Busy Spring

In the beginning of April, we took a couple groups of people to the Okefenokee Swamp in Southern Georgia. We met wonderful people who had a great time with us canoeing in the swamp. Each group got to see lots of wildlife; including alligators, birds, deer, a gopher tortoise, toads and frogs and even snakes! Perry, who helped us lead the trip, is a naturalist, so he taught us some neat information about the animals and plants that we saw. We got some really cool pictures along the way. Canoeing in the swamp is a lot of hard work, but it is also fun. Sometimes the alligators go right under our canoe, that can be exciting. One night when we were sleeping on a platform in the middle of the swamp, there was an alligator staying right under us! We all had a good night's sleep being serenaded by the cricket and pig frogs. We canoed a total of 45 miles.

We've had a lot of rain here in Ohio and at the Creation Museum during the past couple of weeks. It's rained so much that the Ohio River was over it's banks. We've had a hard time getting the grass cut because of the rain.

Buddy's written quite a few songs recently. Most of the songs are about Noah and the flood. We've recorded them in our home studio to see how they sound and hope to be able to go to a recording studio sometime. We think people will really like the songs. There is a lot of teaching in the songs.

We've also been working on our new video, Amazing Adventures. We're really happy with how it's turning out. Last week, we headed to the Creation Museum for the day to work on recording some background music for the show. We're finished filming and the AIG crew are putting the final touches on the show. We are already making plans for our next show which will be in the swamp and Everglades.

Spring is finally here!

At least spring is here according to the calendar. We had a couple of days of nice weather, but then it turned cold again. It's even been snowing some here in Ohio. We are ready for warm weather. We've really been enjoying seeing some of the birds that have migrated back to Ohio. What an exciting sign of spring! It is so enjoyable watching birds. It's especially fun observing birds as they eat out of our feeders. They are such amazing creatures. We also have a deer feeder down by our pond, and quite often we'll watch as a few deer cautiously come down from the woods and feed on the corn. A few weeks ago, we worked on filming more of our new show for children about dinosaurs. The film crew came out to the cabin and we had a fun time going all around our property so we could get some really cool shots. They even took some shots of Buddy in the canoe in our pond with Cricket, our English Setter. It was the first time Cricket had ever been in the canoe before, but she did very well, and neither of them fell overboard! Another day we drove to some cliffs that are nearby and Buddy rappelled down them. Buddy's favorite part of filming was when we went to the airport, and he got to ride in a Piper Cub. It's actually the same plane we used when we filmed the Creation Adventure Team movies. This past Sunday (March 27th), Buddy spoke at our home church, Perry Chapel. He shared with everyone about our Africa Missions Trip we took back in November. He showed quite a few photos of our trip. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it. (Over on the sidebar you can click on our African Missions Trip Photo Albums to see lots of really neat pictures.) We're at the Creation Museum this week. This weekend (April 1 and 2) Buddy will be doing his workshop, African Animal Adventure, two times each day, and he'll also be doing a music concert each day. We just started doing the African Animal Adventure workshop in March, so it's brand new. We like to do new workshops every few months so that when people come for a return visit to the Museum, they'll always have something new and exciting to do at our workshop. We've been having a lot of fun with the workshop. It's so cool being able to teach whole families about the amazing animals we saw when we were in Africa last year. If you come to the Creation Museum, make sure you check out when we will be doing our workshops. We'd love to see you there!

Greetings!

Just wanted to update you on what has been happening. On Sunday, Feb. 20, Buddy spoke to some of the children at our church. He gave his talk, "Dinosaur Detective" which is geared especially toward children. The kids seemed to have a fun time and did a good job answering questions at the end. Their teacher, Mary Moore, has been going over AIG material with them, which is encouraging. It is so important to teach children the truth of God's Word from a very young age.

On Monday, we headed to the Museum. Each day Buddy did his "Pterodactyls, Flying Dragons" workshop and he also did his Creation Musical Adventure Concert. This was the last week for the Pterodactyl workshop. We will be starting our new workshop, African Animal Adventure, on March 22nd.

Buddy spoke to the AIG staff on Tuesday morning and shared about our trip to Africa in November 2010. The staff enjoyed hearing about the trip so much that Buddy ended up giving the talk the next day to the museum staff. We will be using a lot of the same pictures and information from that talk in our new workshop.

On Thursday morning, a young man named Daniel Knudsen was the guest speaker at our staff meeting. He showed the staff an autograph that Buddy had signed for him when he was just a boy in one of our workshops. It's an honor to get to meet men and women who have been impacted by our workshops as children. Daniel is the Director of an upcoming film, "Creed of Gold". You can find out more about it at http://www.creedofgold.com/. Thursday evening, we went out to dinner with Ken and Mally Ham, Steve and Trisha Ham, and Dr. Tommy and Elizabeth Mitchell. We enjoyed it very much with good food and great fellowship.

