Ruth Halvorson is founder and director of the ARC Retreat Community in Stanchfield, Minnesota.  Loren Halvorson is a retired seminary professor.  They first met Karin Johne in February, 1982.  On the day of the reunification of East and West Germany, October 3, 1990, they met Johne in a retreat center near Magdeburg where she gave them a copy of this book.