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The Victoria GAZETTE |
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July 2010 |
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Brian tells how he came to know Lynn Farr. “We met and became friends in college. It was 1991,” he said. “We had attended the same high school – there were 1,200 students -- but I didn’t know her till college.” Lynn also majored in English and graduated in 1994. They married on May 20th, 1995 on the campus of the University of Maryland. Barry Farr, a cousin of Lynn’s, officiated at their wedding. After a honeymoon trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the newlyweds went back to work. “My first job out of college was bartending and waiting tables,” said Brian. “I still thought I was going to play professional soccer. I appreciate that my wife stuck with me. Lynn worked as an administrative assistant. Then I broke my kneecap in a soccer game and that was sort of a wake-up call, like divine intervention. I was also playing soccer on Sundays.” “So I got a temporary job as an administrative assistant where there was some upward mobility. But it was the people I cared about, not the job. Then, through my inlaws, I began working with people with disabilities. Lynn’s parents were residential counselors at a place similar to Community Living here in Victoria.” “We took bus trips to see my relatives in South Dakota and to see Lynn’s family in Kansas,” said Brian. “That’s how I met Barry Farr and his wife Nancy who were very influential on Lynn, and then on me. Jesus was real for them. I couldn’t see where He was sitting at their table but He was there. I took communion from Barry and it kind of won me over. I may not have made up my mind about Jesus, but He made up His mind about me. “Lynn and I started going to church about that time, to St. Paul’s Moravian Church in Maryland. It was the church closest to where we lived. It was a Christian church; that was important to me. It was my first introduction to the Moravian Church. It felt like coming home. They started to ask me to take leadership positions and it was for me an act of obedience and submission to the church. Also for me, the call to conversion was at the same time a call to ordination.” In 2002 Brian enrolled at the Moravian Theological Seminary in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and received his Master of Divinity degree in 2005. Brian, Lynn, and their children Jacob and Danielle moved to Bethlehem for these three years of seminary study. After ordination the family returned to the Midwest, this time for a longer stay than in his infancy. It’s where Pastor Brian received his first call, which was to minister to two Moravian churches near Fargo. Bethel Moravian Church is located in Leonard, North Dakota, population under 300. Goshen Moravian Church is located in Durbin, North Dakota, population under 100. Did he feel like he was preaching in the Wild West? “In some ways, yes,” replied Brian. “God’s timing is impeccable. As a child I always wanted to get back to the Midwest. There’s a sense of rootedness there. Lynn and I said we were open to the call of God. We had two children when we arrived in Fargo. Jacob was in school and Danielle in preschool.” Does he still feel like he’s in the Wild West with his new call to Victoria? “Not so much,” he said. “Victoria is more like where we grew up, in an outlying area of a major metropolitan area.” |
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Preaching to the Choir Continued |
