Ministry: The New Frontier

I will often claim Star Wars in the age-old Star Wars v. Star Trek debate.  Growing up, we'd watch the original trilogy on a constant rotation.  I still have a pretty solid base of knowledge about Tatooine, light sabers and who shot first.  Despite this claim to my nerd roots, I have to quote Star Trek for this post.

Ministry: The New Frontier

Last week, we had a group of third-year medical students from Sanford School of Medicine at the University of South Dakota.  A solid group of people my age, getting a higher degree, who came to Pine Ridge for their cross-cultural experience.  As a part of their stay here, in addition to the normal programming we do, we took them on a tour of the hospital.  This was the first time that I had gotten a chance to go to the hospital, so it was pretty awesome to experience.  Our tour guide asked one of the physicians on duty to come talk to the group about practicing medicine at Pine Ridge.  He seemed quite eager to share his knowledge of medicine, patient interactions, etc, with the group, capitalizing on the time with his captive audience.  Much in the same way that I relished the time with colleagues, really.

One of the things that he said in his conversation with the group was in relation to the tiers of medicine.  Apparently, in the medical field, you have tiers of care: Primary, Secondary, Tertiary and Quaternary.  Now, I can Google these terms just as easily as you can, so I really won't do field justice by pretending to explain them.  Basically, Primary is the first step--you don't say.  Then, it moves down the line for more specific needs.  The doctor explained that working at the Pine Ridge wasn't just rural medicine, but that it was frontier medicine.  A step beyond rural medicine.  A place where all these levels are great, but the reality is that the hospital spends the majority of its budget flying patients out to other hospitals, since there aren't specialists there.  On Friday, when we visited, he said that he was the only physician there.  There was also one surgeon.  Everyone else was a para-professional or a mid-level professional (i.e. Physicians' Assistants). The way that he practices medicine is really through asking this question: Is this immediately life-threatening?  If it is, then the patient will receive further care.  If it's not, often the patient has to deal with it.

As he was talking, I decided that what we do in ministry at Pine Ridge is Frontier Ministry.

Let me explain.

Yesterday, I was scheduled to preach and lead services at St. John's Episcopal, where my supervisor and I alternate services for their bi-weekly worship schedule.  I was also scheduled to lead services at Cohen Home, the assisted living facility where we also alternate leading services on a bi-weekly basis.  In addition to this, the minister at the Presbyterian congregation next door asked me to preach on Sunday.  It seemed to be a great solution for me to get the communion elements consecrated before going out to St. John's.

To boil it down in the simplest way possible, I get to do everything that a pastor does now in a worship service, according to the ELCA, aside from "consecrating the elements" (In the night in which he was betrayed...)  Meaning, since my supervisor wasn't going to be at St. John's, if we wanted to still have communion, we needed to get someone else to bless them.  The plan was for me to take them to the Presbyterian congregation and then we'd be good to go!  During the Presbyterian service, after I had preached, the minister looked at me and said, "And now Meredith will do communion."

I would have paid $100 to see my facial expression.  Deer...in the headlights.  Definitely!

He read my face and offered to do it himself.  Thanks be to God!

We talked about it after the service and he explained that in the Dakota Presbytery, they allow any elder to do communion, since there's such a shortage of pastors.  I explained that the ELCA uses "Synodically Authorized Ministers" who have been appointed by the bishops to do communion what someone who is ordained isn't present.  This is to involve some planning...not on a whim.  This whole process is also because in the ELCA, I will be called to a ministry of Word and Sacrament.  It's not saying that I'm special or that I'm the only one capable of preaching and baptizing, but it's because the ELCA values intentional study and knowledge regarding the history and traditions of our faith.  It's my job, then, as a called and ordained minister of the ELCA, to use my study and knowledge to hold the congregation/community to the teachings of the Church.

Make sense?  Clear as mud?

Anyway, I was thankful not to be the one in charge of communion, especially since I'm really not sure what hymnal he used to say the words.  Hah.  I think it also says something about this community, that he didn't bat an eye at the idea of having the intern do it.

My mom is probably rolling her eyes at this point since my writing on this one is more like a figure eight, rather than a coherent string of thoughts.

Ministry: The New Frontier (coming back to the center of the figure eight)

I'm finding that to do ministry here requires some creativity and a whole lot of patience...and a bit of planning.  St. John's Episcopal Church doesn't have indoor heating.  In fact, most of the churches and big buildings that I've been in don't seem to have indoor heating.  I've learned to double-up my socks and wear long-johns on the cool days (Sidenote: We just started November and I've already worn long-johns a couple of times.  It's going to be a long winter).  St. John's does have a wood stove though, so as I was preaching and leading worship, my spot was next to the wood stove.  My Gemini self was matched in temperature.  The right side of my body was so hot that I was dripping sweat and the left side of my body was so cold that it was numb.

Planning is also necessary at St. John's and many other "rural" churches, since they don't have indoor plumbing.  Plan appropriately or you will be using the outhouse.

The frontier?  I think so.

**To be clear, I don't define the frontier as being on the Reservation, nor do I define it simply because I'm working with the indigenous community.  I define the frontier as working with what you have and being creative, outside of what you would consider "normal."  I feel it's appropriate to put this disclaimer, due to the history of the United States and the indigenous communities here.

Another bit of life is that I've been getting multiple bug bites/stings/wounds/who knows what, every night, since September 18th.  I typically have 20 or so on my body at any given time.  I have Googled "Bug bites" far too many times for my own comfort.  This picture shows one of the biggest ones, with the several on my elbow and some more for decoration.  I've tried taking Benadryl.  I've tried Hydro-cortisone cream.  I may start using bug spray daily.  Those med students doing frontier medicine better figure out what these are!!!