Canadian Lutheran Chick

Zepheniah 3:17

2009-12-10T15:54:00.000-08:00

I was at a meeting this morning that filled me with sadness and even a little bit of despair. We were discussing one of the hot button issues in the church and near the end of the discussion talked about how maybe we aren't even talking anymore because we have come to the realization that we can no longer continue to agree to disagree and there will come a time when the church will split.
Part of me really thinks, let's get the split over with and move on to do what God is calling us to do at this time and in this place but this morning I was struck by a deep sense of sadness. A grief washed over me as I looked around the room and realised that if (or maybe when) we split that some of those in that room with me this morning would be on the other side of the split.
As I left the meeting I struggled with how I was called to be a person of faith and hope in the midst of turmoil and sadness. How do I continue to serve a church that I know will look radically different in the years to come? Will there be a place for me in this new church? How do I bring good news to God's people in the midst of it all?
This afternoon I returned to my sermon for Sunday. The traditional theme for this the third Sunday in advent is joy. A theme that I struggled with after this morning's meeting. So I turned to the texts to continue the wrestling match that through the work of the Spirit turns out a sermon. One of the texts for this Sunday is the end of the book of Zepheniah which includes one of my favourite verses Zepheniah 3:17
The Lord, your God, is in your midst,
a warrior who gives victory;
he will rejoice over you with gladness,
he will renew you* in his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing
As I researched for Sunday's sermon I came across this passage in the introduction to Zephaniah in my Lutheran Study Bible:
"Zephaniah makes a call for trust in God as the sole guarantor of faithfulness and security."
And so I am renewed in God's love for another day. I continue the journey knowing that God rejoices over me with gladness and that I serve a God in whom I can put my trust. For God is the sole guarantor of faithfulness and security.
I continue to journey crying out O Come O Come Emmanuel.

Last batch of ordination pics!

2009-05-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

More Ordination Pics!

2009-05-16T10:38:00.000-07:00

Top pic - Three pastors from OSLC, left - Rev. Ken Harris, right of me - Rev. Bob Shantz and far right - Rev. Tim Le Drew. The person to the left of me is Bishop Gerhard Preibisch.
Pic 2 - One of the beautiful cakes
Pic 3 - Three of my youth from OSLC who all participated in the service. The two on the outside came back from Ontario to be a part of the service.
Pic 4 - The laying on of hands, a very powerful moment!

Ordination!

2009-05-16T10:31:00.000-07:00

Well it has been a while since I blogged, I apologize for that! It has been a wonderful whirlwind of events. I have moved, been ordained, been installed, graduated and begun a new job! Here are some pics from my ordination with more pics from the other events to come!

You're Invited!

2009-04-14T09:38:00.000-07:00

Please join me in this important moment in my life as I am ordained as Pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.
I will be serving as Associate Pastor at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church in Langley, BC. Here is the info about my ordination!

You are cordially invited
to the ordination of
Kristen Steele
Saturday May 2, 2009
2:00 pm
Our Saviour Lutheran Church
6340 No. 4 Road,
Richmond, BC
Phone (604) 270-0085
Reception to follow.
Clergy are invited to vest.
The liturgical colour is red.

She's here!

2009-03-23T11:26:00.000-07:00

Keela (beautiful in Gaelic) has arrived! My parents picked her up on Saturday in Portland and she has now joined our family. She is very cute and cuddly and has settled in very well, sleeping through the night right from the first night! We're enjoying her a lot!

What the heck is going on in your life Kristen?

