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Missionary doctors’ ingenuity saves Thanksgiving tradition


BARANQUILLA, Colombia (BP)–The traditional Thanksgiving turkey is not always easy to come by on the mission field.
When Robert and Dolores Edwards first arrived in Baranquilla in 1974, medical missionary George Kollmar and his wife, Rosemary, wanted to be sure the new medical missionary couple’s first Thanksgiving in Baranquilla was a happy one.
Rosemary Kollmar had scoured the city to find a turkey for the feast. Finally she found one and had it in the refrigerator ready for cooking, or so she thought.
When she looked for the bird, it was gone.
“What happened to the turkey I brought home yesterday?” she asked her helper. “It’s there. I’ve already cut it up,” was the reply.
Rosemary presented her dilemma to her husband and the Edwardses. How could they have a traditional roast turkey dinner if the bird was already dismembered?
As Dolores Edwards recalls it: “Robert looked at George and George looked at Robert and they nodded in agreement. They were, after all, both surgeons. So they got out their sutures and put the bird back together.”

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