The Two Shall Become One

About the Book

Half way around the world from Vern Rice's home farm in Northern Minnesota, a little Swedish girl was born to missionary parents in India. Unlikely events brought them together in Helsinki, Finland in 1963. Vern and Birgitta here tell the story of their long distance romance and the road they each traveled to get to the wedding altar in southern Sweden. Birgitta and Vern now have traveled over forty years to five pastoral calls, all the while raising a lively family. After the children were raised, Birgitta turned her attention to diabetes research resulting in a breakthrough in healing chronic foot ulcers. The book, The Two Shall Become One, tells how these two very different people found their international marriage to be a blessing beyond belief!

About the Author

Vern Rice was born in 1937 on a Minnesota farm. He graduated from Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota; Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota and Princeton Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey. He married Birgitta in Sweden in 1965, and together they served five Lutheran parishes in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Vern is now retired and lives with his wife in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he enjoys their two children and seven grandchildren. Vern volunteers in several church and civic organizations.

Birgitta was born in 1940 to Swedish missionary parents serving in India. She graduated from the Royal Institute of Pharmacy in Stockholm, Sweden, and the University of Wisconsin LaCrosse, Wisconsin. She works in diabetes research at the University of Minnesota and runs a small business, Health Education for Life, promoting a therapy she designed and researched which relieves pain and improves the healing of diabetic foot ulcers. Birgitta lives with her husband in St. Paul, Minnesota, enjoys her two children and seven grandchildren. She also volunteers in several church, health and civic organizations.