Self

Husband and I were excited to give a greeting and an update from a mutual friend to an acquaintance of ours. We enthusiastically launched into the news from our mutual friend, but our acquaintance didn’t fully engage.  We were disappointed when she looked past our faces and over our shoulders to what was going on…

“You’re going to H”

The self-possessed, nicely dressed, serious older gentleman beside me rose and was handed the microphone.  What came out of his mouth arrested the attention of all present.   “I’m Art S.  On a Monday morning in the third grade my friend, Jeanie, said to me, ‘Art, you’re going to hell.’  Wow.  That was a hard…

Goodbye

Yesterday we got an early morning call.  Our friend’s voice on the other end of the line was sober.  “I have bad news.  He’s gone.”   We felt sad for his family. And for us.  He had been a good friend for over 12 years.  We had spent every other Sunday afternoon with him and…

Cam Rahn Bay, Vietnam, 1971:  A 20-year-old GI is baptized in the warm South China Sea by his chaplain on Easter.  This is a turning point in his life.  He later asks his chaplain where he should go for training to serve God with his aviation skills when he returns to the US.  The chaplain…

Together

  The call had come while we were at a memorial service on Saturday for an elderly relative by marriage.  We celebrated the fact that she is now with her husband of 67 years who passed just 7 months before her.   As soon as we were in our car, we listened to the voicemail.  It was…

Hari Paskah

It was Passover/Easter in the Spring of 1982 in Bandung, Java, Indonesia.  We had been living in this bustling Asian city of 6 million since the first of the year in order to attend language and culture training.  Now it was a holiday and we decided to celebrate with some of our new friends.  We…