They first met working in the kitchen at King’s (Summer of ’67) – While peeling tons of shrimp (peel two, eat one) and making thousands of Swedish meatballs (and seeing how many we could make stick on the ceiling). They were married August 15, 1970 in the First Baptist Church, Bloomfield, NJ by Pastor Dave King and Dave's Dad.

Since then they have lived in Ossining (basement apt.), Mahopac (rented 1st floor of a house), Somers (our 1st house – “An adorable English Cottage with a babbling brook” – actually a drainage culvert), and curently reside in Mahopac, NY (Their home for the last 24 years, which is how long it took to get rid of the avocado green bathroom). Somehow they never found their way out of NY.

New York – What can you say?  It has everything – ocean, mountains, Great Lakes, little lakes and streams, cities, farming, seasons, wineries, fishing, the highest taxes around, the Clintons, crime, the greatest City in the world, diversity, and is the victim of the greatest act of terrorism our country has experienced.

Thier current family situation finds Laurie and Nate in Richmond, VA where Nate is a Jr. High School Guidance Counselor and Laurie is looking for gainful employment.  Eric and Emily are in Wayne, PA where Eric is a Pharmacy Tech at CVS and Emily works with kids with ‘Problems’.  Heather lives with them in their ‘mother-daughter suite’ and is currently between jobs (that means she got laid off and is looking).
 
 

Nate & Laurie Mackey

Heather Bell

Eric & Emily Bell

2002 "Year in Review"

Greetings in the Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ:

Let us not forget that it is His birth we are celebrating and that one day, at His Name, every knee will bow to acknowledge that He is Lord.  We praise God for His incomparable Gift and are truly blessed to know that all of our family members have already bent the knee and acknowledged Him as their Savior.

I have been enjoying 2 years of retirement immensely and I think Kris enjoys having me around.  I have kept pretty busy and haven’t been bored for more than five or ten minutes on a couple of occasions.  Sometimes I wonder how I was ever able to get anything done when I had to run off to work everyday.  Its great not having to set the alarm and even better not having to get up early to shovel snow off the driveway.  So what keeps me occupied?  Even with our new church building completed, I seem to be the ‘handyman on call’ and usually spend several hours a week fixing, installing, replacing, setting up, unclogging, or building something.  I guess if you’re a little handy and a little knowledgeable, you get the job.  I have also been team teaching our adult Sunday School class and attending our Men’s Bible study class on Thursday mornings – the only day I need to set the alarm!  As a church deacon (soon to be renamed elder) I meet with Pastor and the other deacons regularly and with the trustees (soon to become deacons) monthly.  We have been going through a complete rewrite of our church constitution and articles of faith to bring it more in line with the early church.  Hence, elders and deacons.  It has been an arduous task but very rewarding.  We consider ourselves to be a ‘reforming’ Baptist church and are seeking to have a Biblical basis for everything we do.  Although we have not grown in numbers, we have experienced great spiritual maturity in our members and I believe the Lord is truly working among us to produce great fruit for Him.  We just launched a church website (redmillsbaptist.org) which you might want to check out.

In addition to church activities, we have been working on the house.  The apartment needed painting before Heather moved in so she picked the colors and we got that done over a period of weeks.  (Yes Benner, I said weeks - some of us are not professionals.)  And finally, after 24 years, we tore everything out of our avocado green bathroom and redid it with new fixtures, plumbing, sheetrock, lights and wainscoting.  It really looks nice (if I do say so myself).  Since we changed the bathroom door trim, we now need to decide if we’re going to go through the house and change all the trim and doors, repaint and install new carpeting.  One thing just leads to another!   Maybe we should put the house on the market and let someone else make the decision.  I again spent some time this summer working as a mason’s helper for a friend of mine.

Kris continues as secretary, assistant treasurer, pianist and ‘girl Monday through Sunday’ at church along with heading up the Fellowship Committee.  That, along with shopping, cleaning, and keeping tabs on me, keeps her pretty busy.  She stills enjoys reading (at all hours of the night) and makes her weekly trips to the library to see if they have anything new she hasn’t read yet.  Kris’ Mom went to her heavenly home on August 19th after succumbing to pneumonia in the nursing home.  Kris was faithful in visiting Mom several times each week and was there the day she died.  We had a beautiful memorial service on August 25 which was very well attended by family and friends.  On November 29th we had a small family graveside service to inter Mom’s ashes next to her beloved husband Art.  We thank God for His promise that one day He will come to take us all home with Him – first His children whose bodies have died and then His children who remain.  Kris has made up a very nice booklet of Mom’s favorite recipes for the Benson side of the family.

We were blessed by having Laurie and Nate live with us for 6 weeks during this past summer while Nate pursued fulltime employment after completing his Master’s degree.  They accepted a position in Richmond, VA where Nate is a Middle School guidance counselor.  We miss having them here with us – especially Dave who lost a great fishing buddy. Check out the pictures for one of our catches.

Because Kris is the only one in church who plays the piano, we have not been able to get away as much as we might want, but we have made a few trips.  We spent a few days in the Adirondacks this summer with some friends from church, a week in Maine with Heather (Dan also came for a few days), a few trips to Eric and Emily’s, a visit to Nate and Laurie in Richmond in September, and have a trip to Ohio planned in December to attend a wedding and visit Nate and Laurie at Nate’s parents house.

Guess that’s all for now.  Oh, one other thing.  Kris and I just updated our Living Wills and Last Wills and Testaments.  Sorry, but you can only pull the plug if we’re comatose, and you’ll have to wait to see if you get anything!  We love you all and wish you a very blessed Christmas with your families.

Dave and Kris
 
 

Dave & Nates "Keepers"