"For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord, "Plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope." Jeremiah 29:11
Julie Kiesow has been working diligently as the Parish Secretary for about nine months. She has survived a near fatal computer crash, updated systems, and has been cleaning. One of the treasures she uncovered was a little article from 1995 that appeared in the newspaper of the Northwestern Minnesota Synod. It’s headline reads “Dahlen to teach in China”. It goes on to talk about how Goodridge girl and recent graduate from Moorhead State University would get a on a plane and teach English in Guangzhou, China.
I remember joking with people at the time that all I was really trained to do was say, “Do you want fries with that?” There is nothing terribly practical about a degree in Speech Communication so I went to the other side of the world and did my best to teach English. I hardly remember that girl and it strikes me a funny to think about where I was then and where I am now.
When we are young, we make plans and we dream dreams. Looking back over a life, do you ever catch yourself wondering at all the things you have experienced and the places you have gone? Do you ever catch yourself recalling a time when you were adamant about something you would never do only to find yourself twenty years later doing that very thing? Life happens when we are making plans.
This season we will witness another round of high school and college graduates. They are making plans and dreaming dreams. Who knows where they will go or how far they will travel. As God’s people, we are called to remember them in our prayers and be a place for them to return to. May God bless and keep them.
