Back from Backus by way of Bagley and Bemidji is a great read.  If you don’t know who Naomi Dunovan is – well here goes.  She has been a columnist with the Grand Forks Herald and plays in the praise band at Immanuel in Grand Forks.  She writes the blog posted above and she helped me put together a program of prayer and scripture and observations based upon my first CD – “A Stable Light is Burning”.  She and her husband Jim came to visit my wife as she was getting ready for open heart surgery and were very helpful.  Naomi hails from the same part of the country that I am from.  We come from the Kramer, Gardena, Bottineau and Willow Creek area, and she is the Aunt of Myrna Baneck, the wife of James Baneck our District President.  Her story above is about a trip she took to Backus Minnesota to do a talk at Emmanuel Lutheran Church where Pastor Ron Carnicom serves.  We have blogged about Carnicom in these pages – see July 11, 2011.
Naomi had gone to St’ Louis for reasons that you will see and sent me a note.  Here it is.
It was nice to see you at the convention opening service. Sorry we didn’t get speak face to face.
Don’t know if you’ve heard that my sister, Lori Duesenberg of St. Louis, is dying of a brain tumor. I am, at the moment, in St. Louis — my third trip since the 14th of May.  We don’t know how long she has so I’m trying to be here as much as possible. I’m going back to the Cities on Thursday then all 10 of the Dunavans will go to a lake cabin in Wisconsin for a week. Jim and I will probably come back to St. Louis after that trip.
Anyway — this morning we went to church at Laclete Groves chapel which is part of Lutheran Senior Services. My sister was in this place for rehab some months ago. I was introduced to the pastor afterwards. I told him where I was from and he proceeded to tell me he was in Grafton for five years. I asked if he knew Bernie Seter. But of course. He said “Bernie has been there for 109 years.” He said to tell you “Hello.”
You probably already know who I’m talking about — Darryl Anderson.
Hope you are keeping cool. It’s been 108 here for days and near that today. The 90 at home sure sounds nice.
Rev. Anderson was the chaplain at the State Developmental Center many hears ago.  He moved on to be a chaplain in Rice Lake Minnesota I believe and is now serving Naomi’s sister.  Remember her in your prayers and thank God for all the dedicated chaplains in our nursing homes, rehab centers, hospitals, prisons and those with the Armed Forces.
This is the reason we started this blog – “This little site is designed to help us to see how the body of Christ functions, communicates, works, struggles and cares up here, in this part of God’s creation. Up North, where you might see the Northern Lights, we are hoping to give glimpses of God’s light shining in our hearts as we “live together as Christ’s people”. We hope to hear from those people in the months and years ahead as paths “cross” and partnerships are formed and we witness, show mercy and share our “life together” in Christ.”