Young missionary wanted to change the world

By AMY FORLITI
Associated Press Writer

As Tiffany Johnson was growing up, she loved to go fishing with her dad.

At twilight, Tom Johnson would tell his little girl that it was time to go home, but she always suggested they wait a little longer, try a little harder.

Sure enough, the wait usually paid off and Tiff would whisper, “Dad, I got one!”

“She was always such a patient person,” Tom Johnson said Tuesday in Minneapolis. “Fishing was something that was just our time, the one special thing we did together.”

Tiffany Johnson had been working as a missionary for about three years and was at a training center in Arvada, Colo., on Sunday when a gunman entered and opened fire.

Tom Johnson said his daughter survived the ride to the hospital and tried to describe the gunman in the ambulance. But she had been shot eight times. She died on the operating table.

“I always worried about her going to Africa, and then this happens,” Tom Johnson said. “I don't know how anybody could make it through something like this without having faith.”

Family members remember the 26-year-old as a loving, generous person who dedicated her life to helping others. They said she loved working with children and wanted to have a family of her own.

She wanted “to change the world by loving on people,” her father said.

Tiffany began working with Youth With a Mission in 2006 as a student, and received additional training to become a staff person.

“She was energetic for the Lord,” Tom Johnson said.

Her work with YWAM was scheduled to end in March and she planned to return home to attend the University of Minnesota. She wanted to study international business, with a focus on Japanese culture.

The family has established a memorial fund at an Assemblies of God church to help raise money for future youth missionaries. Tom Johnson said his daughter often struggled to come up with funding for her missions, and she would have wanted to give support to others. Donations may be sent to the Tiffany Johnson Memorial Fund, Cedar Valley Church, 8600 Bloomington Ave., Bloomington, MN 55425.

Update From Islamabad, Pakistan

Keith and Blanche Talkington are Assemblies of God pastors serving in Islamabad, Pakistan. Their ministry has been covered twice in TPE. See the Jan. 1, 2006 TPE World Missions Edition for background on this update.

Keith's report:

October 8, 2007 marked the second anniversary of the 8.0 scale earthquake that devastated a large area of Pakistan surrounding Islamabad. I still remember waiting under my desk for nearly three minutes for the tremor to stop. We were fortunate in Islamabad to escape with only minor damage. The people living in the mountains less than 80 miles away suffered terrible death and destruction. More than 200,000 died, at least a million were left homeless. During the six months following the earthquake the ladies of our church donated and packed clothes, food and blankets that were taken to the earthquake area and distributed to people who had lost everything. Often these supplies were carried in backpacks to earthquake victims in remote locations high in the mountains of northern Pakistan and Kashmir.

Two years later the relief operation has officially come to a close. Yet, thousands are still living in tents and many have yet to receive even primary medical care. Today we continue to work through [an] NGO (Non Government Organization) to provide1-2 day medical and eyeglass clinics for hundreds of victims of the earthquake in Kashmir. Most of those who were treated at the clinics received medical care for the first time in their lives.

Please pray for the new medical clinic that we have started in Islamabad in a needy area 20 minutes from our church. Most of those who have been treated have never seen a doctor or heard the gospel message.

** Make a Difference: Support Coins for Kids

Coins for Kids is the missions fundraising arm for National Girls Ministries, and since its inception in 1994, has raised more than one million dollars toward missions. Funds sent in through December 31, 2007, will benefit Touched Romania, a ministry helping to reduce the number of abandoned newborns in the European country.

To learn more about Coins for Kids, visit the national Girls Ministries Web site at http://ngmevents.ag.org/cfk/. Then, to learn more about this year's Coins for Kids recipient, visit http://TouchedRomania.org/.

In Awe In Argentina By Rocky Grams

Rocky Grams' new book, In Awe In Argentina, has been impacting lives. I was with Rocky a few years ago in Argentina and I know this is a story that needed to be written. What God continues doing there is remarkable. I have bumped into missionaries from Argentina all over the world who are graduates of River Plate Bible Institute, the school Rocky leads.

Rocky says, "Writing this book was a mandate from God! It took me five years to write it and a couple of years to find a publisher, Creation House."

Reading the manuscript brought revival to students, pastors and missionaries in Albania.

Edgardo Munoz, a friend and colleague of the Grams, states that the book is "the seed of revival."

