Reactions to Charleston massacre

You all are ready to move on.  I can tell by what you are posting online that you are done with the massacre in Charleston.  I am not.  I am still grieving the loss of 9 innocent lives at the hands of hatred.  I am saddened by the loss of promising people who were waging peace in a world that is clinging so tightly to hatred.  I am upset by the confused response of our society.  I know that we will kill Dylann Roof also.  He will be sentenced to death for killing nine innocent people, and what will be solved?  What will change?  What is the gain from all of this?  I see nothing.  I see only sadness and division.  

I have questions for God.  I want to know, God, why you cannot raise the nine people from the dead.  Why, if you can simply take the hand of a twelve year old girl and say, “Little girl, arise.” And she wakes up after being dead, why can’t you raise Pastor Pinkney and his fellow church members?  They had faith.  They had as much faith as the woman who touched your clothes and was healed of her hemorrhage.  They were good people, God.  Why did you not raise them from the dead and startle the world, including Dylann Roof, so that more people would believe you have the power of life over death?  

I am confused.  I am angry.  I was, when I was a child, very proud to be an American, but I am that no longer.  I am concerned about what is happening in our country.  We are no longer seeking the common good.  We are seeking individual gain.  We are so concerned about the glorification of the individual that we are no longer looking at our neighbors.  We no longer see our neighbors as fellow humans with the same hopes and dreams, aspirations and inspirations that we have.  

Our political leaders are a prime example of what is going wrong in America.  We look for leadership in time of tragedy and we get rhetoric.  We get political grand-standing.  We get more finger-pointing and scape-goating.  That is not leadership.  We hear people talk about metal detectors on churches.  We hear about arming more and more citizens to make ourselves safe.  These are not solutions.  These are not even band-aids.  These are only reactions to a series of incidents that point to a deeper problem; and we DO have a deep, dark problem. 

We have a problem because we see the poor and we blame them for their own problems.  We have a problem because we see the single mothers and we blame them for their own problems.  We have a problem because we see the unemployed and we blame them for their own problems.  We fail to see these people as PEOPLE!  Valuable people, created in the image of God, valuable people, worthy of love and respect, valuable people who have hopes and dreams and are looking for the exit door to the world of their problems and finding none.

I think we need to seek the common good.  I think we need to realize that we are not Black Americans, or Native Americans or Asian Americans or European Americans, We are all Americans, and we need a government of the people, by the people and FOR the people.  We cannot blame religion.  We cannot blame a flag.  We cannot blame anyone but ourselves because we have stopped caring about each other.  I think it is time to look at our neighbor and see the image of God.  I think it is time to look at one another and see someone worthy of love.  I think it is time to stop blaming and start caring because enough people are already dead. 

Santa Day in Rolette, North Dakota

December 6th will be Santa Day here in Rolette.  Nobody around here is exactly sure how it got started, but I have a suspicion that since it is on the Feast of Saint Nicholas, and since most of the people around here are of Northern European and Scandinavian heritage, I'm willing to bet the Norwegian custom of celebrating the arrival of Sinterklas on or near the feast of Saint Nicholas has something to do with it.  Last year Santa Day was on December 7th, which is also Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, so it didn't feel so festive.  This year Anna and I have a vested interest!  We have joined a little community band that will be playing Christmas Carols for the festival.  We will play to get the crowd excited before Santa arrives, and we will play "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" as Santa comes on the scene.  It should be great fun.  Along with playing in the band Anna has arranged to rent a table to sell Fair Trade chocolate and coffee, and will share her table with a local horticulturist who will be selling Christmas centerpieces.  All in all this is shaping up to be a much better Santa Day than last year.  Maybe after it is over I will post some pictures so you can see how we did.  Until then enjoy the thoughts of Thanksgiving and Advent as you celebrate with your family and friends.  God bless you all.  Don

A day in North Dakota

I have not written on this blog in a while.  Here it is June 28, 2014.  Tomorrow is our 12th anniversary, and we are spending it celebrating with the church tomorrow.  We celebrate 125 years tomorrow as a church.  I have only been part of this church since October 1. 

 This is all taken at a wildlife refuge.  It was a beautiful day and we had a picnic lunch.  We actually ate in Cando, ND.

I was having fun taking pictures of anything and everything.

i

 It looks like a huge body of water, and it is here, and it is located right here in North Dakota. Hard to imagine that North Dakota has so much water. 

