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Our Pastor
Pastor Andrew Wendle was born and raised in Madison, WI. The oldest of three, Pastor Andy was gifted with loving parents, grandparents, siblings and extended family and friends. During his college years he served four summers as a camp counselor at Sky Ranch Lutheran Camp. It is there that he met his lovely wife, Linden Kron Wendle, and they were married shortly before entering seminary at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, IA.
Together Pastor Andy and Linden served for 10 years in Oregon - Trinity Lutheran in Gresham, OR and Our Redeemer Lutheran and Asbury United Methodist in Hood River, OR - before moving to Somers, MT. Together with their three children they enjoy life in the great northwest. They hike, bike, camp, enjoy Flathead Lake and all that God's bountiful creation has to offer.
Below you will find Pastor Andy's monthly newsletter article written for God's people of Eidsvold Lutheran Church. May it inspire you to faithfulness in God's name as you read and receive this humble offering.
Blessings to you and to yours.
Contact him at: pastorandy2@charter.net
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August 2020
Grace and peace to you in the name of our living and loving Savior, Jesus the Christ!
Just after school let out in June I was visiting with one of Charis’ favorite teachers about the time we’re living through these days and she said “Yeah, it is like the 1919 Spanish Flu, 1930’s depression, 1960’s Civil Rights era all rolled up into one with a pending contentious political election on top of it all!” It has certainly been a challenging few months.
And yet, one of the really beautiful lessons we learn from our faith is the importance of living into the situations of challenge and opportunity which we face. What I mean is, the incarnation was both about how God was going to save God’s creation from the brokenness of sin but also about how God was going to fully live into the reality of that creation’s world.
“We do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” Hebrews 2:9
It is with this in mind that I’m going to begin an online Zoom book study this September, at a time to be determined, using the book – The Invention of Wings, by Sue Monk Kidd. In this book, Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women.
Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given
ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid. We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty five years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love.
This novel looks with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will hopefully help us better understand the roots of the civil rights crisis we are facing today. And it is this compassion, formed and informed by our faith, that will hopefully help us find ways to understand the suffering of our African American brothers and sisters.
So find a copy of the book, start reading it if you desire or wait until we begin together, and let us find a way to begin the faithful journey towards hope. For we know that when we understand and experience the suffering of others that “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” Romans 5:3-4
I’ll see you then, and of course, before.
In Peace,
Pastor Andy
P.S. I almost forgot, let me know if you’re going to be joining us! If you’re interested and unfamiliar with Zoom, I can show you how to join. All you need is a computer or smartphone with a camera. It is quite easy and free! And if you’d like us to order you a copy of the book, we can do that too. Just let us know by August 16th. Thank you.
Grace and peace to you in the name of our living and loving Savior, Jesus the Christ!
Just after school let out in June I was visiting with one of Charis’ favorite teachers about the time we’re living through these days and she said “Yeah, it is like the 1919 Spanish Flu, 1930’s depression, 1960’s Civil Rights era all rolled up into one with a pending contentious political election on top of it all!” It has certainly been a challenging few months.
And yet, one of the really beautiful lessons we learn from our faith is the importance of living into the situations of challenge and opportunity which we face. What I mean is, the incarnation was both about how God was going to save God’s creation from the brokenness of sin but also about how God was going to fully live into the reality of that creation’s world.
“We do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” Hebrews 2:9
It is with this in mind that I’m going to begin an online Zoom book study this September, at a time to be determined, using the book – The Invention of Wings, by Sue Monk Kidd. In this book, Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women.
Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given
ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid. We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty five years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love.
This novel looks with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will hopefully help us better understand the roots of the civil rights crisis we are facing today. And it is this compassion, formed and informed by our faith, that will hopefully help us find ways to understand the suffering of our African American brothers and sisters.
So find a copy of the book, start reading it if you desire or wait until we begin together, and let us find a way to begin the faithful journey towards hope. For we know that when we understand and experience the suffering of others that “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” Romans 5:3-4
I’ll see you then, and of course, before.
In Peace,
Pastor Andy
P.S. I almost forgot, let me know if you’re going to be joining us! If you’re interested and unfamiliar with Zoom, I can show you how to join. All you need is a computer or smartphone with a camera. It is quite easy and free! And if you’d like us to order you a copy of the book, we can do that too. Just let us know by August 16th. Thank you.
