Caught in the Act

Serving my internship in a multi-point parish means that I am responsible for leading worship somewhere every Sunday. There are five congregations and four leaders, two of which are ordained and two of which are seminary students. I, of course, fall into the latter category. This means that in order for me to serve communion, I have a letter from the bishop of the Southwestern Minnesota Synod that gives me authorization for certain Sundays to serve in this capacity. Of course, nobody said this would be easy! When I served communion for Reformation Sunday and All Saints Sunday at Immanuel Lutheran in rural Fulda it seemed like there were hundreds of people in worship those days! There weren't, although turnout was a little larger than usual because they are festival Sundays, but when I am dispensing bread to the whole congregation, it seemed like they just kept coming for a very long time! Chalk it up to something else I will get used to as I live into my pastoral role. Thank God for worship assistants! Blogged by
Don

The European Conspiracy

Okay, I have to finally get caught up on what has been going on around here. I have finally recovered from the shock of my life. You see, I have discovered that there has been a conspiracy going on under my own roof! My dear, sweet, loving wife has been harboring a secret for oh, I really don't know how long, but she was involved in a foreign conspiracy! She has been collaborating with a European couple in a plot to, well, I may as well tell you straight out, she and this European couple have been plotting to MESS WITH MY MIND!!!!

Well, you see, its like this; Anna and Doug, my sister and her husband who live in Germany, apparently collaborated with my wife, Anna, to surprise me for my birthday. The plot was perfectly executed on Saturday, October 25th. I had just gotten home from assisting at a funeral and I was pretty tired, so I lay down in the TV room to watch something mindless. As I was drifting between consciousness and unconsciousness, I was pretty sure Anna was on the sofa and I was laying on the floor, when I heard a strumming sound coming from my guitar in the dining room. I thought to myself, "That's strange, Jasper has never bothered my guitar before. I hope he stops because I don't feel like getting up to stop him." Just then, a figure strolled into the TV room, and once I realized it was my sister Anna from Germany, all I could blurt out was "WOW!!" I think I may have said, "What are you doing here?!" About the next forty minutes or so is just a blur, because I was recovering from shock and just said "wow" a lot. Anna and Doug confessed that they had been plotting this little side excursion for quite a while, with the full collaboration of my wife, and even my cousin in Eden Prairie was in on the plot. Yes, I am the victim of a full-blown European-American conspiracy. However, it is humbling to realize that people love you so much that they would go to this much trouble to show you. I am humbled and grateful.

This little plot meant that the celebration of my 50th birthday started a week earlier than I had anticipated, and Anna (my wife) went all out. She had ordered a cake, purchased decorations, and, while I was showing Anna and Doug around the area, (I don't exactly remember what we were doing, but I think it was while we were antique shopping in Fulda) Anna got the whole house decorated for a party. When we returned home there was a banner, the table was covered with a colorful tablecloth, balloons, a centerpiece, a cake, and a delicious roast dinner all prepared in my honor. I can only say now that I truly appreciate and I am deeply humbled and grateful for my wife, and my sister and her husband for all they have done for me. We partied all evening on Reformation Sunday, but I don't think we mentioned Martin Luther once. Of course, I had mentioned him quite a bit at church that morning, so he was well remembered.

Thanks to these lovely people, I now have a cuckoo clock hanging in the living room, and a little bit of Germany sings to me on the half hour. It is a beautiful clock, and every half hour I get a little reminder of how much my family loves me. I am truly blessed.

Now, one of the side benefits of having my sister and my wife in the same place is that they both like to take pictures. So now I have some fresh pictures I can share with you about things around here.


Along with antique shopping in Fulda, we showed Anna and Doug the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Walnut Grove, about a 40 minute drive from here. In these pictures you can see that they have an interactive exhibit that includes dressing up in hats. You can also see that the conspirators are quite happy with themselves, and are even willing to get a nearby buffalo involved in their shenanigans! What fun! Blogged by Don

Trying to fit it in.

I haven't posted in a few days and lots has been happening, but frankly I'm swamped with stuff to do. I have a pastoral care visit to make in a little while, and another one to do this afternoon, and I haven't even started Sunday's sermon yet. I was looking at my calendar, and the last day off I had was October 17th, and Anna wasn't off that day so it really didn't feel like a real day off. I have Monday off next week, and I am really looking forward to it! I'll write more soon, because there are some really great things that have happened that deserve mention on this blog, but right now I have to get back to work! Blogged by Don

The Book of Faith

I'm currently at the Southwestern Minnesota Synod Fall Theological Conference, and I have been listening to speakers and going to seminars since Sunday. The primary focus of the conference seems to be on what the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has promoted as the Book of Faith Initiative. The initiative idea is simple enough; it is to encourage Lutherans to read the Bible.

Yesterday I attended a discussion where the question was asked, in true Lutheran fashion, "What does this mean?" And the answer is, "Whatever it takes." Basically, the idea is to share among all Lutherans what we are doing that is working to encourage other Lutherans to read the Bible, so that over the next 5 years we will become more fluent in "the first language of faith," Scripture. So it seems that it doesn't matter which version of the Bible is read, what stories are favorites, or how much of the Bible is read at any one time, the main thing is that we READ IT!!