We traveled to Lansing, Michigan this past weekend to speak at a church retreat. There were probably around 250 people there. We met so many brothers and sisters in Christ. On Friday night, Buddy spoke on Noah's Ark, then on Saturday he did his talk on Dinosaur - Separating fact from fiction. For supper on Saturday the church ordered pizza, chips and pop for everyone. There was a lot of food! They also had a very yummy dessert, it was a moist brownie with peanut butter icing! Saturday evening, Buddy did an hour long concert, including his songs, "I Don't Believe in Evolution", "Soar", "Billions of Dead Things", along with a mandolin instrumental and a dulcimer instrumental. He also sang one of his newer songs, "If Heaven Had a Window", which is about his Mom. After the song, we showed a picture of her. Everyone enjoyed the concert.

Sunday morning Buddy gave his "Relevance of Genesis" talk and we headed home. We had great weather on the way home. It was the drive to Michigan that was difficult. We left Friday morning with ice and snow on the roads. We drove for about 60 miles at 25 mph. The trip took longer but we arrived safe and sound. Thanks for all the prayers. We praise the Lord for his protection.

Spring is Coming!!

This has been a hard winter with lots of ice and we are ready to see the spring birds! This week we had a Towhee (ground robin) visit our feeder for the first time. We hope you enjoy the photos we have included. We still have ice but it has been warmer and it has been slowly melting.

We have been working on the script for our new children's video on dinosaurs. We are going to be shooting some footage at our cabin sometime in the near future. This part of the film will be centered around what the Bible has to say about dinosaurs and trusting God's Word.

We have also been working on some demo songs in our recording studio here at the cabin. Each song is a lot of work and takes a long time because Buddy plays all the instruments himself.

We have also been working on putting together a new children's workshop on African animals. It is going to be so much fun teaching boys and girls about the amazing animals in Africa. For the craft, we are going to show them how to draw a really cool lion.

This past week we went to the museum to check things out in our RV. We are going to be at the museum the week of the 21st, so we wanted to make sure everything was working. While we were down in Kentucky, we had dinner with Ken and Mally Ham and Steve Ham (Ken's brother). It was an enjoyable time as we always have fun when we're together.

We are on Facebook now. If you haven't already checked us out, please take a minute to see what we are up to. We put a scripture verse on every day along with fun facts about animals, and great pictures. Go to www.facebook.com/aigbuddydavis. We look forward to seeing you there!

What's been happening the last two weeks!

Early Saturday morning (Jan. 22), we left for Ripplemead, Virginia, where Buddy did a Wild Game Supper on Saturday night and spoke twice Sunday morning. It was cold when we left home, (minus 6, which is chilly for Ohio), so we asked one of our friends to take Cricket, our English Setter, to his house. Cricket has short hair, so we don't like her to be in the kennel when it is so cold.

Ripplemead is only about five and a half hours from our house, so we made it there by early afternoon which gave us time to rest and set up before the Wild Game Supper. We stayed in a very nice guest house that was beautiful and had a good view. We were surprised to see that they didn't have as much snow as we did back home.

The Wild Game Supper was very big, with over 900 people. There were many different kinds of meat to choose from, including moose, raccoon, bear, duck, deer, and muskrat. We had never had muskrat before, so we decided to try some as we like to experience new things.

Sunday morning, Buddy spoke twice, doing his talk "Dinosaurs, Separating Fact from Fiction'; and also singing three songs, "Here Kitty, Kitty", "Soar", and "Billions of Dead Things". About 800 people go to the church.

We've gotten to spend some time at home these past few weeks, catching up on an assortment of things. It's always good to be home.

On Thursday, the 27th, we headed to the Creation Museum to do a video shoot. We're currently filming a new children's show on dinosaurs. After the museum closed, we spent about four hours filming in various parts of the museum, including the Main Hall and the Dino Den. We're very excited about this new movie and think that boys and girls will really enjoy it. I am including some photos of "behind the scenes". We also did some filming for this show when we were in Montana in September at a dinosaur dig.

We did two Dinosaur digs last year, and they worked out so well we decided to offer them again. We have two of them scheduled for 2011, the first one is July 11-15, and the other one is July 25-29. The Dino Digs are great for people who like adventure. Last year we found some neat fossils such as dinosaur bones, turtle bones, fish scales, and a fossilized fig. If you want to find out more about the digs, you can go to www.creationmuseum.org/go/dinodig. The dino digs are filling up, so make sure you check it out!

Our Africa Missions Trip in November 2010

Greetings! We have been very busy since our African missions trip but I wanted to share some highlights with you. We were so blessed to be able to go on this trip and want to thank Marsha McCarty for inviting us to join their church for this missions trip to Kenya. We arrived at our hotel at midnight and we were up and out the door by 8:30 am the next day.

We first visited a small school out in the bush and also did ministry with the Masai people. Buddy worked with the children at a church in Nairobi for two days singing and doing some illusions as well as teaching them about dinosaurs. We then traveled to Kijabe to do ministry there. We worked with two orphanages with over 600 children. We did crafts, singing, and teaching as well as presenting the gospel.

(Just click on this banner to see photo albums from our Africa trip.)
We have a couple of photo albums that we want to share with you. One is on the missions side of our trip and the other is the safari trip that we got to go on just before we left Kenya.

Buddy also did 12 class sessions with Rift Valley Academy. This is where the missionaries send their children to board for their schooling. It is an awesome school and we enjoyed meeting the students and teachers. He also did a music concert for them on Sunday morning with the children and some of their parents. The other team members went out into the community and ministered to them by bringing food to different homes.

