probably already read it...

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Please pray for our family, as we all continually work to become the authentic individuals God wants us to be.

And remember, no matter what's going on in our society, in our culture, in our government...that God is in control! He's still on the throne, none of what we do takes him by surprise, and he'll continue to be faithful to make sure that "all things work together for good, for those who love God and are called according to his purpose!" (Romans 8:28)

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Dan likes this web site format, and it seems to work o.k. It's based on a template we got free from someone else (hence the attribution at the bottom of the page), and modified to our liking, as permitted under his terms of use. Dan, as much as he likes hand-coding (yeah, right) couldn't do something this nice by himself.

The artistic photo pages, however, are still entirely Dan's design, for now at least, so maybe he hasn't totally abandoned the craft of manually writing web pages...

The "NIV" in our Scripture quotes stands for New International Version. The copyright requires that notation, as well as the following statement: "Scripture quoted from the Holy Bible, New International Version (R). Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of International Bible Society."

Similarly, "NKJV" stands for New King James Version, and its use requires acknowledgment as follows: "Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

KJV, of course, means King James Version, which, having been written in 1611, is public domain.

(Hey, I thought of putting in a FAQ section -- you know, Frequently Asked Questions -- but no one ever asks any questions about the site!)

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