Six months

Six months ago today I retired from Mayo Clinic.  Retired is perhaps not the most accurate word, because I didn't retire in the traditional sense.  I had enough years in at  Mayo that, combined with my age, I could end my employment there as retired, although the real reason I left was because of another opportunity.

I left Mayo one month short of 27 years service because I had been called to a different vocation.  Two years after finishing a seminary program, going to school part-time while working full-time, I had received a call to serve as the pastor of the Jicarilla Apache Reformed Church in Dulce, New Mexico. 

The details of our move were still being worked out when I left Mayo but less than four weeks later we were unloading all of our possessions into the church's parsonage and I preached on that first Sunday. 

I have preached every Sunday in the past five months.  And I've done a lot of other things too.  I knew that a wide variety of tasks were included in being the pastor here beside preaching.  Tonight they included shoveling snow before opening the gym for roller skating.  On the day of my official installation they included repairing the plumbing in the parsonage kitchen.  I could mention many other things but I don't want to sound like I'm complaining about them.  There has been value of some sort in nearly everything we have done in this ministry.  I say 'we' because my wife has generously shared many of her gifts as a part of our service here.

It's Friday night and I think I have this Sunday's sermon ready.  My preferred pattern has been to have it basically finished on Friday and then work on it just a little on Saturday, and then again on Sunday morning before worship.

Right now, five months in, preaching is the hardest thing I do.  And among many tasks of great worth, it is the one that I want to do the best at.  Each week.

I came here with very little experience in preaching and, through necessity, I am learning a lot.  Each week.  And I have a long ways to go.  I don't even know how far, but it is somewhere over a distant horizon.  Of that I am sure.  I have a suspicion that I'll never "get there" and that is okay.  None of the preachers I am learning from feel they have fully arrived.  And they are pretty good preachers, so that is one lesson fairly easily learned.

The six month point after leaving Mayo just seems like a good time to pause and think about all that has happened since then.  To consider briefly the remarkable changes of leaving a place where I was well-established and fairly comfortable for something so completely different. 

A very different kind of work.  A very different place to live.  A very different way of life.

Very different, and very good.  It is good because we have no doubts that this is the place that God was preparing us for and brought us to. 

In the months of prayer and discussion leading up to our move to Dulce we thought this was where God wanted us.  And on that basis we came.  And we are glad to be here, for we can't imagine a place where we are more suited to serve than here on the reservation of the Jicarilla Apache Nation. 

Interesting? Always.  Fun? Often.  Frustrating? Sometimes, and I am glad that patience is one of my strong suits.  Worthwhile?  Time and again, in ways large and small. 

There is a saying, "God is good all the time.  All the time, God is good."  It has been our joy to see His goodness here time, and time, and time again.

We give God thanks and praise for bringing us here.  We look forward to continuing to serve here for a long time.  We know it won't always be easy but we know it is the right place.  Soon enough we'll know what the next six months will bring!  

100 days in Dulce

Today is our 100th day in Dulce, New Mexico.  On the one hand that seems like a long time and on the other hand it seems like not very long at all.  Given that it is my day off it seems like a good time to pause and consider some of what has gone on since our arrival.

We quickly settled into a house that is in really good shape for being nearly 100 years old.  I'll give credit where credit is due and thank Robin for "driving the bus" in getting things unpacked and in place.  It took about one week and was pretty hectic, but if it was left to me there would still be boxes scattered throughout the house, waiting until who knows when.

Being unpacked and settled allowed us to begin hosting our new friends.  We have had guests over for dinner a number of times.  We have begun holding a Bible study in our home.  And in our first month we even had an open house for our congregation, as a way of thanking them for the warm welcome they extended to us.  Thanks again go to Robin for all of her hard work in the many ways she has made our home a place to welcome others.

I am settling in to a new vocation.  This past Sunday was the 14th in a row that I preached, exceeding by one the number of times I preached in the 3+ years before we came here.  And while preaching may be the most visible aspect of ministry here it is far from the only thing.  I could make a list of the many tasks that come my way but it wouldn't be complete, because nearly every week brings something that I wasn't aware of the week before.

 Dulce is a relatively small community, one that is a bit spread out geographically relative to its population.  We have learned what services are available here and what things we need to get elsewhere.  It is quiet and the pace is slow, and that seems to suit us just fine.

And it is beautiful, in its own way.  I lived in southeast Minnesota for 27 years and grew to love the area.  And in a similar fashion I am growing to love the beauty unique to this area.  One person advised us to take lots of pictures now, while things are new for us, but I am pretty sure that I will still be stopping to look around and enjoy the sights until our last day here.

The first one hundred days have been pretty good.  While we still think of the Midwest as "home," particularly as we make plans to go back and visit our families next year, Dulce has very much become home for us.  Robin and I feel a strong sense of being called here.  We feel that a number of experiences in the preceding years were preparing us to serve God here, though we had no idea of that at the time.  We are thankful for the many people who have prayed, and are praying, for our ministry here.

Our prayer today is one of thanks to God for bringing us to this place, and that He would enable us to serve Him well while we are here, however many more days, months or years that may be.

Laughter

We have been living on the reservation in Dulce now for three-and-a-half weeks and I have heard several times since we got here that having a sense of humor and not taking myself too seriously would be good qualities to have.  I had thought that was the kind of person I was more-or-less naturally, and I've had the opportunity to do laugh at myself a few times since we arrived.  When it happened today it caught me completely by surprise.

I went to the grocery store to get some things for the church.  On the way in I saw a man who had been at our church on my first Sunday.  He was sitting in the store's cafeteria with a man I had not met before.  After making my purchase I went over to say "Hi" to them, and I was glad that I had correctly remembered the one man's name.  A third person had joined them and I mentioned that another man I had met in town had told me that some men drank coffee and spoke in Jicarilla Apache at the store in the afternoons.  "Are you the men?" I asked. 

Indeed they were, and they said I could join them and learn.  I said that I figured I was too old to pick up a language but one of them said that "no, I wasn't" and invited me to sit, so I did.

He said a word and I repeated it.  He said it again and  I repeated it again.  Then he told me that it meant "white man."  Okay, I thought.  Then he said another word, which I repeated.  He said it and I repeated it.  This, he told me, was the word for "hello." 

He said the words together and I repeated them.  Then he asked "What did you say?" to which I replied, "Hello, white man."  We all laughed, one of them gave me a high-five and I figured it was time to move on for the day.

Thinking about this on the walk home from the store I was mindful of the fact that my newly learned phrase would not have much practical use, given that there are very few white men living on the reservation in the first place.  But my willingness to sit for a few minutes with some Apache men and laugh with them at my expense is something I was glad had happened.

In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul writes about his willingness to be flexible in how he lived with others in order to advance the Good News in Christ Jesus.  He sums this up by saying:

"I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.  I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them its blessings."

It is my prayer that those few minutes today leads to more time with those men, or perhaps with others who may learn about me from them.  And that more time with the Native Americans outside of our church will lead to them knowing, and better yet, possessing, the blessings of saving faith in Jesus. 

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.