One day we climbed Mt. Longonot near Kijabe. It was hard because of the altitude. We had to stop and catch our breath. That gave us time to look around and see giraffes and cape buffalo as well as some hartebeest. At the top you could see down in the volcanic crater. It was about 600 feet down and there were trees and grasses growing there. We could also see a puff of smoke now and then.

We got to go to prayer meetings in the homes of some of the Kenyan people. What a blessing to be able to share with other Christian brothers and sisters. The Kenyan people are so friendly and happy. We loved everyone we met!

A couple of days before flying back, we were able to go on a photo safari at Masai Mara. We love animals and this was a dream come true for us to see them in the wild. We were able to see the BIG FIVE which includes Cape Buffalo, Elephant, Black Rhino, Lion, and Leopard. The hardest to see was the leopard. He is a very shy creature. We saw lots of zebras, wildebeests, impalas, baboons, warthogs, topis, giraffes, hippos, and lots more creatures!

All too soon it was time to board the plane and return home. We thank everyone who was a part of our journey to Kenya. We appreciated your support both financially and your prayer support. It means so much to us. Once you have met the Kenyan people and held the children on your lap, you are never the same.

October Events

October was quite busy for us. We traveled to Schroon Lake in early October. It was really pretty there because they were in their peak fall colors. We had the pleasure of taking a couple of drives during the free afternoons. We drove to Vermont and took a ferry across Lake Champlain. It was a lot of fun and the weather was just great! We also drove to Lake Placid, home of the Olympic winter games in the 80's. The weather again was just beautiful. Buddy did a talk for the entire group on "Dinosaurs - Separating Fact From Fiction". On Saturday night, he did an hour long music concert with songs from his two newest CD's, "Come On Aboard" and "I Am Not Ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ". Of course, he included some of everyone's favorites like, Here Kitty, Kitty, Soar, and The Old Account. He also did a children's workshop on one of the days.

When we arrived back at the museum from Schroon Lake, we did an archery course entitled , National Archery for Schools Program. It was a whole day of learning how to shoot their bows and how to teach students how to shoot them safely. There were five of us taking the training to become instructors. At the end of the day, we had to take a 100 question test. It was hard but everyone passed! We hope to be able to offer this at the Creation Museum sometime next year.


























We traveled to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for a conference at Calvary Chapel Church. Buddy did four children's talks with songs. He had approx. 1,000 children in the four sessions. He did a concert for the entire congregation on Sunday evening. On Monday afternoon, he joined Ken and did some songs with children from grades K-6 at Calvary Chapel. Buddy also entertained them with his pet dinosaur, Levi, along with a fire-breathing dragon.

We are getting ready for our trip to Kenya, Africa. Please pray for us as we travel. We will be there from Nov. 2 thru Nov. 18. Buddy will be working with children from four orphanages and will be speaking at Rift Valley Academy. Rift Valley is the largest Christian School in Africa with approx. 500 students. Buddy will be giving talks and doing some crafts/art with the students. It will be a busy time. We are praying that God will use us in whatever way He choses and He will be glorified!

Our 2nd Montana Dinosaur Dig

We got home last Saturday from our 2nd Montana Dinosaur Dig. This was a lot different weather-wise than the 1st dig in July. It rained two of our digging days so we had to be flexible. Our host, Otis Kline, did a fantastic job with the 17 team members. We did excavate on Tuesday all day. The team members found a variety of cool fossilized things such as dinosaur bones, fish scales, turtle bones, etc. On Wednesday, we went to the Glendive Dinosaur and Fossil Museum where we got a tour and watched a couple of videos. It was raining so this was the perfect day to do this. Buddy and the AIG film crew (Ben Wilt and Ryan Vogel) also worked on getting footage in the museum for the new children's videos that Buddy is doing. That worked out great! On Thursday, we checked out the dig site but it was just too muddy and would be too dangerous for us to climb those hills. We went to Makoshika State Park and enjoyed the beautiful view which showed the geological layers. We also stopped by their little museum where they had some dinosaur castings. After that we headed out to a nearby ranch to look for new dinosaur dig sites. The ground was still a little slippery so you had to be careful. Buddy and the film crew climbed up and down the hills getting some good shots. Buddy put his hand on a cactus while climbing and he is still feeling the prickly thorns!

On Friday our last day, Otis brought in some dinosaur bones that had been plaster-jacketed from the dig site. Everyone got a fossil to excavate out of the rock. This time you used dental picks to scrape away the rock from the fossil. It was very tedious and time consuming but rewarding when you were finished and could see the fossil. There was a lot of really cool things uncovered. I forgot to mention that it snowed on Friday, Sept. 17!

We had such a great group of people on this trip. They came from all over the United States. It is such a privilege for us to get to know this group and you become like family by the end of the week. We had a lot of wonderful teenagers on this trip as well.

We had a wonderful time with our dear friends Otis and Miriam Kline. We even got to see some friends that live in Montana. Michael and Amber and their precious little girl, Caitlin, from Baker stopped by for a visit. Rod and Marilyn Kelly from Ismay also stopped by to see us. It was so good to see everyone.

