A Heartfelt Farewell
In the first week of July 2024, we'll leave Kansas almost eleven years to the exact date that we arrived. We never thought we'd stay this long! But in the midst of so much uncertainty about vocation, employment, life, and long-term plans, the Kansas-Oklahoma Conference became an unexpected home for me. I could never have imagined a future calling as a Conference Minister without the opportunity to learn with and alongside each one of you for the past decade. Without KO, I might never have discovered Kansas Interfaith Action and learned from colleagues who know how to pray with their feet, all the way to Topeka. Without KO, I would have never experienced the power of relational organizing.
"Thank you" does not begin to cover the depth of my gratitude for the hundreds of ways, big and small, that you have widened my vision of what it means to be Church. Thank you for giving me space to create new possibilities in the Committee on Ministry; thank you for patiently withstanding my joy about the details of UCC polity. Thank you for loving my Zoom-bombing, pickle-eating children. Thank you for so many second chances. Please don't imagine that I didn't notice and appreciate every gesture, every conversation, and every time you came through when I asked for help. Your recent cards and your gathering for my farewell reception in Wichita are precious to me and I will hold them in my heart.
Because my heart is so full of love for you all, and a little shaky about stepping into this new adventure, I have to ask you now to give me a little space. When my ACM role officially concludes on May 15, it will be hard not to worry and wonder about what happens next here, because I will miss you. So if you would please give me at least a year on email and social media, I'll do my best to "unfollow" and help myself create the boundaries I need to shift my focus into my next ministry, and my next home. Thanks be to God for this close-knit denomination, where I can at least expect to wave hello from time to time on a webinar, and certainly in person at next year's General Synod! As partners in God's vision for a just and loving world, I know this will not be the end of our journey together.
Rachael