[sense of place]
My husband and I have lived in western North Dakota for almost six years, but it was not until I was one month away from the birth of my second child, nearly two years ago, that I began to accept and even embrace all that life had to offer. Before that point I was very scientific about my North Dakota journey.
LEARNING GOD IN NORTH DAKOTA By Kate Ruggles
“Well, I do not like living here, but it is good, so I will deal with it,” I told myself. Often. I was numb and not ready to feel, because I still had not worked through the one question that sat in the middle of my chest—why did God send me to a place that I did not want to be? A year after we moved to North Dakota, my husband had just completed an internship at a church in Williston, a small city by my standards, and took over a church in Watford City, a small city by anyone’s standards. When people found out we were moving there, they would get excited. “Watford is an awesome city!” one person told us. “It is a progressive little town and way better than Williston.”
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It was like dabbing iodine on a deep cut and a part of me wanted to hit them. But since I was working hard to keep my cuts hidden, my only response to statements like that was, “thank you.”
angry and I felt alone. I struggled with feelings and thoughts that were not very spiritual and wondered what was wrong with me that I could not get myself together.
I told my husband a while ago that I was okay with being a pastor’s wife and that I would support him pursuing a career in ministry. But once it was staring me in the face, at a small church in a small town, I was scared,
On the one hand, the community was great. I found myself among people who truly understood the value of what their hands produced. They were descendants of pioneers who planted by hand in the summer and
hunkered down in a homestead shack in the winter. They endured The Great Depression, or what they call ‘the dirty thirties,’ they lasted through two fizzled-out oil booms and they were thankful for every day they were given. I fell in love with them, and yet I did not want to be there. I was two people and I hated it. In the meantime, two things