We are getting caught up at home now and will be leaving for Michigan this Saturday. We will be going to the church that we will be going to Kenya, Africa with and giving a concert. Please continue to pray that the money for our missions trip will come in by Oct. 15. Thanks for everyone who has given toward this missions trip. We deeply appreciate it. We do have our airline tickets bought which is a blessing.

Africa Missions Trip

The Lord has recently given us the exciting opportunity to go to Kenya, East Africa as short term mission team members with the Pleasantview Family Church. We are looking forward to serving in Kenya from November 2 until November 18. We rejoice that God has allowed us to become a part of this team.

In the two weeks in Kenya, we will be working with Bishop Moses Turere of the Global Outreach Center in Kisserian, where we will be working with the people of the Maasai tribe. We will also be working with AIM missionary Ronda Addison in Kijabe where we will be ministering to the Little Lamb's of Green Pastures and other orphans in the area. We will also be spending time with Pastor Paul Manyara, director of the Moffat BIble College and with he staff and students of Rift Valley Academy. We look forward to serving in the following ministries: church planting, schools, church services, women's and pastor's seminars, college ministries, visitation, evangelistic outreaches, singing, and any other area as needed.

Please pray with us as we prepare and as we go to Kenya. Pray that souls will be saved and national believers will be encouraged. Please pray that the Lord will prepare us, supply both our physical and financial needs, an use us to lead people to Christ.

Since this is a missions trip, it is necessary for us to raise support. The cost of the trip is $4,000 per person. We know that raising $8,000 for the two of us is a lot of money, but we are clinging to the promise in I Thessalonians 5:24 which says, "Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it." We are trusting that the Lord will provide all that is needed to accomplish what He has called us to do. The money will be used for the airline tickets, ministry needs, and food and accommodations. Any extra money raised will be given to the missionaries and to the students at Moffat Bible College.

Would you prayerfully consider giving to help us to go and share the gospel of Jesus Christ in Kenya?

If you would like to help financially, please make checks payable to Pleasantview Family Church. Be sure to indicate on the check that the money is for Buddy and Kay Davis. It will be deposited into our individual account. Pleasantview Family Church will in turn send you a receipt for your tax deductible donation. The final deadline for all donations is October 15th. We are very excited about this opportunity to serve. After our return in November, we will send you a letter sharing how the Lord blessed our trip.


Thank you in advance for all of your prayers and support. May God richly bless you!

Please send all donations to: Pleasantview Family Church, 2601 Lacey Road, Dowling, MI 49050

Sevierville, Tennessee Conference

Just before we went on the dinosaur dig, we drove to Sevierville, Tenn. for a "Defending the Faith" Conference. It was about 7 and 1/2 hour drive for us. We arrived on Sunday evening and set up on Monday during the day. Buddy did six children's workshops and two concerts. Our room only held 70 children so it was almost full every time. We had wonderful volunteers who helped with every workshop. We could not do the workshop without these volunteers and we want to thank them again for all of their work. In the afternoon we had some free time so we went to the Smokies with friends and drove through the loop called Cade's Cove. We stopped at an old church and went in. We also found a great Bass Pro Shop and a shop called "Knife Works". Yes, it had every kind of knife you would want but it also had other kitchen related items and on the lower level had cool fossils like shark teeth, arrow heads, civil war relics, to name a few... We enjoyed that.
There were approx. 3,000 people at the conference. Buddy also did a couple of intervews with Cedarville Radio. We arrived home Thursday evening and left for Montana on Saturday....

Dino Dig

Greetings! We are in Glendive, Montana digging up dinosaur bones. We are with a group of 21 that signed up for this adventure thru the Creation Museum. The weather has been beautiful but really warm! We have been digging on a site that was established which means we didn't have to take the top layers off to get to the bones. We had to dig in a gravel layer where most of the bones are found. The group did find dinosaur bones, turtle bones and shells, and a few small teeth, etc. We spent yesterday at a ranch a little ways from town to walk the property looking for dinosaur bones that were washed out. Our leader, Otis Kline, was looking for a possible new dig site. It was a lot of fun but the sun was very hot yesterday. We arrived on Sunday evening and started the dig on Tuesday morning. I am including some photos of the dig. Today is our last day and it looks like a great day outside!!

Recording New CD's

We are down in Charlotte, North Carolina recording two new CD's. The photos show the musicians and Buddy going over the music charts. They finished 12 songs yesterday and will be working all day today on the next CD. The studio, GAT3, has a new, gigantic, awesome control console. I have included a photo of the control panel. We will be busy for the next few days getting the music, vocals, backgrounds, and mixing finished.

What's happening?

Sorry that it has been so long since we have blogged but things have been very hectic. We traveled to Okeefenokee Swamp in southern Georgia the first part of April to go canoeing with a total of 14 people from the Creation Museum. We spent two nights out in the swamp on platforms that were specifically built for camping overnight. The first day we canoed 12 miles mostly against the current. The weather was very hot that first day with no shade. The next day was 11 miles of canoeing but it was with the current and we did have more shade. The third day was 8miles. We are going to offer this canoeing trip hopefully twice a year for people to go with us. It was a lot of fun and we saw a lot of wildlife and plant life.

