We had a lovely surprise last night when friends from our days in Hay rang to say they were visiting Narrabri.

When we lived in Hay in the 1980's John was an Industrial Arts teacher and Elaine was a stay ot home mum who had been a community health nurse. They had children about the same age as us and were solid christians, so we became great friends. Elaine went on to become an Associate Professor in Nurse Education at Charles Sturt University. She has been also making annual visits to Congo to help teach midwives in remote villages.

For the last 20-something years we have hardly seen each other or communicated except for the annual Christmas epistles. The three hours we had together just flew past as we shared what God has done in our lives.

The Bible says "There is a friend who is closer than a brother" and this couple are to us that friend.