Two pastors (a married couple sharing a call) came up and talked to us this afternoon. And talk about a small world, it turns out that his (the male half of the husband and wife team's) sister goes to the other ELCA church in my hometown! No one else here has even ever heard of my hometown, so that was a shocker. They had a lot of interesting things to say, but Adrianne already covered it, so I'm only going to cover a few highlights that were of particular interest to me.
First off, they recommended a couple of books for people going into rural ministry. One was Dakota and one they said was named Working, but I think might have actually been this book. (Why all of these book links? Because I love books, probably way more than I should, but I love them.)
Second of all, there is no easy answer for the single pastor. I am the only completely unattached student in my group and when I asked about what a pastor does with parishoners fascination with their love life and desire to set the pastor up, I got a lot of "ummm . . ." in response. They said to try to find a spiritual director outside of town and some other activities outside of town, but it didn't sound like anything would have a real effect on the situation, just make it easier for one to accept it. Apparently it's just a side effect of being a single, rural minister, much like coffee is a side effect of being Lutheran.
Why visit Nebraska, people? For the hospitality and above all, for the food. Everyone here is so welcoming and inviting, it's amazing. The food is amazing too. Every meal is tasty and home cooked. If we're too full for seconds, we better have good excuses, like we ate too many donuts (after breakfast and before lunch) and too many cookies (at the meeting after lunch) and we're trying to save room for dessert after dinner. I had some pie this evening that was fabulous. So I'm telling you, come to this place for the hospitality, stay for the pie. It's worth it.
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