We have also been traveling quite a bit speaking and doing concerts. We just finished a four day tour in Niles, Ohio and have been to Duluth, Minnesota. We did a wild game supper in Michigan as well as Sunday services. I am including a photo of the men from the wild game supper and also a picture of Buddy singing with the children. They surprised Buddy and got up and sang a couple of his songs for him. It was just great! In Minnesota we did Sunday services and then a workshop for about 156 children on Monday morning. We have enjoyed meeting a lot of new friends. When we were at the museum a couple of weeks ago, we were surprised to see the Troy Christian elementary school students that we had met earlier in the year at their school. They were visiting the museum and had actually spent the night there in a special overnight camp out at the museum. What fun they had!

We are currently in Charlotte, North Carolina getting ready to record two new CD's. The musicians will be ready to start today and they are so professional that they can just listen to Buddy's song and get it right the first time. It is fun to just watch them listen to the song and figure out who does what in the song. Buddy will be singing today as well. Please pray that everything will go smoothly. More on what is happening later...

Goodbye to Mom

Kay's Mom, Nellie Booth, went to be with the Lord on Monday, April 19. We wanted to share some thoughts about her to honor her memory. As a young mother, she became a follower of Christ in 1950 and was baptized in 1954. She loved her church and spent many years at First Church of the Nazarene where she had many friends. She did her best to bring all of her children up to know about salvation and gave them a good knowledge of the truth of God's Word. She never waivered in her beliefs although we often tried to persaude her as kids that we knew better. We often thought she had eyes in the back of her head. We would say, how did she know that?

She spent many nights on her knees praying for her kids and grandkids. Her hope was that all of us would know the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

She believed in us and would stand by us come what may.
She knew we weren't always right but she loved us anyways.

She raised 10 children and made sure we were clothed and fed.
She would take care of us even when we were grown and had left home.
She learned to drive at 40 years of age.
She took care of Hope(her daughter) when she had her transplants.
She took care of her sister, Kathleen, when she was dying of cancer.
She helped take care of Holly's Mom when Holly and her sister had to work.
She went to work when she was 49 years old when Dad died with no job experience other than helping others.
She worked and retired from Ohio Laborers Training Center.

Mom knew the pain of losing our Dad and two daughters, Maxine and Hope.
But her faith never waivered and it remained strong.

The last words that she ever wrote were, "I love my family". She knew her time was short and she made it a point to say "I love you" to every one of her children and many of her grandchildren.

Now her race is won, and she would say, don't cry for me.
That all her children would trust in Jesus was her final plea.
She is waiting on heaven's shore to welcome all her children and grandchildren in.

So what is the heritage that our Mom left us?
She never knew wealth but she gave a precious gift, she gave of herself.
Her testimony of a Christian life, and the love she had for her family,
What more could you want.

Busy March!

Spring is finally here. I just wanted to get you up to date on what we have been doing lately. March was certainly a busy time for us. When we left the museum, we headed to Cambridge, Ohio the very next day. Buddy spoke at the Worship service and Sunday school hour. We were at First Baptist which is the home church of Jason Lisle. His parents and younger brother attend there and we really enjoy spending time with them. They are a wonderful family.
After morning services, we went out to eat with a group from the church. It was about 25 people in all. We enjoyed getting to know everyone. We went back to the church to spend the afternoon getting ready for a concert and workshop. When we arrived there, there was a group meeting downstairs. The pastor showed us to a room where Buddy could go over his power point program and not be disturbed. Pastor gave us his cell number and then left. What we didn't realize is that when the other group left, they set the alarm on. What we also didn't realize is that when we left the room we were in, it would set off the alarm. Guess what! I went to search for the room where Buddy would be doing his workshop. Buddy was working on his music at the time so I was the one who set the alarm off! Well, I immediately called the Pastor and told him the alarms were going off. He gave me the code and password. I tried to enter it and it didn't work. I then tried a 2nd time and finally the alarm stopped. By then, the police showed up at the door. I went to the wrong door at first and thought they had left. However, a few minutes later, they knocked on the door again. This time I went and opened the door and explained to them what had happened. They just smiled and left. I am sure this is not the first time that had happened. The rest of the day was quiet with no alarms. We drove home that night because Cambridge was only a little over an hour from home. We drove back the next day to do a banquet for House of Samuel ministries. Buddy gave his testimony and sang several songs. At 5:00 that evening, Buddy did a sculpturing workshop for about 100 children and adults.

On Thursday, we flew to Fargo, North Dakota. We had heard earlier that parts of Fargo were flooded so we didn't know what we would find. When we flew over before landing, we could see the river had flooded parts of the land but we didn't have any problems. Buddy had to speak at the North Dakota Home School Association's yearly conference. He did four workshops and a concert. There were approx. 800 people in attendance. Buddy's workshops were full each time with about 300 people there. His workshops were for the entire family. His concert was enjoyed by all of the families with lots of children and adults singing along. We met a lot of wonderful families there at the conference. We also caught up with Crystal Litfin and her family. We met Crystal when she volunteered at the Creation Museum. It was great to see her again and spend some time with her and her family. I am attaching a photo of us with her family. It was a wonderful weekend.

