I've been reading more of my grandmother's "Memoirs of a Minnesota Pastor's Wife," and I'm really enjoying the glimpse into her life and ministry. So much changed during the course of her 86 years.

When she and Grandpa started out in ministry, in Argyle, Minnesota, their parsonage (minister's residence) didn't have indoor plumbing. The school in town was a one-room school house heated by a small wood stove. Grandpa was paid $110 a month to serve as pastor, janitor, and grounds keeper at the Baptist church in town; and the small income was supplemented by meat, produce, and milk, provided by members of the church congregation. Most of the people in the church were still first- or second-generation Scandinavian immigrants, in that region and that period of American history, and they spoke with such a heavy Swedish brogue that Grandpa would often have to interpret for Grandma! It's amazing; reading Grandma's memoirs is not unlike reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House on the Prairie" book series.

Through the years, Grandma and Grandpa pastored a number of different churches out on the Minnesota prairie in places like Argyle, Reynolds, Clotho, Gutches Grove, Kerhoven, Rush City, Windom, Taylors Falls, Lake Crystal, and Long Prairie. The families among which they ministered had names like Gustafson, Peterson, Anderson, Carlson, and Tornquist. The places and names sound like they came straight from some Garrison Keillor story, but they were completely real. Completely authentic.

It's also amazing to realize some of the people with whom Grandma and Grandpa rubbed shoulders, during the course of their ministry development. While they were students at Minnesota's tiny Northwestern College, the school president was a relatively-obscure itinerant evangelist... who eventually became, well, not-so-obscure: Billy Graham. Grandma and Grandpa were also personal friends of Roger Youderian, one of the five "Auca Martyrs" (together with Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, and Pete Fleming). As a matter of fact, it was Grandma's brother, Frank, who was asked to lead the search party to recover the bodies, as he was working among the neighboring Jivaro people during that same time period.

I love the legacy that my grandparents left for our family. I love the fact that their exploits were written down and preserved for posterity. And I love an opportunity to remember and celebrate these things, during my grandmother's funeral this week.