Florida in January

I was in Florida last week for work and pleasure. I attended the Palm Missionary Ministries board meetings in Lake Wales. It was good to see the board members. Or in three cases, hear them, since not everyone could be there in person. President, Art Patray, had lost his wife to Cancer since the last time I saw him. I spent Saturday night with Art to catch up and discovered some ways that our families had crossed paths through the years that we had not realized.

Palm Ministries is mission that focuses on support of national workers in global missions. It was founded by Art and several others. I've been on the board since 2001.

Before and after the meeting I spent some wonderful time in Sarasota with my parents and my sister, Marie. I hadn't been there in almost a year.

A highlight was seeing a flock of Sandhill Cranes. The Sandhills were very rare when I grew up in Florida, but they've made a come-back. They are one of the largest birds in Florida standing over four feet tall with wing-spans of up to seven feet. I saw a group of 12-15 on the ground which was the largest group I had ever seen before. The next day a I saw a group of over 100 in flight!

Sorry, no pictures of the Sandhills. (Check out the Wikepedia link above for a photo.) Here are a few shots from Marie's back yard.