We arrived home on Sunday evening and on Saturday we traveled to Normal, Illinois. Buddy did a sculpturing workshop with about 100 children with their parents. He then did a family concert that ended the evening. At this particular church, he could not run his power point from the pulpit and the remote was not working so I had to be back in the control room running his power point. I also had to do this on Sunday morning and evening. Buddy was not used to having someone else do the powerpoint but he did a great job.
On Sunday morning during the Sunday School, the puppet team from the church did a skit using one of Buddy's songs about Noah, "Problem Solved". It was very good. In fact, the team actually won an award for this particular song not long ago. We praise the Lord that he is using Buddy's songs for His Glory.
We decided to drive to the museum and spend the night at our RV after the Sunday night service. Buddy wanted to pick up his small guitar that we would be taking to on our canoeing trip coming up. We arrived home on Monday and started to get things ready for our trip to Georgia. More on that trip later.

May you have a Blessed Easter and remember John 3:16.

Spring is coming!

I have enclosed a photo of beautiful little flowers that are coming up at the museum and a nice spring flowering bush. This is a good sign of spring coming. We have enjoyed nice warm weather for the last two weeks that we have been at the creation museum. The crowds are starting to pick up since the weather has warmed up. All the snow has melted! YEAH!! We have had lots of groups here the past two weeks and have met some wonderful people. We have had good attendance for the workshops and concerts.

We were able to attend our own church last Sunday and it was great to see our friends again. I am actually speaking at Perry Chapel Baptist (my home church) on the 11th of April. The weeks before the 11th, I will be very busy. This weekend we will be in Cambridge,Ohio. I will be speaking Sunday morning at First Baptist for both the worship service and the Sunday School hour. In the evening, I will be doing a concert and then a children's talk. Since Cambridge is only a little over an hour from home, we will be coming home Sunday evening and then returning to Cambridge on Monday to do a banquet which involves a talk and music and then at 5:00 we will be doing a children's workshop. Monday evening we will return home and get ready to fly out on Thursday for a Home school Conference in Fargo, ND. When we arrive home from that, we have a few days at home and then go to Illinois for the next weekend.

We are going with a group from the Museum to Okefenokee Swamp for a canoe trip thru the swamp where we will camp 2 nights in the swamp. They have wooden platforms that we will camp on. We are looking forward to this adventure. We will have photos to share with you when we return. This is a preliminary adventure to see if it is feasible to offer trips to AIG fans. Okefenokee Swamp is in Southern Georgia and it goes into the Northern tip of Florida.

We are at the museum today and will be traveling home later today. Happy Spring!
Well, it is close to March 20th...

Men's Adventures in New York

This past weekend, we traveled to Binghamton, New York for the Men's Adventures. This conference has been ongoing every year for the last 20 years. It is one of the ministries of the Empire State Fellowship of Regular Baptist Churches. Craig Golden is the head of this fellowship and a wonderful leader. There were 926 men and boys at this year's adventure. Buddy spoke on Friday night about his Alaskan Adventure. On Saturday morning, he did his relevance of Genesis talk and also an hour long music concert. In the afternoon, he finished with the Dinosaurs - Separating Fact from Fiction. We sold almost all of the books that were sent for this event. Praise God that the men saw the importance of getting materials in hand to be able to help them defend their faith. There were 5 that received Christ as their savior, ranging from 5 years old to 79 years old. Pray that they will get in a bible believing church.

We were surprised to see how much snow they had. Actually, we had more snow at home then they had there. You could actually see the ground there. The weather going out was OK when we got past the freezing rain in Ohio. Then on the return trip, we got into a little freezing rain but it soon turned into just rain.

We were able to do a Home school concert when we were in New York and also a concert and talk for our good friend, Delores Morgan, who lives in Horseheads.

It was a long trip but well worth it. We are getting ready to go out this weekend but only to the border of Pennsylvania. Buddy is doing a wild game supper and Sunday morning services.

We will be heading to the museum next week on Tuesday. We are working on a new workshop. February is almost over and spring is definitely coming!!

SNOW-SNOW-and MORE SNOW!

We arrived home from the museum on Saturday night to find we were without electricity and had been since Friday night. The snow total was about 16 inches. We have great neighbors who came down and plowed our drive way out. They said that because the snow plows had been working on Henpeck Road, they didn't think we could have gotten into our driveway. Well, the electricity was off until yesterday around 10:30 am. There was an electric line down across our pond. The electric crew had to bring ladder trucks to get up to the top of the pole and string the line back up. It was very cold yesterday morning also!

The house was cold until we got the wood stove going. We have a gas cook stove so making meals was no problem. We had water as well so we were all set. We had kerosene lanterns, candles, and battery operated lights so we could even read. Of course, Buddy practiced his music.

Buddy is fighting a cold. We are staying home today instead of going to the museum. He is going to rest today to see if he can get over this cold. We just found out that the museum was closed today. They must be getting lots of snow down there. We took lots of photos of the snow. It has started snowing again and we may get up to 5 inches before this storm moves on.

Buddy did go out yesterday and got some snow and made snow ice cream. Of course he got the fresh white snow! A lot of people have not idea how good snow ice cream is. Buddy says that it tastes just like home made ice cream and it is so easy to make!

We are going to work on a script for a children's program pilot episode today. It will be on dinosaurs. We would love to be able to make at least 12 or 13 one-half hour children's programs. We need to get the pilot done so that we can get someone to invest in this project.

