Rev. Marjie and her lovely husband Ray are true farmers with big hearts and excellent cooking skills. I have been helping Rev. Marjie air out, clean and put clean sheets on the many beds in the little Church and the Bunk House (which is in the back, ground level of the Big Red Barn) getting ready for guests. During a break in our work, Rev. Marjie shared a bit of her story with me. What an amazing woman! I am blessed in having her as my Mentor this summer.
One of the congregations Rev. Marjie serves is in the bustling metropolis of Bryant (pop. about 350). The lovely little white church is comfortable and welcoming. This congregation has about 30 members and 22 folks came to worship on Sunday June 5. This was a great turnout as they had not been planning on having a service as Rev. Marjie and I were supposed to be off at the Prairie Lakes Annual Meeting in Pierre (yes, it's pronounced "Peer"), so we were pleased to see them all. Because of flooding on the Missouri River, the officials at Pierre said no one could come into the city unless they were planning to work on the dikes to hold back the rising river. So with 2 day's notice, the committee put together a meeting in Chamberlain. Most of the churches had representatives at the meeting and they got everything done in one afternoon! Five minutes for each report, vote to approve, lovely Move On! Amazing.
The most amazing feature here, for me, is the huge sky. The sunsets are 360 and gorgeous. I am very much the city girl though: one evening Rev. Marjie said we would have dinner and then we had to go load chickens. I gave her a look that made her burst out laughing. "load chickens" I queried? I was thinking, "ok, what are we going to load the chickens With?!" you know, is it like loading a shotgun? But no, we went to the chicken coop and loaded the chickens into crates and took them to Miss Flossy down the road who... how shall I put this? she prepares them for eating. As in, we went back the next day and got 40 chickens in plastic bags ready for roasting. This whole process was a bit much for my city heart/tummy and I wasn't much help loading the chickens. As I have always said, I am a terrible hypocrite... I don't like my food to look like who it was. If I had to kill my own meat I'd be a vegetarian. Currently, I'm not much interested in eating chicken.
But life on this planet is about life supporting life. Everything eats something else. Even the vegetables are life which we gather and use for our nourishment. This experience is giving me a deep appreciation for that cyclical life. Rev. Marjie and I also went out to the garden and picked rhubarb for a rhubarb crumble for dessert. The leaves are as big as elephant ears and the stocks at least 3-fingers wide. Delicious. And I have been eating a LOT of asparagus also fresh from the garden. I've never tasted asparagus like that! And here, with all the hard work involved in producing this food, the prayer before supper is sincere and real. Life here is real. You know?
So... this week (June 7-12) I am in Aberdeen. Following report will come from Rev. Jill Warner's church where I'll be preaching on Pentecost (yikes!). This is some of my favorite Scripture though and a celebration dear to my heart, so it will be fun. Rev. Jill, Sandy and I sat on the chancel steps last night designing the sacred space decoration and deciding how to do Communion. Rev. Jill is relaxed because I'll be preaching! This will be my first sermon, like, ever! Pray for me!
Love to all from windy North-East South Dakota!
Michael
Well, the Church meeting certainly doesn't sound like a TAS meeting. Break a leg on your preaching, girl!
ReplyDeleteTrue Anne, true. But interesting none the less. The preaching went well... at least no one walked out while I was talking! Thank God for that!
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