I was watching the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. I wasn’t overly impressed with the show. But I wasn’t watching the Opening Ceremonies for the show, I was watching to see all the athletes from all the different nations boating down the Seine. Seeing each of those represented nations took me back 45 years.
In 1979, Bob and I were living in California in a large home that we built. Our children were 9, 6 and 3. Bob’s mother and step-father-in-law lived in a connected apartment sharing a common laundry room.
We were new members of a large Assembly of God Church that was hosting the graduates of a School of Ministry from Southern California who were in town for a week-long revival. We had agreed to host three young men. Bob headed down to the pickup site with our van to bring them home.
I soon got a phone call from him telling me we need to make room for “a few more.” When some of the host homes discovered that some of these men were from African nations, they bowed out of hosting. I asked him how many more. He said, “Four.” He came home with seven men for which we were to provide room and board.
They came from Indonesia, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, along with a man from Canada and one from Montana. The local newspaper was so impressed, they interviewed us and took our picture for the paper.
As I watched the boats in the Olympic Opening Ceremony, I thought about those young Christian leaders and wondered where they were and what they were doing now 45 years later. I pray their love for Christ stayed strong down through the years.
I also wonder if they still remember their time with us.
