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	The Road Here - Don Bruns Before I begin, I want to thank Chris for putting this reunion together - it's been a great event! Thanks also to the decoration and food committees, I know it's been a lot of work for a lot of people. How did we all get together here after 38 years? As part of my 50th birthday celebration, I visited the church of my ancestors in Germany. The church had put together a history of their church, and included several pictures of people celebrating their 50th Confirmation. I thought of my classmates in Colorado Springs, and wondered if I could find any of them. The only ones I really knew I could find were Ron (!) and Colleen. People in 19th century Germany didn't move around a lot, but now it seems everyone has an e-mail address, and I have a high speed Internet connection! I dug out my copy of the Immanuel Falcon, and started at the beginning of the class list. Do you realize how many people in the US are named "Mike Allen"?! I found a Virginia Aragon working in southern Colorado as a govt official - a dead end. I found a junior high hockey coach in Minnesota named Buzz Olson - another dead end. I found a Greg Price fundamental evangelist selling sermons on tape - did those years at Immanuel really have that much of an effect on Greg? - (wrong Greg). Another Greg Price is a photographer, specializing in pictures of semi-naked women - that sounded a lot more like the Greg I remember! - another dead end. I found an energy consultant named Jay Zoellner in California - another dead end. I was getting discouraged. Then, seven months later, I was sharing Christmas dinner with an uncle, who, totally out of the blue, mentioned that he got a Christmas card from a Bert Schirmer in Nebraska. My mom confirmed that yes, that was Donne's dad! I wrote a letter to Pastor Schirmer, and a few weeks later, I wrote an e-mail to Donne. Her quick e-mail response was positive enough to inspire me to try again to find the other classmates. I got a lot of help from Joan Bauer, a former Immanuel secretary. It turns out that a lot of classmates still have parents that go to Immanuel or still keep in touch with other members. Tim was easy to find, since he had been in the national papers recently. I knew Norm was involved in rodeo. I knew that Jim Little worked for a newspaper in Westcliffe. I knew that Buzz went to Phillips Academy. I knew that Van's father taught electronics at Mitchell. I found a lot of Pfotenhauers and Wangerins that were heavily involved in the Lutheran church, relatives of the classmates. I tried searching for Virginia under the name "Ginny". I knew that Marilyn was a nurse in Colorado Springs. With a little persistence, I was able to track down nearly all of the classmates in the next few months. Chris finally found Mike Allen only a week ago! The reason you are all here tonight means that you, too, have good memories of your time at Immanuel. I am glad to see so many of you here! I will keep the web page up for a few more months, so please send me your photos so I can post them, especially for those that couldn't be here tonight. My e-mail address will never change, so if any of you change your e-mail, please send me your new address, so I can keep track of you. When we have our 50th reunion in 12 years, finding you will be much easier! Finally, I know that some of you still are Missouri Synod Lutherans, and some have changed to other Lutheran denominations, and some of you have changed religions. However, we are here because we all went through confirmation class together. My final surprise for you is a copy of the 1966 Confirmation Final Exam! It consists of 99 questions. I showed it to my current pastor in San Diego, and he said it was tough, and he would never give this test to his current confirmation class. Try it again, share it with your spouse or children, and see how much you remember. You don't have to be a Lutheran to take the test. I gave it to my wife a while back. She was raised with nuns in a Catholic school, and she scored better than I did! (I forgot to mention that Carol became a Lutheran when we married 24 years ago.) Thanks again for coming tonight!