Boarding School, Bishop, & Bundles of Energy in Genoa

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12 – Our Band of Brothers and Sisters mounted up this morning for a short trip to the town of Genoa (pop. 1000), about 25 minutes from Albion. The tour guide for the day would be Juliet Rasi, pastor of Genoa’s Augustana Lutheran Church. A native of Syracuse, New York, Pastor Juliet is two and a half years into her first call. With contagious excitement and energy, she spoke to us about the interesting challenges of coming to a small town as a single woman, and the first female pastor in Augustana’s 100 year history. The parishioners quickly won her over, and on our visit she simply could not talk enough about how much she loved her congregation and the people in the community, in spite of and often because of their eccentricities. Like Pastor Mike, Pastor Juliet is a wonderful lesson to all of those future pastors who have anxieties about moving to a small town.

She led us to visit the town co-op, where we learned how a “cooperative” works. Cooperatives centralize purchases, storage, and distribution of farm inputs for their members. By taking advantage of volume discounts and utilizing other economies of scale, supply cooperatives bring down members' costs. Supply cooperatives may provide seeds, fertilizers, chemicals, fuel, and farm machinery. Some supply cooperatives also operate machinery pools that provide mechanical field services (e.g., plowing, harvesting) to their members. And, cooperatives can provide the services involved in moving a product from the point of production to the point of consumption. Juliet explained that locals take a lot of pride in their cooperative and it is considered a center point of the town.

Next we visited the museum dedicated to the Genoa Indian School, which operated from 1884 to 1934. This was a boarding school to which the government and school operators would bring Native American children – often against their will – from their parents and villages in order to “civilize” them. It was a sad reality that we reflected upon, then tried to make the best of our visit.
The original blacksmith and sewing building.

The ethereal glow around Pastor Juliet reflects perfectly her energetic personality.

Our tour guide explains to Kadi and Patricia that the modern furnace is not in fact one of the artifacts on display.

Alpha rings the bell to signal the start of class.

Patricia is right at home at the teacher’s desk.

These kids never pay attention in class.

Lunch came next at the only restaurant in town, where we were graciously welcomed by the owners and employees and joined by the bishop of the Nebraska synod, David deFreese, another area pastor (and LSTC alum!) Bob Bryan, and Mitch the Synod Communications Guy. Bishop deFreese, a native of the Cornhusker state, warmly welcomed us and was very interested in our stories and backgrounds, and what we have learned and enjoyed about Nebraska. He shared with us his own impressions of rural ministry, and through his words his love of rural communities shone through clearly.

Unfortunately, ours may be the first immersion group to meet with the bishop and not take his photograph. We’re hoping Mitch the Synod Communications Guy can help us out of this embarrassing development!

Following lunch our gang adjourned to the spacious home of Eugene, one of Augustana’s prominent members. We entered to a living room filled with about 20 members from the church who had gathered to join us for coffee, conversation, and desserts. We each had the chance to personally visit with a number of folks, getting to know them, their stories and their experiences in the church, and to share our stories in turn. Approximately the last hour was spent in a “round table” discussion with all of us and the members, each asking pertinent questions about the other. We all enjoyed so much the relaxed and jovial atmosphere, and especially the incredible sense of community shared among the people and the obvious love they feel for their pastor, and she for them. It was a beautiful experience that I believe will stand as one of the highlights of our journey.

Our group had a splendid time with the Augustana members!