Reflections from Dan Wolpert on Yurt Blessing
Although we all forgot our cameras, that didn't prevent us from having a wonderful time out in the winter scenery during the Yurt Blessing and Open House on Sunday, December 11th. As one visitor commented, "It's as beautiful out here in the winter as it is in the summer!" The weather was perfect, mild and little wind, and we began outside with a bonfire, visiting and watching the deer comb over the crop residue in the fields below.
Then we moved into the yurt, whose new heater was working very well, to pray and bless the space after which we consumed the many goodies that people had brought to share. Thanks to all who joined us, and praise God for another wonderful event in our miraculous natural setting.
Peace in Christ,
Dan
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Reflections Ruth Dalager Buuck
Member of the planning team for the
2005 ELCA National Outdoor Ministry Conference held in October 2005
For the past couple of years, I have been part of a 6-member planning team for the 2005 ELCA National Outdoor Ministry Conference. This annual 4-day conference takes place at various locations across the United States, and is a time when Lutheran outdoor ministry professionals come together for learning, worship, fellowship, and rejuvenation. For the 2005 conference, held in Duluth, MN, we asked Dan Wolpert to put together a “MICAH team” to lead conference attendees in worship and ancient prayer practice each morning. And so he did, gathering fellow prayers from a variety of backgrounds to lead worship and serve as leaders for the small group time that followed each time of silent prayer. Though the afternoon and evening activities resembled many previous conferences (workshops, meetings, banquets, free time, etc.), the morning prayer time was a departure from typical conference activities. In fact, Dan was quick to point out that ironically, focusing on prayer during a Christian gathering is risky business, programmatically speaking. And so Dan gave conference goers permission to engage or not engage in the morning prayer and worship time. So some did, and some didn’t. But I think for those that did, the gift of silence was a blessing in a variety of ways.
Personally, I found the prayer time to be a welcome oasis in the midst of a busy conference. That is not to say that engaging in prayer was a blissful, peaceful experience. Quite the contrary, my prayers involved work and struggle as I listened for the voice of Jesus. But it was a gift to tend to that voice, whatever I heard it saying. When we came together in small groups, it was powerful and inspiring to hear other people describe their prayer experience. Our small group sharing became a prayer of another sort – one where we spoke of the experience of God in our lives.
Many of my friends and colleagues who gathered for the conference spoke of similar experiences in their prayer time and small group. Gift. Power. Centering. Vital. And an unexpected thing happened. Because of our praying and subsequent sharing of that experience, the conference had a different tone for many. People experienced more openness with each other. More graciousness. A deeper sense of the importance of our collective and individual callings to outdoor ministry in its many forms.
As Christian leaders, we are in times of change. But Dan pointed out that this has always been the case. Through the ancient prayer practices, Dan and the MICAH team helped us learn how to deepen our connection to the love of God, through Jesus, that does not change. Thank you Dan, thank you MICAH team, for helping us tend to this important, life giving work.
Ruth Dalager Buuck
November 8, 2005
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Reflections Doug Freeley
Summer 2005 MICAH intern focusing on spiritual life and leadership
To the congregation of First Presbyterian Church of Crookston,
Greeting in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want to thank every one who I had the honor of meeting during my recent stay in Crookston while working as a MICAH intern. It was an incredible showing of Christian hospitality. By the time the month had passed, I felt as at home in church with you as in my own congregation. I was blessed to be able to pray with many of you, for the concerns of Crookston as well as people in your congregation who are battling severe illness. I could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit working in your midst and know that much healing will be the result. The prayer at the last service we attended, when you blessed Bryan and I and we all prayed for healing is a memory I will cherish.
I think it is pretty amazing how you, as a church, have embraced the vision of MICAH. It would be so easy to just look out for your own concerns. Crookston seems to me to be at a crossroads. There is so much suffering from adverse economic conditions, yet there are such strong ties to both family and community. I think the future depends on people of all different denominations coming together in as many ways as possible. Dan has made some incredible efforts in that regard and the development of MICAH has the potential to allow God the space to really transform the town.
It’s obvious that you have the spirit of Christ in you. I would encourage you to continue to reach out to all of your neighbors, praying with them for guidance as you meet the challenges of the future. God loves to use “remnant” as he used Israel to change the world. My prayer is that First Presbyterian will continue to be that remnant that can lead the town into a more prosperous future.
Thanks again for the love and hospitality you showed me during my time with you.
In Christ,
Doug Freeley
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Reflections from Bryan Tennant
Summer 2005 MICAH intern focusing on spiritual life and leadership
There is so much I could write about my experience in Crookston this summer but I have a limited amount of space and anyone reading this will likely have a limited amount of interest (just being realistic). First I would like to express my heartfelt thanks and gratitude to the members of the First Presbyterian Church of Crookston, Minnesota for making the MICAH internship possible, for the warm hospitality and for taking interest in my fellow intern Doug and me. Also, I would like to thank Daniel and Debra (not to mention Max, Sam and, yes-Sadie) for the generous and seemingly boundless hospitality. Thanks and congratulations to Daniel and Debra for being people who not only keep themselves open to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit but who have enough courage and vision to make things like this internship possible.
