Old Ties and New Beginnings

Hello friends -

I thought I'd take a break from sermon posting and write a narrative entry for once, haha! It's been about a month since I finished up school. I've been back in Cannon Falls mostly, save a trip to Marcell in the middle of May. I've been working at the Econo Foods bakery, and spending a lot of time baking bread for my brothers, parents, and grandparents. It's been cathartic. It's been good to have a daily rhythm that's dependable and honest. It's been good to be home and garden and play guitar and drink beer and talk bullshit.

I've learned a lot in the past two months. Changes have happened, in ways that have both strengthened and delighted me. Since arriving home for the summer, I've discovered a profound sense of freedom and sense of direction. I'm eating better, and running again. I'm attempting to change old habits. It's good to feel the gravel road underneath my tennis shoes. More changes are to come soon - as I head out to my internship congregation in late July, which entails another move, and a new body of Christ to serve among and with. I'll take my alb and my collar and my kayak and my bread books and journey into God's story of the people at Zion Lutheran on Franklin Lake. The pastoral formation process will continue, and I will face new challenges and new joys, and I can't wait.

After internship at the end of July 2016, I'm planning a few weeks of service at Holden Village, before my last year of school begins. I'm hoping to return to the mountains in Washington for a spell to work and serve and process what internship will have been.

I'm hoping to move to Marcell or Grand Rapids for my senior year of seminary. At that point, I will only have six classes to finish, and it's very doable from a distance. I'm hoping to get a part time job and worship at St. Andrew's Lutheran every week; to go through the assignment process uplifted by the saints in that congregation who welcomed my curiosities of what ordained ministry what mean.

A lot is unknown right now. A lot could change. But there are some things that are concrete right now, and that is nothing short of exciting. I'm walking into a new future for myself, and I absolutely cannot wait to see where God is leading.

God's joy, my friends -
Dean