Dear Family and Friends!
Thank
all of you for your letters and cards keeping us informed about your
lives. In this time of uncertainty with
jobs, and everything else, we are thankful that we believe God is looking out
for all of our best interests (Rom. 8:28).
Here
are some highlights from our last year:
We
visited Zion National Park in Utah for the first time. We had a year membership to National Parks
that would expire at the end of July.
This was a nice place. The rock
formations are like the Grand Canyon looking from the bottom up (almost).
The project I was working on briefly stopped funding. During that time, we went to Alabama to deal with issues at our property. I installed better security cameras that could be viewed over the Internet. I do not recommend X10 cameras. I think Costco has a nice DVR system with cameras.
We
visited Sequoia National Park for Eric’s first time, and were amazed by the
giant trees. This is something worth
seeing! It is amazing how some people
eventually got a clue that these trees should not just be cut down willy nilly
for firewood or construction.
July, we went to Romania 
for our annual visit with Mamica, Taticu (mom, dad) and family, and got to
travel 
a little more than usual 
this time.
We went on a long hike in Bran 
(Dracula-land), where one of Rodica's
Aunt's lives, and got lost in the forest.
See more on youtube (follow links below). We visited a Fortress, where families thinking of divorce were
forced to stay in a room, with one small bed 
, one set of utensils, and not come
out until the problem was resolved. We
understood that there was only one divorce in 400 years during that time. J Maybe we could learn something from this
today.
Again,
my project came to a gap in funding in September. Therefore, we took a trip to New England 
. This was a first time
for both of us, and happened to coincide with the fall colors. On the way, we stopped to see my sister
Colette, and family. 
We were happy to
meet new additions to the family, Jeremy Maycroft, Terra’s new husband, and
Samuel Elliott Knowlton, Jaclyn’s new baby.
He's quite a cheerful little guy.
As is the custom of all babies within eye-and-ear distance of Rodica,
Samuel couldn't stop telling his little stories to her, smiling the whole time.
We
went to see Aunt Noreene and Uncle Ted and had a nice visit with Kathy (our cousin) and her
husband in their new beautiful dream house 
J and daschund-farm J.
Kathy had finally talked me into getting a facebook page started. I am not sure how much time we will have for
that, but we are there now.
Magdalena
came to an AMEN conference (Adventist Medical Evangelism Network) in Atlanta
from Israel, and stopped for 3 weeks at our property in Alabama. Finding it in poor condition, she
recommended we get management help, which turned into new management. We have already experienced positive results
from this, and are grateful.
As
we have been doing for some years, again, the first Sunday of December, we
joined Point Loma Nazarene University’s 200-person choir in Handel’s
Messiah. It was an exciting and joyful
experience.
We
are grateful for God’s love, care, protection and blessings throughout the
whole year.
We
wish you all God’s rich blessings in the coming New Year 2010!
Eric & Rodica http://www.scripturechannel.org/hillis/
Some Youtube clips:
