Ordination Celebration Part 3, Alamogordo

...continuing with the presentation from last Sunday...

Mike's next call was quite a surprise to us as we ended up in Southern New Mexico...Alamogordo. Although we were flown down there for Mike's interview, we were back in Montana when he was offered the position. We couldn't really afford to go back to house hunt so we had a member from that new congregation go with the realtor to pick out a house. We bought the house our new friend and the realtor agreed on. We didn't actually see it until we moved down there!

There Mike perfected the fine art of coffee time with the quilting ladies every Thursday morning. You'd be surprised at how much pastoring occurs during quilting time.

Mike turned 40 when we were in New Mexico. One of my favorite memories is the HUGE turnout for his 40th birthday party. We totally pulled off a big surprise party.

Over the years, Mike has had to balance his family with his work with his need for solitude.

Sometimes, his family time and work time merged. While in Alamogordo we found our son-in-law, Eric.

It meant a lot to Mike that he was able to walk the bride down the aisle then turn around and perform their wedding ceremony.

Mike even had times when he got to preach to his own mother and sisters.

I included this photo just because he looks so handsome, don't you think?

Mike's quiet leadership and thoughtful insight made him loved by many.

This was a sweet day. Mike and our two sons were serving together.

These two ladies were special in their own ways to our whole family. Actually, they were characters!

It is a bit bittersweet to look at this photo as both of them have since died. We know, though, that we will see them again.

New Mexico was a good place for Mike. I love this photo!

...to be continued...

Ordination Celebration Part 2, Harlowton Parish

I'm continuing with the presentation I prepared for Mike's ordination celebration held this past Sunday...

This was taken our first summer in Harlowton .  One of Mike's favorite songs is "Lift High the Cross". I guess that is why he is wearing it on his head!

Mike's first parish was spread out over three counties. Once a year, all the churches came together for an outdoor service. This one took place in the mountains and we all actually camped there. It was fun and Mike got a chance to use his guitar for worship.

I didn't put a photo of all the church buildings in this slide show but this one is Trinity Lutheran in Lennep, MT. Lennep isn't really a town anymore but at that time they did have a sweet little school. This church, like two of the others, did not have indoor plumbing. I just thought you'd like to know that. One unique thing about this congregation was that almost everyone had fantastic voices. Listening to them harmonizing in that little church was pretty close to heaven.

Sam was born during our time at that parish. He became quite the little church baby and was actually baptized at one of their outdoor services when all the congregations came together. Later, Sam sometimes even went calling with Daddy.

Sam and Mike both enjoyed the quiet times in the mountains.

...to be continued

Ordination Celebration Part 1, College and Seminary

Today at church we are celebrating the 25 years Mike has been a pastor. This is the project I've been working on. Right after church the plan is to present this as a slide show while I read the words you see here. I've had fun searching out photographs but I managed to make it into a lot of work. I'd wake up in the night thinking of another photo I needed to find or maybe something else I needed to say about something. Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes!

(photo by Olan Mills)

Thanks for being here to help us celebrate Mike’s 25 years in the ministry. I thought it would be kind of fun to take you on a part of his journey from tractor to pulpit. This first slide is Pastor Mike looking all pastory.  For most of you, that is probably how you think of him. But, believe it or not, his first name really isn’t “pastor”.

This is a picture of him as a teenager. He was a farm boy,  a little brother, a basketball player, a musician…but he was not a pastor. It did not occur to me that he would ever be a pastor.

The first four years of our marriage my husband often looked just like this. His Dad died about a month into our marriage and Mike, at age 20, took over the farming to support not only me, but also his mother.  It seemed to me we would live out our lives on that farm. It was a good place to live. One day, though, Mike confessed to me that he felt he was being called into the ministry. I was shocked to my very core but I am proud to say that my response was, “OK then, let’s go.” Leaving the family farm was probably one of the hardest things Mike has ever done.

Mike knew he had 7 more years of schooling ahead of him from the time he left the farm.  He first had to finish his college degree before he could apply to enter the seminary.  We moved just 75 miles to Havre, MT. where Mike attended college, working toward a history degree.  He was still wrestling with the whole ministry idea. We bought a little house to fix up and planned to settle in for a few years.  About then Mike had some conversations with a pastor in Havre who told him he should do everything he could to avoid the ministry and if he couldn’t fight it anymore, then he should give in.  This pastor also told him about the Lutheran Bible Institute in the Seattle area.  One night Mike was looking at a catalog of the classes at LBI as I fell asleep. When I woke up, he was looking at it again. Within a few weeks we packed what we could into our 2 vehicles, loaded up our 2 year old daughter, and moved out to Issaquah, Washington for Mike to attend LBI. That was a big switch from the Montana farm! We rented an apartment over the phone and went on faith, believing we could find jobs when we got there…which we did.

