Jack was not arrested!

Jack's Government class went to Port Charlotte to observe a felony trial with their teacher Mr. Casey Roberts. Mr. Roberts, a former Police Officer, arranged for them to observe the trial. Jack wants to go into criminal justice and found it very interesting. Thanks for making it possible Mr. Roberts. Tricia, Thanks for the pictures!

What has Jack done???

Any ideas?? Details to follow.....

Delayed Thanksgiving and Basketball pictures

I apologize for this taking so long...We have been muy (very) busy ... I also have a picture of my friend Travis, who I will dearly miss, and May bin #1 ready for shipping to the D.R.! Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!! God bless

Jack puts in 21 for a W

Heritage Christian School Panthers recorded their first win against West Florida Christian 45-29. Jack scored 21 points to help his team taste victory for the first time this year.

Finally....we have visitors!!

We moved away from our family back in 1994 to South Carolina. Since then we have lived in North Carolina and Florida. for the past Fourteen years we have hoped that we would get to see our family and friends come visit, but it happened rarely. Now as we prepare to leave the country, we are having a great time as Kate's sister and family, Dan's brother and family, Dan's mom, and possibly a few others come and visit.

Anchors Away for Danny

Danny has enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He will enter into naval service on June 4th, 2009. Which was his Papa Bob's birthday, he would be so proud that Danny was following in the Sherrill family tradition of naval service. Please keep Danny in your prayers as he is hoping to meet the physical requirements for either Navy Seal or Search and Rescue Diver. He has some hard work ahead of him but if it is God's will it'll happen
He has also applied for a ROTC scholarship. If he is granted the scholarship, he will enter into service as an officer after completing his bachelors degree rather than on June 4th.
Danny will be continuing his studies at Calvary Chapel Bible College this academic year. He will be coming home to spend some time with his family and joining us for the Calvary Chapel South East Pastor's conference January 17 - 22nd. We can't wait to see him, he is greatly missed !

Rachael is with Jesus

Please pray for Bob, Angie and Katie as they mourn the loss of their precious Rachael.

RACHAEL OLIVIA GLEASON

March 25 2006 -- November 19 2008

Rachael left the loving arms of her parents at 6:12 am and is now in the loving arms of our Lord and Savior Jesus. It was a long night again watching her suffer. Her pain medication was doubled then tripled. Angie and I encouraged her to just let go several times during the night but she is very stubborn. I wonder where she gets that from.We have a very surreal calm right now. My daughter died less than half an hour ago and I have no doubt that she is running and laughing right now. I can't wait to see her again. I know she will be there in heaven waiting for us. We were privileged to know her and better people because of what she taught us. We praise God for the time we had with her. I will update again tomorrow. Love Bob

Rachael update...Please pray for the Gleason family...

This is from Rachael's caring bridges page from just a few minutes ago.

It was a long night. Angie and I talked about a lot of things. These are hard things to decide on. We decided not to have another blood transfusion. She is having some pain and its time to end it. We know where she is going and look forward to the day when we see her again, whole and healed. We are going to let Katie say goodbye to her and attempt to explain what is happening. This will be a long and difficult day. We ask that everyone please not come to visit today and please try to limit calls to Angie and I. We love you all and we will grieve together in the coming days. But we need some time alone and ask you to please respect that. We will update this site if and when something happens. Please be in prayer for the Fisher family who lost their baby boy yesterday morning. There is a link to him on our links page. Love Bob

Gleasons...we are praying for you all.....

Rachael update...don't stop praying.

This is the latest on little Rachael.

It is with much sadness that I share our latest news. We heard from the doctors at Sloan Kettering in New York. Rachael's disease has reached a point where they cannot treat it. Its hard to explain. The tumors are bleeding and cannot be removed without causing so much damage that the bleeding will continue. And they cannot do the antibody therapy with the tumors in there. That therapy only works on microscopic disease and not bulk disease. There are no more options that have a chance of working. We may have only a few weeks left. We will try to make her comfortable and enjoy her while we can. We have exhausted all options and don't want to put her through more pain . We have begun thinking about funeral arrangements and don't have a clue where to begin. Please pray for Gods peace to come over us in the next few weeks. Love Bob

Bob,Angie, Katie and Rachael...we are praying for you and love you...please let us know if there is antything we can do. The May's

Urgent prayer needed!!!!

We have copied an excert from our friends' Bob and Angie Gleason's blog about the condition of their daughter, Rachael, who many of us have been praying for.

