By CHUCK OFFENBURGER HAVANA, Cuba, April 15, 2017 – So here came a dozen of us, representing Plymouth United Church of Christ in Des Moines, all of us on our first trip ever to Cuba, visiting Plymouth’s “sister church” Ebenezer Baptist in Havana. I’d read, heard and seen enough about what Cuba is like nowadays…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER DES MOINES, Iowa, March 28, 2017 – A dozen of us who leave Wednesday on an 8-day trip to Cuba are just the kind of ambassadors that the U.S. needs to have traveling in the Caribbean nation right now – average Americans. That’s the insight of Tom Vilsack, the former U.S. Secretary…
By CARLA OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, Feb. 18, 2017 — My husband Chuck Offenburger and I were invited by Charity Nebbe, the host of the “Talk of Iowa” show on Iowa Public Radio, to be on the air with her Friday, Feb. 17, to tell our cancer stories. Our 30-minute conversation with Nebbe has subsequently received…
By CARLA OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, March 7, 2017 — There are a lot of thoughts going through my head right now – so many are being sent directly to my heart. It’s all mindboggling really. They’ve exhausted me. But I’m writing them down to share with you in a later column. What I want to…
IDA GROVE, Iowa, March 15, 2017 — Photographer Don Poggensee says “spring came early this year,” and the proof is that the annual north-bound migration of ducks, geese, eagles and many smaller birds has been “in full swing the last several weeks.” Poggensee observes that winter “has tried its best to hang on,” and thus…