It's being sold in countries as diverse as Japan, Great Britain, Australia and Germany. It has been published in English and Spanish.

Argentina is the second largest nation in South America. Its population of approximately 38 million is diverse, with about 85 percent being of European descent. At one time, Argentina was the most prosperous, educated, and industrialized nation in South America. In recent years the government has had to pursue harsh economic measures to combat spiraling inflation. Despite the people's spiritual aloofness of decades, God has sent a mighty revival to Argentina in recent years. Hundreds of thousands have accepted Christ and the urgent need has been discipling and training—to retain the tremendous harvest.
Rocky Grams grew up on the mission field. He spent 16 years in Bolivia ministering alongside his parents, assisting in planting churches in the high Andes Mountains, distributing literature, ministering to youth, and teaching music and Spanish at a Bible School for Aymara Indians.

Rocky and his wife, Sherry, met at North Central Bible College. They have served as missionaries to Argentina since 1979 and have seen a dynamic response to the gospel. Rocky has directed the Instituto Biblico Rio de la Plata in Buenos Aires, and Sherry has served as teacher and counselor. The Bible School has an enrollment of 408 resident students and 529 part-time students.

The school has over 1,873 graduates ministering all over Argentina and in 35 different countries of the world. Of the 179 foreign missionaries sent out by the Argentine Assemblies of God, 53 are alumni of River Plate Bible Institute.

The Grams sense a tremendous urgency to help provide training for the hundreds of young people who are feeling the call to ministry.

For more on Instituto Bíblico Río de la Plata go to: www.ibrponline.org

To order the book, e-mail Rachel Schaible at inaweinargentina@gmail.com. Web site: inaweinargentina.com

Physician’s vision results in free health care to needy

ByJohn W. Kennedy in Des Moines, Iowa

Editor’s note: The following article appeared in the March 10, 2002, edition of TPE, when James and Beth Blessman did short-term medical missions trips with HealthCare Ministries. In 2004, the Blessmans transferred to Caring Connection, where James is responsible for e-mail or phone physician medical care consultations with overseas Assemblies of God missionaries. Blessman also attends to the primary health-care needs of missionary families every summer at the School of Missions in Springfield, Mo. The Blessmans also spend four months in each year in South Africa, caring for 300 orphan children whose parents have died from HIV/AIDS.