I'm not sure how to break this to you all. Yesterday was not a good day. During the surgery we were getting periodic reports from Dr. Stroud. The blood clots had neuroblastoma cells in them. There were also tumors that were growing along the spine and over the top of her intestine. There doesn't seem to be much they can do. Chemo obviously doesn't work and the tumors were growing outside of the radiation field. So we are stopping radiation for now. Our minds tell us that any further treatments would only delay the inevitable. But our hearts want us to keep fighting and look for other options. At what point do we stop putting her through pain and just try to enjoy her while we can. But we don't know if we will spend her last days laughing and having fun or watching her wither away. This is a tough place to be. All children belong to God and he just loans them to us for a while. We must have won the children lottery because God gave us the two most beautiful angels in all of heaven. We will fight to save her but we will always consider ourselves blessed for whatever time we got to spend with her. Bob

We are asking for all who read this to pray for this family. Please pray for healing, wisdom, and comfort.
Bob, Angie, Katie and Rachael - We love you, Dan, Kate, Danny and Jack
To visit Rachael's caring bridges page go to
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/rachelgleason and sign the guest book to let them know you are praying for them.

Our weekend & Can you find your self? part 2

This past weekend we had some guests, Gabe and Alayna, while their parents went to Iowa to lead a marriage conference. It was so nice to have a GIRL and a NON TEENAGE young man! (Love you Jack!) We went to the private beach via a ferry, went to the library (no worries Paul, I kept the books and DVD's), we made some from scratch french bread (the picture with the loaf of bread was after we had been at the beach for a hour or so, hence the wind blown hair) and Gabe made a batch of fudgy brownies. Gabe also got to help Mr.Dan with various auto repairs (see below for more on that), shoot hoops with Jack and wax Mr. Dan's car. It was fun to have them and almost made me wish mine were young again...almost. I am very blessed with two great young men! I am excited to see how the Lord is going to use their lives.
This was a bad weekend for our finances and my van though. When Gabe, Alayna and I got into the car after leaving the library it wouldn't start...Dan to the rescue...my battery was dead, cracked and very corroded. It was so bad the guy at Walmart refused to change it out...Dan and Gabe to the rescue. While removing it Dan found the cable leading to it was also corroded...we had to replace the cable too...an unexpected $160.00 dollars (with free labor)for the cable and battery. That was Friday...On Saturday night I left to go pick Jack up from work and I hear this funny noise...I immediately return home and see one of my tires is as flat as it could possibly be...Dan and Gabe to the rescue...Thank you Dan for giving up a big chunk of your weekend fixing my van, I am so blessed to be married to you! Sunday after driving to church on my donut (Alayna and Gabe thought that was a funny name). We went to Firestone to have them repair or replace the tire, I was concerned about another unexpected expense and Dan didn't think the warranty would cover it. Gabe suggested we pray about it before we went in (What a young man!) which we did. They did have to replace it but our warranty covered most of it...the grand total was $13.78. Praise God! I have also changed the slide show to show more friends and family pictures. How was your weekend?

Family Fun Night!

We had our annual Family Fun Night at Calvary Chapel of Venice on Friday. Here is a picture of Jack in the dunk tank. This is an outreach to our community where families can come and eat, play games, and win candy. Our aim is to introduce our church to the local community and meet with them. We had over 500 people show up. Some of those who were introduced to the church Friday came this morning (Sunday) to worship.

Updated Family & friends slideshow

It came to my attention that the fact that I miss Danny and our friends the Niesens very much was evident in the first slideshow...plus it didn't and isn't showing all the pictures I chose (178 images). I will leave these up for a week or so then I will change the slideshow to include the rest of the photos...so if you got an email and you don't see yourself I apologize and you will if you check back in a week or so! I just have to mention it is supposed to be in the low 50's here tomorrow .....Brrrrr. Happy Fall Y'all!

Can you find yourself?

In the slide show on the right, Family and Friends, I have added assorted photos of family and friends which I will change out every few weeks. There are people from South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Michigan, New York, Virginia and the Dominican Republic. Some pictures are old, some are new...leave us some comments about your favorites! Enjoy!!

Caribbean Night at The Gardner's

Saturday night Agape's staff and friends got together for a night of fun and fellowship. I think the pictures up in the right hand corner speak for themselves.. I especially like the picture of the boys (and Macayla) and their Dads playing with blocks...It was alot of fun, although the Niesens were very much missed. I hope everyone's weekend was as fun as ours....God Bless!

