Dad and Mom Bergen

Dad and Mom, George and Margaret Bergen, celebrated 52 years of marriage this week!
We celebrated as a family by going out for supper at the Spaghetti Factory. Then Dad and Mom went for a drive over the mountains to Kamloops, visiting some friends and family along the way.
PS This photo was taken at the Spaghetti Factory, on the day of their 52nd anniversary. This is how they actually look after being married to each other for 52 years. To say we feel very blessed by our parents and our children’s grandparents would be the understatement of the year.
Rick.

Retro Day and a Provision Story

The girls dressed up for “Retro Day” at school today.
Our friends gave us a ’99 Volvo last week. This is one solid car. Everyone (Anni, Via, Deanna and myself) all love to drive it.
Our friends were trying to sell this car on Craigslist, but they are not good salespeople. It was not a convenient time to meet. Or the buyer wanted too big a discount. Or… In September of this year they finally decided, “Let’s just sell the car for whatever we can get, for a quick sale, and then send the money to Rick and Deanna.” Then they found out we were home on furlough. “Hey. Maybe they can use the car?”
In August, we had been really needing another vehicle. I started to look for what I could buy. But I was also preparing to return to Brazil for a month.
Within my first week back we had it all signed over.  Thank you Lord! And thank you Eric and Jessica.

What memories do you leave with people?

On 26102011–, at 3:28 AM, Seth Godin wrote:
“I don’t like that guy,” she said.
“Why not,” I wondered…
It turns out that she had done some business with him years ago and it hadn’t gone well. When pressed, though, she couldn’t actually recall what the problem had been, or how much financial or project damage had been done. All she remembered was that she didn’t like him.
That’s the way it usually is. You read those letters to the complaint columns in the paper or online, and the actual facts are often pretty trivial. What we remember isn’t the financial hit, we remember the injustice, the disrespect, the way we felt at the time.
Your accountant might care about the facts. You, the marketer, need to care about the conversations and the memories.

Lots of Thanksgiving

Last night the Bergen family met for Thanksgiving dinner. We were one week late as Darrell and Marlene were in Mexico. We loved the celebration, the time together and the rich bounty God has provided for us. Like one of our daughters remarked, “Those were the best mashed potatoes of all the four Thanksgiving dinners I went to this year.”

Darrell and Marlene’s
Mary Kate

Seth Bergen
Darrell Stobbe