Tables and chairs are being set up in the waiting area.
Ear-probe thermometers, blood pressure cuffs and tongue depressors are prepared in the screening section. A toy box and children’s videos are readied in an overflow room.
It’s 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the basement of First Assembly of God in Des Moines, Iowa, and a beehive of active volunteers are transforming Sunday School rooms into a free clinic. Although patients won’t be seen for another half hour, they already are lining up for the first-come, first-served ministry. The church has designated a corner for medical exams and supplies storage.
The weekly free clinic is the brainchild of Dr. James L. Blessman, a member of First Assembly. As founder of the umbrella nonprofit Health Care Access Network, Blessman has started free weekly clinics in 17 Iowa locations. HCAN reaches many Iowans who have jobs, but little or no health insurance.
With the vision of using volunteers from local churches, Blessman in the past decade has recruited 200 doctors and 1,000 non-physician volunteers to donate their services. In addition to the free labor, the use of facilities is donated along with most of the equipment and medicines. The state covers malpractice insurance for the doctors providing the free care. The network of clinics provides free primary medical care, no strings attached, to those who likely don’t have a regular doctor. “We’re just a tiny piece of the safety net,” Blessman says.
From an upstairs meeting of young adults, contemporary worship music can be heard faintly. Many patients who wouldn’t set foot in a church for a service don’t mind doing so for free health care that is run as efficiently and professionally as commercial clinics. The patients who gather are a mixture, representing the neighborhood in northwest Des Moines: a white elderly woman, a Hispanic family of five, a black teenager.
Typically, three nurses, one doctor, a medical student and half a dozen non-medical volunteers will be on hand from 6 to 8 p.m. All likely have put in a full day of work in their regular jobs. An average of 15 patients are seen each Thursday night, receiving everything from bronchitis medication to measles immunizations.
Tonight, Diane Messer, a full-time organs transplant nurse at Iowa Methodist Medical Center, is a volunteer at the free clinic. “All patients need to have equal rights to equal health care,” says Messer, who has been in nursing for 25 years. She spends about 10 minutes with each of her patients, doing a basic assessment of what’s wrong, checking vital signs and finding out about allergies and medications.
Messer, who attends First Assembly, volunteers at least once a month. If she has time, she asks patients if they believe in God and pray. “I recognize that illness can be a time of spiritual uncertainty,” she says.
Tonight’s on-call doctor is Dr. James P. Lovell, a cardiologist who has been volunteering monthly since the clinic opened six years ago. For a specialist who spends his daily life in the intricacies of the heart, treating a common cold is a bit of a departure.
“I’m just a cardiologist,” says Lovell, who also sings in the First A/G choir. “Sometimes I wonder if I should be seeing sick babies. But this is a place where God wants me to be. In a sense, this is a missions outreach. This is the place where I can make a small contribution.”
Sometimes a diagnosis and treatment can change a life. At one clinic, a doctor determined that a baby had phenylketonuria, a genetic disorder that results in mental retardation if not caught early and treated with a special diet.
Lovell engages in good-natured banter with a high school student at the clinic for a basketball physical. The cardiologist asks Garrett Gordon, a first-year student at Hoover High School, what position he plays and how the team is going to do. Eventually he asks the patient whether he goes to church.
Before leaving, patients have the option of counselors praying with them. As they are most weeks, Denny and Joyce Spencer are at the clinic ready to offer spiritual guidance. “Almost everyone lets us pray with them after they receive medical treatment,” Joyce says.
Denny believes those who haven’t made a commitment to Jesus at the start of the night will do so by the end. “I have big expectations because we’ve invited God into this room,” he says.
This evening, Robert Gonzales, a good-looking 17-year-old North High School senior who is at the clinic for the first time for a basketball physical, makes Jesus his Savior after talking with the Spencers. “They told me how to accept God in my life,” he says. Those who make a salvation decision receive a free Bible, discipleship materials and church information.
The cost to HCAN for each patient is $21 per visit, one-tenth of what a trip to a hospital emergency room runs. The entire annual $313,000 HCAN budget comes from private funds and no government money is used. The clinics are dependent upon individuals, congregations, patient donations and private grants to keep going. Blessman is continually on the hunt for more corporate sponsors.
Blessman had practiced family medicine in Des Moines for years, but recent overseas short-term missionary health care trips stirred his heart toward poor and spiritually lost people in Third World countries. At 56, he has reached the point in life where most doctors are winding down and looking forward to a comfortable retirement. Instead, he and his wife, Beth, recently became missionary associates with the Assemblies of God. They will be taking medical team and disaster response trips with the outreach HealthCare Ministries, bringing God’s love and healing to people around the world.

A Slow Journey on a Chosen Road

Editor’s note: Since publication of the following article in the Nov. 14, 2004, issue of TPE, much has happened in Steve Kramer’s life. While itinerating in January 2005 to raise missionary funds, he met his future wife, Julie, in Medford, Ore. They wed in June 2005. The couple arrived in the Netherlands in July 2006.

The Kramers completed a year of Dutch language school while simultaneously pastoring a Chi Alpha group in their Leiden home each week. The group eventually grew to 25 students. Then the missionaries began helping a church in Groningen with a new Chi Alpha chapter, handing leadership of Chi Alpha Leiden to missionary associate Emma Hansen. In the summer of 2007, the Kramers accepted an assignment as the first national directors of Chi Alpha Campus Ministries in the Netherlands.



A Slow Journey on a Chosen Road

By John W. Kennedy

When Steve Kramer entered the world in 1973, doctors gave his young parents little hope for survival of their first baby, born 11 weeks premature.

“If he lives, you’ll be fortunate,” a physician told Randy Kramer, 21 and in the Air Force, and his wife, Linda, just 18. It was an era before medical technology could do much to save small-weight infants. Steve’s weight dipped below three pounds and repeatedly he suffered breathing apnea because of underdeveloped lungs. When his heart monitor stopped, a nurse vigorously tugged on a string tied to his leg to jostle the boy into breathing again.

Those touch-and-go early days also put a strain on Randy and Linda, who lived in Arizona. They were visiting Linda’s parents in Placerville, Calif., when she went into premature labor. The closest hospital that would treat preemies was in Sacramento, and for the first two months they had to make a 100-mile round trip to see their son in a hospital incubator.

