Nebraska Synod ELCA

“Nebraska?”

I kept asking myself over and over: “Nebraska? God is sending me where for my first call? Apparently, the Holy Spirit has a sense of humor.” A few months earlier a colleague asked me, “Where would you like to serve?” I told her I didn’t care. “I just want to be ordained! This ordination process is exhausting!”

“But what if you end up in someplace like Kansas or Nebraska?”

“I. Don’t. Care. Just ordain me already.”

You see, I had been living in New York City at the time of this conversation. It had been my home for 27 years. I loved NYC with all my heart. But God was calling me to a new home, a new place for my heart. And ironically, back to my roots.

I grew up in rural southwest Minnesota, not unlike where I am now. Turns out my roots can be found in Nebraska dating back to the 1870s. My great grandparents, Christopher and Emma, moved from Chicago to Fontanelle, later to Winslow, and are buried near Hooper. I remember as a kid my grandma’s “Nebraska cousins” coming to Minnesota to visit her. So I guess my move to Nebraska is not so random.

God has shown me a place that I never would have genuinely considered to live and serve. And I cannot imagine living and serving anywhere else now. I get to proclaim God’s love in Christ every week, help feed and clothe the needy, assure youth that God loves them no matter who they are – just like I did in NYC. God’s love is expansive and can be found anywhere, from Wall Street to a feed lot, from Broadway to a gravel road, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Missouri River. God is everywhere.

This article was written by Pastor Terry Krueger. Pastor Krueger currently serves at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Bloomfield.