Hope everyone is enjoying the snow. Be careful if you have to drive in it. Spring is right around the corner......

Welcome Bo

The photo is of our new dog, Bo with Cricket . Bo is a yellow Lab and is 3 1/2 years old. We got him to be a companion for Casey. He is such a loveable and cute dog, we just love him already. Buddy is teaching him to heel and throwing a pheasant decoy for him to retrieve. He is a fast learner. All of the dogs get along great.

Buddy and Cricket got to go pheasant hunting with some friends last week. They harvested 9 pheasants.

We have been doing ministry in the Ohio area. We have been to Tipp City, Troy, and Dupont over the past two weekends. We have been encouraged with all of the churches and schools that stand up for the authority of God's Word. May God bless them for honoring Him. We met some wonderful Christian brothers and sisters.

We are excited about the new songs that Buddy has written. He has over 16 new songs. The most recent ones are on the Books of the Bible and the Ten Commandments.

We are at the museum for the next two weeks. Each week that goes by is closer to springtime! We are looking forward to seeing the spring flowers come up and hearing the spring birds as they return.

Buffy

We had to say goodbye to our golden retreiver, Buffy, on Tuesday, January 12. She was such a sweet dog and never any trouble. She had cancer. In June of last year, we had a tumor taken off her leg and were told that it was cancer but they thought they got it all. Well, it came back in September and we were told it was the type of cancer that is in the blood stream. We didn't have a lot of choices. We chose to keep her with us and keep her comfortable as long as we could.

We were on the road over the weekend doing ministry in Michigan and got home around 1:30 in the afternoon and she died at 2:30. We had a dear friend watch her when we were gone. She came to meet us at the door when we arrived home. We knew that she was very sick and didn't have much time left. She wagged her tail until the end. Buddy was holding her in his arms when she died.

Buffy was 8 years old. She was six weeks old when we got her. We still have Casey (another golden) and Cricket (English Setter). Casey was raised with Buffy and is 8 as well. We will miss her terribly.

One thing that our friend told us about Buffy was that day when he came to let her out and feed her, she did not come to the door. He looked and found her on our bed. Now let me explain that she was too weak to even get up on a low sofa that we had. Our bed is a log bed and very high. There was no way she could get up on that bed but that is where he found her. Casey was with her.

Buffy is mentioned in Buddy's song, I've Got A Warm Heart for a Real Cold Nose and you can see her in both of the Front Porch Gospel DVD's (Summer and Autumn). Our hearts are broken but we were so glad that we got to have her for 8 years.

Happy New Year

Can you believe it is 2010? We are looking forward to an exciting year of ministry. Just a quick note, Buddy's eye is doing great. It has completely healed up.

We were blessed to be able to bring Kay's Mom down to the cabin Christmas day. We did not think that would be possible since she had her stroke. She has really improved dramatically since Thanksgiving. We were not sure she would even be here. She still gets confused but has been able to walk with help. We pray that she will continue to improve as much as she can.

I don't know if I shared this or not but our female retriever, Buffy, has cancer and has really gone down hill since Thanksgiving. She is not in any pain and still likes to take a ride in the mule (4 wheeler with a bed in back). We try to take her every day that we can. But she is not eating well and has lost weight. We know that it is only a matter of time for her but we will love her and keep care of her until then. It is a very sad time for us. We have had her for 8 years and she is so sweet.

We were blessed to get to share some time with dear friends of ours from southern Ohio. We went to their home before Christmas and shared gifts and a great meal with them. We dearly love this family. They are a Godly family that is an inspiration to us every day. We also went to the Creation Museum with them on the 26th of December. That was a great time of fun and fellowship. We loved showing them Bethlehem Blessings. If you missed it this year, please make plans for next year. It is definitely worth making a trip!!

We were also blessed to have some Australian friends stop by and spend some time with us. One couple and their son was able to spend a night with us at our cabin. It was good to see them again. We had met them when we had traveled a few years ago to Australia. We also met another couple of Aussies and their three children at the museum when we went down on the 26th. We really enjoyed seeing them again and finding out how they were doing. We can't believe how fast children grow up. Their children were young adults now!! It was a great time for us to see all of our Australian friends once again. The time was way too short.

We have been working on new children's workshops for the museum and updating some of the talks that I do. We are always updating the talks and trying to find new subjects for the workshops and new crafts for the children to do. Buddy is working also on a new CD that will hopefully be coming out this year. He has 14 new songs that he has been working on. The ministry has for its theme this year, "I am not ashamed". Buddy wrote two songs along those lines and one is the scripture in Romans 1:16. Pray that we will be able to do this CD. We believe that it will bless a lot of people. Of course, there are always some fun songs in with the more serious ones. We like to make CD's that are for the entire family.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."
Romans 1:16

New Metal Dino

Enjoy one of Buddy's newest dinosaurs!!

