The Melheimian Sabbatiblog

Rich & Arlyce

Here's a photo He Qi took at our house last night.

Rich

The Best Dinner

We had a blast yesterday. We spent a couple hours at a Chinese grocery store called "United Noodles" in Minneapolis and filled two shopping carts with stuff you can't find at Cub. Then we took He Qi, Yu Wha and Song Yang to our house and cooked a great meal together (complete with a scary looking fish whose head was quickly removed), showed them around the place that will be their home in a couple weeks, and introduced them to some of the neighbors.

Today we cross the river to visit Rick Barron's studio and meet his next-door neighbor who says he has a car for the family!

This weekend we'll go to the cabin and show them some rural minnesota.

Brats anyone?

Rich

Yesterday's FSS Conference

New He Qi Paintings

Here's a sample of what He Qi is working on right now, plus four others (left) just for fun. He will be painting all 120 Bible verses for our future "Bible Song Sunday School" to go with the 120 new songs.

Today's agenda: Worship at Trinity, lunch, and a trip to see the sites of the Twin Cities... if the rain stops.

Tomorrow is a full day of filming (8 hours) for our new Faith Stepping Stones DVD. We're at Our Saviors in Stillwater. About 70 signed up, and there's room for 20 more if you wish to take a break and see what's coming down the pike. We'll introduce He Qi. Come on over!

rich

He Qi Here!

We had a marvelous time yesterday with the new resident of the Faith Inkubators Guest apartment, our long-awaited artist friend from China, Dr. He Qi, and his wife and son.

Gathering at the airport as a staff with a huge "Welcome" cartoon, we we were joined by three new contacts from the Chinese Student Outreach at the U of M. Two of the students studied under He Qi, so it was wonderful to have familiar faces in the crowd.

Casey and Amy, our high school workers, took Song (He's son) in their car and we took He and his wife. Lunch at the Dock Cafe on the river, a visit to two art local art galleries for introductions, and a stop at the high school where Song will attend classes next fall followed. A climb to the top of the grain elevator to visit local artist and architect Mike McGuire (see photo) and the most amazing (and overwhelming) trip to Cub Foods for a little shopping were the highlights.

Then, off to sleep the jet lag away.

Today we'll stop at the bank to open an account, stop at the motor vehicle department to see about a drivers license, and sneak into the high school. After that a picnic, a stop at the local food co-op (which shouldn't be as overwhelming as Cub) and some additional jet lag recuperation.

We are thrilled and excited to have our guests finally here after two years of delays. We still need to round up a reliable car, so if you've got any connections, let me know soon.

More later!

Live like it matters.

Rich

GIFT U

Hey Guys,

We just finished a marvelous Generations In Faith Together University. Debbie Streicher from Burke, VA, and Monty did a great job. Lots of marvelous insights.

Way to go!

He Qi arrives at noon tomorrow. We still need to find his family a car. Any ideas?

Finally, has anyone read "The Family Blessing" by Rolf Garborg? I'm thinking it's pretty cool and it fits in nicely with all that we do "inkubating faith every night in every home."

What happens to the kid who isn't blessed?

Thought for the night.

rich

He Qi Family

He Qi Arrives

Dr. He Qi, his wife Yu Hua, and son He Songyang will be arriving this Friday. After two years of planning, letter writing, SARS, immigration roadblocks, and help from many of you, we are excited to finally have the family here.

Dr. He and family will be living in the FINK Guest Apartment for the first three weeks, then in the Melheim house for the year as we take off for Colorado. His office will be in Badlands Studios at 423 S. Main.

If you'd like to be part of the welcome committee, meet us at the MSP airport at 12:45 in baggage claim.

We are honored, thrilled and excited to help host the transition of this wonderful guest.

Rich

Melheim's in Italy - The Last Night

Well, we spent the day in the Vatican from early morning until the pour down of evening rain. St. Peter's was huge and grand.

Arlyce's quote:

125 years. Overkill. And they didn't ask me.

Then it was on to the Vatican Museum, one of the three biggest and best in Europe.

Arlyce's quote:

They ripped this all off from other countries. No fair.

