So - no coincidences. (This has nothing to do, except existentially, with topic at hand. But then, listening to our southern Gospel station, I didn't think a discussion of A. W. Tozer and The Portrait (or is it Promise?) of God fit in to southern Gospel either. Tozer was Elmo Anderson's favorite author to recommend to Joe Vold on internship in Maddock, ND.)]
We had a full-to-overflowing Sunday, and Josh, I was praying for your pastoring/preaching. Thanks for attaching the sermon even if one page was blurry. The church service at the trailer court in Apache Junction was neat - 400 of us listening to a good preacher (Lutheran) and a men's quartet, the King's Men. Reminded me of your quartet, Dan. They were good too! The dinner later on was not a church dinner, but a "Wisconsin Day Dinner" - so how appropriate was that?? Dick met people who knew his cousin on the county board in New London, and one guy actually sat next to him on the county board! And people from Kaukauna, and a guy from Elkhorn who lives near the Raidls where I lost the discussion with Milly the Filly and ended up for 5 days in the Elkhorn hospial. Etc. Cleo, our friend, was having a good day too. She ran into a woman after church who reported that there was just one more bank query to complete before she and her husband could claim Cleo's trailer at Cleo's price. So this is her last year in AZ. I was surprised to learn Cleo is 87. She looks about 70.
The Concordia dinner was magnificent - guess they do this every year. We "happened" to come in late and sit down next to John Pierce, who was the contact person for creating Mom's endowment fund. He knows Stan and Mom very well, so we will be delighted to bring greetings to Stan when we visit him mid-March.
Next to me at the table was a 1954 graduate, who was also at Oak Grove and knew the Volds quite well. Name was Millard Lee, and I had to ask if he was related to Lola Lee, Joe's high school girlfriend, but no. He and his author-wife live in Phoenix and he taught at Paradise Valley Community College - and was just called back to teach physics there, again. That's pretty good for an old codger. His wife's book was about The Blue Garter, a gang of 14 college friends she has kept up with all these years.
Program was a 2009 CC graduate who is in Phoenix now in medical school - a gorgeous girl and so articulate, appreciating Concordia not just for having been one of the few people in her med school class to have actually worked with cadavers, but also the Spanish that enabled her on a mission trip to Honduras.
Music - two faculty members, cellist and pianist, and were they good. The first number they dedicated to "Pam", the Concordia president who died last year but left a terrific legacy that is helping CC get out of its "militant modesty", as Paul Dovre called it.
He is interim president. Gave a glowing picture of the college - i.e. over 800 students in 22 sports (compared to 300 some in 14 sports at MSU and NDSU where the enrollments are much larger) Then he did say the students are very religious - but do not go to church and chapel and a smaller percentage are actually coming from a Lutheran-confirmation class upbringing.
I'm sad about that - but know that is the cultural trend. If there is spirituality, faith - what nurtures it and adds accountability to say nothing of one's inherent need to worship? And why is the name of Jesus not mentioned? We said "Soli deo gloria" plenty of times last night - and sang it in our Concordia hymn - but I guess Jesus is just too southern gospel. And conservative. Ouch. If Jesus isn't our God, Immanuel, we have nothing.
So even in spite of that, I felt that you should be teaching at Concordia, Dan.
Grinch and Brian are thus-named, I understand, because one is green and one brown. And Anne, we loved the additional personality you gave Brian! And Josh, turning it into a Seussian tale. I just look forward to the next round of poetry/diagrams/blogs/short stories. Love, Mom
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