Colorado Springs, CO
Monday, November 9, 2009
I’m hearing that people like the Q & A format for the trip reports. And, since it’s on the web site, it’s easy for people to read. Once again, at the end is a brief day-by-day index of dates and places for reference.
Friends: So this was an NNU Homecoming trip, is that right?
RF: Homecoming actually accounted for 3 of the 6 days at NNU, and 3 of 12 days overall. There were sort of four “segments” -- first of all two days in Seattle, where I went to give an embryo adoption talk at an infertility clinic, then three days in Oregon, where Annette joined me for her dad’s 80th birthday, one day on the road to Nampa, ID with three “people stops” en route, and the six days at NNU. One interesting thing was that there were significant conversations with fellow NNU alumni in all the parts of the trip, not just in Nampa. When I meet with my friend and classmate, Alumni Director Darl Bruner, I tell him about all these folks until he’s heard about all he wants. It’s special to be with Darl in many ways, including the fact that he is first cousin to my good friend Kevin Ulmet, a Treveccan, who now pastors Chicago First Church. So that connects Darl to my world east of the Mississippi, a world that you read about in more detail in the last report.
Friends: Tell us again, what is “embryo adoption”?
RF: Briefly, it is first of all the donation of embryos that remain after one couple is done with their infertility treatments, to another couple, who then have them transferred to the woman’s uterus in a clinical procedure, to achieve pregnancy. “Adoption before birth”, if you will. For more information on embryo adoption, look at www.embryodonation.org, and www.embryoconnection.org. The second site is the collection of information that my Knoxville-based librarian assistant and I have compiled.
Friends: So you got to make a presentation about embryos in Seattle?
RF: In Bellevue, right across the lake from downtown. The infertility clinic there was willing to have us. I went with Ms. Maria Lancaster, an embryo adoption mom who is in charge of the nation’s only church-based embryo adoption agency (see www.adoptanembryo.net). We made the presentation together. I also got to make an embryo adoption presentation to students and alumni at NNU. The School of Science and Math at NNU has a seminar series that I was able to plug right in to.
Friends: In the middle of Homecoming? Did anybody come?
RF: Well, I knew up front that a lot of people might be interested but too busy, so I was okay with talking to just a handful if need be. As it turned out there were over 30, so I was gratified. Those included Dr. Keith Horwood, my accountability partner from Salt Lake City, and his son Evan. They were in Nampa for just one day, and graciously arranged their schedule to be there for me, though they had each heard the talk once before. Several others of my alumni and faculty friends came too, and about 20 students.
Friends: What was the “surprise” in Seattle?
RF: There were two! Five of us had planned a supper in Seattle, and about three days before I left I learned that my special friend Debbie Alexander from Oregon, and her mother, would be able to join us. They were the perfect complement for our group. Also, at 5 am on my day of departure, as I was checking my e-mails I learned that Keith and Karen Horwood were in Seattle and wanted to do lunch when I got there. So we did. A great opportunity, especially since Karen wasn’t with Keith and Evan in Nampa the next week.
Friends: Did you get any rest or “down time” at all on this trip?
RF: I have been doing this long enough to know that most of my trips sound incredibly busy on paper. I find myself thinking that other people’s trips probably are too, they just don’t talk about it. That said, this one really was more intense than most. The schedule accounted for part of this, but it was the depth of the conversations with so many people that accounted for most of the intensity, if you follow what I’m saying.
Friends: The question was whether you had any down time.
RF: Sorry. Yes I did. A wonderful ferryboat ride out to Whidbey Island in Washington, a very favorite place. The rain let up long enough for me to walk around in both the Eby and Casey state parks, stare out at the Sound, relive some memories, and pray. However because this was the first day of the 12 day trip, the energy level ramped up from there, and by the time I came home I was quite bushed. I went “slow speed” at home today (Monday the 9th) and meandered through the mail, finances, discussions with Annette, and unpacking. Took 2 cat naps too. Now it’s 10 pm and this report is the last thing I’ll do before I get to bed.
Friends: Sounds like you caught a lot of rain.
RF: Quite a bit, in western Washington and Oregon. It didn’t bother me. In Nampa, it was sunny most of the time, which has made the Alumni Board happy three years in a row because it helps popularize their decision to switch to an early November Homecoming.
