Greg & Laura Gsell

(ok, try Laura Hopper out on your memory...?)

From: L. Gsell [mailto:lgsell@earthlink.net]

Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2007 09:48

Hi Jack:

Got your message re:updates for torremolinos site. I don't have anything new for you. Is the old stuff wiped out? If so, here's the information, plus I have no way of sending photos my computer is still a 1997 model.

Living in Bettendorf, Iowa, along the mighty Mississippi.

Greg is a master mold maker for a statue company.

I am currently a homemaker, soon to be going back to work somewhere.

My step children are Lannette who is 28 and married, Stephen who is 24 and not. Lannette and her husband Tom live outside Minneapolis. Lannette is a web designer.

Stephen has just finished two terms in Iraq and is now out of the Army. Stephen and his dad are building a Chopper Motorcycle in our one car garage, to be finished this spring so he can ride it. Possibly a start toward his new business (Stephen).

That's all I can think of. Thanks for all the time and hard work you put in keeping us together, I really appreciate it! God bless you and all your family (say Hi for me, I know they won't remember me!)

Peace, Laura

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November 15, 2001    

Hello, Ex-Community-ites:

            The attached pictures are one with Robert when we were having a foot washing, the others are more current – Greg, Lannette and I at a Renaissance festival.

            What a great web site, it was good to read about everyone and how they are doing.  It also helped to encourage me since I have had trouble finding a church family too.  It has taken me forever to get a letter and pictures together to send.  Ingrid and Helmut are the ones who told me about the web site.  Ingrid and I communicate by letter once a year; someday we hope to be able to send e-mail’s instead.

            This will help those that may not remember me.  I was a part of the community from 1983 to 1986.  I was backpacking around Europe and the Middle East with a fellow Christian when we visited the community in Torremolinos.  I decided to come back and be a part of the work while my friend went on to a bible college in Sweden.  I’d like to say that I had the best time, all of the time, but when God is working on you it isn’t always fun.  I really loved learning how to cook for 100+ and working in the radio-room with Ernst.  What I didn’t like was the cleaning, and I still don’t  like it, but I do it!!  I have missed the camaraderie and common goal that we all had; it has been impossible to find the same magic.  It was a time, I believe, that I was given to hold on to for discouraging times. 

            Since leaving the community I worked five years at St. Ambrose University in various departments working with computers and databases.  I moved on to the Family Museum of Arts and Science doing the same thing, where I am presently.   I married Greg in 1991 and we have a home in Bettendorf,  Iowa.  Greg had two children from a previous marriage, Stephen and Lannette.  Lannette is now 22 and working in Minneapolis as a Website designer for Cargill.  Stephen is now 19 and working construction during the day and at United Parcel Shipping in the evenings.  My husband works for a sculpture studio called Isabel Blooms.  Isabel studied with Grant Wood and established a studio in the Quad Cities, which Bettendorf is a part of.  She passed away last year at age 99 and the business was purchased.  Greg has worked making molds for her sculptures for 15+ years.  He does their carpentry, wiring and all kinds of things as well as the molds. 

            The church I am presently going to “River Valley Community Church”, is parting with its pastor.  He was an excellent evangelist but not gifted in the area of feeding new recruits.  Unfortunately the church cannot afford two pastors so he will be leaving.  I of course am torn, because we grew through evangelizing in the community, but it seems to be a foreign idea in the states.  I brought up the idea of street evangelizing and was told you don’t do that here.  So, we are waiting on the Lord for the next move. 

            We are getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner this week and I can’t help but remember the Thanksgiving dinner we cooked for the Community.  We saved up pumpkin pieces for months and I helped cook 10 to 12 chickens in the bakery’s ovens.  It was a wonderful day!

            Hope to hear from some of you soon.   Peace and Blessings to all,          Laura