I’m not sure what “gimp” is. I do know I really enjoyed your blog, and I will definitely return to see what else you have to say.

The first contact I ever had with him close up was when I was hitchiking out of Victoria and he stopped for us. He was attempting to change out of a t-shirt into a suit jacket while he drove through traffic, and getting tangled up with the seatbelt. He cussed and swore because he was lost and couldn’t find the church where he was supposed to speak.

I was an American runaway, on Vancouver Island in 1994. I had graduated from highschool two years early
There were two major reasons that I graduated early from highschool…..one was to get started as soon as possible on a medical degree with its involved ten years of schooling, and the other reason was a highly abusive, schizophrenic mother.

I’m not sure exactly what the award is that you have discussed in your blog, but let me tell you how Rev. Al sees publicity. Once when we were down from where we played the role of “roving, adventuring college-aged students” in Jordan River, my friend Chris asked Rev Al, regarding Al’s picture in the paper, “Does it feel good to get recognition, and your picture in the paper?”

It was contrary to my experience of every do-gooder Christian, missionary, or preacher, that I have ever know, but Rev Al said, after a pause, “If it brings publicity to the Open Door, it’s all right.”

He is so so so selfless. I don’t know how he does it. And even after all these years, and annual visits that I take to Vancouver Island to rain-camp in December with my daughter Glory, and staying at Rev. Al’s house with his family, he is still cryptic to me.

He is defined by the word “selfless”, and the reason that now, in my senior year of college, I have just now chosen to focus on social justice rather than medical school. I’m hoping to visit for an entire summer, in 2005 or 2006, to help out at the Open Door.

His kind of unconditional love, which is a huge focus at Open Door, is very very rare.

Gina Ogren
e-mail: thecanadianspirit@hotmail.com

ANOTHER STORY ABOUT REV. AL ON-LINE @

http://www.ucobserver.org/archives/julaug04_nation.htm

“…so that it would become apparent to everyone that there are different ways of being in the world.”

Exactly. Different ways of being.
And only a few degrees of separation between us all. (What’s that saying? “We’re all only two paychecks away from homelessness.” Yes.)

Sounds familiar, Yule. Thanks for the link.

I hope to write more on the blog some day.

Maura has a younger sister, Julia. Julia is really a gift for all of us. She has the joy and innocence that only a three year-old can have.

Debbie and Gerry, thanks for the link to your story. You have my respect, and Maura is still a lucky girl. Have you by any chance come across Martha Beck’s Expecting Adam? It’s an amazing story, too.

Phil, thanks for the feedback.