Unexpected Encounter

Collver with John Nunes at Detroit Metro Airport.

"In Kenya we will..." I was saying to Don Fondow on the phone. Fondow, the District President of Minnesota North was still at the airport in Minneapolis wonder why I and Bernie Seter, the chairman of the Board for International Mission, were not there but in Detroit. All of is are heading to Kenya. Then I saw John Nunes, Executive Director of Lutheran World Relief, standing 20 feet away from me in the Delta Club in Detroit, MI. We approached each other and embraced long lost friends. Serendipity! Originally, I had been scheduled to fly from Saint Louis to Minneapolis on the way to Amsterdam. Yet this morning at 7 am, Delta called to say the flight was delayed due to weather. I asked, "Can you route us to Detroit and then to Amsterdam?" The Delta rep replied, "Sure thing." Elite status has a couple of advantages. Little did I know then that this would lead to running into John Nunes, who had returned from preaching at President Matthew Harrison's former parish, Zion in Fort Wayne.

John Nunes and I talked about theology, Natural Law, and LWR's Lutheran Malaria Initiative (LMI), which the LCMS convention in July 2010 voted to support and participate in. We had enough time to share a toast and a drink before leaving for our gates. (I write this on the plane before the boarding door closes.)

John Nunes also is headed to Kenya and Tanzania toward the end of the week ... Who knows? We might have another serendipitous encounter in Kenya.





Before going to the Delta Club, I was able to have a Detroit Coney Dog. I grew up in the Detroit, suburb of Sterling Heights. I grew up eating these Coney Dogs... And every chance I get I fly through Detroit to have a Coney Dog. On Facebook one of my high school friends complained, "You don't come to Detroit to see me, but for the Coney Dogs." anyway...

Serendipity or to be Scriptural "everything for a reason." It seems my flight diversion to Detroit was for me to have a Coney Dog and to have conversation with John Nunes.

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