CJ & Autumn Miller

Saturday --- We began our flight to Alaska from Gulf Shores, AL. We stayed the night near Indianapolis at Daniel Grolamund's farm house
Sunday --- Daniel joined the flight crew. We flew to North Dakota & spend the night in an International Peace Garden cabin.
Monday --- We cleared Canadian customs with the plane. Flew through Manitoba, Saskatchuan, & into Alberta. Spent the night in a hotel in Edmonton.
Tuesday --- Flew from Edmonton to British Columbia. Staying the night in a hotel in Fort Saint John due to low weather.
Wednesday --- Canada Day!

From Birmingham we flew to Gulf Shores, AL with Christy.  Lodging was family style with a bunch of Jenny's favorite people at Jesse's Trout Lodge. We found some time Thursday afternoon to go to the beach & enjoy fresh shrimp at our favorite place on the coast - Sea 'N Suds.
Jenny & Ron's big day was Friday. The girls enjoyed pedicures in the morning. Christy & I reported to Matron & Maid of Honor duties the rest of the day. Jenny's wedding was beautiful on the beach & I have to admit I cried, happy tears of course.
Congratulations Ron & Jenny!

We flew the C-182 to Birmingham for a mini Schweigert Family Reunion. We had fun introducing CJ to some of our favorite Schweigert activities. Tuesday we drove towards Clanton, AL to pick blueberries & blackberries. Later that evening mom mixed up her famous homemade custard ice cream batter & we made homemade ice cream on the front porch with fresh blackberry cobler. Happy 60th Birthday to DAD!

Last week we flew the C-182 to Pearl River, NY to attend Africa Inland Mission’s candidate week. We were joined on campus with about 30 other people also considering AIM. CJ & I were the only couple there interested in AIM Air, so it was nice not to talk about airplanes the whole time. The fist couple of days were spent discussing the goals of AIM as a mission & learning about how they worked. The rest of the week was about AIM getting to know us. We spent hefty time with a counselor individually & as a couple assessing our emotional state. We talked about, travel, disease, death, taxes, cooking, fund raising, newsletters, trauma, shipping, rape, Swahili, airstrips, & the list goes on. We met many good friends we hope to be neighbors with, serving together in Africa someday soon. At the end of the week CJ & I were excited to receive a handshake & the honor of being appointed as an African Inland missionary. Praise the Lord for His continued faithfulness!

We flew to Birmingham this weekend to celebrate with my best friend, Jenny. Friday night was the Bachlorette Party at Stix (Sushi & Japanese) & then Bride Wars back at the house. Christy, mom, & I threw Jenny a Lingerie Shower Saturday. It was a weekend full of giggling, tears, and joy. Congratulations Jenny on finding the man you will love your whole life! ...and for being the woman who wore the ape suit on her bachelorette night! We love you.

So I was curious about this building across the street from the Little Grill Collective & I convinced CJ to go explore with me today. Our Community Place turned out to be a soup kitchen, a non-profit bicycle shop, a working garden, a place to find employment, tutoring, & spiritual answers. We went right in to see what it was about & ended up helping serve lunch. We had the priviledge of eating with the homeless & poor of our neighborhood & meeting some really neat volunteers that invited us to their church. A congregation called The Early Church meets there on Sundays & I am excited about attending the next Sunday we are in town. I hope to volunteer here & make their community place our community place.

So CJ needed to retrieve the airplane from Longview & we found a round-about way to do that. Mike picked us up from the Shenandoah Valley Regional airport Sunday afternoon in the Mooney & took us to Kalamazo, MI. We had a big grill out party with all the Gull Lake family - Luke & CJ went water skiing last night of course. The Miller boys left early this morning for Texas & dropped CJ off in Longview where he began his treck with the C-182. Doug drove him to Gilmer airport where he checked out an Service Bulletin on the engine & then caught a tail wind back to Kalamazoo. This worked out great - I spent time with Pam while the boys were gone. Today is Mimi's birthday, so we had breakfast with the Miller ladies & browsed some quaint stores. CJ made it back tonight & we are ordering pizza with Dave from the favorite place - Pizza King. Back to Virginia tomorrow.