Bethlehem Blessing

This week has been a very busy one at the Creation Museum. Everyone has been getting ready for the opening for the Bethlehem Blessing event. We went last night and really enjoyed the entire experience. It is a must see event here at the museum. There are two dramas in the Special Effects Theater. One is on Elizabeth with a great actress (Geri Campbell), and the other portrayal is of a Temple Guard. Both are wonderful and very professional. Outside the museum, you travel thru the marketplace and then to Bethlehem where you see Jewish dancers and an archaeologist explaining what he has found thru the light of the scriptures. Then you see Joseph and Mary with the baby Jesus. It is a powerful presentation. From there you travel thru the gardens and enjoy the beautiful lights and find one of the wise men telling about his encounter with the Christ child. Going further you go to the petting zoo and see all the wonderful animals. You won't want to miss this wonderful time here at the museum. The evening events start about 5:30 pm. Oh, and don't miss seeing the new dinosaurs that Buddy made out of metal. The newest one arrived this week and today should get all of the lights on it. It should be lit up tonight. We will check it out!

We had almost 1200 people here for the Bethlehem Blessing event last night. As Buddy and I walked around there were a lot of people who greeted Buddy and lots of children who were excited to meet Buddy and get their photo taken with him. One gentlemen was thrilled to meet Buddy because he played guitar and would often put Buddy's DVD on and play along with him. In fact, his wife told me that she got the DVD originally for her Mom but her husband had taken it to practice along with Buddy so she had to get another one! Another couple recognized Buddy from the Answers Magazine. It was a lot of fun to meet the visitors.

We shared last week about Buddy getting a piece of metal in his eye. He had to go back to the eye doctor this week because it was still bothering him. The doctor found some rust from the metal still in his eye and removed it. He is on two different types of eye drops and has to go to the doctor Monday morning. We were going to go home tonight but will stay here until Monday. Pray that Buddy's eye will be completely restored and he will have not further problems with it.

This week has been special because we have had lots of guests here that were coming to a conference in the Cincinnati area. They came a little early to come to the museum. Buddy had lots of children in his workshops this week and his concerts had lots of people in them. Sometimes at this time of year, the numbers are down at the museum but this week was very special. We even got to meet Kirk Cameron who is the actor that played in the "Fireproof" movie. He told Buddy that he had seen him in some of the videos that Buddy has done. Kirk was given a tour of the museum with Carl Kerby. We enjoyed meeting him.

God bless you this Christmas season.

Christmas Lights

You ought to see the beautiful Christmas lights at the Creation Museum garden area. They have the dinosaur that Buddy finished before Thanksgiving all lit up and it looks fantastic. They are picking up the 2nd metal dinosaur, Triceratops, tomorrow and they will be busy putting lights on it to have it ready for the Christmas Nativity starting for the public this Friday night.

We did a wild game supper in Indiana on Friday night. There were about 140 people (mostly men). They had a great meal with lots of game such as squirrel, elk, deer, turtle, rabbit, etc. with all the trimmings. Buddy did his Alaska - Hunting in the Last Frontier talk and gave a mini-concert. He always gives a gospel message with his talks. 7 or 8 men raised their hands that they made a commitment to Christ that night. That is why we are so excited about this type of ministry. It reaches out to hunters.
May God continue to bless this aspect of our ministry.

Kay's Mom is doing somewhat better but it is a day by day battle. She is on oxygen off and on and the stroke has affected the right side of her body including loss of vision in her right eye. She was able to pick up a water bottle and drink out of it which is a great step for her.

One of our retrievers, Buffy, has cancer and is not doing too well. It is a difficult time.

We are at the museum this week doing concerts and workshops every day. We will be here thru Saturday and then will be off for two weeks. We are going to visit some family and friends over the Christmas break. We are also going to go deer hunting for a day when the 2nd season is in. Kay's brother, Mark, harvested a buck on their property and he said he has two bucks picked out for us. I doubt if we will even see one but you never know. He gave us some deer bolgna and deer sticks which were really tasty!

Hope everyone has a great Christmas season. May we always celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Smokey Mountain Retreat

Thanksgiving evening we traveled down to Kentucky to spend the night before traveling on to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. We wanted to stop for coffee on the way and stopped at least three times trying to find a shop that was open. We did find one but they were closing in a few minutes. We got our coffee and ordered a donut but to our surprise they gave us six boxes of donuts FREE as they wanted to get rid of them before closing!!! Buddy had a big smile on his face and knew this was a great day.

The next day was a sunny travel day down to the Smokey Mountains. We stayed in a gorgeous log cabin in the mountains. It was at the top of the mountains with a beautiful view of the surrounding mountain. We went to Country Tonight variety show that evening in Pigeon Forge. There are several different shows that you can see each night. The next day we spent in Dollywood going to different music shows including one with the Kingdom Heirs, an Appalachian Christmas show, and Smokey Mountain Christmas. We really enjoyed them. We even rode two awesome roller coasters. We stayed until dark just to see all of their Christmas lights. There were thousands and thousands of lights... That night, we went to see "The Miracle" which is about the life of Christ. The next day we went to the Cowboy Church for Sunday services and in the afternoon went to the Ripley's Aquarium. The aquarium had a lot of cool fish and other creatures like cuttlefish, leafy sea dragons, stingrays, etc. We really enjoyed it. We got to touch a horseshoe crab there.
The next day we went to a dinner show that featured the Smith Family. We enjoyed their singing. The weather was quite nice the entire time but it did start raining on Sunday evening and it turned cooler. We traveled back to Kentucky today and the weather is nice and sunny. We really enjoyed our time in Tennessee.