It was just about a year ago when I had my final Sunday at First Presbyterian Church in Sioux Falls as their associate pastor. Amazing that it has been that long, but also that quick. Looking back a year ago at my posts, I was talking about living amongst boxes and preparing for the big move from South Dakota to Ohio. I am thankful to report that we no longer live amongst packing boxes, although you'll still find quite a few down in the storage room in our house.
Even though it has been a year, it still feels like we live in some measure of transitional space. We continue to keep up with the relationships with many in Sioux Falls while deepening our new relationships here in Ohio. Every so often we still find ourselves having to dig through boxes to find things long packed away. This weekend, we were preparing for our daughter's week as Kindergartener-of-the-week at her school and she wanted to bring in something of South Dakota to share with her class. So, in addition to some pictures of her from back in SD, she is bringing her M is for Mt Rushmore book that was given to us as a gift. As a friend here was telling her yesterday that she can be a Bengals fan (even though her daddy is a rabid Broncos fan), she said, "But I was born in South Dakota!"
I continue to always be thankful for the wonderful nine years that I shared with our dear friends in South Dakota, for the community of First Presbyterian Church, and for the ways that we grew and changed over those nine years. We are wonderfully blessed to be here in Ohio with our new community, but a part of us will always be east river people in South Dakota.