The Stonebridge is just the North American name for the Furch (not sure if that’s how you spell it) which comes from Europe. They’re both made by the same guy.

Lynne & I went on Monday to Brandon, with John & Maggie (our minister and his wife) to see the WSO Christmas concert with Steve Bell and his band. Have you ever heard any Steve Bell CDs? He is an unabashed Christian musician/singer with a very talented 4-piece band (piano, drums, stand-up electric bass and himself on guitar). He writes most of his own lyrics and music and it is such a treat to listen to him. You’d think it odd to find them backed by the Winnipeg Symphony orchestra (60 members of it on the Brandon stage) but the arrangements were so smooth. They have done an 8-city western Canadian tour, including Calgary. They took the WSO’s own assistant conductor with them, a tiny dynamic woman whose name is Rei Hotoda. She conducted all the orchestras they played with on tour.

We were so pleased with the performance that, when we heard they were doing the whole thing again on Tuesday night in Virden, 100 kms NW of Souris, we decided to go on spec to see if any tickets were turned in (it was sold out). We ate sandwiches on the way for supper, driving through at times thick winter fog, with deer materializing out of it and prancing across the highway in front of us, none of which we hit We arrived to find a parking space right in front of the theatre, and by the time the performance started, we had two really comfortable, lots-of-leg-room seats at the back of the main floor, in the 100 year-old “Virden Aud” (it is called). All sorts of adjustments and helpful people (it was God being his usual wonderful Self with us) made the impossible possible so we could sit together, too. As it turned out, the regular seats would not have allowed me enough leg room for a prolonged sit. So we got to see them two nights
in a row! During the intermission their CDs were for sale and Lynne
went out to get some and while out there she had an amazing and
wonderful 5-second eye-to-eye contact with Steve Bell, himself. He
gave her a BIG warm smile and said “Hi” to her. She remarked to me later that exactly the same thing happened to her when we went to hear Neal Donald Walsch, who wrote the Conversations With God books, in Winnipeg last year. She had an instant connecting brief conversation with Neil Donald Walsch, too. And I know of another time that has happened, with another spiritual leader — unplanned “Godwinks” we call them. They seem to be coincidences, but synchronicities are God putting us together in some impossible way.

Wisth you all the best and good luck.

Tariq