The Big Party

We missionaries, we really know how to party.  And some amazing people show up for our parties!  Just look at this!

Dr. Einstein graced us with his presence.  He also brought a nice popcorn ball cake that was very popular.  I thought it was odd that he'd have to carry a reminder card in his pocket.

Who knew that Dr. Einstein was such good friends with Hawkeye Pierce?  Oddly, Randy Goosen was nowhere to be seen whenever Hawkeye was around!

The party was invaded by this band of pirates!  It turned out that they were quite friendly.  Notice that the smallest pirate (Ethan Goosen) wears his eye patch up on his forehead!  The medium-sized pirate is known as Jo Radcliffe in his other life.

I believe Quinton Schmelzenbach was a blind beggar.  Maybe he wasn't blind.  Well, maybe he wasn't a beggar.  I'm pretty sure it was Quinton Schmelzenbach.  We usually just call him "Q", so that we don't have to type "Quinton Schmelzenbach" as ofter, since "Quinton Schmelzenbach is long, and hard to type.

This medieval princess is sometimes known as Allison "Alley Cat" Dooley.

Can you read their name tags?  They are "Jean" and "Gene" and dressed in blue.  You figure it out.  Stephen and Amy Hollenberg.

There was even a concession hawker.  Lydia Radcliffe didn't manage to sell much.

This, I believe, is a Gypsy fortune teller.  I don't usually patronize fortune tellers, so I wouldn't know.  She does look a lot like Jessica Myers.

And my personal favorite costume, Karla Deuel as a refrigerator door.  It is decorated, as all good refrigerated doors should be, with missionaries' prayer cards, held on with refrigerator magnets!  I do notice that our prayer card is not there.

Every good harvest party needs games.  Bobbing for lemons didn't turn out to be the most popular.

And, of course, treats.  Each family brought something to cook for themselves on the fire (most popular were "hobo dinners"), and a treat to share.  There was enough.

The foil packets on the fire are the hobo dinners.  I wanted to include a few more missionaries, and this shows Jordan Thompson in the red shirt, Scott Dooley cooking 3 hotdogs (I'm sure he was helping his kids) and Tim Deuel in the white shirt.  And of course, Hawkeye Pierce on the far side of the fire.

As you can tell, we have a lot of fun together.  We are blessed to serve with a wonderful, compatible, congenial, godly, faithful group of missionaries, and we love getting together.  We thank God for them.  I'm sorry I can't show them all.

AB