Dinner In The Hangar

Last night MFI held their first banquet in the new hangar. Even though they have been in the new facility for two years, they have continued to hold the annual fund raising banquet in Palm Beach since that is where most of their constituents are. They will continue to have that event every spring, but will now also have one at the hangar every fall. It has long been a dream to be able to host this event where people can see for themselves what MFI is all about. This was mainly to raise awareness in the community from Hobe Sound to Vero Beach. They had hoped for at least 200 to attend and ended up with 350. The dinner was catered by a man who recently started volunteering at MFI and owns a catering business. The Stuffed Pork Chops, Basil Chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans were delicious. The program consisted of music by The New Stetler Trio, a slide presentation, and a special speaker named Caleb Lucien. Harold works very closely with Caleb in hurricane relief and has come to deeply respect him. He was born in Haiti, but educated in the states, then went back to Haiti to serve his people. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to him. One thing I didn't realize is that there are still people living on their roofs in tents because the mud is so deep in the houses and there is no way to get it out. Next year, if there is no conflict of interest, I'll be sure to advertise this event for the people who live here locally. Here are a few pictures of the evening for your viewing enjoyment.

The view before everyone arrived.

The moon came up during dinner in the perfect spot. How romantic!

It has been wonderful to have our old "double date buddies" back. Jonathan did the sound for the Stetler Trio since they were representing HS Bible College. Harold and I are loving having Emily and Jonathan back down here to socialize with.

The ladies at our table. We were very flattered to have Uncle George and Aunt Ruthie at our table.

Harold and I. What a good lookin' man!

Outside looking in.

Harold's "home away from home".

We were thrilled this week to have our good friends Todd and Jennifer spend a couple of nights with us. They were some of our best pals when we lived in TN. Harold and Todd went to Moody together and we also went to the Nazarene church together. After graduation they went with Nazarene Missions to Guatemala for four years. Due to lack of funds they had to close their Aviation Dept. When we were out in Idaho two years ago we were driving down the road when Harold starting pointing and quickly pulled off to the side. There walking down the sidewalk were Todd and Jennifer. They were doing all the prep work to go with MAF (Missions Aviation Fellowship) which is located in Nampa. It just so happened that they were to get their assignment that afternoon, it was between somewhere in South America or Haiti, they were quite sure that it would be South America since they both speak Spanish. The next thing we heard was that they were headed to Haiti. So after spending some time getting caught up, we saw them off Thurs. morning. Please keep them in your prayers.

I'll leave you with a little sample of the music from banquet. I know that the "Old Stetler Trio" was the group of their day, but they didn't have much on the "New Stetler Trio". I love to hear the family harmony of Paul, Allysa, and Julia. They did us proud. Sorry that you can't see them very well, at least you can hear them, that's what matters.