Mary Anne Nelson

It's been a long time since I have seen many of you, but I'm really looking forward to seeing folks!I have been living with my family in Niagara Falls, NY for the past 15 years. My husband Bill is a native of Buffalo, NY so I relocated to his neck of the woods. Unlike many, I suppose, I started late with having a family. We have 2 children, Hannah, 15 and Jonathan, 11. After graduating from Augustana College in 1973, I taught one year at Flandreau and worked in the Twin Cities doing theatre and singing in clubs. Then I came back to South Dakota and received two Masters Degrees from USD, one in Theatre and one in Music, applied voice. Then followed several years of hanging out in New York and acting and singing in regional theatres in the midwest, but finally in 1984 I took the plunge and went to Luther Seminary. It had taken me 13 years to figure out that's what I was supposed to do. Even while I was in school, I continued to earn money for classes by taking off a term to go do a show. I was ordained in 1990 and took my first call at a large church just outside of Rochester, MN.When Bill and I met in 1990, we stayed in MN for 4 1/2 years and then moved out to Buffalo-Niagara where I took a call in an urban inner city situation where I stayed for 10 years working with people in poverty. It was great work, but over time I got pretty worn out. I was a pastor in 2 other congregations in that area, one in Jamestown and one in Grand Island. When my Mom fell last year and was hospitalized off and on over 5 months and I was flying back and forth almost every month, Bill and I began to think about moving back to the midwest. By this time, Bill was also a Lutheran pastor, so we both interviewed at churches in Aberdeen, and got the calls. We moved back to South Dakota in April, and I'm loving it!I love the peace of mind that I have when my son decides to go for a bike ride and I don't have to worry about him. My children never even walked around the block alone where we lived before because of drug dealers etc. It was the work I had chosen to do, but my kids didn't have much freedom. It's so fun to be in a place where people are friendly and for the most part sincere!I have great memories of my friends from school days in Yankton. It was a good place to grow up. When I'm there now I don't think I see anyone I know, but hey, maybe I just don't recognize you! Let's see how we do in July. Peace, Mary Anne Nelson-(Loefke)