| Catching up after 19 years I had not seen him in 19 years. And yet, there he was, at the Fuddruckers near Chinatown in Washington, part of the School of Congregational Development gathering at the Renaissance Hotel. The funny thing was, I wasnt supposed to be at the school. My partner in communications, John Coleman, was scheduled to cover the event for us, but some family health problems made it necessary for him to be away. During the dinner break, the Rev. Lou Shockley and I bumped into each other and tagged along to the restaurant. There, we happened into the Rev. Don Stewart and his administrative assistant, Olivia Gross, and we all formed one happy little table. On the way out of the burger joint, I happened to notice him. He looked familiar, but nawww; couldnt be. Then I read the nametag as I walked by. He had violated (thank God!) one of my cardinal rules of attending meetings never wear your badge outside the hotel. John McClean, New Mexico is what it read. Nawww ... Couldnt be. So I walked outside. But something got the better of me, so I stopped to look through the window where he was sitting. And as I did, I could read his lips. Erik? Is that YOU? We both dashed for the door and greeted each other in the foyer with a huge bear hug and thunderous slaps on the back. For the next hour and into the worship service that followed, we caught up with each other, exchanged e-mail addresses and phone numbers, and laughed ourselves silly. John McClean and his wife Karen lived below me in seminary. Dayton, Ohio, 1983. They had two girls, both under the age of 3, living in a one-bedroom apartment when I first met them, and Karen was expecting number three. John is now the district superintendent of the El Paso District in the New Mexico Conference. Sometime in that school year, a third daughter was born to the McCleans. With now three girls, all under the age of 4, living in a one-bedroom cubicle, I was sure that John and Karen would someday be rewarded with sainthood. John and I took a class together, taught by Tom Boomershine, on the Gospel of Mark. For our final exam we produced a video of ourselves and three other seminarians telling the story of Mark as if we were sitting around a campfire, reminiscing about the good ole days. He has that tape. Its worth mentioning that should that tape ever see the light of day, 19 years later, it might sink both our ministries from embarrassment alone. John used to study in the basement lounge in seminary because he didnt have the room for a desk in his apartment. In the winter, he hung his jacket on this hideous cedar statue of Moses (or someone, nobody was quite sure) the seminary had ditched in the lounge, a gift from a donor they didnt want to upset by saying thanks but no thanks. The statue was five feet tall. It looked better with the jacket covering it was the consensus of most of the campus. John was a last year student and I was in my first year when we met. Thus, at the end of the school year, John and Karen moved to New Mexico. A couple of friends and I helped the McCleans load boxes into the moving van. And one thing more, that neither John nor Karen knew about until they arrived in Roswell. I had not heard the rest of the story until John told me last Thursday night, there in Fuddruckers. The congregation, in order to welcome the McCleans to their new appointment, had arranged for a group of volunteers to help unload the moving van. When they had finished unloading all the boxes, the driver said that there was one more thing still on the truck. John told the driver that that was impossible; everything on his list was checked off. The driver then asked a group of volunteers to come help him move this last item. And so, in front of a hardy group of tired and hot volunteers, who tugged and pulled one last item to the end of the truck, all neatly wrapped in protective blankets and clear moving tape, the unveiling began. The statue from the lounge. I had often wondered whatever became of that statue. I mean, it took a lot for four of us to carry it from the apartment, down the steps, onto and into the van, and then wrap and tape it up without John or Karen knowing about it. John said that shortly after they arrived in Roswell, the church had a large rummage sale. One of the first items to go was that statue. The lucky person paid $5. | 
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