I have planned to write an entry about how you know you are a rural pastor. I plan for it to be fun and reflective about some of the things I have learned here in Southwestern MN. Today I have learned about more to put on this list, but it is SOOOO very funny that I have to share it with you before my year is up and I write that list.

As I type this I am stuck in the mud of a minimum maitainance road waiting for a parishioner and her husband to come extract my half buried car from the muck. Now if I had only called for directions instead of googeling it I would have been fine. Or even if I had stopped at the turn off when I saw that it was not so much a road as a more packed lane of mud than the surrounding fields and called them I would have been fine. I had, however, forgotten to write down their number. So instead of calling other people to get it, I just figured I would get through it on my own.

I actually made it quite a ways with my tough little car, that was once white. Then I saw it. Looming ahead of me was a giant puddle. To this Arizona girl it looked more like a lake. I know enough to have known at the time that this was a bad sign. I tried to think of a way to turn around. But the ‘road’ was so deteriorated that I feared if I veered even slightly off of the previous tracks I would be stuck in a field. At this point I saw no options. So I inched forward.

BIG mistake! At the very least I should have backed up and built up some speed to try to get through it. Instead I inched and crawled, and then suddenly nothing.

Did I call anyone at this point? No. I am a strong intelligent woman and I have gotten myself unstuck before. So I tried to rock my way out by going back and forth.

Note to you all: this does not work in midwest-farm-field-early-spring-soggy-mud.

The only direction I moved was farther into the ooze.

So here I sit, shoeless because I stepped out of the car to try to see if I could get out and the mud ate my shoes. Literally I had to fight with the mud to get my foot out of one of the shoes and it disappeared below the service. I do not need it back enough to have actually dug for it.

So I gave up. I called Shalom Hill Farm and got the number for the members' whose house I was on the way too and called them.

Well now I see my hero coming. No knight in shining armor on a white steed for me, no chugging towards me are two farmers in rubber boots in a muddy tractor. I can live without the white knight! These guys are practical.

Gotta go....

So the saga was not quite over I learned. After hooking up a rope to my car I learned that my battery had died as I sat there with the radio on. They had to tow me all the way back to their farm. Oh, and the tractor was backwards because they would have gotten stuck trying to turn around also.

But the beauty of small town and rural life is that they hooked my battery up to a charger that they have in the garage and let it charge while we shared lunch and laughed over the whole incident.

I was just beginning to think I was starting to loose the ‘city girl’ aura!

Interwoven Community

Saturday was a example in the great variety of ways that community is built into our lives to be a blessing to us.

The ministry team had received word on Friday that a member was in critical condition up in Rochester. So early Saturday morning I set out on the three hour drive to visit and spend time with this member and his family. Now this is part of our job, part of what we are paid to do. I think, however, that people do not realize that in our ministering to them, they often minister to us as well. This was the case for me in visiting this man and his family.

By the time I arrived, he was doing much better, so the fear that had been clinging to his wife and son, had begun to unlatch it's hold. I was able instead to watch the way this family interacted. I was most struck by the beauty, elegance, and raw care that I saw in his wife's treatment. She was able to hold on to her strength and compassion with a patience that spoke directly to my heart.

I can hope that I brought them some amount of comfort. I know however that I left that room with a lighter heart and a refreshed view of marriage, family, and love.

When the visits I had were complete, I drove an extra hour to have dinner with a friend in the Cities. We sat talking about our lives, our future goals, our fears about the future, and where we saw God moving in our own lives as well as one another's. The weight on my shoulders that can come from 'handling' life alone fell away as we talked.

Friendship like this, so open, so honest and able to hold each other up while holding each other accountable, is such a blessing from God. It is also a reminder that we can not go through any journey completely alone. It is necessary to have people along for the ride. Plus it makes it so much more fun! I would not be able to make it through life, let alone internship without such friends!

