Unique Experiences

Every person who has ever lived is, of course, unique. So also his or her life experiences will be unique for them. Recently a couple of friends who have read my Mel’s M&M’s have commented that my life seemed to have an unusual number of unique experiences. So I decided to select 15 of them and post them here.

1. As a male teacher of students in grades 1-4 all in the same classroom, every two weeks I went to the public library and checked out 25 children’s books for those students. The school in which I was teaching had no money in its budget for kids’ literature, so I borrowed books from the public library.

2. I taught classes on how to be effective parents in the U.S.A., Pakistan, Australia, Finland and many other countries.

3. I negotiated for the construction and purchase of a coffin on the streets of Hong Kong.

4. As a Lutheran educator I threw out the first pitch of a nationally televised baseball game between the New York Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

5. I had a personal appointment to meet with the president of the USA in the White House.

6. I was the only Lutheran missionary to be a member of the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club and to play the following courses which are sites of PGA tourneys: Pebble Beach, Mission Hills, New York Bethpage, San Diego Torrey Pines.

7. As a Lutheran school principal I played on a city league basketball team sponsored by the local pool hall.

8. In Montgomery Alabama I stayed as a private guest in the hotel suite reserved for the lieutenant governor.

9. I attended a celebration of Queen Elizabeth’s birthday at the Governor’s Mansion in Hong Kong.

10. I was in Tienanman Square in 1989 during the massacre.

11. I checked a big bag of Texas homegrown potatoes on a train for serving at my wedding reception.

12. I was sternly criticized for wearing the wrong-colored shoes while attending the installation of the President (Bishop ) of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

13. I drank beer with a Catholic sister while overlooking the Kyber Pass.

14. I was the only Lutheran invited to a national meeting of the USA National Council of Catholic Bishops.

15. I was the only non-ordained person ever invited to preach from the pulpit of historic St. Lorenz Lutheran Church in Frankenmuth, Mchigan.