Reunions

Last night Tim and I went to see my "Quito mom" Helen Broach, who is visiting in the Twin Cities. I last saw her about 3 years ago when she was visiting her friend Ruth Jordan, and she came over to our home for dinner. Last night Ruth hosted about a dozen people who have known Helen over the years and are currently living in this area. It was a delightful evening, especially hearing about Helen's engagement to a longtime friend, Wally Swanson. Helen's husband Dick died about 9 years ago, and Char, Wally's wife, died 2 years ago. Now these friends of 40 years are planning a California wedding this December.

It was amazing all the connections in the room--not only to Helen, but in other ways as well. One couple had 2 children who attended Bethel College with Tim and me (well, only one of them was actually there during our time at Bethel.) Another couple was related to a friend Tim knew from North Park Seminary. We found out that Ruth and Helen both know Elisabeth Elliot quite well, and they were also well acquainted with the men who were martyred in Ecuador in 1956, in fact, Helen went to school with one of the wives.

We shared about our exchange students, including our current one, Inga (Moldova), as well as Marcelo from Quito, Ecuador, and the others--Carla from Bolivia, Mai from Japan, and Noh from Thailand. It was fun to reminisce and hear about others' lives as in more recent years as well.

This morning I picked up our son Mark from the bus stop. He is just returning from a week-long youth convention, and he was happy but very tired (riding on a bus for the past 24 hours from Knoxville to Minneapolis). He seemed to have a new conviction about his faith and I was very happy to hear wonderful things about CHIC (Covenant High Congress)from him. Of course, a highlight was white water rafting. I'm just glad he survived that--but I guess a bigger challenge was surviving the bus ride home--the driver backed up on the freeway after missing an exit, several times, drifted to the side of the road, etc. But now he is safe and sound and sleeping in his own bed.

Till next time,
Suzi