Two groupings stand out as important to me during my internship. The first is obvious-people. The second is the land, i.e. Crookston and environs. I got to know Doug, Daniel, Debra, Max, Sam and a handful of people at Crookston Presbyterian. I learned a little something from everyone. Daniel and Debra’s life together has been quite an adventure. They have not been afraid to travel and experience new things, people, places and cultures. In the course of these adventures they found their faith in God. I would like to try and remember to challenge myself to be more adventurous like them and to challenge myself to expand my horizons. I was really impressed with the way in which Daniel really lives out what he covers in his book, Creating a Life With God. The spiritual disciplines (especially Bible study and the examen) are woven into the life of his church. I was really impressed with the level of commitment and faith I saw exhibited by people at the weekly early morning prayer meeting as well as the lunchtime Bible study. Similarly, Debra has done a really impressive job of creating a space of healing at the clinic-spiritual as well as physical healing.
What also stood out for me was how interesting and unpredictable were the life journeys that all of us took to end up in Crookston, Minnesota in that particular time in history. When I first corresponded with Daniel via email about the internship sometime back in March, I assumed that he was your “typical” Presbyterian minister-meaning someone who had been a Presbyterian all his life. In addition, I assumed that he was originally from the Crookston area. When I began to learn more about the journeys that took Daniel and Debra from Los Angeles and New York (respectively) and had them ending up in getting married in Bede Griffiths’ monastic community in India, I was really surprised. I had assumed a lot about Daniel and Debra and been wrong on almost all counts. Likewise, I was surprised to learn more about my fellow intern Doug. When I first met Doug he told me he had just spent a year at Wheaton College here in Illinois. I must confess that my first thought was “Uh, oh…I’m going to have to share an apartment with a Wheaton evangelical for a month-he’s going to be beating me over the head with his Bible.” Well, it turns out Doug does carry around a large Bible, but rather than using it to beat anyone who disagrees with him over the head, he actually reads it-quite often in fact. His example often shamed me into going into my room and opening my Bible. But Doug’s story is fascinating also-ophthalmologist by profession, Westpoint graduate and currently working as a Christian missionary in Ecuador with his (very kind) wife and son. After hearing Daniel, Debra and Doug’s life stories, my pedigree sounded very ordinary indeed. Of all of us, it seemed I was the most homegrown, i.e. a native born Midwesterner from the Chicago suburbs-not so exotic at all. Yet, despite my being from someplace closer to Crookston, it was probably no less remarkable that I ended up finding out about the internship in the first place. I saw an ad that someone had placed in the newspaper at McCormick Seminary in Chicago. I applied and the next thing I knew I was beginning an 11 hour car trip bound for a small Minnesota town I had never been to or heard of where I was to spend a month learning about prayer from a PCUSA minister whom I had never met. When people asked me what I was planning to do immediately after my graduation I would tell them about the internship and would usually get a blank stare in return. But God has unexpected destinations and pit stops along the road of our life journeys and this was no exception. I was really glad to have the opportunity to deepen my prayer life.
So, the other “character” in this story is the land, Crookston itself. I brought dozens of books with me about Christian spirituality and mysticism. I assumed that I would at last have plenty of time and few enough distractions while in Crookston to read them. But the open space outside my room kept calling me. I started to take walks along the roads behind the University of Minnesota campus. I got a lesson in judging distance in such huge open spaces one day when I started walking and set my course on reaching a cluster of trees in the distance. I estimated the trees at about one mile away. It actually turned out to be four miles away (I drove the route later to find out) and so my small walk turned into an eight mile round trip hike. But I enjoyed it and began to love being by myself looking at all the green fields and most of all the always beautiful and huge sky. Many evenings I would get in my car at dusk and just drive northbound on the dirt road behind the university so that I could watch the sun set in the western sky over the beautiful fields of wheat. I rarely encountered other cars on the road. Several times when I did, people looked at me rather strangely and asked if I needed help. I told them I was watching the sun set and they shot me another strange look. I assume they took such beautiful sunsets for granted.
I learned that God is just as likely to urge us to encounter God’s presence in nature as tucked away from all outward distractions is a quiet room indoors. Once again in my life, my plans and predictions about the internship were not to be realized. God called me to spend a lot of time outside and I am glad that it worked out that way. I will have plenty of time to spend indoors over the coming winter. We have our share of brutal winter weather in Chicago as well. Likewise, my assumptions about the people I met were proven to be largely false. Daniel, Debra, Max, Sam, Doug and members of Crookston Presbyterian turned out to be more interesting and multi-dimensional than I could have predicted. In closing, I would urge anyone reading this to try to appreciate the natural beauty of Crookston as well as the beauty of the people who live there-that “Minnesota Nice” is no myth. Don’t take it for granted. When I got back to Chicago, it took me a few minutes to get reacquainted with the Mad-Max, take no-prisoners driving style on the expressway. Also, no one smiled at me for no reason! Yes, please take some time to appreciate your little slice of God’s kingdom. It’s not perfect but it’s awfully nice.
– Bryan Tennant
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