Retiree, Death and Bicyclist

Today we visited a retiree, learned about the death of another retiree and then spent time with the guy Glenn rode his bicycle with in 1976 from Dallas to Colombia South America.

We left the “Glamping spot” at 7:00am so we could drive back to the interstate 5, then make a stop at Walmart to pick up some groceries and fill up the gas tank then drive to Sweet Home Oregon to pick Faye.

We had a delightful afternoon with Faye and learning more about her history in missions. She served in Bolivia the same years we were there. We started throwing out names of mutual friends within SAM and GMU. It was fun.

We talked about blessings and challenges we both experienced while serving over seas. We also talked about aging parents.

We then drove towards Newburg, Oregon to visit with retiree Harry J. Harry’s phone number didn’t work and I never got an email reply from trying to connect, so we thought we would just drop by and visit. The address took us to a retirement center. I got excited because then I knew we would finally find Harry.

At the information desk, we learned that Harry doesn’t live there anymore. Then we learned that Harry had gone to live with one of his children then we learned that he had passed away a few months. Harry served many years in Ecuador and Colombia. I’m sad that we didn’t get the chance to meet, encourage and honor Harry. He lived a good life serving our Lord. I would have loved to hear his stories of serving with his wife in Latin America. I pray his family during this grieving time.

Then we drove towards Hillsboro to spend time with Ben and Mariam. Ben and Glenn rode their 15 speed bicycles all the way from Dallas, Texas to Colombia South America back in 1976. A trip of a life time. 4 months and 5,000 miles, 1 concussion, 1 flat tires, many missionaries served and thousands of tracts handed out.. They reflected on many different adventures of people they met and places they visited back in 1976. We throughly loved reconnecting after many many years. We also talked about kids and grandkids. Ben drug out on old scrapbooks of sort of the bicycle trip. What a history book of the trip, receipts, postcards and description of their journey. Very well done.

We even call my dad because he always is bragging about Ben Bakker and Glenn Stewart making this crazy bicycle trip.

All in all, a rewarding, effective and encouraging day.

Next, we checked into our “candle in the window” place about 1/2 hour away.Read more