Friday Morning Coffee Has Special Guests!

While the technology behind this is nothing new, it's new for Salem and certainly for Friday Morning Coffee. I've been trying to use this opportunity to build on and publicize this group now that we have an online presence, and we've been able to connect with some folks we would not normally see because they live out of town.

Mackenzie Flickinger joined us a few minutes after 10AM. She lives in Minneapolis and is working for Target as a computer programmer, and during this shutdown is able to work from home. She took some time out of her day to join us and connect with folks from Salem, some of whom were former teachers! Mackenzie described for us her work and where she lives, and also shared a humorous story about when the seriousness of the COVID19 outbreak hit her. She was shopping for groceries, and realized that the grocery store shelves were so picked over that she couldn't find all the ingredients for tater tot hotdish!

Megan Luebke lives in Colorado, but also surprised us by appearing on screen with her parents Ken and Sue Luebke, who are here at home in Montevideo. Megan's workplace is not open for business due to the COVID19 outbreak, so she drove to Minnesota to spend this time with her parents. I was unable to catch a good screenshot of them on Zoom, so I asked them to send a group selfie.

Most folks know Eric Anderson, but for those who might not he is a retired teacher who moved to Rochester with his wife Marsha after retirement. Eric has joined us for coffee the last couple of weeks on Zoom, and it's been great to reconnect with him in this way.

As I said, the technology behind this is nothing new. What is new for all of us is how under the circumstances we are discovering new ways of connecting with others. What was a modest effort to maintain a weekly fellowship routine has had the opportunty to reach out to more folks, which is a blessing to see. MP