Friends: Before we leave Seattle for good … you had one encounter there that stood out, didn’t you?
RF: Yes, with my friend Bonnie Carpenter. She is children’s pastor at New Heart Worship Center in Auburn. I had not seen her in 13 years. We met in her office for two hours and “caught up” real good.
Friends: Was she one of the singers in the NNC quartet “New Song” in the 1970s?
RF: Yes! Bonnie, Kathy, Sue B, and Sue G. as they were called then. They traveled for the school in the summers of 1974 and 1976. We are working on having them sing (after all these years!) at our 35th year class reunion at NNU in 2011. It’ll take some doing, because Kathy teaches in Germany and usually comes to the USA only in the summers. Hopefully with some planning, and this much lead time, we can make this work. Or, at the very least, make connection by Skype. Another thing that I’m excited about is that the NNU music department has the technology to clean up the 1974 New Song cassette tape and put it on CD so they can refresh their memories of the songs and rehearse. My son Dawson interns with the professor who does this, and may be able to work on this project with him!
Friends: Let’s talk about your son. What year is he in at NNU?
RF: He is a senior. On track to graduate in the spring, and doing well. He’s not chosen “roles of visibility” at NNU such as student government or dormitory residential assistant, nor has he traveled for the school. But throughout his four years I’ve heard very positive, heartwarming comments from those who know him. His major has switched from computer science to music and now to commercial music, in which he’ll earn his BA. It’s been explained to me that it’s an “entrepreneurial degree” – doesn’t lead toward one obvious job as a nursing or a music education major would, but could be used for many things. Enough people have assured me that a college degree has lots of job value outside its major, that I’m good with it.
Friends: Does he still date the young lady he was with last year?
RF: Yes! Lydia Miller and he are just coming up on the two year mark. She has been great at keeping him organized, and he has been great at keeping her encouraged. She too will graduate in May, with an English major. Her parents Daren and Sonya Miller are my colleagues in the NNU Class Agent program, which gives us a chance to get together each year. We met for Sunday morning breakfast this visit and had some good prayer time for ourselves and our “kids” – well maybe we should say “our students”.
Friends: There isn’t time to go over Homecoming (nor the Class Agent meetings) blow by blow, since much of it is similar from year to year … but was there anything about this Homecoming that was especially unique?
RF: For the first time in several NNU trips, I did not have high school students with me. So, I concentrated instead on meeting and praying with college students from Colorado. For the Homecoming population generally, the fall NNU drama is going to be by far the most memorable item. It’s called “Cinderstein”. I can’t do it justice here, but when a prince who says he is finally convinced he wants to marry a woman for her brains rather than because “she’s hot!!” fails to notice that Dr. Frankenstein has replaced Cinderella’s brain with that of a cat, well, you are going to laugh a lot.
Friends: Is it really true that they added an extra performance to the schedule?
RF: The cast themselves insisted on that when they learned that 200 people had been turned away from what was to be the final performance Saturday afternoon. They did another one right after the last one with just enough time to drink some water and re-do their stage makeup. I don’t think this ever happened at NNU before.
Friends: So the drama was your favorite Homecoming event?
RF: Though I enjoyed the drama very much, the NNU volleyball team’s win over Western Oregon topped my list. I’ve been committed to pray specifically for the lives and futures of three players on the volleyball team since they were our guests in Colorado in September. It was painful when we lost to Western Washington on Thursday night. So Saturday night’s win was definitely sweet. I sat with five fellow alumni at that game – Jim, Shelley, Paul, Nancy, Cindy – each special to me in a different way.
Friends: Did you catch all the students you were looking for?
RF: I caught nine of the ten young Colorado men I wanted to meet and pray with. The last was one I thought I could snag after the music concert on Friday night, but he got away. My son graciously agreed to follow up with extending my greetings and prayer support to him. Dawson is free to use his own approach and style in that, doesn’t have to do it like his dad. In addition, I got a short visit with a young woman from Alaska, who’s been mentored by my long time friend Mike Zahare, and a bit longer visit with two young men friends who graduated NNU earlier this decade and now hold positions of responsibility with the school.
Friends: Did you forget to mention the one engaged couple?