2009-02-11T23:53:00.000-08:00

What a good question! One I've heard just a few times recently so I thought I'd update y'all here on my blog. I finished my coursework for my MDiv in December and packed up and moved back to BC. At the end of December I completed the last step in being approved for ordination by the powers that be pending the receipt of a call to a congregation. This required a written exam and a panel oral exam which I completed at the end of December.
Since then I have been in the call process with a congregation. On my mom's 60th birthday I received news that I had been chosen as primary candidate (only candidate) for an associate pastor position in Langley at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church. It is still quite a process ahead before I have a letter of call in my hands. The call committee with present my name to the church council in a couple of weeks and ask the church council to take my name forward to the congregation to approve a call being issued to me.
So I am staying at my parents' house until that all takes place. I have been enjoying having some time off and reconnecting with friends.
I am now going to look for part time temporary work to fill some time and provide some income until the call is completed.
So all going well I will be ordained in April in Richmond in my home congregation. I will then find a place to rent in Langley and begin my ministry there.
I'm very excited about the journey I am on and have learned much more about trusting God!

New Addition!

2009-02-08T15:50:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't blogged lately! Here is a pic of the new addition my parents will be bringing into our family in March. Her name is Keela:

from "The word cadhla means beautiful and implies "a beauty that only poetry can capture."

Notes for Pictures from A Year in My Life

2009-01-09T20:50:00.000-08:00

Someone mentioned that I should tell people what the pictures are of or from in my Year in My Life slideshow. Here goes from the first picture:

1. My first and so far only time on a snowmobile (or snow machine depending on what part of the country you live in!). I got a chance to ride on one during the snow machine rally held in Pass Lake as a fundraiser for the youth's trip to Whitehorse.

2. Me in an igloo. During the kids' March break I joined a few families from Pass Lake out at the Sleeping Giant provincial park. They had had a group from the college's outdoor rec program out the week before and they had left these very cool igloos on the lake.

3. Snow golfing. One of the families in Pass Lake holds a snow golfing tournament each year on the lake in their backyard.

4. Kakabeka Falls. I took a trip out to Kakabeka falls just as they were beginning to thaw. These "Niagara of the north" are pretty spectacular!

5. Confirmation Day 2008 at Salem Lutheran Church in Pass Lake.

6. One of my best friends Lorraine and I at my sister's wedding shower a couple of days before my sister's wedding.

7. Me and two of my best friends Asith & Lorraine and I at my sister's wedding reception.

8. My "little" sis and I on her wedding day.

9. My dad and sis at her wedding reception. I love the expressions on their faces.

10. Me doing a reading at sis' wedding at Minoru Chapel.

11. My parents visited me in Pass Lake and we went on a sailboat ride on Lake Superior.

12. In August I traveled with 13 others (youth and a couple of adults) from Pass Lake & Thunder Bay to the national youth gathering of the ELCIC in Whitehorse. We flew to Edmonton and joined 13 busloads of youth and leaders to travel to Whitehorse. This is part of our Thunder Bay group at the beginning of the Alaska highway.

13. Our banner at the youth gathering.

14. My good-bye luncheon in Pass Lake. Inge on my left made the cross stitch door hanger with scenes from Pass Lake on it for my good-bye gift. Katie, on my right, decided she wanted to be in every picture with me that day.

15. My "new to me" little car all packed up at my house in Pass Lake ready to head to Saskatoon.

16. First week back in Saskatoon we went on an orientation week retreat north of Saskatoon. This is a beautiful scene just outside the retreat centre.

17. Scene from the garden at the Berry Barn just outside of Saskatoon.

18. Picture of the view on a hike up on the sunshine coast of BC that I went on while visiting a friend who had just moved up there. I was home during reading week in October.

19 & 20. Another picture from reading week trip home in October. These are both pics of my friend's little one Charlotte Rose. We took her to the pumpkin patch.

21. Halloween day saw me driving to Calgary to attend my friend Betty's ordination on November 2.

22. Chapel at LTS, a place of meaningful worship services for me during all the crazy times I spent in Saskatoon.

23. Anglican friends also from BC at the LTS Christmas party.

4 & 4

2008-12-18T20:42:00.000-08:00

Saw this on someone's blog, thought it was a good idea and although I wasn't tagged I decided to do it anyways! You're supposed to open the fourth picture folder and post the fourth picture and then explain it. So this picture is from the LTS chapel, Barbara is setting for a service at the paschal retreat this fall.

