No Longer Strangers…

Perhaps the highlight of my career as an Active duty Air Force Chaplain was when I was the Wing Chaplain of Royal Air Force Station Mildenhall in England from June 2005-June 2008. Between the incredible team I was privileged to lead and the incredible team I was a part of (the 100th Air Refueling Wing) and the opportunity to serve United States Air Forces in Europe as a Chaplain Corps inspector, it was an amazing three years. The picture above is of the ruins of the Abbey Gate in Bury St Edmunds which was located close to Mildenhall. I spent a lot of time there enjoying the culture and dear friends whom I met during the three years there. Long before the wheels lifted off and I left England for the last time in 2008, I felt like I was leaving a part of me back in England. Why, you might ask? Well, because I had been welcomed into so many lives and was no longer a stranger.

The reading from Ephesians for this Sunday speaks to my heart of such a connection. But the first time that this reading touched me in a special way was my first week at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities (UTS) in August of 1983. “So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God…” (Ephesians 2:19, RSV) was printed on a sign placed upon the door of my apartment in student housing. When I arrived at UTS for my first term as a seminarian it felt like I was landing in alien territory. What was seminary? How on earth was I going to manage? Even though I had spent years visiting Minneapolis/St Paul as a Minnesota resident, now it was my home. Yet I felt incredibly alone.

Before I knew it though, I was meeting second and third year students along with all of the incoming class of seminarians who lived in the apartments on campus. During orientation, we went to a nearby YMCA camp (in Hudson, Wisconsin) where I had gone to campe as a very young kid in the late 60’s. The new students had an opportunity to get to know each other and the faculty who would be walking with us over the course of the next three to four years. Yes, we had arrived as strangers and sojourners… we didn’t know each other… yet over the course of my three years at UTS, these strangers became friends and colleagues in ministry! Many I have been able to stay in touch with through the years and some I have been blessed to reconnect with via Social Media and ministry.

No longer strangers… how lovely that sounds! In a time where social media creates and enhances social isolation, it is so wonderful to be able to develop true and lasting bonds! Those bonds have been so incredibly important to this Padre through the years. In the Air Force, my average assignment length was just under three years. That is not a lot of time to develop close friendships. We learned how to build quickly and build deep! The goal in each assignment was to build a team that became family… no longer strangers… so that we could support and encourage each other as we set out to accomplish the mission we had set before us.

When I retired from the AF after 21 years on Active duty in 2011, I found myself once more in a new community. Yes, I had served as pulpit supply for First Presbyterian Church of DeFuniak Springs, Florida from Oct-Dec 2008 but that was only on Sundays and I didn’t live in the community. Thanks to some good folks in DeFuniak Springs AND some really good folks in the church I served as pulpit supply in from Jan 2009-Aug 2010 (First Presbyterian Church of Milton, Florida), plus a family I became a part of through Alabama Presbyterian Cursillo, this Padre who was a Minnesotan and ex-AF Chaplain, found a place and found a home. I was no longer a stranger or sojourner… I had become a part of a community… a part of a family.

Over the past four years, thanks to Florida Presbytery, Alabama Presbyterian Cursillo, and our connectional Presbyterian system, I found a home. I was also incredibly blessed to meet and befriend the woman who would become my wife and soul-mate one weekend in September of 2009 when I attended Cursillo as a Pilgrim. Over the course of THAT weekend, this Padre who arrived at the Episcopal Church’s Beckwith Camp and Conference Center near Fairhope, Alabama, as a stranger (knowing only two people on staff), departed as a member of a family of faith!

And now… on the cusp of a new beginning in ministry… Denise and I will be departing the Florida Panhandle and South Alabama for the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. With the call before me as the new pastor of Presbyterian Community Church of the Rockies in Estes Park, a new beginning is upon us. However, by the grace of God (and our connectional system plus some Air Force connections) we will not arrive there as strangers. Yes, the first day we arrived in Estes Park for my initial face-to-face interview, we hadn’t met anyone from the church other than via email or Skype. By the end of the weekend with them, we were no longer strangers… we had an incredible connection as family! Add to that the fact that we already had many dear friends courtesy of the Air Force and Denise’s home church living there, we weren’t strangers at all. How wonderful it is to feel like we are moving somewhere to answer God’s call without being strangers! What a blessing it is to find family in far-off places… what a blessing it is to not feel absolutely isolated or alone!

So, dear reader, how does this story touch you? I don’t know the specifics of your lives or your situation. But I do know this… as you seek to follow the Lord… as you jump into new surroundings, know this: You are not alone! My prayer is that you will always and everywhere find this truth… You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God! May God and your new family welcome you home… and may they support, encourage, and nurture you as you serve the Lord together. Welcome to the family, dear ones!