RF: Thanks for reminding me! Yes, NNU was kind to let me sign Eddie and Robin up for the Alumni officers’ banquet as “my family members”. We wedged a brief but fun prayer time in right before the banquet.
Friends: So how about your visit to Oregon? Was Annette able to join you?
RF: She sure was. That was very special. If you recall, years ago I traveled from Seattle down to Oregon to court Annette, and on this trip, as I neared Vancouver, Washington on the way to meet Annette’s plane, it suddenly occurred to me that I was re-living an important piece of my past. Hearing that after she landed, Annette said, “I wondered if you would think of that.” The Oregon visit was good for us. Annette works so hard here in Colorado that it was very therapeutic to spend some days together in a place where managing domestic affairs wasn’t the order of the day.
Friends: Did you succeed in surprising your father-in-law for his 80th?
RF: It was a partial surprise. Dad and his wife Dorothy knew Annette and I were coming. The arrival of Annette’s two sisters and their families (from a couple hours’ drive away) was a surprise. Dad repeatedly said, “Nothing like this has ever happened to me before.” I’m so glad we grabbed the opportunity to do this. They find it difficult physically to get to worship service by themselves, but because we were there to assist, we all made it to church and got a lot of warm greetings and love from their friends there.
Friends: Did your flights go okay?
RF: The first day, we had to ride through another of Colorado’s snowstorms before breaking into the clear over Idaho. The first 30 minutes out of Denver were the roughest flying I have gone through in several years. The pilot did the right thing, though, just kept on a rapid and steady ascent until we finally cleared out of the mess at 33,000 feet. After that the flight was fine. Coming home, the weather was great and flying was enjoyable. I had good conversations on all my flights. From Boise to Denver on the return a very dedicated Christian, older man, fellow Nazarene, was in the “C” seat on his way to connect to a Holy Land tour. In “B” was a young LDS man and we apologized to him – in jest – that he was “surrounded”. The three of us enjoyed several different lines of conversation during the course of the flight – even though I was sleepy by then.
Friends: And you finally got home.
RF: That’s right. On landing in Colorado Springs we were informed that everyone’s luggage on that whole flight would be coming from Denver on the next flight, an hour and a half later. Annette was already on her way after me, so I went home with her, had prayers with her and Monica, and came back for my suitcase. After that I was really sleepy!
Friends: So we should let you go to bed. It’s after 11:00 now!
RF: Yeah, I think that would be a good idea. Good night!
Friends: Good night!
Travel Itinerary Synopsis:
Wednesday, Oct 28 -- fly from CS thru Denver to Seattle. Vietnamese lunch with Keith & Karen
Horwood, put them on plane back to Salt Lake, then continue by road and ferry
to Whidbey Island, a very favorite place, to retreat for awhile.
Thursday, Oct 29 -- Seattle area: run at Greenlake, and breakfast, with
my long-time friend, John Osborn; noon lecture at Bellevue jointly with Maria
Lancaster from Embryo Adoption Services of Cedar Park, 3:00 - meet my friend,
Bonnie Carpenter, at the church where she works; 7:00 - dinner with a special
group of college friends from NNU days
Friday, Oct 30 – quick visit in Centralia WA, church ofc then to Portland
airport to pick Annette up, as she flew from Denver to meet me; on to
McMinnville to visit our friend Diane Lockwood, then on to Annette' mother's in
Stayton
Saturday, Oct 31 -- day with family in Oregon, end up at Annette's dad's in
Sutherlin mid-afternoon
Sunday, Nov 1 -- breakfast with friends Dennis & Barb Peterson in Roseburg;
worship with Dad and Dorothy at Calapooia Free Methodist, afternoon 80th
birthday celebration for Annette's dad; back to Stayton to Annette's mom's
Monday, Nov 2 -- put Annette on plane in Portland back to CO; head for NNU,
Nampa, ID. Visits en route were at Portland, Kennewick, and Baker City
Tuesday, Nov 3 - Sunday Nov 8 -- at NNU. Campus visits, campus business,
time with Dawson, meet & pray with student friends; Homecoming celebration
on the weekend. Worship with Dawson at Nampa Bethel church, lunch with
long-time friends Michael & Glenda Duggan, fly home arriving CS about 8:30
pm.