It was in Issaquah that Mike preached his first sermon. I admit I was pretty nervous for him. Mike was an introvert and I thought it would be hard for him to get used to preaching. Well, he was a natural. He knew he had an important message and he delivered it well. That was the last time I was nervous about Mike preaching.

After two years at LBI Mike had his college degree in Biblical Studies and we’d added a new baby to the family. When Ben was just 5 weeks old, we headed East to St. Paul, MN.

Mike’s seminary time started with two years of classes.  Like most of the seminary students, funds were really tight. Also, our family had a lot of illnesses and 3 out of 4 of us were hospitalized with various ailments...within a three month period of time.  The Struck family name became well-known at chapel as they were frequently praying for us. We eperienced such sweetness during those months, though. We made new friends as people dropped by to bring us food. One woman cleaned our apartment while we were at the hospital with a sick child. Someone even did our laundry!  It was hard but we sure saw  a lot of kindness during that time.

The third year of seminary is set aside for internship so the whole family has to move again.  Mike was assigned to Gillette, WY, where my Mom lived.  It was a fun year at a very lively church. Mike's internship pastor was Russ Hillman.  During that year we housesat for an older couple and Mike made about 60 cents an hour but it was a wonderful year.  At his good-bye party one of the guys  dressed up as “Mike” for a skit.

 Note his Cardinal’s shirt, Bible, golf clubs, chess board…all favorite things of Mike’s. He also made a point to wear jeans and cowboy boots…Mike’s favorite attire.

We went back to seminary for Mike’s final year of classes.  One evening, in early Spring, Mike received an unexpected phone call. The person on the line told him he was calling from Harlowton, MT. They were looking for a pastor and it turns out, he was put on speaker phone for the whole call committee to speak with him RIGHT THEN. When the conversation was ending Mike was still a bit confused about what was going on. He asked if they wanted him to come for an interview. That’s when he found out that the phone call WAS his interview!

As it turned out, Mike did accept that call. We did NOT go out to see it first, he just accepted the call. Maybe it was his strong faith that made him do such a thing without even going for a visit. OR maybe it was his competitive spirit. You see, he then became the first of his class to have a call!

This slide is a photo of us enjoying a dinner for the graduating seminarians.  It was hard to believe that he was almost done with all those years of college and seminary!

Graduation day was a happy day for us as a couple. It had not been an easy road when we left the farm, but it had been an adventure.
As this next slide shows, Mike’s whole family had been very supportive of him.

We loaded up to move again.  We stopped in Turner, MT first where Mike was ordained on June 4, 1989.

This occurred at the same church where his parents had been married and where Mike had been baptized, confirmed, married and where our first two kids had been baptized. It was a special day.  Mike told the kids that day that they could call him "Pastor Daddy" and I could call him "Pastor Honey".... whatever!

Mike’s relatives showed up for support. These men are all related to Mike in one way or another and they were all proud of him.
Turner is a long LONG way from anywhere. Really. There is no fast food for about 75 miles! Yet, Mike had a lot of relatives who drove a long way to be there. It was nice.

This is Mike when he could finally sit and rest and visit with family after his ordination.

This photo of him in his Cardinal’s shirt has nothing to do with any of this but I knew he’d like it.

OK, It is kind of long so I'm going to break it up for you. Tune in tomorrow for more!

Let's Make a New Holiday - Santamas!

I have a GREAT idea!  Let's advocate for a new holiday and let's call it Santamas!  We can make it be about a chubby guy in a red suit that has reindeer to help him fly all around the world, delivering presents.  He can only deliver presents to children who earn them through their good behavior.

It will be FUN!  We can say that he slides down our chimneys.  Maybe we can make up that he has elves to help him make toys for children!  He can live far, far away... how about the North Pole?  He can be all about candy canes and we can focus on getting lots and lots of presents from him!

This new holiday can be appropriate for everyone as it will be quite secular.  We'll be able sing about Santa in our schools!  It will be so cool! We can make it clear that it is just for fun; that the story is just a story, loosely based on nice man who lived and died long ago.

THEN...