To that end, I had the great privilege of going up to St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota last night to see the, now famous, St. John's Bible. It wasn't until last night that I fully appreciated the magnitude of the endeavor to recreate the Holy Bible entirely in the style of the ancient scribes. Having seen all of the love, care, respect and tireless work that has gone into the creation of this Bible, I can truly say that it is indeed a masterwork, worthy of all of the accolades it has received.

To set the stage, we (the pastors at the conference) had the opportunity to attend Vespers with the Benedictine monks in the St. John's Abbey Church, and then attend a lecture that, not only described in detail, but also allowed us to experience for ourselves, the process that the monks and calligrapher Donald Jackson went through to discover what the Holy Spirit would like in the Bible. The process is called "Visio Divina", and is basically an extension of the ancient Benedictine practice of Lectio Divina, where a passage of Scripture is read and re-read to let the Holy Spirit speak through the passage into the heart of the reader. In Visio Divina, the Holy Spirit is then asked to inspire an artistic illustration of the passage that has been read, and that may be different for every hearer. Then the challenge becomes a way of deciding what the illustration needs to say about the passage, and finally an illustration comes into view, after much discernment and deliberation, that truly reflects the leading of the Holy Spirit. It is a fascinating process, and I was grateful for my opportunity to participate.

The whole St. John's Bible will consist of seven volumes in the New Revised Standard Version, and the Wisdom Books are currently on display, as well as a reproduction of the volume that contains the Gospels and the Book of Acts that I got to page through last night. To say it is beautiful is really an understatement, because it is inspiring as well. To realize that each letter is carefully hand crafted, and each illustration so thoroughly thought through, and each page layout so carefully constructed explains why this is such an impressive work. It says a lot to me that these people are so inspired by the Word of God that they would devote so much of their lives to this endeavor, and gives me energy to spread this inspiration to the people I am called to serve in Southwestern Minnesota. Blogged by Don

Feeling just a little blue.

Well, we just said goodbye to Gary and Lis, friends of ours from Our Saviour's Lutheran Church in Bremerton, Washington. It was great to see them, and they were genuinely interested in learning about life here on the prairie. Their visit follows visits by Joe and Nancy who were here the first weekend of September, John and Laura who were here the last weekend of September, and Tom and Jane who were here late last week. Joe and Nancy, and Tom and Jane are all from Our Saviour's in Bremerton as well, and Laura and John are people we met in St. Paul last year. It has been great having these visitors, and we really enjoy showing them around the parish, and telling them about living in a small town. The problem is, that was the last scheduled visit on our calendar. That's it! The end! That means that the weather is turning colder and winter is on the way.

All of our friends were wise enought to get their visiting done before the snow flies, but now the snow has no obstacles. It can turn cold whenever it wants. I've included pictures of Laura and John in this post, and you will note that they are wearing summer clothes. I will miss my summer clothes, because I likely won't get to wear them until May now. I will miss summer, and it is always too short here. Looks like next week will be a good time to get the car winterized. Bummer.

Well, at least the churches look good. Here is a picture of Immanuel Lutheran near Fulda, our largest church, and it looks like it is ready for Reformation Sunday. That is where I will be preaching on October 26th, affirming once again that "A Mighty Fortress is Our God". Of course we have to sing that one on Reformation Sunday! My old buddy Marty wrote it! It is, like, the Lutheran Theme Song, or something! Enjoy! I hope your church does "A Mighty Fortress" on Reformation Sunday, too. Blogged by Don

Finally! Collecting success!

I finally found more sherbet bowls! In all actuality Anna found them, but we were cruising through an antique store in Pipestone yesterday afternoon, and Anna found a table where there were five of these little beauties at a very reasonable price, so now we have a grand total of seven! That means we can serve something to company in them, so come on by! We'd love to see you here in little ol' Dundee, Minnesota, where the grain elevator is churning furiously to accommodate the new crop.

It's harvest time, and it is also pheasant season, so the town is buzzing as much as it ever does. Unfortunately, that means the same thing that happens in other towns, church attendance goes down. People are busy, but still, there was an adequate crowd last Sunday, and many people complemented me on my sermon, probably because I spoke about how God is constant, even when the economy is bad, something these agricultural people can really relate to.

Anyway, had to brag about having enough bowls now. Of course, along the way to finding these bowls, we have discovered other Anchor Hocking Wexford treasures, such as a small pitcher, a sugar bowl, salt and pepper shakers, water goblets, and a wine decanter. I think that's enough for now. It's time to focus on filling in Anna's salt and pepper shaker collection; although she wasn't too interested in the John Deere tractor pulling a corn trailer salt and pepper set I saw yesterday, also at the antique store. Hmmm... I guess she has good taste, but what does that say about mine? Don't answer too quickly! Blogged by Don

I'm feeling "Techy"

Hi there,
I have been asked to do the devotion at tomorrow night's youth meeting, so I decided to go multi-media to keep the interest level above a snore. I hope, as I gain confidence on how to do this technological stuff, this post works so you can see the fruit of my efforts.

In other news, we enjoyed another visit by some friends from Bremerton. Retired pastor Tom and his wife Jane came by to visit, as they were traveling around the Midwest and we were part of their agenda. Boy, it is great to see familiar faces, and to be able to speak with someone without having to try to remember their names!

Two churches tomorrow, as well as lunch with some friends from Iowa, so another busy weekend in an endless stream of busy weekends. I'm getting used to it, and it is fun to do so much for Jesus all the time!
Blogged by Don