Of course in the spirit of this game I'm supposed to tag 4 people, I tag Mick, Demara, Allyson and Nicole!

A Year in My Life Slideshow

2008-12-13T23:57:00.001-08:00

Christmas Letter 2008

2008-12-13T23:18:00.000-08:00

I’ve always meant to send a Christmas letter but never got around to it. Since so much has gone on in my life this past year and there is so much to come I thought it would be best to send one this year to catch everyone up at once. In the past twelve months I have lived in three provinces.

From January until August I completed the last two thirds of my twelve month internship at Salem Lutheran Church in Pass Lake, Ontario, 45 minutes north east of Thunder Bay (down the road from the Sleeping Giant!). I enjoyed my time there and had a variety of new experiences including living in the country, snowmobiling, living in a house completely alone, preaching on a regular basis and leading services at the church each week. One of the many things I learned was how to do genealogy. I continue to enjoy being a detective and piecing together parts of my family’s past.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and think about the wonderful people I met and adventures I had there on a regular basis. Pass Lake, and especially its people, will always hold a special place in my heart.

While on internship I had a number of opportunities to travel. In February I returned to Saskatoon for an opportunity for interns to gather together and share experiences. I stayed on a few days longer to visit with my former roommate Sarah and other friends. In May I travelled to Minneapolis, Minnesota with a few colleagues from Thunder Bay to attend a conference with an amazing array of speakers. But the best trip of all was a trip in late August that you’ll have to keep reading to hear about!

This summer was very busy for me. I was back home in Richmond for the first week of July helping my sister get ready to marry the love of her life on July 6. The wedding was gorgeous and I now have one more person in my family who is taller than me! Tim is a wonderful addition to the family. Jennifer and Tim took possession of their house in Pullman, Washington about a month before the wedding and have been busy renovating since then. They have recently welcomed a new addition to their family a labradoodle they have named Austin Aloysius. I look forward to all three of them coming up for a week over Christmas. Jennifer is an assistant professor at Washington State University and Tim works in the computer field in Pullman.

A couple of weeks after the wedding my parents made the long trek out to Pass Lake to come for a visit. We had a great visit while I showed them the beauty of Northwestern Ontario and we made a quick trip down to Duluth, Minnesota while they were visiting. They also helped me buy a new (to me) car and pack up my house in preparation for leaving in August. We had a great visit and I was sad to see them leave with their van packed with a lof of my stuff some of which they dropped off in Saskatoon and some they took back to BC with them.

While they were visiting we received news that my Nana Nikki (dad’s mom) was not doing well and not expected to live through the night. She made it through that night but didn’t survive the week. At the beginning of August she passed away after declining for many years. It is comforting to know she is finally at peace and reunited with my gramps.

In August before leaving Pass Lake I travelled with 4 youth from Pass Lake, 1 from Sault Sainte Marie and 3 leaders and 5 youth from Thunder Bay to the National Youth Gathering in Whitehorse. After months and months of fundraising (15,000 perogies!) we flew to Edmonton and joined up with almost 600 other youth and leaders from across the country and traveled on 13 buses through Alberta and BC to Whitehorse. We spent 4 days in Whitehorse with over 1200 other youth and leaders. It was a trip of a lifetime and the youth are excited about attending the next gathering in 2010.

Upon returning to Pass Lake I had five days to sell my car, pick up my new car, pack up my house and hit the road. The last week of August I drove over 3300km, stopping in Kenora, Saskatoon, Calgary, Golden and then back to Calgary to fly home for my grandmother’s memorial service and then flew back to Calgary and drove back to Saskatoon to start school!

This fall I completed my last semester of my Master of Divinity degree at Lutheran Theological Seminary, Saskatoon. It was a busy semester that included a trip home over reading week to visit friends and family, a weekend trip to Calgary to see a friend ordained and help another move and of course the many papers and assignments to prepare and a lot of wonderful times with friends.

