Life from Alexandria, Minnesota

We're at the home of Keith and Jennifer Martinson. She was a college classmate of my wife's. They have 2 boys (Judd and Jeremiah) and live on a beautiful lake. While swimming yesterday, our son was exciteda about touching a frog for the first time. He's discovered a number of things on this trip, including seedless grapes and refrigerators that have ice and water that you can get without opening them.

Last night the Martinsons took us to a concert by the African Childrens choir at their church. They were delightful and excellent. They do a good job of using art to raise money and awareness of the needs of children in Africa.

We've been on the road a lot this week. After sharing through video footage some of our work in Paris with our I.T. colleagues in Elgin, Illinois on Monday morning, we drove 4 hours to Lacrosse, Wisconsin (border of Wisconsin and Minnesota) to the home of Eric and Linda Haskins. It was good to see them and their daughter Mya again.

On Tuesday we drove 2 1/2 hours to Minneapolis and stayed at the new home of John, Marna, Benjamin, and Andrea Jacobi. John is a childhood friend from Michigan who is the new pastor of an Evangelical Covenant church in Minneapolis. One interesting stat about the Twin Cities is that 1 out of every 6 residents is a first generation immigrant. There are lots of non-Scandinavian background people now living there, including a large Somalian population. I guess this is one reason why I.T.'s ministry to refugees is now based in the Twin Cities.

Today we plan to drive to Aberdeen, South Dakota and pass through a tiny bit of North Dakota in getting there. These will be our 7th and 8th states on this trip.

I messed up yesterday and put in the Martinsons' old address, so we lost an hour in driving time and getting lost. This was the first glitch of this trip. However, I notice that I don't have much extra energy with all the domestic responsibilities of packing and unpacking.