"Love... without fear"

“... May I love without fear...”  
The desire of a man... led to this experience.

  “God led experiences.”

Shannon Bauer recalls:”Years ago when I was completing a Master’s of Counseling degree through Sioux Falls Seminary, I had a busy schedule.  My family lived in Spencer, IA which was a two hour drive from Sioux Falls and I was preaching at two Presbyterian churches near Worthington, MN one hour from Sioux Falls.  

“A typical week for me was seminary from Monday through Friday, then head home Friday night through Sunday morning.  Sunday morning, I would lead the worship services and then head to Sioux Falls to begin the week again.  

“One Sunday afternoon, while on my way, I was filling up with gas in Worthington.  When doing this I would use my credit card at the pump for convenience. 

“On this particular day I noticed a man outside the gas station.  While I was pumping gas I had an overwhelming desire to see if this man needed help.  He did not have a sign nor did he seem to be in stress.  

“Yet God prodded me 
   to reach out to him.”  

“I had already paid for my gas at the pump and had no need to go towards the station.  I was ready to make an excuse to God and continue my journey.  Then I felt a bit thirsty.  

“I looked over the man’s shoulder and noticed a sign for bottled water: “Two bottles of water for $2.’”  

“Okay God. I will go into the store and buy two bottles of water and offer the man one.  As I was leaving the store the man was still there.  I went over to him and said, ‘Do you need some water? Is there anything I can do for you sir?’"

“Why did those words 
    come out of my mouth?”  

“Before I could make sense of my own statement he replied, “Yes, I would really appreciate a ride to my home in Sioux Falls.”  (About 60+ miles.)

Well... it would only be a few miles 

out of Shannon’s way!

“I agreed to give him a ride.  As we drove to Sioux Falls, I learned that he was a bull fighter.  He and his girlfriend were at a competition in Duluth when his truck broke down.  

“He did not carry a credit card nor did he have a cell phone.  He only had enough cash to pay the mechanic there to order the needed part to fix his truck.  Yet the truck was not to be fixed till the following week and he needed to get back to Sioux Falls for work.

 “He had enough cash left over to 1) purchase a bus ticket to Albert Lea for his girlfriend to get home and 2) buy a ticket for him to get to Worthington.  

“He had no idea how he was going to get from Worthington to Sioux Falls until I showed up.  I had showed up less than 5 minutes after the bus dropped him off at the gas station in Worthington.  

“I did not see or hear from this man after I dropped him off at his home.  

"I do thank God that He gave me 

an opportunity to be a blessing.”

***
"May I love... without fear."

This is the morning prayer of Shannon Bauer, pastor at Wangen Prairie Lutheran Church, southwest of Cannon Falls.  And each evening Shannon reflects on the ways God has used him... “and when my stubborness kept me
 from being used by God.”

.

Scary stories... crime novels!

The invitation to the crime novelist’s book release party at his home up in the cities sounded interesting.

But I was pretty scared.  

Not because of the novel or the author.

I just didn’t know how I would get through the busy traffic.

But all went pretty well.  In fact, the author was delayed coming from his previous book launch gathering because of traffic!

Am I in the right house?

We had been told to park on a side street and enter the house on the lower level through the back patio for easier access. I was all alone and with no numbers on the back sides of the houses I wasn’t sure if I was going into the right one!  I hoped I wouldn’t be arrested for unlawful entry or possibly surprising someone coming out of the shower!

I heard voices upstairs and headed that way.  Among the crowd I finally found the hostess. Then she had her friend from New York City visit with me while she retrieved a surprise for me!

It was a small replica of a Colombian saddle for a horse - that I could hang from the mirror in my car.  Yes, I realize that might not be legal to do that in Minnesota but it’s really cute and I’ll find someplace in the car for it.

I was still recuperating from my fear of driving to the party so I got a half cup of coffee and checked out all the folks talking to each other in the crowd.  

My next thought was: I might just leave right now!

How to “mingle”?

But then I thought... I drove all the way up here... there must be some way to “mingle”.   

Surveying the crowd I finally found two couples who had left a space open that I could quietly shift into.   

And it was an interesting conversation.

Then I found another group that had left an empty space - just for me, right?

The guests appeared to be mainly close friends of the hosts.  But I was probably the only one who had had a part in one of his novels!  

Well, kind of anyway.  

“Assassins... drugs... bring your shovel?”

A couple of years ago I wrote about it in my column:  “Assassins... drugs... bring your shovel?” Or you can find it on my blog: Along the way by Rosie.

It’s the novel where the drug lord’s assassin was burying bodies on a Paso Fino horse farm outside of Cannon Falls, MN!  I didn’t know about this when the book was published.  I found it out when I was interviewing several crime novelists from the twin cities!

ACKKKKKK!  Not my sweet little farm!

When I told a Cannon Falls Police Officer what I had discovered in my interview he just shook his head and said, “Now I suppose we’ll have to get a shovel and come out and dig.”

Later on at the party another thought worried me.  Perhaps I shouldn’t have mentioned this episode to the guests because who knows if they believed that I was innocent!

Hazardous driving?

Soon I began wondering if the drive home would be as hazardous as coming up and I decided to leave.  It wasn’t.   

When I got home I decided that because of my concerns about driving in the cities, I would like to let other drivers know I’m not purposely trying to irritate them.  I’m just trying to be “careful”!

So I wanted to make a bumper sticker to express this.

I decided that it probably would not be appropriate to make one saying:  “F.... YOU TOO!”

So I decided on:

(Thanks to Christopher Valen and his wife Martha. Chris’ latest book was just released: St. Paul Homicide Detective John Santana in “Speak for the Dead”.)