When Steve turned 6 months old, the family moved to the Azores, a group of islands 800 miles west of the coast of Portugal. The parents grew concerned when their 9-month-old baby couldn’t sit up and had difficulty grasping toys.

The mounting pressures of marrying young — Linda had been 16, Randy 19 — the growing medical concerns over Steve and the rigorous military life took a toll on the Kramers. The couple separated for 6 months and contemplated divorce.

But a trip to a U.S. military hospital in West Germany unified them. Upon hearing physicians diagnose his son with cerebral palsy, Randy, who had been raised in a strong Christian home, recommitted his life to Christ and thus preserved the marriage. Doctors told the Kramers that their son would never walk.

From that point on, the Kramers stuck together.

Steve’s parents always included him in family activities. They let him go at his own pace, which resulted in him becoming more independent-minded. And Steve didn’t set limits on himself.

“My family never treated me like I was disabled,” Kramer says. “My parents knew that the limitations others set on me weren’t what God planned. God knew before I was born what purposes He had for me. God doesn’t look at the doctor’s chart before He calls you.”

Today, Kramer is one of 764,000 people in the United States with cerebral palsy. Usually the condition is caused by brain damage during fetal development, affecting a person’s ability to adequately control body movement and muscle coordination.

But overcoming difficulties has been something Kramer has done with great regularity. In fact, his impressive career almost makes it seem as though he had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. The handsome, articulate, good-natured, extroverted young man has pursued and realized his dreams of becoming a television news anchor, associate pastor and now, itinerating missionary.

Certainly an upbeat attitude and stick-to-itiveness have contributed to his achievements. But more importantly, Kramer’s faith in Christ has helped him accomplish goals rather than despair about limitations he faces.

PAINFUL CHILDHOOD

The Kramers returned to California just after Steve’s first birthday. By age 13, Steve had undergone a dozen surgeries on his legs, knees and hips in attempts to loosen stiff spastic muscles. Sometimes he would be in a body cast up to his chest, hospitalized for months at a time. At night his legs would be in splints.

When it came time for Steve to enter school he and his parents had a new battle to fight: prejudice. His parents vociferously, and ultimately successfully, argued for Steve’s inclusion in a public school program. Steve’s teacher, counselor and superintendent had all sought to place him in a school for the disabled. Because of the cerebral palsy, Steve’s movements appeared uncoordinated, prompting classmates to tease him cruelly and even throw rocks at him. Unlike God, people often tend to judge mental capacity by physical appearance. Steve did need to repeat kindergarten, but it was primarily because he spent most of the first year in hospital rooms rather than the classroom.

Steve lived most of his childhood in a wheelchair, on crutches or using a walker. After completing intensive and painful physical therapy, he would improve — only to face another operation which doctors deemed necessary.

Although Steve committed his life to Jesus as his Savior at age 5, four years later he felt overwhelmed as to why God allowed his pain and suffering. “My dad told me, ‘You can know God is good, whatever you go through,’ ” Steve recalls. “That has been the foundation of my life.”

His parents were a constant encouragement. “I would never trade a bad set of legs for a bad set of parents,” Steve says. “God has always blessed me with incredible favor even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.”

“It’s always been amazing to me that Steve did not become embittered,” Randy says. “Instead of getting angry at God when bad things happen, he has allowed the Lord to build his character.”

The Kramers ultimately found the operations to be more experimental than helpful. When Steve was 13, he had a wedge removed from his left femur and replaced by a steel plate. Immediately afterwards, medical specialists told the family that Steve needed a similar operation on the right femur or he would never walk. At this point Steve’s parents allowed their son to make a life-changing decision.

Steve had recently sensed a specific call by God to become a missionary to the Netherlands. He believes that sense of divine leading helped him focus on a difficult choice. “I believe God knew I would need it to carry me through the tough times,” he now recalls. At 13, Steve determined he would consent to no more operations.

Randy asked members of Highland Assembly of God in Bakersfield (now Canyon Hills Assembly) to pray for a healing so that yet another corrective surgery wouldn’t be necessary.

Six weeks later, X-rays revealed that the right femur had returned to its socket. Doctors couldn’t account for the reason.

“One of my regrets is that I should have prayed more instead of automatically conceding to surgeries,” says Randy, whose faith increased from that point. He went to Bible college and spent 15 years as a pastor.

