Today I am giving thanks for Pastor Harriet Mouer. I am trying to remember when I first met her. She and her husband Bill pastored the Foursquare Church in Amherst for years which is about 15 minutes from Vermilion. It may have been at a friend’s wedding or a pastor’s retreat. Who knows? All I know is God used her to change my life.

I was always a little intimidated by Harriet. She is so classy and put together. Me, not so much. I remember when I went to a women’s retreat with her once, I described her as a wine and cheese kind of a lady and I was more of a beer and pretzel kind of gal. She was a lady and I was a broad. It says a lot about my insecurities when I was younger (but also describes us well).

Harriet is a respected mentor to many women in ministry leadership in my denomination, and I was fortunate to live only 15 minutes from her. About fifteen years ago, she invited me and a few other leaders to accompany her to several women’s retreats where she spoke. She arranged our stay at a casino in Iowa and treated us to a day and evening in downtown Chicago after a Wisconsin retreat. By spending time with me and inviting me to minister alongside her, Harriet affirmed something within me. She also coached me for a season. Harriet is the epitome of strong women lifting each other up.

In 2014, when Harriet was our District Supervisor, she asked me to come and share a devotion with the district staff. Afterwards, she invited me to pray about going on a trip to Israel with other women in leadership in our denomination. I so wanted to go but the cost was substantial.  God provided in miraculous ways. I tell about it here: Nothing is impossible

That trip to Israel changed my life. I can honestly say that because Harriet taught me an important principle. She told me that you cannot say something changed your life until at least 6 months after the fact.  We can say something changed our life in the heat of the moment, but many times it is an emotional response and does not translate into transformation. That trip transformed my life.

From that trip, I was asked to be part of a Women in Leadership (WIML) co-hort. The skills, confidence, and friendships I gained from that year long experience prepared me for this season of my life as a lead pastor.

I am amazed at how God has led me my entire life. The people He has placed in my life to teach, encourage, and challenge me is humbling. There is a quote in one of my favorite books, Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry:

If you could do it, I suppose, it would be a good idea to live your life in a straight line – starting, say, in the Dark Wood of Error, and proceeding by logical steps through Hell and Purgatory and into Heaven. Or you could take the King’s Highway past the appropriately named dangers, toils, and snares, and finally cross the River of Death and enter the Celestial City. But that is not the way I have done it, so far. I am a pilgrim, but my pilgrimage has been wandering and unmarked. Often what has looked like a straight line to me has been a circling or a doubling back. I have been in the Dark Wood of Error any number of times. I have known something of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, but not always in that order. The names of many snares and dangers have been made known to me, but I have seen them only in looking back. Often I have not known where I was going until I was already there. I have had my share of desires and goals, but my life has come to me or I have gone to it mainly by way of mistakes and surprises. Often I have received better than I deserved. Often my fairest hopes have rested on bad mistakes. I am an ignorant pilgrim, crossing a dark valley. And yet for a long time, looking back, I have been unable to shake off the feeling that I have been led – make of that what you will.”

Harriet does not live 15 minutes away anymore. She moved several states away. But today, we talked on the phone for an hour, discussing what God is doing in each of our lives, praying for one another, and setting time to talk monthly. I am thankful for Harriet and all the ways God used her to speak into my life and lead me to where I am today.