Michigan Musings

Wednesday, July 2

We arrived safely at Munzar Acres, our cottage in Michigan after 12 hours on the road. (We kept below 65 mph the entire way to get better mileage and enjoy the view!) The cottage here has everything we need and we’re settled in relaxing, reading and recreating.
This is the community in which we first pastored from 1966-1970 and the church building is less than a mile just west of us but the house in which we used to live behind the church is no longer there. Thursday night we drove the “deer route” - a loop of about 5 miles through woods and meadows, and counted 99 deer. We also have a resident fox near our cottage which we’ve spotted several times. Sandhill Cranes frequently show up in the nearby fields.



Thursday, July 3

We drove to Alpena, the nearest major town about 32 miles away, where we both taught public school 40 years ago, visited the schools where we taught and looked up the names of some of our students in the yearbooks. Some of them actually graduated! A photographer from the Alpena News caught Gene windsurfing on Thunder Bay and he made page 2 of the July 4 edition!



Friday, July 4

We stayed at the cottage for the day. Gene has found a small campfire circle a little ways into the woods behind the cottage where he has set up his “quiet place.” He often lights a small fire to keep him company during his reflections there. Darlene reads, does crossword puzzles and embroidery and takes walks. We did our own cook-out and later on we were able to observe 4 fireworks displays (plus our next door neighbor’s!) from our front porch although it was not very dark. Stars don’t even start to come out until after 10:00 P.M. and it gets light soon after 5:00 A.M.



Saturday, July 5

Spent most of the day at the cottage but we took the canoe down to Fletcher Pond - the nearby lake - for a couple of hours paddling.
We had to keep near the shore under the shade since Gene was experiencing some hypersensitivity to direct sunlight because of an antibiotic he was on. Fortunately he’s done with that.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Went to Hillman United Methodist for 9:00 A.M. service. Today was the first Sunday for their new pastor and hopefully the start of a new day for the congregation which has been through a period of serious stress. The pastor’s text was “Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest, etc.” A wonderful invitation at the front end of our sabbatical. We met and had great conversation with several people whom we remembered and who remembered us from 40 years ago.



We then went over to Maple Grove Community Church - the location where we pastored 40 years ago - wondering if we would see anyone there we knew. There were only 4 people present including Pastor Peter Smith. We arrived just as Sunday School was concluding and as soon as we sat down, the lady in the pew in front of us turned around to welcome us. Her eyes flew wide open and she said, “Eugene and Darlene?” and we said “Diane?” She would have been 10 when we arrived in 1966 and was a part of our youth group. That started up a great conversation which continued long after the service as we recalled people and events from many years ago. She is a faithful member and leader in the congregation. During the worship service she remembered that Darlene used to play piano for the service, so she invited her to play - which Darlene did, just like the former days there! It was encouraging to see a continued Christian witness in this community at Maple Grove and even more so, to see Diane’s own continued commitment and vitality in Christ. One often wonders about the long-term impact of pastoral ministry and today’s encounter with Diane certainly affirmed the value of sowing seeds and investing in people’s lives.



Monday, July 7, 2008

We’re back in Alpena - at the public library - taking care of things on the internet, posting this blog, doing emails relative to our Zambia trip, etc. On our way home we’ll be getting some strawberries that were picked this morning. In all likelihood this will be our last post (at least with pictures) until July 20. See Post #1 for where we go from here.