It hardly seems real

We are really enjoying the 80 degree weather
here in Maui. Our condo is the one one the upper right, is right on the beach with whale, turtles and surfers within a short distance off our Lanai.
We are doing a lot of stuff, much of it free.
We did take a boat trip to see whales and dolphins up close .

Taking the famous 30 mile trip to Hana tomorrow.
We used to bumper strip "we drove the Alcan Hiway"
Around here it's the road to Hana. we will give it a try.

We rented a bright red PT cruise which makes mom(Carol )
feel like a teenager.

A Day to Remember

Carol and I went to the Hollywood District here in Portland to watch the Remembrance Parade and listen to city leaders and veterans share their thoughts about veterans and their importance to our country's freedom.
It actually was a moving experience. Something I was not expecting in "progressive" Portland.
Of all the speeches the one that summed it up the best quoted and unknown author.

"It's the military not the reporter who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the military, not the poet who has given us the freedom of speech. It is the military not the politicians who ensures us our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is not the campus demonstrator who burns our flag, it's the military who salutes the flag, who serves beneath our flag and whose coffin is draped with our flag."

This is a day of remembrance for Carol and I for a very different reason. fifty six years ago today In Kenai, Alaska, we had a missionary couple over to our newly built cabin for dinner. The occasion was to celebrate the completion of our homestead cabin that would give us the right to claim the land it was built on. After dinner I filled the Coleman light that was giving light to our home with no electricity. In the process I spilled the gas over the hot lamp and in a few minutes burned the whole place down. It was a cold snowy night. We had no place to go and we went to live with the missionaries. We began to follow Christ and serve him. November 11 1953 started a whole life change for us. One of the best things that ever happened to us.

Carol cooks in our replacement 16X16 foot cabin

Recent Highlights

We sure have been having fun lately, with lots of special family times. Carly and Jed came by on tn end of their honeymoon and stayed with us a few days. Multnomah Falls . Sure was special to have them stay with us.
My boys arranged a special Birthday celebration for me by hosting a Seahawk football weekend, in Seattle.. All of my sons, Jim, our son-law was here in Portland for a few days and Nikki came through with Marty. What a special time. As you can see a Moffat get together includes some deep belly laughter. The game was lousy but it didn't matter
Kaylie had her 15th birthday party and she is maturing into a very special person. And a Sunday School Halloween party included a lot of our great grandchildren dressing up in costumes.

Family Joys

We sure enjoy family since living here in Oregon.
Recently our granddaughter Carly and her husband Jed stopped by
to see us for a couple of days on the way home from their honeymoon.

We did some sightseeing. Multnomah falls and the Columbia River Gorge are near are home.


They are home in Anchorage, Alaska now.








We have the joy of going to our grand-children's and great-grand-children's
birthday parties, games, plays and other school events.

We missed out on a lot of this when we lived in Canada.


It was a beautiful but windy day when we again went to Kari's
soccer game. They are getting better and she scored a couple of goals.

Retirement Parties

Yes, that's plural--"Parties"
We have been overwhelmed by the affection shown by the mission organization we have worked with for fifty years -"InterAct Ministries", fellow workers, supporting partners and many of our family with a retirement party in Alaska in August and another here in the mission headquarters in Oregon in September.

The one in Alaska, organized by George and Judy Richardson, member care missionaries in Alaska and the one here, organized by the staff in the home office of the mission, included lots of people who fit in the descriptions above.
The mission commissioned a dear friend of ours Suzie Althens of Alaska to paint oil paintings depicting ministries, recent retirees of the mission were involved in during past years. With the consultation of our six children Suzie painted the picture which now hangs over our fireplace. It shows the boat we built to transport family and native kids to Kokrine Hills Bible Camp while we ministered there from the village of Tanana. We traveled many thousands of miles in that boat for many summers in Alaska. The picture is and will be a family treasure.

The highlight for Carol and I was to visit with so many people we love and respect. People who have been partners to us in so many ways.

Life hasn't changed that much for Carol and I since "officially" retiring, but the honor and love expressed by these special parties will warm our memories and cause us to thank our Lord who made all of it possible over the years.

50 Yrs Ago

Fifty Years ago this month we left Portland to spend our first of many winters in a remote Indian Village. We went to Shageluk to fill in for the Furmans who went out on a furlough. Mark and I went out together and Carol and the rest of the kids stayed in Port Angeles WA to have our fourth (Merlin). Mark and I went though culture shock together until Carol and the kids got up there in November.

The top right picture is us at our second villgae, Anvik, where we had to build a house. After staying there for five or so years we were transferred to Tanana. (The picture at lower right).

A suit and tie??!!!

We never did have running water at any of the villages. We did have a light plant with limited electricity at Anvik and we had village power in Tanana.

God enabled us, kept us and allowed us to serve Him in these villages.

Fall Memories

This is my favorite season of the year. Although my food gathering years are over these pictures chronicle a time and events that hold some of the fondest memories for me. Fall time in Central Alaska on the Yukon in the 60's and 70's are the place and time.

After the 10 or so cords of wood were piled by the house in Tanana I would load the boat with many gallons of gas for the outboard, a lot of good food and my birthday wacky cake that would be survival gear as well as celebratory chocolate goodness.

We would use the cabin at Kokrine Hills for our base camp, but our final destination was miles up the Nowitna river-a place of beauty as well as a virtual garden of Eden for moose, bear, ducks and fish. The picture above was taken way up the river where Mark shot the families winter meat supply.


