Friends Old & New

I made a very impromptu visit to Colorado Springs today. Colorado Springs is only a little over an hour south of Denver but almost impossible to get to unless you have a car. But a good friend made it possible by picking me up at the most southern stop of Denver’s Light Rail (tram) system, and not only drove back and forth 45 minutes each way, morning and evening, but let me use her car for part of the day.

My main purpose of the day was to visit some dear family friends, Lars and Doreen. Lars and my father met in Sweden in the mid 60s (the story of THAT is amazing!), and served together in an international Christian youth ministry called Youth For Christ. My dad was the European Director at the time, and through his influence, Lars became the British Director. The black and white picture shows them at a Board meeting before a big YFC event in Newcastle in 1969. My dad is on the left and Lars is on the right. Today Lars was preaching at his home church and I decided to attend. We went out for lunch afterwards and had a wonderful visit. Lars is Swedish and Doreen is English - my two favourite countries! A perfect match! It’s precious to me to stay connected to family friends, even though my parents have both passed away.

After we said our goodbyes, I then returned to my other friends, Bill and Andrea. Bill and I had known each other before he and Andrea got married and we have only seen each other once since I moved to England 27 years ago. They moved away from Colorado and then moved back, so I was very excited to see them today and was blessed by their generous spirit in letting me use their car. We had the remainder of the afternoon together, went for a walk in their very rural neighbourhood, caught up with news, ate a delicious dinner and I even got to meet their two very cheeky alpacas! (Those are the ‘new’ friends) It’s wonderful to be able to pick up with friends after so many years and feel like it’s as comfortable as years ago.

The picture in the middle is a panoramic view of some more Denver street art. This example could NEVER be called graffiti! I saw it across the street at the Light Rail station where I had to make a connection on my way south early this morning. The Motorhome on the right was someone doing a bit of ‘stealth camping’, something that is becoming more common these days!