And then, with extremely sore feet and tired backs, we returned to Hotel Sonja near the train station where we will return tomorrow for a trip to our flight home. The rain came down in sheets, so much so that even under our umbrella our shoes and socks are currently drenched. We had pizza (actually the first of the trip) and steak, but they didn't have the one thing Arlyce wanted.

We have seen ancient ruins. 2000 years of history pass before our eyes. Civilizations rise and fall. Empires come and go. Dictators taken down by democracies, who reinstalled dictators. The biggest insight? 100 years is nothing. 1000 years is only a little more.

Arlyce's final quote for the night?

"You live. You die. And in the end, what does it all mean?"

(Pause)

"Tiramisu?"

Then she sang "Tiramisu" to the tune of "Winnie the Pooh" as we walked out into the rain.

Ciao Amore!

Rich

The Roman Shuffle - Day Ten or Something

We woke to the Roman traffic outside our window and listened to BBC talk about the election in India as we prepared for the marathon hike day in Roma.

The coliseum (Colosseum) was first on our trek. Huge, old, and amazing. (No, that was our waiter last night). Anyway, the place was quite an engineering feat. Makes you want to watch Gladiator again. The entire floor was wood, with trap doors where they'd send animals, soldiers, and people who didn't pay their parking tickets. You never knew what was coming up at you until it arrived.

The place seats 60-70,000 people, depending on who you ask. They kicked off the shows with 100 days of games, all free, sponsored by politicians who wanted votes and public support. Gladiators, exotic animal fights, flooding it and reenacting famous sea battles, and a couple of Jesse Ventura WWA Smackdowns. 2000 gladiators and 9000 animals died to entertain the city and take their minds off their dissatisfaction with the political process. (Imagine walking out into the gates and trying to find your chariot in the parking lot? It's a lot like leaving a Twins game, but not so many dead bodies.)

Outside the coliseum we walked under the Arch of Constantine, the place that commemorated his 312 AD victory over a rival Roman general. The battle made Constantine ruler of the western world and, like the saying, "to the victor went the spoils."

His first act was to legalize the Christian movement. Overnight a Jewish break-off sect became the official religion of the western world. The night before the fight he had a vision of a cross in the sky, and that cross led him to victory. So he baptized everything except his sword, and rode on to change the world. (Good thing he didn't see the Golden Arches in the sky or we'd all be worshipping hamburgers)

Speaking of McDonalds, the nicest one in Europe is near the Spanish Steps, where all the college students on holiday gather to cruise for the opposite sex. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

From Constantine's gate we walked the Roman Forum, where everywhere you step you tumble over a dizzying array of ancient artifacts. Nero, Augustus, Octavius, Hadrian, the Vestal Virgins (who made a ton of money if they stayed virgins for 30 years and kept the home fire burning all that time. If either of those two duties wasn't accomplished, they were sealed in a tomb with a candle and a loaf of bread.

The whole thing was almost overload. No, it was overload. Everything is ancient, reeking with history, and fascinating. No, that was our waiter last night...The Goths or Visigoths or some rival soccer team sacked the whole place in 400 something. A thousand years of popes sacked the ruins of the ruins. After that, any time they wanted rocks to build a palace or church and didn't want to travel to find smooth stone or spend any money they came here. What remains of the remains remains very impressive, and travel books show you overleafs of what it all looked like. It was, and is, grand.

After a siesta for Rich and a grocery stop for Arlyce (buying cookies for Kathryn and Joseph's classes that taste like rocks) we ventured out again and taxied from the hotel the Trevi Fountain. Arlyce threw the rest of our money in the fountain so we would come back again. Rich dove in and retrieved most of it.

Then, on toward the Spanish Steps, past 50 soldiers with M16s on their way to guard the visiting Spanish President. The steps were beautiful in the street light. College kids sang to guitars, laughed, joked, smoked and cruised back and forth, looking for the opposite sex. Arlyce and I were the oldest people there and no one asked us for our hotel number. Oh well, maybe next time.

That's the news from Roma. Tomorrow it's on to the Vatican for an art blitz. I may have to take the afternoon to do a FINKtank with Il Papa and eight of his cardinals about the future of the relics who don't get phone numbers at the Spanish Steps.

Ciao for now.

Rich