A long week (for Dan)

Have you ever had one of those weeks when the work seems to just keep piling up and even with your best efforts it just seems to get worse? Well, most of this week has been like that for me. On top of that (or maybe it was part of it), I have been fighting an illness all week. I have been reminded 3 times in the last few days that all we do (as Christians) is ministry. Whether it is changing oil in an airplane, talking to a family member or friend, or posting a blog, we need to live and work unto Jesus. I wish I could say I live with that mindset all the time....or even most of the time...or half the time...but the reality is I, at best, have occasional moments with this mindset. This is also a command, found in Colossians "And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ." I will work toward this attitude. Yesterday, Kate spent some time at the Veice Business Expo, where Agape had a booth to introduce our ministry to some of the local businesses and residents. Agape has a flight simulator that was used in our display.

Finally, after 9 and 1/2 months!!

Our new plane has finally arrived!! As you can see from the photos, it still needs to be painted, but we will fly it for the next few weeks until we can get scheduled into a paint shop. This plane has a useful load (this is the amount of cargo, fuel and crew it can legally carry) of around 4450 pounds. Jim Lewis, a King Air instructor, will fly with our pilots to train them in this plane. It was flown in on Sunday by one of our volunteer pilots, Tom Walden. We are cramming to become familiar with this plane. The "tail number", the identification number painted on the side of the aircraft is "N412MA" but will be changed to "N316AF". This was chosen because: "N" designates a US registered aircraft, "316" to remind us of the love God has for us (John 3:16), and "AF" for Agape Flights. You can track our flights by going to www.flightaware.com and putting in the tailnumber of an aircraft. It will show the position in flight of the aircraft. You can use the N412MA until we get switched to our new designation in a fwew weeks.

Jacks last soccer game

Jack and his team (well, its not really HIS team, but you get the point)won their last game 3-2. Jack was moved back to goalie from striker with his team down 2-0 to shore up the defense. He held them scoreless the rest of the game so his team could come back. Monday, basketball starts up!!

Long over due photos of David & Sharon Banks

This is David and Sharon Banks. The attend Calvary Chapel of the Finger Lakes in Upstate NY. They graciously have opened their home to Danny while he is at CCoFL School of Ministry. The Banks took Danny on a day trip to see the lighthouse on Lake Ontario pictured behind them. At my request they emailed me this lovely photo of themselves. The second picture is of Danny in front of the lighthouse. Thank you David and Sharon for being such a blessing to Danny and for the kind e-mail introducing yourselves to us. We are praying for you and for Danny.

Pictures from the DR

It was so nice to see the Niesens! (Ransom is the little one)
It is good to be home with Dan and Jack. We went to church this morning and Dan shared with the body about what Haiti has endured the last few weeks, with hurricanes Fay through Ike. They have been hit hard. Please keep the Haitian and the Dominican people in your prayers.

Theres no place like home!

Here are some random pictures I took while in the DR.

I saw the wildest thing last night, (it didn't even phase John) the security guard at the gas station was carrying a shotgun! Not a policeman with a handgun in his holster but a security guard with a shotgun dangling from his hand. I was amazed. It is very different here.
I will be flying home today. I leave Santo Domingo at 8:35 pm and arrive in Fort Lauderdale, Fl at 11:00 pm. Please pray for travelling mercies.
I thank God for the oppurtunity I've had to spend time with the Niesen family during this exciting time. It has been great. I have missed their family since they left Florida (especially Sarah, sorry John & Evie). Little Ransom is so precious and such a good baby. He looks alot like his sister.
I will get some pictures today and post them when I am home. I am looking forward to seeing my family, the CCoV church body and the Agape staff and volunteers. God bless!

My time in the Dominican Republic & Ransom's arrival!

Ransom was born today! Praise God!! I will leave all the details for Sarah to share.(www.niesens.blogspot.com)
I am really blessed to have had this time here in the D.R., although I miss my family a lot. I now have a better idea what we will need to prepare for our deployment. I also have a renewed appreciation for hot showers, constant electricity, air conditioning, Albertsons, and being able to flush the toilet paper. I will enjoy them all for the remainder of our time in the States. I do not plan on driving here...driving here is very scary! I think Dan will do just fine though. I return home on Monday night please pray for a safe journey. Thanks in advance!

No Ransom Yet!

Good Morning! Last night John and Sarah went on a date and ended up at the hospital. They are still there but no Ransom yet, the Dr. thought he would be born last night or early morning but it was not to be. Maybe today. Evie and I are doing well, she is a trooper! Being here has been eye opening. It is giving me a real idea of what it will be like when my family gets here. It is a rainy day here in Santo Domingo, we had a horrible thunder storm last night...the thunder was so fierce it was setting car alarms off all around us, but Evie slept right through it. Please keep John,Sarah and Ransom in your prayers.