After leaving the St. Paul, I decided to stop and get Starbucks for the road. (I have managed quite nicely with no coffee shop closer than 20 miles away and no Starbacks closer than Sioux Falls, but I never pass up an opportunity to visit one when such an opportunity exists!) As I ordered, my mind was racing towards Sunday morning and all that I had to do before it came. I was so tempted to just order and leave. But the barista showed her shock when I asked for an extra shot in my Venti Americano. I laughed and said that I had a long drive. We ended up talking for about 20 minutes. It was a simple conversation really, but her kind words replayed throughout my drive home, and my spirit was renewed in purpose through this casual encounter.

Community comes in so many shapes, colors, experiences, and faces. It is not just the people who live within a few miles of us. It is not just the people in the same church, or organization, or school.

Community is in the world, in every interaction that we have with God's creation. It comes in every smile, every word, gesture, and look that passes between the people we meet.

In the midst of all of this community there is ministry happening. Whether it is the ministry that fits into the mold, or the ministry that happens as friends simply act within that friendship, or the ministry that results when two strangers recognize God's presence in the other, it is ministry. It is the sharing of lives, of faiths, of spirit and of God's love.

Community and ministry are so tightly interwoven that at times, like Saturday, it is hard to recognize one without the other.

Thank God that it was not good for man to be alone. (Genesis 1)

Casual Interactions

During my time in Japan, I began to value the countless daily interactions with nameless people you pass in the store, or on the street.

I suppose that is a side effect of living in a situation that can be so isolated that those may very well be the only interactions you have with people.

The result was that I began to utilize every single potential interaction with another human being to its fullest capacity, learning that I can gain some sort of human companionship from the briefest exchange. I began intentionally making eye contact with strangers, offering a smile, and in Japan the ever so slight upper body bow that I had become accustomed to. I started taking advantage of the few words I knew to have a meaningless conversation with every sales clerk, shop keeper, and janitor I came into contact with, and they became some of the most meaningful conversations of my life.

I am glad to say that I brought this new attitude back home with me 5 years ago (5 YEARS!?!).

I have watched how this can affect the people I interact with. I have seen how it can brighten someone's day that a customer asks how his or her day is going. I have experienced the brightening of my own day when a complete stranger returns my smile and hello. However, I have also noticed that I am most often the one to initiate the contact, and that it almost always surprises others.

Yesterday though something was different. Yesterday it was I who was surprised.

I had several things to get done yesterday in town, one of which was to take one of our members around to do his various errands. I was on a bit of a tight schedule since I had to be back in time for our Lenten meal and service. I also have to admit that I was a little annoyed with the person I was helping (this may very well become its own blog update!). All of this to say that I was a little rushed and not as intentional as I usually am about these interactions.

Yet I began to notice through the County offices, the Post Office, the convenience store, and then Walmart, that people were greeting me, before I could greet them. Halfway through Walmart I really began to wonder about this. Especially as several people smiled and said hello.

As I passed through the produce section my ponderings were answered as an employee (who I do not know by the way) said, "Can I help you find something Pastor?" Ah, yes the clergy collar.

In my ever growing knowledge of life in a small community on the prairie I had learned that sometimes a quick trip into the larger town of Worthington (especially with this particular member and unreliable weather) can often end up being not so quick. So I had intentionally dressed for the entire day. I had forgotten however that I had slipped the collar tab into the blouse when I had dressed so that I would not leave it on the bathroom sink; again. I had intended to remove it, slip it into my purse, and un-button the top button so it only looked like I have no fashion sense. Instead I received a sociology lesson.

The people who greeted me so warmly were very genuine. I never once felt like it was a greeting out of obligation. It still showed a distinct difference. I suppose I could assume that it is because the position of pastor still has an authority figure essence to it so it commands a certain respect. I could assume that or a million other things.

I choose to see it as people embracing a reminder that God is present in their lives daily. The genuineness of people's warmth and kindness yesterday shows me that just the reminder that God is working in their midst, even while shopping or getting gas, makes them feel a little lighter, a little more free, and definitely more loved.

It certainly made me stop and reflect about how blessed I am to be called into this vocation.