Soon after the femur healing, the Kramers were at the beach and a giant wave came ashore. The receding water washed Steve’s crutches out to the ocean, never to be seen again. Steve saw it as divine intervention. Since then he has walked on his own ability.

OVERCOMING DIFFICULTIES

Kramer lives independently, but he isn’t against practical help. “A shoe lift didn’t come out with me when I was born,” he says. And there are limitations. He becomes fatigued after a mile of walking. Stairs are difficult to negotiate because of trying to keep his balance.

“I am disabled,” says Kramer. “It’s noticeable when I look into a full-length mirror. But God can be glorified through weaknesses.”

Kramer graduated from the University of Oregon with a broadcast journalism degree. He served sports reporting internships for NBC affiliates in Yuma, Ariz.; Eugene, Ore.; and Seattle.

God then opened doors full-time in television, a medium not known for welcoming the physically disabled. Kramer spent two years as a news anchor for the CBS affiliate in Coos Bay, Ore.

Kramer had hoped to become a professional sports announcer, but his desires were changing. He saw how much ministry transformed his father’s life.

When Kramer heard David Lee, then-director of International Media Ministries, speak at a church missions convention, he felt God calling him again to missions. At Lee’s invitation, Kramer left a promising future in television news and went to work for IMM in Belgium for 15 months. He wrote scripts and narrated videos for IMM. In his spare time he ministered to refugees and homeless people in Brussels.

“In spite of his training in the TV and radio profession, Steve’s number one passion has always been evangelism,” says Lee, now U.S. Relations director for Assemblies of God World Missions. “He is bold about sharing the gospel one-on-one on the streets.”

After his stint with IMM, Kramer moved to Springfield, Mo., where he graduated from Assemblies of God Theological Seminary with a master’s degree in theological studies in 2002. His thesis, based on Philippians 1:29, explored how suffering can be a gift from God.

Kramer served as associate pastor for a year and a half at Abundant Life Assembly of God in North Salt Lake City, Utah.

“Steve has a real good heart for starting ministries that most people don’t really care about,” says Abundant Life Pastor Alex Lucero. “He started helping at a rescue mission here and passed that ministry on to someone else when he left.”

PREPARING FOR MISSIONS

Kramer is now based in Jefferson, Ore., where his parents live. The Kramers have three younger children, all born without complications.

“I always saw great potential in Steve,” says Linda, a county sheriff’s correctional sergeant. “We never wanted him to think he couldn’t do anything, mentally or physically, that he set his heart to do. Other people see that he’s disabled. We don’t see that.” Linda Kramer went to college, even though she never finished high school.

In 2004, Kramer received approval to become an Assemblies of God world missionary in preparation to work with Chi Alpha and church planters in Amsterdam.

“Steve will find a place where there is a real need and that’s what will drive him,” says Lucero, who has been pastor of Abundant Life for 16 years.

Already, Kramer has led three Chi Alpha short-term teams to the Netherlands. Being robbed at knifepoint the first week of his first visit didn’t deter him.

“I’m the last guy who should be leading a street evangelism team through the red-light district,” Kramer says. “I walk half the speed of everybody else.”

Greg Mundis, Europe regional director for Assemblies of God World Missions, recognizes that Kramer takes longer to do some tasks but says that’s not a problem.

“Steve has exhibited an incredible amount of tenacity in the face of obstacles,” Mundis says. “He demonstrates a positive attitude in facing the challenges of life that most don’t experience. He will bring a dimension into his missionary career that few of us have because he knows what it means to endure.”

Mundis finds it especially fitting that Kramer will be living in Holland, which in 2001 became the world’s first country to legalize euthanasia, in part as “mercy killing” for the disabled. “That will provide an added dimension to what Steve can contribute to that society,” Mundis says.

Kramer works out regularly in a gym and believes he’s in the best physical shape of his life.

“But if I have to go back into a wheelchair someday it won’t dampen my testimony,” he says. “The eternal things are more important.”

John W. Kennedy is news editor of Today’s Pentecostal Evangel.

Terror Threat to Common Missionary Hub

The AP reported today: "Three men were arrested on suspicion of planning attacks on the U.S. military base in Ramstein and Frankfurt's international airport, the German defense minister said Wednesday.

"'There was an imminent threat,' Franz Josef Jung told Germany's ARD broadcaster."