We spent the day in Luckey, Ohio.  We were not sure if we would cross paths with Randy for quite a while, and so wanted to see his church and his stomping grounds.  Turns out we are going to get to not only see Randy again but spend the night in his spacious house called the "parsonage."  We will spend the night in Luckey, on our way to Terre Haute, to stay with family.  Luckey is the first leg of our journey to Rolette, North Dakota.  Don and I are excited.  

We have sold our house.  We sign the papers on Monday and Gwen signs them on Sept. 27, and the house is hers.  I have loved this house.  We have spent much of our time improving this house to that point that we were able to sell it very fast when the time came.  

Don starts his new call October 1, working for Mountain View Ministry, which comprises Rolette, Overly, and Dunseith:  Valle, Willow Creek, Peace and St. Sylvan Episcopalian.  I will add pictures when I get them. 

God be with us and all who are in ministry.  

New York

A few days before actual vacation was to start, Don and I decided to venture up to New York State just to say we had been there.  On June 27 we started out and went from Jamestown, New York, traveled to Dunkirk, New York, where my camera died and so had to rely on cell phone and post cards to remember this place by, and then finally on into Erie, to the same beach where last year we locked our keys in the car and had to call for help.  I should say, I locked the keys in the car, but we redeemed ourselves this time and parked the car with success and walked the beach, talking and dreaming and just enjoying the sounds of the water.   It was a great day and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing new and different things, but especially since we could now both add New York on our list of states we have visited. 

Anniversary

There are many different kinds of anniversaries; the beginning of new job, the anniversary of a death or divorce, and then there is the wedding anniversary.  Tomorrow is our wedding anniversary, our 9th year together and we march on to our 10th anniversary next year. 

I have been divorced, once through childhood and then in adulthood.  Obviously the childhood divorce was when my parents split up and divorced.  That was a painful and chaotic time in our lives.  Then I was divorced as an adult, 15 years ago in September, I believe.  The anniversary date escapes me, I use to know it.  I have been married now 9 years tomorrow, June 29.  While this is a happy and joyous time for me, my sister's divorce is final today.  It gives me pause to think on this.  I remember what it was like when my divorce was final, all the emotions involved, and I am sure this is true for my sister.  While there is relief that it is over, it also feels a little like a death.  You once cared for a person only to not care, how do you turn it off?  There is so much anger and sadness involved and then comes the roller coaster ride, the grief machine.   

God never stops caring.  His love is continuous and final.  No matter what we do, no matter who we are, no matter how bad we feel about ourselves, God loves us and as my husband always says, "God loves you and there's not a doggone thing you can do about it."   This gives me comfort beyond belief.  God loves me no matter what and there is not a thing I can do about it.   Our time here on earth is so short.  There are many life-lessons in the meantime that I am learning.  My trust grows every day.  I have given up worry for Lent, but my Lent continues into the quiet time of summer and will continue to grow into the busy time of Advent.  There are many good things happening in my life right now, I hold onto the good times.  I thank God for giving me what I need.  I needed a job, and now I have it at our church part time.  We need a vacation, a time for renewal of strength and energy, a time for us to be together, and our church has given us 10 days' time.   I have everything I need.  I have food in the refrigerator, I have furniture to sit upon, I have clothes to wear, a car to get us to and fro, enough money for gas, and a husband who loves me.  I have what I need, thank you God for everything. 

Thank you Donald for 9 years of wedded bliss, for 9 years of happiness, for 9 years of loving me, being patient with me, and for wanting to be with me and see the world together.  I love you much my husband.  I could not have asked for a better partner in life.  Thank you God for giving me my husband and thank you for loving me. 
Posted by Anna

Family

Father's Day is coming and it makes me miss my family, except I am sadly estranged from mine.  I come from a family of divorce, and so much time was wasted with anger and selfishness.  You never really know the other person's story until years later.  I wish I had paid more attention growing up.  Why is it that we finally come to some understanding in our older years.  Why is it when we are younger we are self-absorbed and only see our side of things.  Circumstances are never what they seem to be, only what young eyes see and want to hear.  I never appreciated my father as much as I do now.  He is all I have left of my family as my siblings and I are no longer in contact and my mother has Alzheimer's and does not know who I am, so this Father's Day is somehow strangely sad and yet not sad.  I thank God for what I have, and I thank God for my father.  I love you Dad!
Posted by Anna