Hurricane Ike

Hurricane Ike didn't hit here like it did Haiti...it was dark, windy and rainy with very loud thunder and lots of lightning. The park behind the mission house is once again flooded. I sat up during the worst of the storms (around 3 am) and prayed for the people who live in the low lying areas and the Haitians. On the way in from the airport Sarah showed me as we passed over a bridge a whole community, probably 100 house (shacks really) built on the banks of the river, right on top of each other....feet away from the waters edge...she said there are these communities all up and down the rivers...when it floods even a little they are seriously affected. I will try to get a picture on our way out...it is something you have to see to believe. Please pray for these people as well as the Haitians.

Thursday and yesterday in pictures.

Isaac, Pastor Vic, Maureen, Hannah and Jael Batista

Thursday night I stayed with The Batista family pictured here. Pastor Vic Batista, who was born and lived in the DR until the age of 9, is the Pastor at CC of Aventura (FL) and also is planting a CC of Santo Domingo and has planted a CC of Santiago, DR. I was so blessed to be their guest. Thank you Batista Family!

John, Sarah and Evie and their gifts of love!


Evie and I played with blocks...she is so advanced!


Today has been cooler as Ike approaches...he is not going to hit us directly but he is huge and we will feel his effects. I am enjoying spending time with the Niesens...Ransom is not ready to join us yet... I will keep you posted.
To my family I love you!

I arrived safe and sound.

I am sitting in Santo Domingo and it is hot! I will post some photos in the morning.

Heading off to the Dominican Republic

I (Kate) am heading off to Santo Domingo, D.R., Lord willing! I fly out of Fort Lauderdale airport tomorrow morning at 6 am and return late on the 15th. Please pray that hurricanes Hanna, Ike and Josephine (and any others) stay far away from me. As of now Ike is to hit the D.R. on Saturday. I am going to assist our friends, John and Sarah Niesen,the new Field Directors for Agape Flights. They are expecting their second child on September 11th. I am hoping to be a blessing to as many people as I can while there. I am also looking forward to learning more about the country that will be our home in the not too distant future.

I am going to get to spend some time with Pastor Vic, his wife Maureen and their family this evening (CC Aventura FL). Pastor Vic, who was born in the Dominican Republic, has started a CC (Calvary Chapel) in Santiago D.R. and a CC of Santo Domingo is in the works. There may even be a CC Bible College starting in Santo Domingo. Dan and I were very excited to learn of these developments.
I am off to drive the 3 hours to Fort lauderdale. I will update when I arrive Friday.

A missionary from Haiti’s call for help following hurricane’s destruction

I  feel like Nehemiah when he heard of the destruction of Jerusalem, and he was in a foreign land. I am in Port au Prince, Haiti but the villages in the areas where we have churches are in dire need. What little they had, is now taken away!! (At this writing my husband, is still stranded in the village due to washed away bridges.) Every village where we have planted a church has been damaged by the hurricane. All the roads to these villages have been destroyed. The roads and bridges need to be rebuilt or repaired.  Marche Kabrit has no water. The water source has been destroyed. We need to get food (bags of rice, corn, beans) to the people. Right now they are eating the animals that have died during Hurricane, and the fruit from the fallen trees.
This is an email from a missionary serving in Haiti, which was struck by Hurricane Fay and now Gustav. These are the some of the desperate needs Agape Flights exists to meet. More than 50 people were killed after tropical storm Gustav struck Haiti on August 26. Please keep the missionaries, the Haitian and Dominican people and Agape Flights in your prayers.

Danny is safely in NY!

Danny arrived safely in upstate NY on Sunday. The families within the church body, affilated with the school, offer housing for the bible college students. I love that! He is staying with a family, the Banks, who have adult children. Danny said it was a lot like being at the Peters house in NC. They are the family that the boys stayed with to finish out the school year when Dan and I headed to Venice. He said it gets to around 40 degrees in the morning and he wants his parka and anything wool...lol. Please pray for him. That he would have godly discernment, that he would desire God's will above all else and that he would drive carefully in the snow...make that at all times.
Well I am off to the grocery store, Jack is making dinner tonight. I decided after his brother gave himself food poisoning, that Jack making dinner once a week would be a good life skill. He is making Quesadillas and chips. Ole!

Soccer has started.

Tonight was Jack's first soccer game of the year...and it poured for more than half of the game. In the pictures above you can see that Jack, and Dan are soaked. In the third photo you can see the beautiful rainbow that followed the rains. Jack's team lost 6- 0. I think there are 5 high schoolers and the rest are 6th - 8th graders, but they are playing as a varsity team. Jack was goalie and gave it everything he had. We are praying for a much drier game next Friday. God bless!

