After church this morning, Mark and I had a light lunch and then went over to Aunt Marg’s house for the rest of the day.  My best friend from high school, Wendy Scharich, was going to drive up to spend some time with me, and Marg graciously offered her guest bedroom for Wendy to stay in.

While we waited for Wendy to arrive, we showed Aunt Marg a movie we got at the library about Israel.  Marg almost went to Israel with her son this year, but he ended up having a business trip scheduled that he couldn’t get out of, and Marg didn’t want to go on her own, so she is postponing it for a year.  For my part, when I was young I once signed up to go work on a kibbutz in Israel, but my father talked me out of it so I never got to go.  Watching this film, called Jerusalem Mosaic, was very interesting except for the last segment which was just music.  The majority of the film, though, was snippets about things like Christian work being done in Israel, places and culture in Israel, and Jewish beliefs and customs.  They showed how olive oil is made, how a scribe creates a scroll of the Torah, programs that are trying to re-forest the mountains and cause the desert to bloom, archeological digs, volunteer opportunities, and many other interesting things about Israel.  The only thing missing was any mention of the conflict with the Palestinians.

Wendy arrived around dinner time and Mark went and got a Papa Murphy’s pizza which we baked in Marg’s oven and enjoyed together.  After dinner, we sat around and talked and laughed.  Wendy had Aunt Marg laughing harder than I’ve seen her laugh since her boys used to sit around the table and joke.  It was good to see!  Wendy and I reminisced about high school, and Aunt Marg showed Wendy a couple of her photo albums from her youth and of her family.  We discussed everything from world history to current events.  Wendy talked about teaching, I told stories from my time volunteering in Mexico, and Aunt Marg brought up the subject of the missing plane in current news.  Mark is a man of few words, but he got a few in as well tonight.  Finally around 9:00 I looked at Aunt Marg and Wendy and said, “Do you two feel comfortable enough with each other to be okay if Mark and I leave now?”  They both said they did, so we came home.

I just knew that Aunt Marg and Wendy would like each other.  They are both wonderful women, very precious to me.  It’s so comfortable to sit in a room surrounded by hospitality and humor and love.  The sun was shining on the lake outside and it was a glorious day for company!