A Weekend in Minneapolis

I spent the past weekend in Minneapolis, visiting the always-delightful Peter and Erin Wadel, along with their two sons, as well as some of the Afghan students I taught two years ago. 

Several days before I flew out, I developed some stomach sickness that lingered into the first several days of the trip. Thanks be to God, it didn't end up hindering my time with students and friends too much. Because of the stomach problems, I did tell A., one of my Afghan students, not to prepare food for me when I came to visit. Nevertheless, when I showed up at his door along with Peter and his son, it quickly became clear that not only would we have the requisite snacks, but we would also have a whole meal. Heaping plates of rice and beef were plunked down before us, along with sweet pudding and the regular snack tray of almonds, candies, and other assorted nuts and fruits. And, of course, tea. Green tea, this time. I chose to risk it and ate a good bit of my rice and beef, and drank some green tea. It was delicious, and it sat well, thankfully. :)

I also met with Sam and Marty*, two other Afghan students with a higher level of English proficiency. Thankfully by that time I was feeling well enough to enjoy both a trip to the coffee shop as well as Big Marina, an all-you-can-eat Mediterranean buffet that puts Golden Corral to a certain greasy, very American kind of shame. 

During the trip, Sam opened up about some of the difficult aspects of his life. He is, in many ways, alone. His sister and uncle live in Minneapolis, but his mother and father are still in Afghanistan. He has not seen them since 2021, when he had to flee. He is only around 23 years old. He talked about feeling the full weight of sadness and discouragement. Please pray for him! I talked to him about Jesus, how he is the only hope and peace in the midst of sorrow. We also talked about the gospel, and how Jesus' death and resurrection is the answer for our sin problem and the way we can be reconciled to God. He was happy to talk about it, and is very respectful, but he is a devout Muslim and trips especially over Jesus being the Son of God. Pray that God would work in his heart.  

Peter has a veritable library of books, reflecting his and Erin's boundless curiosity, intellectual generosity, and openhearted love for learning. If I ever have a disagreement with someone, I want it to be with Peter, because he will respect me deeply, listen to me thoroughly, and also present his view with resolve. He, Erin, and I talked about too many things to recount, but there are two poems that come especially to mind. First, the "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll, which his three-year-old can recite by memory (read it here). Carroll invented some true gems for this poem, including, but not limited to: frumious, frabjous, uffish, and galumphing." "Oh frabjous day!" And, as in uffish thought he stood." "'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe." These are lines that practically memorize themselves.

The second poem we talked about briefly was Gertrude Stein's "If I Told Him, A Completed Portrait of Picasso" (you can read it, although maybe you shouldn't, here). Such a strange poem that, who knows, might be trying to undermine our very trust in language to communicate meaningfully at all. But beside that, it does have a certain sing-song quality to it. We found ourselves repeating words and mixing and repeating and mixing and mixing as and as mixing as mixing as mix as mixing and repeating words as words. Now actively repeat at all. Very strange, but kind of fun.

On a much more serious note, while walking in the Seward neighborhood, I saw an irony deep and terrible. Planted in one front yard was a sign saying something like, "Unapologetically Pro-Abortion." With that screaming in my mind, I looked down and saw at the end of the walkway a dog bowl, full of water, as well as a container full, as another sign indicated, with "Dog Treats." "Unapologetically Pro-Abortion." "Dog Treats." I hope the irony and horror is clear. They are happily in favor of the murder of innocent unborn children, but they want to make sure to provide the passing dogs with something to brighten their day. Pray for light, and the salvation and repentance of many!

*Afghan names are changed or shortened for privacy.