I have flown connecting flights through the Frankfurt airport several times, as have many AG travelers, especially missionaries. A threat against such a high-profile location is a reminder to pray for our military, including our brave chaplains, and our missionaries, many of whom face danger almost daily in far more vulnerable spots than Frankfurt.

Earthquakes are nothing new to Peru

Little girl wanders through the remains of a neighbor’s home in Llanquiza, about 3 hours from the capital city of Lima


Kirk Noonan just filed this on-location report:

In 1970 a massive quake in the North-Central part of the country killed more than 60,000 people. In 2001 an earthquake wreaked havoc on the city of Arequipa, one of Peru’s major cities. Most recently (on August 15) a 7.9 earthquake rocked this country killing at least 500 people and leaving thousands of Peruvians homeless.

The devastating quake also destroyed at least 15 Assemblies of God churches throughout this country that is tucked among Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil and the Pacific Ocean.

Within hours of the earthquake AG representatives in Peru and in the United States were coordinating relief efforts to bring immediate help to those who needed it most.

Food, water, blankets and clothing were the first items distributed by AG missionaries Rich Ferguson and Ronnie Mask, and their teams in the days following the disaster.

“Our efforts are not only for church people, they’re for the communities surrounding our churches,” says Ferguson.

Last Thursday, Ferguson toured the city of Pisco with local pastors. Here, more than 200 people were killed while attending a funeral when the roof of the church they were in collapsed. No AG adherents were among the dead.

But in a nearby village Julio Mitacc, the pastor of The Good Shepherd Church (AG), informs us that two women from his church were crushed to death by a falling wall.

On many fronts there is much work to be done ranging from meeting people’s basic needs to rebuilding churches and homes of pastors and laypeople. Not an easy task when one considers the low wages many of the victims of the earthquake earn (for most less than $8.00 a day).

For an in-depth look and more on-the-scene coverage pick up the November World Missions Edition of TPE.

—Kirk Noonan

Church in Pisco where more than 200 people diedPhotos by Kirk Noonan

Hurricane Dean Hits Mexico - Team Readies to Go

Representatives of the TPE, Convoy of Hope and HealthCare Ministries are preparing to go to areas of Mexico (and perhaps Belize) affected by the massive storm. Hal Donaldson and Ken Horn of the TPE are scheduled to make the trip.

TPE's Kirk Noonan Heads to Earthquake-Ravaged Peru

PISCO, Peru

The AP reports:

"Rescuers said there was 'no hope' of finding anyone else alive in the rubble of this southern port city leveled by a magnitude-8 earthquake that left at least 540 people dead.

"'We've stopped the rescue work,' said Jorge Vera, a firefighter who led the operation to find survivors at the San Clemente church in Pisco, on Sunday. 'We're now working to recover the bodies.'"

Read the whole story here.

TPE Managing Editor Kirk Noonan leaves tomorrow for Peru with a team consisting of representatives from Convoy of Hope, MAPS, and Healthcare Ministries. They will be traveling with missionary Rich Ferguson to cities and villages hit heavily by the earthquake to distribute supplies and assess the needs of Assemblies of God adherents and churches.

More Who Came by the TPE Booth at General Council

Missionary to Greece Bob Creel
K.K. Devaraj, director of Teen Challenge and Project Rescue in Bombay, India

Paul Veliquette, pastor of the Assembly of God in Windsor, Colorado
Bruce Yee, Book of Hope

Friday at the TPE booth

There were 5 book signings today. Authors who signed included: (1) Leslie Callaway, Peggy Horn, and Kristy Dykes; (2) Dishan Wickramaratne; (3) Doris Johnson and Peggy Horn; (4) Beth and David Grant; (5) John Kennedy, Ron Kopczick, and Ken Horn of the TPE staff.

It was an incredible week at the booth. We will post more pictures soon of others who came by.

Thursday at General Council, TPE booth

Lots of people have stopped by the TPE booth at GC. We have given out hundreds of free magazines and dozens of free books. People have stopped by with compliments ... and a few complaints. We have enjoyed getting feedback and meeting so many of our readers. Here are a few highlights from today. We will update later with highlights of previous days and more from today and tomorrow.

Three of our signings from today are pictured: Mark and Lynda Hausfeld and myself (Ken Horn), co-authors of Silk Road Stories (my wife, Peggy, is pictured with us); Hal Donaldson signing his book Midnight in the City; and Earl Creps signing his book Off-Road Disciplines.