707 Leahy St. #127-C Redwood City, CA 94061 mann@pa.dec.com December 15, 1996 Dear Friends and Family, For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (2 Cor 4:6) As I drive around doing my errands this Christmas season, I've seen some beautiful displays of Christmas lights. In my own living room, I've set up a tree this year and decorated it with multicolored lights. What do lights have to do with Christmas? Besides their own beauty, the lights are also a reminder of our Lord, who began His creation with the words "Let there be light," and who gave His one and only Son to be the light of the world. I pray that His light shine in the hearts of all of you who are reading this, that you too may see the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. I don't have any big news for this annual letter, but as I look back, I do have many blessings to be thankful for. Back in January I went on a snow trip to the Sierra with the TwentySomething group. (I have a bit more "something" than the rest of the group, but that doesn't seem to bother anyone.) It was a fun trip in spite of some bad weather that prevented most of us from skiing; we just went sledding instead. Unfortunately, on the way up, I got into a nasty accident driving my friend Sarah Pundt's car. It was very upsetting, but by God's grace neither of us was hurt (nor was the other driver), the cars were fixable, and our friendship survived the experience too! In March I took a 2-week business trip to Germany, England, and Scotland. I spent the first week at the Castle Dagstuhl computer science conference center. Dagstuhl is near the French border, and is similar to a French chateauža large, palatial estate, not an ancient stone castle. The workshop was quite enjoyable, and my own talk was well received. After that I caught a play in London on Saturday night, swung up to Cambridge to visit the University, on to Edinburgh to consult with a Digital file system group there, and then headed home. In late July I spent a week as song leader at Bible camp. This year we had a regular 4-member musical group up front, with guitar, keyboard/drum machine, backup singers, and tambourine! We didn't use all the instruments on most of the songs, but we still had a lot to practice. It was fun and appreciated by the campers, but I got a bit stressed at times, so I may scale things back somewhat next year. At least I won't try to top this year! I made a short visit to my mother in Milwaukee over Labor Day weekend. (Apologies to anyone I didn't find time to get in touch with.) My niece Beth Shih and her two children were able to be there at the same time, as her husband was away taking a training course. I had a good time at the Lutheran Collegians reunion the Saturday before Labor Day. Most everyone else was married with a troop of kids; in fact, there were more kids at the reunion than grownups! Fortunately all those old married folks still remember how to have a good time. This year I'm staying in California through Dec. 22 to attend the wedding of my friends Barry Lind and Ann Romain. I'll be in Milwaukee from Dec. 23(30, quite a short visit, so I hope I'll be able to get in touch with all my friends in the area. Feel free to call me at my mother's house (414-466-3082) if I don't call you first, especially if you have time constraints. Since Barry is getting married, our mutual friend Jeff Nelson had to move out of Barry's house. So he is in the process of moving in with me. Surprisingly, I was able to reorganize my room to fit in all the things I had been keeping in the second bedroom. Jeff is a great guy and I know I'll really enjoy having him for a roommate. Love to you all in Christ,