August 19, 2008

Hurricane/tropical storm Fay came inland about 25 miles south of us. So all we experienced was a little gusty winds. Thank you Lord!
I (Kate) went to the hangar with Dan today and while he worked I cleaned the kitchen/staff dining area. I also helped the Cargo Manager/Pilot, Jeff Yannucceillo, load the plane for tomorrows run to Haiti & the DR. It was very interesting...the airplane we are currently using, a Cessna Chancellor 414, has a cargo hold in the nose and one in each wing, I was not aware of that, it adds quite a bit of usable load space.
Thank you to everyone who prayed for us during Fay's visit to the gulf coast of Florida. We appreciate it!

August 18, 2008

The first day of school and our first hurricane warning. It looks like Hurricane Fay may come for a visit. The second day of school has been deemed a hurricane day. When I saw on the school calendar they had hurricane days rather than snow days I laughed. We escaped last year untouched, Praise God! Please pray for the areas that are hit by Fay. For anyone watching this unfold Venice is locate about half way between the 2 indented areas on the gulf coast of Florida. (Fort Myers and St Pete/Tampa). Our plans are currently up in the air. We may go inland to stay with some friends but are unsure as of right now. We'll keep you posted.

August 15, 2008

Today is the last day of summer. Monday Jack goes back to school....it will not be too long before he too will be off to college. This summer was entirely too brief. I really enjoyed spending some one-on-one time with Jack this summer. It was wonderful to have our whole family together also. Danny is safely back in SC. Please keep us in your prayers as we continue to engage our personal ministry team. To those of you who are a part of our team...we can't thank you enough. We appreciate your faithfulness and we keep you and yours in our prayers. Hope everyone else is doing well this crazy time of year. God bless!

August 13, 2008

Where has the time gone?

Dan and Danny will be heading to St. Petersburg later this afternoon. Today is the day that Danny leaves us. We have enjoyed having our little family together.
Danny will spend a few weeks in beautiful Greenville, SC and then head to Farmington, NY for soccer camp which begins on the 25th. He has been hired(?) as the varsity soccer coach (he will be just a litttle bit older than his players...lol) at Calvary Chapel Christian School of the Finger Lakes. God is blessing Danny and growing him. Please pray with us that Danny would have good freshman year and seek after Him always.
Dan got to fly right seat (aka co-pilot) last week on the run to Haiti and the D.R. and was able to spend the night with John, Sarah and Evie Neisen in Santo Domingo. He enjoyed the flight experience and the fellowship with our friends. Dan reports that it looks as though the King Air 90 twin-engine plane will arrive in Venice in 2 weeks, Lord willing.
The woman who owns our house, Margaret, has to put our house on the the market. I am hoping it sells for her sake but not so much for ours..lol. This week I get to go through and get our house ready to show to the realtor and any perspective buyers. It will be a good to time to purge some of our belongings in preparation for our deployment to the Dominican Republic.
On August 2nd Jack turned 16, it was nice that we could all be together. Jack started soccer practice this week and is going to play goalie. He is eager to get back to school and sports. He is hoping that he gets to stay at HCA at least through the basketball season.God has been working in Jack in awesome ways this summer. Please pray with us that Jack would have a good junior year and seek after Him always.

We are back home now. Our oldest son, Danny, is home for 10 days then he goes back to Greenville SC, and then in September onto Calvary Chapel Bible College in upstate New York...Brrrrrr. I am sure he will look forward to visiting us in either sunny Florida or the D.R.

We are enjoying our whole family being together again. Dan is busy at the hangar as usual and I am tying up end of summer /new school year loose ends. I will be going to the Dominican Republic September 5th through the 15th to be of any assistance I can to John and Sarah Neisen (Baby Ransom is due on the 11th). Jack is getting ready to start a new school year on the 18th at Heritage Christian Academy and is getting geared up to start soccer camp next week. He will be one of 4 or 5 juniors...the senior class is currently one girl. It is a very small school.

on the Road

We are currently in beautiful Greenville, SC. Dan spoke last night at our home church. I may be biased but I was very blessed by his teaching. We were able to spend some time with Danny, which was great! We miss having him home but God is working in his life in a mighty way. We spent Monday, Tuesday and half of Wednesday in Hampton, Georgia where Dan worked on Agape's new interim airplane a twin-engine King Air 90. Then we headed here and are staying up on the top of a mountain with our friends Bill and Paige Miller also known as chateau L'Abri...which means safe shelter....We will be returning to Venice on Sunday afternoon. God Bless!