Regional Assignment!

This past week we learned the first clue regarding where we will be living in the next year...Andy was assigned* to Region 3 of the ELCA! 

ELCA Region 3, our future (and current) home sweet home, consists of Minnesota, North Dakota, & South Dakota--in this map you can see the 9 different synods within region 3

This is only a 'first clue' because, while it does narrow things down quite a bit, we still have no idea whether we will be in a city, town, rural community, etc.--and being assigned to the Western North Dakota Synod would mean quite a different thing for us than being assigned to the St. Paul Synod, for instance.

So we will be even more excited to know about our synod assignment--which we'll find out in early March. Stay tuned.

In other news:

Simon beat Sprocketplug in hand-to-hand combat, and claimed this fine helm as a trophy. We're so proud :). If the vanquished would like to negotiate the return of the hat...have your people call Simon's people.

[*Time out for a brief tutorial for you non-ELCA, not-married-to-a-pastor folk: in the ELCA, pastors are "called" to a congregation. For first call (your first position as an ordained minister), the process is sort of a compromise between a more traditional church model of the higher ups sending the pastor wherever they think they should go/are needed (i.e. pastor has no choice) and a more traditional business model where a potential employee freely interviews for any position with any company anywhere they like (i.e. total choice). For first call, there is essentially a four-step process. Step 1: candidates submit preferences for where they would like to serve; Step 2: taking those preferences into account as much as possible given the actual need for pastors in different locations, the "higher-ups" assign candidates to a region of the ELCA--a geographical area of the country; Step 3: once assigned to a region, the bishops in that region meet and divvy up candidates into the various synods (smaller geographical unit) in that region; Step 4: once assigned to a synod, the candidate for first call can then essentially interview at different congregations within the synod, until a congregation decides they are a good fit and issues a call (= offers the job). Pastors can turn down calls (you never "have" to serve a particular congregation), though that's pretty rare for a first call. Now back to what I was saying...]