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THE MINISTRY AND RECOLLECTIONS
OF A SOUTH DAKOTA FARM BOY
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Not many people at the age of 86 establish a web site. It is
a gift from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans and my webmaster, our son, Dr.
James Larson, an Associate Director of the Fulbright Commission in
Korea. He provides the input of materials, sermons from tapes, and articles
I send him by Email. Below is a brief history of my life. This web site is
mainly for our family and descendents. If you find a blessing in it, to God
be the glory!
I was born to Norwegian parents in Norway Township, Yankton County, SD; our
farm bordered the James River where Grandpa saw trees for fuel, and easy water
supply, and fertile farm field possibilities. Grandpa came from Norway in the
1860¡¯s, first to Hudson, Wisconsin, and then to Yankton, DT to work for the
railroad for $2.50 a week, while his wife earned 50 cents a week as a housekeeper.
He walked the twenty miles out to the farm each Saturday after work to establish
the homestead, and back on Sunday to be at work on Monday. Dad was born on
this farm in the sod house; my mother came from Norway at the age of 17. So
I am 200% Norwegian.
George & Dot,
Winter 2001-2
(photo by Joy) |
Along with five siblings we grew up during the depression
years; my three older sisters all graduated from Augustana College in Sioux
Falls before I started there in 1937. I had earlier spent two years at
Augustana Academy at Canton, SD, and a winter session at LBI at 1619 S.
Portland in Mpls. After College it was off to Luther Seminary in St Paul
from which I graduated in 1944 Dorothy Mae Huseth and I were married on
August 23, 1944 by her father, the Rev. H. F. Huseth at the Winnebago Lutheran
Church south of Lake Mills, IA. .Parishes served were in South Dakota,
Minnesota, Iowa and Arizona where we spent the last twenty-six years of
active ministry.
I grew up loving trees, and we had few around our buildings when I was
a youth; so I started planting Cedars, and now the hills are full of them.
I felt a kinship with the prophet Amos when called to the ministry: Amos
said: |
I was
neither a prophet nor a prophets son but I was a herdsman and planter of
cedar trees.. .and the Lord said to me ¡°Go¡¯~ Amos 7:14-1 5
It was relatively early in my ministry that I got ulcers! You get them from
mountain climbing over molehills, so I decided not to take life quite so
seriously. That, plus being a Norwegian, may account for some of what I
hope you will
consider light-heartedness for being a Pastor.
Tennyson in Ulysses:
¡°I am a part of all that I have met
Yet all experience is an arch where through gleams the unraveled world
whose margin fades forever and forever as I move.¡±
So I must, to help you forget the aches and pains, tell you about Ole
who¡¯s friend sent his obituary into the paper; Ole gets up to read
the morning
paper and finds his obituary on page two; all excited he calls his
neighbor Sven
to ask: ¡°Sven, have you read the morning Paper?¡± ¡°No¡±, says Sven.
¡°Look on page two¡± says Ole. ¡°Why Ole, it¡¯s your obituary! Where are you
calling from?¡±
To which I add: It¡¯s the business of the Christian Church to make
that
question unnecessary.
We now live independently in Covenant Village of Golden Valley, a facility
of the Covenant Church, and where we will spend the rest of our days.
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