Dear Friends, Greetings! We praise God for the wonderful time we have had for these few months in the States. It has been a whirlwind of visits with family, friends, supporting churches, etc. We left Liberia and arrived at the Dulles airport in Virginia mid-June. Our son Jared met us with his vehicle and took us to our son Nathan’s house in southern Virginia. What a fun way to start our visit! For a week and a half we enjoyed our grandchildren and prepared for our road trip throughout the United States.  
Our first stop on the trip was in Sweetwater, Tennessee, where we picked up Nancy’s twin sister. Nancy and Karen were practically giddy with excitement as we began the five weeks of time that Karen would be with us. With us in Liberia and Karen in Tennessee, it is a rare thing for them to have extended time together. It had been a great joy to visit dear family, friends and supporting churches. We’ve renewed relationships with so many who have so faithfully cared for us. We were able to visit a number of missionary coworkers from by-gone years. We attended the annual Fourth of July picnic in Whitewater, Wisconsin where Nancy’s mother’s side of the family gather. Nancy was able to see many of her relatives and friends from childhood while in southern Wisconsin. Following a week and a half there, we moved on to Minneapolis where we were able to enjoy fellowship with my family and friends for three weeks. Perhaps the most special treat of our time in the States was Jonah’s time with his biological brother in Lincoln, Nebraska. Josh, fourteen months older than Jonah, was adopted by a sweet family before Jonah became a part of ours. While Nancy and I traveled to Oklahoma for a long weekend with a supporting church, Jonah had an absolutely fabulous time with Josh.  
On our way through Kansas we stopped to visit with a family who had adopted one of the children we fostered right after the war ended in Liberia. We were thrilled to see how well this precious girl (now a young lady) was doing.  
Our daughter Melodie and her family were also back from their mission work in Kenya for two months. We are so thankful our families were able to connect in Florida for a much-too-short visit. Because they were staying near Melodie’s husband’s parents (Steve and Carol Kejr), for the first time ever, all of her children were with both sets of grandparents at the same time.  
For our travels, we were able to use a vehicle repaired by our son Nathan who buys cars and fixes them with his pastor’s son. All in all, we put 11.900 miles on the car. We thank God for His protection over the many miles. We had a near-catastrophic event a few weeks ago as we traveled from Florida to Tennessee. After spending the night near Atlanta because of a broken belt, we were excited to be on the road again and headed to our next destination. To my great surprise, as we drove down the middle lane of a freeway, a spare tire came bouncing towards us across the traffic lanes (Jonah says he saw it fall off a truck). Because of heavy traffic, I had no choice but to drive straight into it. The drivers around us saw what happened and made room for us to limp to the right shoulder of the highway. An assessment revealed that while Nancy, Jonah and I were fine (praise God!), the impact tore off the right side of the front bumper cover, pushed the radiator and fan back and lacerated the back right tire. It took a while for the sheriff to arrive and even longer to get the vehicle towed to a repair shop. After some quick repairs at the shop the next day, the car was declared drivable, and we drove the last hour to Nancy’s sister’s house in Tennessee. Since we had over a week there, I spent the time getting a new tire rim, new tires and a (used) replacement bumper cover.  
Jonah and I left for Liberia on September 14 and Jonah began school on Tuesday, the 19th. Our daughter-in-law recently had a significant back surgery so Nancy is staying to help care for the family, specifically our grandson Micah who is 21 months old. She will return to Liberia mid-October. Please remember the following items in prayer:
- Jonah and I as we survive in Liberia until Nancy’s arrival in Mid-October..
- A successful recovery from back surgery for our daughter-in-law Kelsey.
- Jonah in his freshman year at Cyber Ed Christian School.
- Our finances.. The car repairs and our other expenses have put us behind.
In His service, Mark, Nancy and Jonah Sheppard | 
