The chapel in the background belongs to one of the wards in Hobart, Tasmania. On the island of Tasmania is where my father, Jeddie Archibald Bingham, served as a missionary ninety years ago. Sharon, Alan, VerNon & Bernice Bingham visited here on March 4, 2007, while cruising from Australia to New Zealand. The following Sunday we were able to visit an area where Alan served as a missionary forty-five years ago. That was in Opotoki, New Zealand, on March 11, 2007. We even met people that joined the church because of Alan's efforts.

We landed in Tauranga, New Zealand, on March 11, 2007. Here you see Bernice, Sharon and Alan in front of the ship. We caught a taxi which took us to a ward in Tauranga where we attended church. We met some wonderful people who helped us get a rental car and make arrangements to get together with some of Alan's contacts in another area where he served.

If you look closely, you can see three baby humming birds in the nest on our porch. The next time I went to look, the birds were gone and the nest was empty. That is what happens to all parents. The birds leave their nests and they become "emptynesters".

Bernice found that a humming bird was using the flower pot on our front porch for a nest. The little birds hatched on Easter morning. Believe it or not, they have grown and have left the nest in just a short time.

On May 11, 2007, at 1:30 p.m., VerNon underwent surgery to have a pacemaker installed to make sure his heartbeat would always be sixty beats per minute or more. This was necessary because he had experienced some dizziness and actually had passed out once and came very close to it a few other times. This was done on the same day that Bernice under went surgery to remove her female organs. It has been a week now and we are in the healing process. VerNon had his stitches removed today, May 19, and will be back to full activity one month from today. Bernice has a doctor appointment next week to determine how she is doing. It will be five or six weeks more before we can consider traveling north. The good news is that there was no evidence of cancer found during Bernice's surgery. She has been trying to regain strength by resting, eating and walking. Today she feels better but gets tired easily. We have had a lot of people praying for us and we know that it has helped us. Thanks to all of you who have been praying for us.