707 Leahy St. #127-C
					Redwood City, CA  94061
					December 11, 1993


                                                                              
Dear Friends and Family,

"I can do everything though Him who gives me strength." (Philippians 4:13)

This has been a year of regaining strength and picking up the loose threads of
my life.  When I wrote my Christmas letter last year, I had just finished
chemotherapy for lymphoma in my thighbone and had just begun walking without a
cane again.  My CAT scans and MRIs showed no cancer large enough to see, but I
was still scheduled for 5 weeks of radiation in January as a precaution.

Now, a year later, my scans are still clear, and I'm feeling great.  I'm
hiking again, and a couple of weeks ago I went on a 30-mile bike ride.  A few
scars and weaknesses remain, but I still continue to gain strength and stamina
month by month.  It's been a great joy to feel healthy again---as I often say,
I had been sick for so long that I forgot what it was like to be well.  Never
again will I take the blessing of good health for granted.

As usual I travelled a good deal during the year.  In February I took a 4-day
weekend in San Diego to visit my niece Beth.  Beth, Tom, and Nathan were
living there with Tom's sister at the time.  I had a fine visit even though
the weather didn't always cooperate.  Beth and Tom have had an eventful year
themselves.  By the time I returned to San Diego on business in August, they
had moved back to Madison.  Next week Tom is off to Texas for Air Force
training, while Beth will be staying in Madison with Nathan and their new baby
Meagan (born October 14).

In March my Mom came to visit.  We spent some quiet days seeing some of the
few sights in the neighborhood that Mom hadn't been to yet and having dinner
with friends.  At 75 she still seems at least 10 years younger than the
calendar would have it.

In May I went to a conference on running Bible camps, held at Camp Phillip in
Wautoma, WI.  This trip gave me a chance to visit my niece Amy.  Amy and Jeff
live in Madison with their two boys, Sasha and Misha.  I was able to be there
on Misha's 1st birthday and see him walk for the very first time!

August saw me spending a week at Bible camp for the first time in three years.
(I missed two years ago due to lack of time and last year due to illness.)  I
seem to do something different every year; this year, I taught the 7-8th grade
Bible class along with Pastor Mammel from my church.  P.M. (as we call him)
prepared the materials before camp, and we took turns teaching during the
week.  I was also assistant song leader and assistant camp director, with my
roommate Ken Fischer taking the lead role in both those jobs.  (At church
things are just the other way around---I serve as congregational president and
Ken is vice president!)  This was an ideal set of duties for me.  What with
teaching, singing, playing guitar, and helping organize, there was plenty to
do and enjoy; yet I had free time in the afternoon which I could spend either
taking a nap when my stamina failed, or with the kids when I felt energetic.

By the way, Pastor Mammel has since accepted a call to a church in southern
California.  We are sure his experiences at camp had nothing to do with his
decision to leave!  Gloria Dei is now back to just one pastor; our experiment
in adding a second pastor didn't result in any growth in numbers, so we
weren't able to sustain it financially.  We are all sad to see P.M. go.

Lately my Friday evenings have been spent with the TwentySomething Bible study
group at a nearby WELS church.  At "twenty-fourteen" I'm perhaps the oldest in
the group, but only by a little, and I seem to fit in okay.  I've been helping
some with the music, which is a great learning experience for me; they do a
lot of songs that are new to me, and their music leader is quite a bit better
on guitar than I am.  The group reminds me a lot of my old days in Lutheran
Collegians, but bigger and in some ways better organized.

This past week I spent a few days at an operating systems conference in
Asheville, North Carolina.  The conference was excellent, and we had great
weather, too, enabling me to go on short hikes in the nearby Smoky Mountains
with friends both before and after the conference.

I will be in Milwaukee from December 21 to January 2 this year, and I hope to
get in touch with all my Milwaukee-based friends while there.

God's richest blessings to you all as we celebrate God's gift of forgiveness
and life in Jesus Christ, both now and throughout the year!

					Love in Christ,