“Let Us Pray”

The first Sunday in September is always so much fun as we get to reconnect as a church family after so many of us have been on trips, up to the lake, out at the cabin, going to weddings, running races, canoeing rivers, and so much more. Though it is hard to put away some of our summer patterns, it is also good to embrace our fall schedules. No, really, it is! Here at Family of Christ, we are beckoning us back to all our school-year activities with the invitation, “Let Us Pray.”

The joy of discovery

The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.
~Mark Van Doren

As pastors, our vocation includes a number of things, and sometimes we are called to teach on topics related to faith. Here at Family of Christ, we spent 11 Sundays from June – August learning about other faith traditions. The class was called “Our Neighbor’s Faith 2.” We studied some of the beliefs and practices in different traditions including Greek Orthodox, Rastafarian, Zoroastrian, and Eckankar, just to name a few. It was a wonderfully interesting summer class (ok, maybe for us pastors — you can ask a regular attender to see if they agree!).

Just Two Teenaged Girls on a Ranch in the Middle of Arkansas

Many thanks to our guest bloggers Claire Vollum & Katie Spangrud, who share some of the experiences they had on the mission trip to Heifer Ranch this summer:

After many hours on a bus, an overnight stop at a freezing cold church, and a few meals on the road, we finally reached our destination — Heifer Ranch located in Perryville, Arkansas. We were greeted by Brittany and Si, our two fearless leaders for the week. They led us to where we would be staying for the week — a lodge called Bartel, that was actually very nice compared to some of the past mission trip accommodations, complete with air conditioning and everything! We went to bed that night anxious but excited for what the following days on the ranch would bring.

Every day was split into two parts: before and after lunch. Sometimes we were doing service for the ranch in one of three areas — livestock, maintenance, or gardening — and other times we were doing team-building sessions or taking a class.

Classes:
There were two classes that every member of our group attended:
Just Dough It! was making a pizza from scratch out of ingredients that could be found on the farm. We all learned to appreciate our ease of access to pre-made food while taking three hours to put together one normal-sized pie.

People, Land and Livestock essentially taught us about global agriculture, sustainability, and also more about the ranch. We toured the gardens, learned about how much of the world can be farmed, and even made tortillas at the end.

Service:
We each were able to serve in two different areas of the ranch. Livestock and Maintenance were the two that we chose to sign up for. In the barn, together we milked a goat named Jet and filled in the pigs’ mud holes with shale, which they promptly began to eat. We worked with a college-aged girl named Sam who happened to be from Albert Lea, MN! On our day with the maintenance crew we filled in potholes on the roads within the ranch with asphalt. Ronnie, the head of maintenance for the ranch, accompanied us and taught us clueless city girls how to use asphalt. He was so fun to talk to and was not afraid to poke fun at our phrase “you guys” after we relentlessly mocked “y’all.”

Tuesday, however, was slightly different. After lunch, we went out to tour what was called the Global Village. The Global Village was a way for us to understand how it is to live like many of the people Heifer International works with. Located in the forest, away from all the buildings on the ranch and circling a pond that was rumored to house water moccasins, were nine different “houses.” They were traditional homes that impoverished people live in around the world. The different houses were from Guatemala, Tibet, Appalachia, Thailand, Zambia, and a refugee camp, and included dirt-floor, wood-floor, and brick-floor houses found in slums.

I, Katie, was located in the refugee camp, which was basically a wood floor with a canvas tent and no door. We were located on the far side of the village, away from most of the other houses. When it was time to collect our supply basket for the night, our group was turned away and told that we would not be able to talk to anyone besides our own group, to simulate our “language barrier.” With no food, no matches, and no ability to talk to others, we began to scramble. We ran from village to village, trying to beg for as much food as possible. At one point, we thought that other villages would share their dinners with us, but those plans fell through very quickly. Back at camp, we lit a fire with one of our three matches, got out our pan, boiled our only three eggs, and roasted our half of an onion over the fire — not quite a feast for ten people. We each ate our quarter of an egg and attempted to eat the onion (some people thought it was good, but I wasn’t too convinced).

Ashley and I were venturing to the squatty-potty (yes, our only option), but Thailand stopped us on our way, offering their extra stew! We gathered our group and brought them to Thailand, where we ate the stew. Then, the slums joined and gave us their leftover rice. Finally, Guatemala invited us to come and share their tortillas. We had the best deal of them all!

After enjoying the fire at Guatemala, we headed back to camp, where half of our group decided to sleep outside because of the large bugs found inside our tent and also for a great view of the stars. The rest of us laid down inside, where we tried to sleep, even though we could hear the coyotes near by and had just seen a possum close to the camp. After we woke up to “Taps” on the trumpet, we all were summoned to the slums, where they cooked us grits and we ate around the fire together, sharing our experiences of the night before.

Finally, to end our experience, we completed our chores based on our villages. The refugee camp was fortunate and had to do the show barn chores, while the slums, Claire’s group, had to wash everyone’s dishes.

Overall, this opened our eyes to how other people live worldwide. Not everyone has running water, a bed to sleep in, or food to eat. We need to remember these people and think about what we can do in order to help them.

It was fun to be able to not only work on the farm, but also to learn why Heifer’s mission to “work with communities to end world hunger and poverty and to care for the Earth” is so important. Heifer works to end hunger by purchasing animals (such as cattle, donkeys, and camels), giving them to impoverished families or villages, and then letting the animals provide for those in need. It is understood that the first female offspring of the donated animal will be given to some other family member or village in need, so that the gift may live on.

While we didn’t complete as much service as some of the other past mission trips, we were able to learn so much about worldwide hunger and how other people live that are not-so-close to our homes. The trip gave us a whole new outlook on how fortunate we are here in Chanhassen, and taught us small ways in which we can effect changes to world hunger and the environment.

~ Claire Vollum & Katie Spangrud

God’s splendor will be seen

I’ll admit I approached chaperoning the FoC middle school mission trip with nervousness and dread. A week spent with no privacy, sleeping on the floor in a room full of strangers, refereeing middle school drama, all while getting very little sleep – what had I gotten myself into? This is NOT in my comfort zone Despite my fears, Leann Thompson, Mark Salo, and fourteen middle schoolers and I all loaded into two vans on July 27. There was no turning back now!

The kindness of strangers

I have a little story to share this week as a general plea for civility and kindness. My niece, Kirsten, is just out of college and has gone to work throughout our state as an advocate for the homeless. In fact, she recently helped set up a program through Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant: Some of the proceeds from sales of food on certain days will benefit homeless ministries. However, not all BWWs are taking part in the program, including, sadly, the one in Chanhassen. I’m sure there are other programs that Kirsten works on, but this one caught my attention because I heard the phrase ‘buffalo wild wings’ and couldn’t pay attention to the rest of what she was saying. I do have a fondness for those wings!