Story By Nancy Iglesias Photos By Deb Quam
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astor Rebecca Wold Freeman, Associate Pastor at Bethel Lutheran Church in Northfield, doesn’t think of herself as overly athletic even though she played three sports in college (and is in the Athletic Hall of Fame at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter), has hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back, rode the RAGBRAI (Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa) bike “train” with her husband and two kids (2 and 5 at the time) for two days in 90-plus-degree weather, hiked for a week in
the Canyonlands of Utah and ran the Rainier to Pacific running relay in Washington with a Microsoft Team called “Drag and Drop.” Becca (as she likes to be called) doesn’t think of herself as someone who would be featured in a magazine issue about women who are living a life of adventure. When we contacted her, she wasn’t sure she even had a story to tell. Even though she has worked in several non-traditional settings, traveled both nationally and abroad, has a deep love for meeting and connecting people, and is both delighted by and a true delight to her community, she would not say that her identity is that of an adventurer. But much of her life has indeed been an adventure. She grew up on Lake Johanna in Arden Hills, MN. Her dad was a campus minister and they often spent family vacations visiting her dad’s former students in a
variety of cities. She was on spring break her senior year at Gustavus Adolphus College when the devastating 1998 tornado hit St. Peter, destroying the campus and much of the community. She returned from break to assist her fellow students with campus and community clean-up and graduated just a few weeks later. After graduation, she spent five years with the Lutheran Volunteer Corps at L’Arche in Seattle, WA. L’Arche is a non-denominational spiritual community where people both with and without developmental disabilities live in intentional community. Much of her philosophy of life and ministry was forged during her years there. She said her “job” and experience were not so much about what she did, but rather who she beCONTINUES ON PAGE 10 u u u
Wold Freeman LATE SPRING 2018
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