Happy New Year 2010

CHRISTMAS DAY 2009. This past year seems like it’s been 2 years long. 2 days after Christmas 2 years ago was our big truck accident - Dec. 27, 2007. Our truck was totaled in the accident, and we got a different one in Feb, 2008. Peggy drove solo till June, 2009. At the end of that time she was quite burned out on trucking. She made plans to start a program to host kids from Asia for English camp in our home. She had made a trip to Hong Kong and Korea to recruit in March, 2009. She stayed with friends in both places. A young Chinese woman, Kathy Sitt, from our church in Carbondale helped Peggy with planning the program. When Peggy traveled to Hong Kong, she stayed with Steve & Kathy Sitt and their two kids. In Korea Peggy stayed with Eunice Yoon, who graduated from SIU-Carbondale and had been part of our church. As a result of Peggy’s visit to Korea, Eunice’s 25-yr-old son Joey came to stay with us May-October. He helped with the English camp, mostly as cook. We had 4 students. Rose (18) from Hong Kong, was already in Carbondale staying with her Aunt Kathy Sitt. Hanna (14) came from Hong Kong. Twins David & Irene Kim (11) came from Korea. They all stayed with us in July/Aug. It was successful, but not as big as originally hoped. Joey was with us 6 months and plans to return to study cooking here at Rend Lake College. English Camp ended with a trip to Disney World. It was a good beginning, and Peggy is planning to do these camps every summer. However, this summer without the truck income, we were stretched to the brink. My disability checks were helpful but fell short of meeting our needs. Since the accident, as soon as I was able, I spent all my time at our antique mall, which we bought just before the accident. It was to be Peggy’s project and I was to drive the truck until the mall would support us. Marion Antique Mall has come a long way in the past two years, but is not yet profitable enough. We see great potential, however, and expect this business to provide for us when we are old – hmmm, that’s now isn’t it. After English camp we needed to get back to trucking. Solo is lonely, but teaming is fun! The blue 1997 Volvo which we had bought after the accident died in Virginia a couple months ago. Immediately our friend Floyd Schuetz offered us his 2001 white Volvo, which he loves, but sacrificed because of our need. He has another truck – a gorgeous Peterbilt. We got into our new truck so quickly, we didn’t even miss a paycheck. Since July, we have an excellent manager at Marion Antique Mall, allowing us to be gone most of the time. Sandie loves selling and is doing a great job at keeping things running and pulling people together to decorate and arrange the inventory. She does prayer walks around the building every day. We keep in touch with her constantly by phone. Our two small dogs KOD (Ken’s Other Dog – pronounced Codie) and PAD (Peggy’s Adorable Dog – pronounced Patty,) are always with us. We love to get through Omaha to visit Mom, who turns 90 the day after Christmas. A prime advantage of trucking is bouncing around the USA and being able to drop in on friends and family. You might be next! It feels so good to get home every couple weeks… I am playing viola in Paducah Symphony. My dream is to be able to teach and perform music full time, when the mall is viable & trucking is done… God has been faithful through this entire ordeal these past 2 years. Things are looking up as we move into 2010. Praise the Lord! Trucking is a great adventure, taking us to every part of the USA and allowing us to meet all kinds of folks. Music opens doors. I fiddle everywhere we stop – truck stops, rest areas, repair shops, companies where we pick up & drop, churches… We have a million stories about how God works in our lives.

Merry Christmas / Happy New Year!
Ken & Peggy