A Sojourner in La Crosse

November 13, 2018 Roland Kuhl 2 Comments

Today has been a day hanging around the house. Got up early to do some grading in the online doctoral program for which I serve as an adjunct, interacting with learners responding to Discussion Questions, grading a couple of papers, taking care of some administrative matters.

My daughter is visiting from Australia and a friend of hers is visiting from Alberta for the week – so they are hanging out together reconnecting with one another. It’s good to have her home – it helps make our home here feel more like home, yet she’ll be returning in a couple of weeks.

In reflecting on this, I realize I am still getting my footing living here in La Crosse. I had lived in Illinois for 23 years, made close friends with whom I would regularly meet and we would speak life into one another’s lives.

Being in La Crosse for a little over two years now, we’ve made some friends with whom we socialize with – going out Friday nights, taking in shows. I have also connected with a former student from Northern Seminary, who was there never in my classes, but he had heard of me from a former student of mine. He’s a chaplain in one of the local hospitals and we met regularly on Friday mornings speaking into each other’s lives, but he was able to shift from nights to days and so we do not meet as regularly as we did. I have missed connecting with other local clergy and so I looked for a Scripture Study group involving clergy and found one meeting Thursday mornings. I have enjoyed being the sole Mennonite among a group of ELCA Lutherans – we are shaped in the Word together as we discuss the lectionary – they in preparation for sermons, me (since I do not have a congregation) just to be with a group of people in which we engage in Scripture together. My wife and I have also made some connections with members of faculty where she is a nursing professor – I often come along with her and join in discussions, and get to know other faculty spouses as well as engage in conversation with her colleagues from other departments. One relationship that is developing is my occasional meeting with the Campus Minister, who organizes the spiritual life experiences on campus. He is where I was, beginning in ministry with a young family, some thirty years ago – and so I am glad to serve as a mentor in a number of ways.

Perhaps, as I reflect on what I just recounted, I realize I do not have a clear strategy for connecting with people and not sure I want one. I am appreciative of the connections that the Spirit is leading me into – persons who speak life into my life and these ones who are becoming friends in whom I can speak life into their lives. I guess, in reflecting on this, I am finding a place here in La Crosse; I am setting up my tent here. My wife and I are not alone here – I, we, are able to join with the Spirit building relationships that are life-giving. I give praise to God for this.