Cast of Characters...

Here we are less than five days from departure and my "to-do" list gets longer and longer, rather than shorter and shorter. However, when I made my previous post I promised to send you a "cast of characters" for the trip. There are 44 signed up for this tour of the Bible Lands. Olen and I already know half of the group, and eleven of those live within 15 miles of our house! So, we will be traveling with friends we know, and are looking forward to making 22 new friends before the tour is over. Making new friends who are Christians is one of the benefits of taking a tour like this.

Among the people on the tour that we already know are Mike and Peggy, who were students with us at Florida College. (We won't tell what year, if they won't!) Vivian was one of the first new friends we made when we moved to north Alabama in the fall of 1967, and Frances taught second grade at Athens Bible School during the years I taught kindergarten there. (Fran is a typical school-teacher...pencil in hand...easy to spot.) Margaret is a five-foot-tall dynamo with a Texas accent, and we have known her ever since moving to Alabama. Ida Nell's daughter and our oldest daughter were classmates for twelve years at A.B.S., so we have done hours of "room-mothering" together. In the early eighties, I taught (or attempted to teach) Mike and Jackie's son when he was in kindergarten. Frank and his family moved to north Alabama several months ago, and he preaches for the congregation where we worship; Lowell preached in Huntsville for years, before heading slightly north; and Tim (who was fortunate enough to marry a young lady we claim as "almost-family") preaches in the Indianapolis area. In 2005 we traveled to Egypt with John and Becky, Mark, and David. David was also on the "Ancient Crossroads" tour with us, as was Jim. But, to us, the two most important travelers on the trip are Barbara Jo and her preacher-husband, Norm. (Barbara Jo is our youngest daughter.) And, of course we can not forget our fearless leader, Ferrell, and the "wind beneath his wings", Elizabeth. What a wonderful group!

Now you know the cast of characters, and the adventure is ahead of us. Sunday will be a day of frantic last-minute packing, then on Monday we have an early (4:30 AM!) ride to the airport and we will begin the real adventure.