david
David grew up hunting and fishing in Minnesota. He would spend most of his teenage years dreaming about the next trip to the boundary waters. When he was twenty one he married Shelly who at the time was eighteen and they moved to Ohio where David attended seminary to become a pastor. After seminary the Lutheran Church of America invited him to preach in a community in Peru. At first they were put up in a nice house in a wealthy neighborhood. Shelly and David decided they needed to live among the people if they were to be a part of the community. They wanted to learn from the poor and so they moved their budding family out of the first house and found home among the shanties. Water would be be turned on every three days and they would collect it and store it for use. “People had nothing, but the community would come together to care for each other.” David grew up quickly in Peru.
Upon returning to the United States almost a decade later David struggled to adjust at first. One of those first few days back Shelly sent David to the store to get some bread. When David got to the bread aisle he stood there in complete shock at the amount of choices for just bread. In the US, David continued to work for the church as a pastor until about five years ago. The church did not offer the space that David needed and so David transitioned to doing hospice care as a full time chaplain. He sees himself as someone who’s job it is to help channel spiritual energy. The people he works with are dying and David’s goal is to help them process whatever they need so that they can go in peace. David loves this type of work and sees it as a way to continually sample from a huge buffet of spiritual views.
On the one hand hunting is a way for David to observe: “There is so much life beyond me.” David will pace and has trouble sitting still to watch a movie but can sit in a tree stand for six hours in silence without a problem. In addition to hunting, Shelly and David raise chickens and pigs. He wants to know where his food is from, what it ate, and how it lived.
[67] July 17