This past week I yet again packed up my car and hit the road. This time for BC! I made it back to BC just in time as the snow hit the interior of BC and the very cold weather has hit Saskatchewan and Alberta!

I will be spending the next few weeks visiting with friends and family. I have my “colloquy” exam on the 29^th of December. This is the final process where I am approved for ordination. I prepared a written exam in November and have submitted this as well as my evaluations throughout my degree process to an examining committee. I will meet with them at the end of December to discuss all of this.

After my colloquy I will pursue a call to a congregation. Once I have a call to a congregation I will be ordained. I wil let all of you know when this is to happen, I would love to have all of you there!

Throughout this very busy year (these stories are just a small part of all I’ve been up to!) I have over and over again been so grateful for the love and support of my friends and family. I would never have been able to get to this point in my journey without all of you. Thank you for your support, love, hugs, caring emails, great chats online, in person or on the phone, prayers and all of the other wonderful ways you have supported me this year!

My parents are doing well. My dad is adjusting to retirement rather well photographing up a storm and doing some travelling. My mom is looking forward to retiring this June.

My brothers continue to make my parents life interesting. They are both living at home. David is working construction and finishing his apprenticeship hours. Ryan has been working a variety of jobs this year.

I invite you all to check out my blog www.canadianlutheranchick.blogspot.com to find out what I’m up to!

Many blessings to you and yours this Christmas season!

Kristen

2007-01-30T16:43:00.000-08:00

These are those older brothers of the little girl holding the duckling. They are about 30 feet away from where we're standing and up about 10 feet in a tree.
This is our group. We are on the roof and soon to be 4th floor of the Teclides institute, an English institute run by our CLWR host in Lima; Cesar (the Peruvian in the picture).

Peru Pictures

2007-02-02T15:39:00.000-08:00

Ok this is the third try posting pictures. Here are three more pictures from my trip. The people of Peru are beautiful especially the children so you'll see that I have lots of pictures of children. The pictures here are the three female students on the trip on our girls night out, the little sister of the boys in the three below holding a ducking she had chased around the yard to catch and some friends Dawn made outside of a restaurant in a small town.

Peru Pictures 2

2007-02-02T15:58:00.000-08:00

This is a shot taken by another person on the trip of the group below looking at themselves in the screen of my camera.

More pictures - not Peru this time though

2007-02-05T16:24:00.000-08:00

Thought you might like to see a picture of me at the seminary. This is Sebastian and I at his first birthday party last weekend. We hang out every Wednesday morning while his parents are in class. It was taken by one of the other seminary kids at the party which would be why it's a little low! Happy Monday everyone!

LTS Winter Retreat

2007-03-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

The centre of our worship circle

Out for a walk - or a snowball fight!

Christopher Lake

Gathered for communion and dinner

Readng Week trip pics

2007-03-28T10:50:00.000-07:00

This is the view from the place we stayed at on the Sunshine Coast.

Kat & Jason checking out the view from the pier by Molly's Reach (think Beachcombers).

The three of us.

I'm going to.......Pass Lake Ontario!

2007-04-04T16:22:00.000-07:00

Well I can now finally tell people where I'm going on internship. I will be in Pass Lake Ontario for my internship this fall. I'm really excited about this site. I have heard many wonderful things about it and it's in part of a country I've never even been to never mind lived in!
Where is Pass Lake Kristen?
As you can see it's just outside of Thunder Bay, about 40 minutes in fact in Northwestern Ontario. It is about 8 hours east of Winnipeg.
Click here to see where it is in the province and in relation to other cities in the country.

I believe this will be a 12 month internship so I will be there until August 2008 when I will return to Saskatoon for one more semester to finish up my MDiv and God willing be ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.
I'm really excited about this site. I've heard amazing things about the landscape as well as the supervisor and the congregation.
It's hard to stay focused on the last two weeks of classes and the 8 assignments I have left but I will get there somehow!

