March 25, 2025
Strangers Become Friends
This last week, I had the opportunity to meet and have dinner with Vance Blackfox, the ELCA Director of Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations. We talked about honest topics related to history and learning from the past, as well as looking to the future of what ministry looks like.
At this dinner, I shared and reflected on an immersion trip experience with Pine Ridge Reconciliation Center in South Dakota. I took this trip in January 2020, at the beginning of my seminary journey, with several people who I now consider my closest friends.
We got to learn and hear from the people who live in Pine Ridge, what life is like there, and what might not always be noticed or shared in the news.
One of the most impactful memories I have from that trip is that we were invited to a wake for a woman who had passed away. Her family wanted to honor her and her legacy. We were invited because we helped this family push their car out of the snow and get it moving as we were driving through town.
Once we were at the wake, we were welcomed with open arms, and I felt like we were a part of a community beyond what we usually connect with. Then, we were offered a chance to stay for a late lunch and enjoy hearing about the woman we had just heard about recently. In our processing later that night, the director of the center shared with us that it was an honor to have food shared with us and that we were invited in.
What I always connect with, though, in this memory is that we were invited in without any of the family knowing us or having met us before that week. You never would have known that based on how they spent time and shared their food with us. I had never experienced love and grace like that before, and it still stays with me.
God works in mysterious ways and in ways that surprise us so much that we hold onto them. I am grateful for the opportunity to do that trip and the chance to meet with Vance last week.
Vicar Jennie
This last week, I had the opportunity to meet and have dinner with Vance Blackfox, the ELCA Director of Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations. We talked about honest topics related to history and learning from the past, as well as looking to the future of what ministry looks like.
At this dinner, I shared and reflected on an immersion trip experience with Pine Ridge Reconciliation Center in South Dakota. I took this trip in January 2020, at the beginning of my seminary journey, with several people who I now consider my closest friends.
We got to learn and hear from the people who live in Pine Ridge, what life is like there, and what might not always be noticed or shared in the news.
One of the most impactful memories I have from that trip is that we were invited to a wake for a woman who had passed away. Her family wanted to honor her and her legacy. We were invited because we helped this family push their car out of the snow and get it moving as we were driving through town.
Once we were at the wake, we were welcomed with open arms, and I felt like we were a part of a community beyond what we usually connect with. Then, we were offered a chance to stay for a late lunch and enjoy hearing about the woman we had just heard about recently. In our processing later that night, the director of the center shared with us that it was an honor to have food shared with us and that we were invited in.
What I always connect with, though, in this memory is that we were invited in without any of the family knowing us or having met us before that week. You never would have known that based on how they spent time and shared their food with us. I had never experienced love and grace like that before, and it still stays with me.
God works in mysterious ways and in ways that surprise us so much that we hold onto them. I am grateful for the opportunity to do that trip and the chance to meet with Vance last week.
Vicar Jennie