On November 21, 1975, Sonja Elaine Hovey was born at Midway Hospital in St. Paul, MN (in the realm of small worlds, it was the exact same hospital where this writer was born a couple years later).  Sonja’s father and mother lived in the nearby suburb of St. Anthony Park, but at about age 5, along with her younger sister Kari, their family moved to Northfield, where Sonja all of her school years.

In following the adventurous nature God endowed her with, Sonja went to Colorado College for her B.A. in Education.  She enjoyed skiing and painting sunsets, as much as taking classes in lesson planning and classroom management .  She took a student teaching practice for about 4 months in the inner city of Chicago during her senior year at CC.  She was determined to make a difference in the lives of disadvantaged children.  But, as many teachers will attest, Sonja found the inner city a tough nut to crack.  No matter how kind she was, how patient she was, or how many hours she put in, it wasn’t changing the kids. She felt a lot of despair.

In reality (she would say now), the LORD was teaching her that she (and those children) needed Christ.
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But that was not a short lesson.  After graduation, still determined to make a difference, Sonja returned to the Minneapolis area and took an inner city teaching job, but found herself running into the same wall.  So, she gave up the idea of making a difference in the inner city and took a teaching job in the suburbs.  During those years of teaching, the LORD used some young adult church leaders at the church she was attending and a fellow teacher who spent time reading and discussing the the Word of God with Sonja.

This fellow teacher attended the same church as your writer, who is so very thankful to God for every crease and fold in between, as well as the events themselves described above.
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Happy Birthday Sonja!

PS….Bonus points if you can identify the girl with her :)