The Town of Hastings

So far on this trip we have focused our experiences in the country outside the Hastings city limits. Today we went to town. It started off with a meeting with Dee Haussler, Jerri's husband and director of the Hastings Economic Development Corporation. He shared his story with us, including his weakness for nice automobiles. Then he took us on a tour of the Hastings industrial parks. Each warehouse or factory had its own story to be told, and Dee knew them all. "Such and such worked here; this company made me lose one of my good friends when I brought them here; this company moved to Mexico; this company lost $1 million on a spec building; I golf with the owner of this company." What Dee kept stressing throughout all his stories was the excellent work ethic of Nebraskans and how proud he was of how hard people worked around here. Being a Nebraskan myself, I agree with him on all accounts.

After Dee, we went over to the police station and got a chance to meet with police chief Thoren. He eloquently described his life as a cop as having "many hours of boredom, some moments of shear fear, and a lot of emotion." He really connected with us as pastors and pointed out that both pastors and the police have the opportunity to deal with humanity at its worst. For pastors, we are also given opportunities to deal with humanity at its best. That's not always the case with cops. Chief Thoren makes it a point that his officers become involved in the community in some beneficial way, so that they see good people as well as the bad. This also helps the public begin to view the police as someone other than their adversary, and everyone is better able to avoid slipping into the easy cynicism of a poor relationship.

The afternoon brought us into conversation with the director of Butler Volland Mortuary. He gave us wonderful advice on how funeral directors and pastors might best work together. As with many things, mutual respect seemed to be the key ingredient for a healthy relationship. I have to admit, funerals are one part of ministry which I haven't heavily dealt with yet. It was touching for me to see how he spoke of the unique difficulties of rural funerals and how often he had to bury someone he has been personally close with. 

In order for the afternoon to not end on a minor chord, we finished it off with a trip to Carla Kocher's lighthearted sanctuary "Beads and Botanicals". She had many surprises in store for us. The first was that she wanted the four of us seminarians to hold a brief worship service, blessing her newly refurbished storefront. It was exciting to have that opportunity to work with my colleagues to develop something of value. When we finished I could see that Carla was clearly touched, and so was I. 

Then she gave us the chance to make Lutheran rosaries which we could use for our personal spiritual practices. I love mine and already have put it to very good use.

After "Beads and Botanicals" we had some rare down time to meander around downtown Hastings and spend our Hastings Bucks. Predictably I used mine to purchase a cup of coffee. Mmmmm.... coffee.

For dinner we joined our host families and had quite a fancy meal at the Lochland Country Club. The chicken parmesan was delicious and it was great to be able to share that companionship with everyone who has been involved in making this past week a reality. Thank you everyone!

Of course, I had to also make sure to get another ridiculous picture of Kelli. I title this one, "You have got to be kidding me!"