We would set up camp on a river bank near a likely moose crossing. about 100 miles from home and play, hunt and fish. The best memories are the camping. cooking fish, ducks and tender cuts of moose over an open fire. It is some of our families fondest times. I took my brother and his family, Another time my parents and our family. Visitors from the States. We never went home empty handed. .

I convinced there will be Fall trips in heaven. Without the need to kill animals and with the opportunity to enjoy God's Creation. Memories now are pretty satisfying -until then.


Moose meat is delicious as well as one of the healthiest meats to eat.

It's way better

I lot has happened the last few weeks. we drove to BC Canada to visit Merlin and Brenda and also Kristen and Aaron who were up from Mexico City. A visit to the Zoo here and more recently a spur of the moment trip to the Redwoods in N CA.
That trip involved a lot of good scenery on the S. OR coast as well as a most enjoyable ten mile trip through the Redwoods on a narrow gravel road.





The overiding issue for me during the last 5 weeks or so is the chemo treatment on my
skin pre cancer issues. My forehead is now cleared up and My arms still have a way to go, but the burning, itching and bleeding issues are clearing up













We spent hours in this wonderland driving and hiking among these giants of God's creation.







We saw outstanding lighthouses . We hiked to t one at low tide in Crescent City. Reminds me of the song Ken Hughes SR. used to sing about when he came to have services in Anvik. This tree was near the lighthouse. There is a parable in here somewhere, but being old and a little bent over myself I can't figure out what that would be

A Four generational reach

While in Alaska recently our latest (17?) great granchild Rowan Alley was born. His parents Janelle and Derek (Marla and Jim) invited us in the birthing room about 45 minutes after he was born. It was a special moment as Rowan grasped both Carol and my fingers. It was also an emotional moment because our hearts were so full of the blessings of family since we had already experienced a wedding of Carly (Marty and Nikki) to Jed and many other family times. In this picture you can see Rowan, his mother Janelle's hand and Carol and my fingers. Only person not seen in this four generations was Marla who took the picture.


It is only fair since I blogged the gross picture of Carol's eye just after the doctor put steroids into the center of her eye. This is my gross forehead as I am on a treatment to get rid of a bunch of pre-cancer spots on my forehead, face and arms. The special cream I apply daily basically burns the skin off layer after layer for four weeks. And yes! it hurts.
Carol and I are basically in good health but seem to require a lot of maintenance.

Thankfulness

I seldom feel like adding to this blog unless I have a photo which adds the proverbial "thousand words".
I am at a loss for many pictures of the last three weeks from my camera that will do that . Most of you know that for over two weeks we were in Alaska. I can't imagine how many photos, both professional and amateur were taken of the events of those days.
We had a wedding of a granddaughter, a couple of showers, a birthday celebration , an actual birth of a great grandson, an engagement of a grandson and a retirement party for us. for those of you who are connected to our family on facebook, many of these photos of these events have been uploaded there. There were all kinds of other family events, potlucks, dinners out and in. We came

(Picture: Grandmother and mother of the bride)

back exhilerated/exhausted! I did a couple of different pictures, if only for pictures sake. Scott and Mason on a huge rock on the beach at Clam Gulch and a different photo of Carol and I with our great grandson Rowan Alley. We saw him when he was less than an hour old and he tightly held both of our fingers. A generational reach and touch that can't be beat.

I want to thank all who made this one of the most moving times of our lives. These included: All the Alaskans who provided hospitality. The professional photography of Kara and Jeremy. Jim's taking of the video at our retirement party and Jeremy's labor of love in making it into a DVD. Scott's helpful presence in many situations, the Van Diests for the use of their vehicles. I could go on, but most of all we thank our God for the blessing and permancy of a family that is founded on the Rock of Christ.

Trip to my past

60 years ago I fished commercially out of LaPush WA. I spent 2 summers,

one before and one after my senior year in high school, on a small troller

fishing for salmon in the Pacific along the WA coast.

The boat I fished with was just like this one.

Along the way up the coast of Washington we saw some spectacular scenery.

We went through Aberdeen (where I once spent two nights in jail) and then on

some not so travelled roads that go along the beaches.

We also visited some of the rainforests along the way. The Quiliute National

Park contains four trees that are largest for their species in the world.

We ended the trip by visitng some friends in the Forks area.

OOPS!

This is the air museum continued. The trip highlight for me was three things I saw in the museum. One was a WW2 exceptional fighter the P-38. This plane was a phenomanal fighter. However, In 1943 a squadron of these planes was placed in Port Angeles and affected our family's life forever. We were displaced and our family had to move to Bremerton, Wa where our dad worked at the shipyard there. There's more to the story...

My buddy and now brother-in-law Jerry Kelly had a Model A Ford quite like this one. What adventures we had in that while in high school.

This is the space ship that Russian astonaut Yuri Gragarian flew in space. I once talked to him by ham radio after he succesfully returned.

Flight Museum

A few days ago-Memorial Day to be exact-Carol and I spent a day at the flight museum near McMinville, Or. Quite a place. They have two separate, museums one for flight and one for spaceflight.Nice to have such a quality place so close. It features Howard Hughes Spruce Goose. a fascinating airplane and a fascinating story of Howard Hughes, the genuis who really was a "mad" inventor.