News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 26 - 43 of 43
Dear friend, It’s been quite a while since I’ve written. I thought I’d answer a question that folks ask me. The question I get asked the most often is, “How is retirement?” Most often my response is, “Well, I’m pretty tired.” I miss the residents at the care center and I miss making a difference in their lives and in the lives of those that I would meet through my work as the chaplain for the hospital, care center and hospice. Many members of our community have told me ho...
Be assured of this one thing: I love spring! Recently I took a pole of my grandkids of what their favorite season is. Kami likes fall because of the pretty colors. Karter prefers summer because there's no school and he likes to go swimming. Kord likes spring because it is fun to play outside. Kace is keen on summer because of rodeos. Knox prefers spring because his birthday will soon be here. Katy and Ila love summer because they get to go swimming. They live in Miles City...
I’ve got to admit for a people person like myself, self-distancing has been a challenge. Living three-and-a half miles from the nearest neighbor helps. I’ve done a lot of sewing projects and cleaned out areas that were long past due. My mind has gone back to some thoughts about self-isolation in history. The first is 1918 and the Spanish Flu Epidemic that WWI soldiers returned home from Europe with. In reading “In Years Gone By” about homestead families in the Simpson and Cot...
5,388 Miles • Plus: 22 Days • Plus: Six Airports • Plus: 12 Planes • Plus: 28 Amazing, Awesome Students • Plus: Wonderful Co-worker and Four Astounding Professors • Plus: No Sickness or Illness • Plus: Answered Prayer upon Answered Prayer upon Answered Prayer • Equals: One Old Lady's life that has been changed forever! The above pretty much sums up my recent trip to Myanmar and Hong Kong. Truly my life has been changed. I am so grateful for those who supported me fi...
"So, you had a good trip?" a friend recently asked at the grocery store. "Oh yes. I had a great trip!" I answered. "Even with being stopped by the immigration officials and having to return to Hong Kong?" my friend asked, inquiring a little deeper. "Yes, even with all those troubles. It just got better and better. I believe we made a difference in the students at Faith Theological Seminary. And without a doubt, I know they made a difference in my life." "How is that, Ila?"...
Everything seemed to be going pretty well. Because of the recent protests and riots, I was nervous about traveling by myself to Hong Kong (population 7.400,000). The Hong Kong airport was closed to residents coming into the airport to pick up visiting passengers. But I found my way outside and met up with long-time friend and 40-year missionary in Hong Kong, Linda Smyth. I stayed a few days in Hong Kong and then Linda and I boarded a plane to Yangon, Myanmar. We would stay...
When you read this, I won’t be around. I am bound for Asia: Hong Kong and then onto Myanmar (Burma). It is probably the longest, scariest trip I have ever taken. If you are a praying person, please stop and say a prayer for me. It isn’t the first time I have been to Asia. In 1974, I was getting ready to graduate from Bible College when I was asked to join a mission team for the summer in Hong Kong. There were four girls and two guys on our team named “The Harbingers” (Messen...
Forgive me, Lord. The other Sunday at church I was looking around the congregation instead of honoring You with my heart and mind during the music worship time. I couldn't believe who I saw across the way! So, I impetuously left where I was standing and walked around to the center aisle to get a better look. I recognized her sister, who regularly attends, but I still wasn't quite sure. Closer I went and finally I blurted out, just below the volume of the worship music, but so...
"Five weeks together?" they asked. "You spent five weeks together in a pickup camper? No one else? Just the two of you. Wow!" To which I responded, "Yup, and we're still married and still friends ... most of the time." For the past 30 years, my husband Rod and I had dreamed of taking another trip to Alaska like we did in 1983 - with three kids ages 5, 2 and 1 month - and 1989 - four kids ages 11, 8, 6 and 3. It all came together for Rod and I after we semi-retired and turned...
Perhaps because of my own name, I’ve always been interested in names. Several years ago I was visiting with my friend Terri Magelssen. “My sister Roilene was here this summer,” she said. “Wait a minute.” I stopped her, “You have a sister named Roilene? I went to high school with a Roilene Heimbigner.” “One and the same,” Terri answered. Then she went on to tell me that Roilene often returns to Havre in the summers to visit her son Brad Holland and his family. Since the...
"Amazing. Isn't it? How we're led to the place we really should be?" Recently I was privileged to share with two of my Havre High School Class of 1970 classmates, and this is the quote that I was left with as we concluded our conversations. The idea for this article came to me as I was driving the care center bus back to Havre. I'd just met up with a classmate that I hadn't seen in years, Maureen "Morb" Callahan Wicks. We had taken residents to the Senior Center in Chester...
A dream come true. A dream come true. That’s what happened to me a couple of weekends ago. Something that I thought would never be possible for me again … happened. I rode a horse. After three knee replacements, I thought my horseback riding days were gone. But thanks to the gifted talent of local orthopedic surgeons (Dr. Cleary for the left knee and Dr. Donaldson for the right knee), I can walk and move better than I have for years. Shedding 65 pounds has helped tre...
For the past three months I’ve been in search of the nine Debbies that I graduated with in the Havre High School Class of 1970. They were Conroy, Duty, Dykstra, Engdahl, Greytak, Grodahl, Kuhr, Koefod and Jones. In July, I wrote about Debbie Kuhr Walters, Debbie Dystra Ralston and Debbie Koefod Healy. That was followed in August by Debbie Engdahl Bricker, Debbie Grodahl Baker and Debbie Greytak Lee. What an exciting and blessed journey it has been. Some of the Debbies I k...
Darla Jean and Darryl James. Darryl James and Darla Jean. Now there are two twin names that just roll off your tongue. Darryl and Darla Smith are the fourth of five sets of twins that I’ve been privileged to write about and with whom I graduated in the Havre High School Class of 1970. It seems that in late January 1952, Mrs. Smith found out she was expecting twins. Twins! She spent the next two weeks crying. Darla arrived February 9 in Scobey, Montana. One hour later Darryl j...
Just two weeks before her delivery date, Genevieve Haugen found out she and her husband would soon be adding twins to their family. The twins would be joining older sister Judy (Molitor). On Oct. 1, 1952, Dr. Elliott delivered Marlene, followed by Darlene five minutes later at the Kennedy Deaconess Hospital in Havre, Montana. Marlene and Darlene Haugen were one of the five sets of twins who graduated with the Havre High School Class of 1970. Their parents decided that it...
Was anyone else impressed with the number of twins in the Havre High School Class of 1970? Maybe it was because they were such genuine people, such individuals. You would hardly know they were related.Sometimes they were together, most of the time they weren’t. Except for one set of identical twins, they didn’t even look too much alike. As I recall, the five sets were: Gary and Tary Richardson, Mary and Martha Clancy, Daryl and Darla Smith, Sharon and Sharlotte Dorcheus and...
Twins are intriguing. My maternal grandmother was a twin, and mom had twin cousins. I have twin nieces (Kimberly Renee and Kelly Rae), whom I love dearly. Being the youngest child and four years behind my brother in school, I surely spent many lonely hours on the farm. How wonderful it would have been to have had a twin of my own. Twin: a playmate ... a confidant ... a sounding board ... a best friend. I'm jealous. The Havre High School Class of 1970 was blessed to have five s...
(Ila McClenahan, the director of pastoral care and activities at Northern Montana Care Center, talked to some care center residents about the Christmas that brings back the best memories. Join in the conversation. Send stories of your most memorable Christmas to [email protected]. ) Jim F.: It was Christmas Pageant Night at the Faber school. We were getting all cleaned up for the evening event. I slipped on a bar of soap and split my chin open on an old laundry tub that we used for bathing. My most remembered present...
