Small World Department

As we await the real manifestation of spring here southern Minnesota, I was reminded of the fact that in many ways we live in a small world. Although the advent of modern air travel has made the world seem smaller geographically, I am thinking of how we often interact with people who just happen to know a friend or family member. Nancy and I experienced several examples of that phenomenon in the last several days.

We ate lunch on Tuesday with friends from the Phoenix area. Our nephew, Nathan Crane, is married to daughter Andrea. It turns out that they are very good friends with missionary Ron Brewer, who was a student here at Pillsbury in the mid-1960s. As it happened, Ron Brewer spoke in Pillsbury's chapel on Thursday morning. In talking to Ron, we found out that his son and wife have been at Grace Gospel Church in Huntington, West Virginia, for the last fifteen years or so. Nancy and I taught at that church's Christian school back in 1983-1984, just before we came to Pillsbury.

On Wednesday night, the BJU Drama Team gave their presentation at Grace Gospel Church here in Owatonna. As I chatted with one of the members of the team, Seth Armstrong, we realized that he had been on the same Mexico missions team that Cynthia has traveled with for several years. Also, Seth is from the same California church that one of our Pillsbury students used to attend. The leaders of the drama team are Isaac and Jill Crockett. Isaac's dad, Leigh Crockett, was our brother-in-law Joe's BJU roommate back in the 1970s.

Finally, it's Opera Week at BJU. This year's presentation is Verdi's masterpiece Rigoletto. As it happens, I was a freshman at BJU in the spring of 1968, and the opera that year was Rigoletto. I had the privilege of playing oboe in the opera orchestra for the performance. In an interview with the arts writer for the Greenville News on Sunday, Dr. Dwight Gustafson reminisced about that performance. He had returned from completing his doctorate at Florida State University in the fall of 1967, so he was getting back into his conducting role at BJU. I consider myself so fortunate to have sat under his tutelage in the BJU orchestra for over fifteen years. A couple of notes [no pun intended!] about the 1968 performance: the title role was sung by a 26-year-old tenor named Sherrill Milnes, who became one of the great tenors of the later twentieth century. And my favorite memory from that performance is that Dr. Gustafson's wife Gwen was the understudy for the soprano lead in Rigoletto, namely Gilda. I don't remember who sang the soprano role during the final performance, but I do remember that Gwen Gustafson was absolutely terrific as the understudy!

As I say in the sidebar to this blog, "The lines are fallen unto [us] in pleasant places." (Psalm 16:6). Nancy and I have been married for nearly thirty-seven years, and we have seven wonderful children and two GREAT grandchildren. We thank the Lord for our family and for our friends, because they have enriched our lives. And God has given us great contentment as he has led us from place to place and ministry to ministry. There is no greater blessing than being in the center of God's will. I trust that you know what God's will is for your life and that you are in the place of His appointment.