As I begin to write this article, my heart is full. This year has flown by! It seems like only a few weeks ago I arrived in Calvert County ready to begin my internship and now the time is almost over. This will be my last article, and it is not time yet to say goodbye, but there are some important things to say in this space.

In the article I wrote for the October Nicholas News I wrote about the geese flying in and how that is an appropriate metaphor for the church. Now the geese are swimming around in the bay with their goslings. The goslings have been protected and fed, trained and taught. They have practiced swimming. They have learned how to find food. One day they will join their parents and fly away. The goslings are almost ready to fly, but not quite. They are growing the feathers which will enable them to fly, but there is still some of the downy fuzz left on them that they wore when they hatched out of their eggs.

I am like those goslings. During this year of internship, I came covered with the down of a new intern, a hatchling pastor in training. During this time of internship I have been trained and formed, corrected and encouraged, fed and nurtured by Pastor and by all of you. As the year has progressed, I have been growing feathers which will take me out into a parish and will help me to fly alongside and to care for God’s people in the place for which God is preparing me to minister in his name. I have a few feathers yet to grow, and will go back to Gettysburg Lutheran Theological Seminary in September to grow some more during my final year of education. The pastor I will be has been shaped by this time of growing and learning here in Calvert County. The growth that that has occurred in me has been your gift to me and will be your gift to the Church.

I cannot express to you the depth of my appreciation for your love and care and patience during this growing time. We have rejoiced together, we have wept together, we have broken bread together, we have gathered around the word, and we have gathered around God’s table together. You have invited me into your homes and into your lives, and through you God has blessed me richly. It has been wonderful to be a part of this community of God’s people in this place, and to see the Spirit of God working in and through you. I give thanks to God and to you. This time and the sisters and brothers in Christ at Saint Nicholas whom I have come to know and to love will always be a treasure to me.

With love and appreciation,

Vicar Patti