Parker Wayland '59 recently shared: "Since my retirement in '04 the Lord has been using me in foreign missions. It's wonderful! This summer I went to Russia and helped start a new Christian ministry to Russian men. I also went with a team from my church to Vietnam. I was in the Navy during the Vietnam war, but in the Atlantic. It was still a very emotional trip. I found the country surprisingly prosperous, and the mountains of the northwest are gorgeous. But visits to places like the Hanoi Hilton (the prison where American POWs were kept) and the Hanoi neighborhood where a patriarch named Duy (pronounced Zwi), 75 years old just like me, showed me their little park memorializing 42 people killed by an American bomb in 1966 were quite emotional. How could I explain to him that we were trying to save his people, not kill them? He said they used to hate Americans, but they don't any longer. We had our picture taken together."

Pictured above: Parker in the mountains of NW Vietnam. The mountains are the eastern end of the Himalaya chain.
Pictured below: Duy and Parker in the Memorial Park

Have you embarked on any exciting journeys recently? Share your story and/or other news in the graduate updates section.