Post: Readers Respond

Thanks for the latest Pietisten — and thank you also for your remembrances of your brother and Paul Sonnack. Paul Sonnack was my teacher at Augsburg Seminary in 1954. He was profoundly serious and at the same time was one of my most humorous “profs.”

I appreciated Art Anderson’s “Word Play.” To me he has always been a master of words. Leo Vetvick, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

We love reading Pietisten. As I study Abram and Sarai to teach three-and four-year-old children at Bethlehem about God’s people, I believe I am one of Abraham’s descendents. David Hawkinson' s article illuminates how God and His descendents continue the back-and-forth, up-and-down activity even in the 1990s!

I appreciate your sharing of the toddler room experience with Benjamin and Marissa. As I observe them in Sunday School, their faiths are intense and so real. I benefit from listening to them. David Hawkinson refers to listening to his children in his Moses article. Having a dialogue with all children would benefit both adult and child. This makes me think of our violent society; belittling of children is a major cause. Enough ramblings. Thanks for the affrmations to children, youth, and adults in Pietisten.

I am not sure when we paid you last. Here is our renewal and gift order. A Descendent, Marilyn M. Leister, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

I am enclosing $30 for two subscriptions and one renewal for me. By the way, thanks a million for the work you are doing on Pietisten. Keep it up. Bill Liljegren, Phoenix, Arizona.

October 31, 1992. As I am beseiged by election year ads and issues, it was a respite to read Elder' s article on Immigrants and Politics of a couple of generations ago. Carl (and Marge) Nelson have been family friends for years and years, but I never knew his father nor his family’s history in Stambaugh until I read the article! Jean Rydberg Erickson, Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin.

It has been great meeting so many of your editorial staff at Bay Lake this past summer. I really am enjoying Pietisten. Thanks for your great work. Keep it coming. Roger G. Carlson, St. Paul, Minnesota.

I have waited eagerly with my fellow Pietisten groupie Runar Eldebo for the Fall edition, which providentially arrived on Election Day . . . makes one wonder if there should have been another candidate of more solid “character,” say perhaps Glen Wiberg coming out of retirement, with Penrod as his running mate? One can only dream in these mud-slinging days... today I’m content to think and watch from a distance, and to read about people and places, stories and images that seem to lead back here to the place where the statue image of

Waldenström peers at me through the misty Baltic rain. Tack så mycket! Peter Hawkinson, Stockhom, Sweden.

Your great tribute to your brother Reggie moved me to tears. I had an older brother, Ray, who apparently had many of the characteristics of your brother.

The last issue was super. I read it last night (11/2) from cover to cover . . . (after being certain that the Bears were dead meat). I also like the fine article Eric Johnson wrote on the Bird. I, too, felt he’s been the greatest as a shooter and playmaker, but Michael Jordan is a “miracle man” when it comes to getting the ball in the basket.

Your Fall publication (in my opinion) is the best ever. Here’s my check for “reentry” and include my two Pastors as well.

Robert Florin, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

In the Fall ‘92 issue of Pietisten was a most beautiful eulogy of one’s brother! Reg must have been a fine brother to have.

I have enclosed a check for $20 for two subs to Pietisen — one for me and one for our son-in-law. I’ve subscribed to the Companion for him and he enjoys that, and I’m sure he will like Pietisten, too!

Last July when Pastor Steve [Elde] went on vacation, it fell to me to fill the pulpit again. Pietisten to the rescue. I read three articles to the congregation. One was a short homily by Runar Eldebo; the second was your article about Runar Eldebo which was well received; and the third was the hit, as it was about our former Pastor Glen Wiberg. Whenever I have the honor of being in the pulpit and I read about something Glen wrote or preached on, I get a lump in my throat to think that here I stand in the same spot he stood in when he preached here in Haddam Neck. That must have been quite a retirement party. We wished we could have made it. Isaac Leydens, Haddam Neck, Connecticut.

Enclosed is my check to renew my subscription. I enjoy the many and varied articles in each issue. Some of Elder Lindahl' s articles from earlier days brought back some of the same memories of my early years back in my home church in Minnesota.

The outboard ads are of interest too. Having worked at Larson’s [Boat Works] in Little Falls through college and seminary vacations, I saw a lot of motors. Back in those days, the “Fall Flyer” was a thing to behold. Back then, Evinrude and Johnson were the best. Jerry Johnson, Excelsior, Minnesota.

Thank you for the sensitive and inspiring tribute to your brother. (I lost my brother in February of this year.) Your tribute to Paul Sonnack was also much appreciated — as was his feeling that Pietisten “combines an honest intellectual approach with warm-hearted pietism.” Our feeling exactly!

We want to encourage you and the other members of the staff. You must know that Pietisten is having a more far-reaching impact than any of you dared to hope for.

Enclosed is a contribution to your needs. Best of everything to you. Hobart Edgren, Manistee, Michigan.

his filling station in the Falls.
Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Curtiss

Johnson,

Thanks for straightening out the Edison-Broncos records. As you see in my letter [Post: Fall, 1992], my memory goes back to the ’30s when almost every Tommy [Edison High, Minneapolis] player came out of the N.E. Nut House — with the exception of Butch Nash. And Ray Parkings, former New York Nets player, was the coach. Those good days have not returned to Edison.

But, I do have a picture of our sons Bruce and Dewey standing beside your most famous Bronc [Bronko Nagurski, himself] at

his own business.

Enclosed is a check for two subscriptions to Pietisten for my two boys. An incident I had almost forgotten — P.P. Waldenström made three trips (via boat) to the U.S.A. On one of those trips, probably 1909 or 1910, my father was on the boat filled with Swedish immigrants. P.P. held services on the boat each night of the trip (probably two or three weeks), and my father played his guitar and sang, prior to the speaking.

Carl Pearson, Ashtabula, Ohio.

A WORD ABOUT OUR FORMAT

Pietisten takes its inspiration and design from the newspaper of the same name that was published by C.O. Rosenius and P.P. Waldenström in Sweden during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We base our format on what were regular or frequent elements of the original Pietisten: Commentaries on the lectionary texts by Luther, Rosenius, Waldenström, and others; ecclesiastical concerns; theological discussions; hymns; poetry; and selected news items. We welcome your participation and responses to any and all articles.