Birthday Bash

2007-06-24T00:56:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't blogged much recently. I will blog more soon. I just wanted to post this picture from my birthday celebration dinner tonight at Shabusen. We had a wonderful dinner and then some of us went back to Kat's for some birthday s'mores. I'm blessed with wonderful friends!

Done CPE

2007-07-28T08:49:00.000-07:00

Well I made it through CPE in one piece. After all the horror stories I have heard it wasn't as bad as I had feared. It was definitely challenging and exhausting but I would say over all it was a positive experience.
CPE is clinical pastoral education and I did the 11 week intensive. Three days a week I was on hospital wards at Mount Saint Joseph Hospital doing pastoral care and two days a week I was at St. Paul's Hospital for class time. One of the purposes of CPE is for students to become more aware of who they are and how the affect others. So we have group time where we discuss all of these things and our experiences on the wards. I have learned a lot but am ready for it to be over as I'm exhausted and need a break.
So I have about a month before I leave again. I want to spend time with friends and family and relax. I have plans to go camping with a friend and then to Victoria with other friends. I'm also hoping to do one or two more trips with other friends but we'll see what happens.
Now that I'm done CPE I can look ahead to the next adventure. In one month I will again pack up my little car and start driving. This time I'm driving twice as far. I'll be starting an internship in Pass Lake Ontario. I can't wait but I will be sad to leave Vancouver again.
I have been learning more and more about Pass Lake and the surrounding area and it's a beautiful place and it sounds like a wonderful community. I am looking forward to my time there. I will post lots of pictures. For now here is a picture of the church I'll be at.

More pics from my new home

2007-09-16T18:56:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more pictures of my home for the year. This one is my home from the road.

This is the view beside my house. This stream wraps around behind my house.

This is what you see looking down the side of my house. It's beautiful! I've been really enjoying the incredible beauty of this area. I'm getting used to living out in the country though really feel I'm a city girl at heart. I was officially installed today as intern at Salem Lutheran Church, Pass Lake. Tomorrow I head to Luther Village near Kenora for the church workers' study conference. Next week all the programs start and September comes to an end. It's pretty unbelievable how fast it's flying by!

2007-09-30T17:18:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't blogged in a while and I promise a real blog soon but in the mean time here are a few paintings of my church in Pass Lake. They were both done before the addition so you have to make it a little longer off one side of the building but same colours. It's a wonderful building filled with lots of love! I promise to blog more soon!

Day off

2007-10-01T20:07:00.000-07:00

So I took most of today off as I hadn't had a day off since last Saturday. I am still getting used to the idea that this is my home for the year and to make it more my space I hauled out all my pictures and put up my photo wall. A little different than last year but most of the same pictures. Tomorrow when I'm in Thunder Bay I'll have a few recent ones printed and add them to the collection.
Posting the pictures brought mixed emotions as I was glad for the happy memories that they brought but also hard because everyone on the wall is so far away!

I also baked bread solo for the first time in my life. Following my friend Alison's recipe I made 7 loaves and 1 dozen buns of whole wheat bread. I loved doing it and look forward to doing it again sometime. If you have a bread recipe you love please send it on for me to try!

Tomorrow starts a busy week as I go into Thunder Bay for clergy cluster and supervision and then tomorrow evening I have kids' club and confirmation (first confirmation class!). Two of the youth want to meet with me before kids' club to pitch an idea they have so I am looking forward to hearing their big idea.

Thanksgiving is this weekend and I'm not sure what my plans are. I hope that I will be invited somewhere! This is the first Thanksgiving where I haven't had good friends or family around.

Winter is here!

2007-11-09T08:50:00.000-08:00

We had our first snowfall a couple of days ago. This is what I woke up to in the morning. It has warmed up a bit and and the snow is slowly melting away but I think winter is here to stay!