Let's celebrate another holiday, called Christmas!  We can focus it on Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God!  We can read about his birth from the Bible, including reading that his birth was prophesied centuries before it occurred.  We can imagine how it was for his mother, Mary, when she found out she was going to be mother to God's Son, and that her son would be The Savior. We can talk about multitudes of angels declaring his birth! It will be so exciting! Imagine the glorious songs we can sing in our churches, homes and even out caroling to shut-ins. Doesn't it just give you goose-bumps?

We can let our children know that it is a real story.

The story will be about giving, rather than getting.

It will be a story of joy and peace and hope.  

It will be just what the world needs.

It will be all about HIM.

It will be holy.

Celebrating One of God's Surprises

Yesterday at our church we celebrated 3 years in our current building.  A new building for a church is a big thing, no doubt, but we acquired this new and lovely building quite by accident.  Let me tell you about it.

Our congregation was meeting in a much-loved but way-too-small building. Our congregation supported a preschool so our space was shared.  What that meant was that every Sunday the preschool chairs, tables, toys, etc. had to be moved back in our fellowship hall so that grown-up sized tables could be set up.  This switcheroo happened after every meeting, wedding or any gathering. We had 4 small classrooms - not enough. Our junior high class met behind  a divider rolled out to give the feeling of a room just outside the bathroom doors.  It was noisy and keeping the kids' attention was difficult. Other classes had to make do as well.  I remember one creative teacher using a pop-up tent in the entryway for her little preschool class!  Again, noisy and awkward...but creative for sure!

 We were fundraising to add on to the building.  Those in charge were working hard to plan this addition as there were some big challenges.  The main challenge was space.  Our parking lot was already too small and we were rather land-locked with other nearby buildings.  Adding onto our existing building without sacrificing parking was going to be tough.

One day my pastor/husband called me at work to tell me of a very weird occurrence.  The pastor of another congregation of another denomination had asked my husband to come up to meet with him.  Mike had no idea what to expect and not for a second did he guess what was coming.  The other pastor's congregation met in a very large building just a few blocks from our's.  Their property was beautiful!  The problem was, their congregation had suffered a split and was greatly diminished in numbers.  They no longer used their big sanctuary as it was too expensive for them to heat the entire building.  They met in their fellowship hall.  Downstairs they had a wonderful place made especially for Sunday School AND preschool.   The other pastor had an idea... swap buildings.

When my husband called me, I must say, I instantly thought it was a God-thing.  Of course, it couldn't be a straight across swap.  Our congregation would need to take out a loan for the difference.  We'd then face larger heating and cooling bills ourselves.  The property was so over-the-top lovely to us.  Could it be possible?  It would be like someone offering you a mansion to live in.  How could we make it happen?

When this idea came before our congregation, there were differing opinions.  The money concern was of course the biggest obstacle.  Also, there was a lot of sentimental attachment to the old building.  For instance, people had used memorial money, honoring loved ones, toward the stained glass windows.  It hurt them to think of leaving those behind.

The new building was so much bigger than what we actually needed at that time.  Was it reasonable to consider such a big leap of faith?  If we acquired it, would our congregation grow enough to fill it up or would we just rattle around in it?

Well, we took the leap.  About 6 months after that pastor called Mike for the first meeting, we were moving in.  It was a weird move as well.  The two congregations had to move at the same time.  We'd pass each other hauling things out while they were hauling things in.  We helped each other.  The two groups made friends and worked together.  It was a lot of hard work but also kind of fun.  Even now, 3 years later, we still feel "related" to that other congregation.

Yesterday's gathering was fun.  I did not ask permission to show faces so I won't.  Trust me, though, people were smiling.  We'd invited people from the neighborhood as our guests so it was a fun mix of people we knew and some we were just meeting.  After our worship service and Sunday School we enjoyed a lovely picnic.

After all the fun I was wandering around in the building, waiting for Mike.  I took photos of two things that held special significance for that celebration.  The first is this cross.  It used to hang from the ceiling over the alter at our old building.  It was kind of the focal point of our previous worship space.  The other congregation, planning their remodel, did not plan to use it.  When we moved, the cross came with us and now one of the first things seen upon entering our new building.

Another cool thing are these photos.  They hang in our prayer room.  A member of our congregation took these photos of the stained glass windows we had to leave behind.  What a fine idea!

The best part of this whole story is of course, the people.  When the idea was first proposed, there were people who spoke against it.  Their reasons were solid, including worrying about finances.  However, when the congregation voted to go ahead with the plan, those who were once opposed became some of the hardest workers to make it come to fruition.  I thought that was absolutely beautiful to see!

There have been things to work out and issues to resolve.  Our congregation has gone through some trials along the way.  After three years, though, we are still celebrating this cool God thing that happened to us!