Pain, Perseverance, and Privilege: An Honest Sharing of Personal Struggles and Joys Through Fifty Years of Ministry.

By Dr. Carl Krause and JoLynn Krause

Seeking fruitfulness and not just productivity. Understanding how to make tough transitions in life. Looking at struggles not as problems to be solved, but as currents pushing us toward reliance on God. All this, and so much more, is found in the pages of this book. But the real genius of this book is this: that all of these lessons are embedded in the lives of two remarkable people, Carl and JoLynn Krause. They would be the first to tell you that it is their God who is remarkable. And thats true too! But in them we discover a humility, honesty, transparency, and moldability into which God has delightfully poured the deep truths of what it means to serve him well and walk with him intimately.

Dr. Douglas Baker

Lead Pastor, Faith Community Church, Carlsbad CA

Adjunct Professor, Biola University

I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger lyrics from the pop song writer/singer Rod Stewart. Through Carl and JoLynns life story and ministry, principles are presented in this memoir that are so real and beneficial to all. You will laugh; you will cry; you will identify and be blessed. They have experienced trials from both sides the ones in need of Gods loving care and then equipped as the caregivers. Thanks and Gods continued blessings to the Krauses for loving and assisting our family, and so many others around the world, to make our calling possible. Their care along with Gods intervention has rescued those who were drowning and breathed life back into their ministries in very difficult places.

~ Sharon Jorgensen

Throughout the pages of this book, our dear friends, Carl and JoLynn, have authentically described a courageous life dedicated to serving Jesus through their years of ministry. They are both honest and playful despite life and decisions not always going as they had hoped. Their infectious faith shines through in every chapter.

Dr. Steve and Patti Cappa, former directors of Marble Retreat Steve currently is a professor at Colorado Christian University Patti currently has a counseling practice in Grand Junction, Colorado

I just finished reading Pain, Perseverance, and Privilege. It was delightful, very interesting, and inspiring. I believe it will help lots of Gods special folk.

-Melissa McBurney Co-founder Marble

Retreat Marble, Colorado

Each in their own way, the authors share personal struggles and joys from their years of ministry. Their honesty and openness will encourage any ministry worker. The book gives insight into understanding the heart of those in full-time Christian work.

They share the humorous, the painful, and the joyful experiences in an honest and straightforward way. From the Man with the Tan Briefcase to My Dad Doesnt Work, you will enjoy the many experiences and laugh, cry, and be encouraged.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Dec 9, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512764734

Dr. Carl Krause

Carl and JoLynn Krause have served together in ministry for over 50 years both as pastor and wife and as missionaries, teaching and counseling. In the last 15 years, they have counseled missionaries from 98 different mission organizations, serving in over 100 different countries through their ministry of Barnabas Zentrum. Barnabas Zentrum is a counseling ministry for missionaries and Christian workers (see BarnabasZentrum.com). They have lived in the Philippines, Ukraine, and Austria. They currently reside in Grand Junction, Colorado. Carl holds a master of divinity and a doctor of ministry in marriage and family therapy from Denver Seminary. JoLynn holds a master’s degree in counseling from Colorado Christian University.

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Copyright © 2016 Dr. Carl and JoLynn Krause.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-6474-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-6475-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-6473-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016919409

WestBow Press rev. date: 12/08/2016

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction

The Way It All Began

First Things First

Starting the Journey

Just Because I Should

Adventures and Struggles in the Rural Pastorate

Longing To Belong

The Leadership Challenge

Julotta

Following God or Running Ahead

Stillness

Even a Good Thing Can Be Pushed too Hard too Fast

Molding Time

God Shows Up

From PK to MK

Learning about Formal and Informal Structure

Mistakenly Transparent

Turn-Around Church

Following

My Dad Doesn’t Work

Reality in Confession

Staying in the Game

Traveling Alone

Dad, You Bribed That Cop

Fighting Tissue Boxes

In His Time

Summer Sun; Winter Darkness

Fruitful or Fearful

The Man with the Tan Leather Briefcase

Just a Matter of Trust

Caught in a Vision

A Perfect Fit

The Reward of Suffering

Unexpected Meeting

Two of Us

I’ve Been Waiting for You

Is Our Home Country, Home?

Starting Again

Conclusion

About The Author

Dedication

To our children: Sheila, Karla, and John

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Our book has not been written in isolation. Many people have been an encouragement and help in this process. For many years we have been encouraged to write our story.

Without the constant reassurance of Dr. Steve and Patti Cappa, we might have quit more than once. Our dear friend Allison Turner from Millstatt, Austria, read and gave input in the first few chapters that JoLynn wrote. We were encouraged by both she and her husband, Robin Turner, in many ways. Our mission directors, Dale and Marlene Frimodt, urged us to take the time to write.

A very special thanks to Carol Krause who spent many hours reading and editing our manuscript preparing it for publication. What a wonderful gift!

Most of all we want to thank our three children, Sheila, Karla, and John. It was partly your story too. Through all the moves, living in a glass house as pastor’s kids, and even being missionary’s kids, you weathered the journey well. You continued to love us and trusted our decisions, even though at times it was difficult for you. We are so proud of you and your love for the Lord. We love you!

INTRODUCTION

Carl

Anyone who has been in ministry very long knows that there are times that try men’s souls. Segments of ministry life that challenge everyone and, unfortunately, overwhelm some. There are also times that are tremendously rewarding, that encourage and lift up. Those are the segments of life that keep us going – if we can pause long enough to remember them.

For over 50 years JoLynn and I have been on a ministry journey that has been more diverse than we would have ever dreamed. When I proposed to her when I was 20, I asked if she was willing to be a pastor’s wife. Although church ministry was a large part of our life, God has enlarged our influence far beyond our plans. We have also lived and served as missionaries in three foreign countries. In the past 15 years we have had the privilege of teaching and counseling missionaries and Christian workers serving in over 100 different countries of the world. From the beginning we were in this journey together. Although we write separately, it is not Carl’s story or JoLynn’s story. It is our story.

We recognize that God does not promise that we will see the fruit of our labor until we see Him face to face. But He is a gracious God who now and then gives us a peek into His great love and lets us see a bit of what lies ahead. We share some of those glimpses. We are humbled to think that God has used us to keep missionaries on the field who are reaching hundreds for His kingdom.

As we share segments of our journey, you will feel some of the pain we experienced. You will be encouraged to persevere as we had to at times, believing that the times of privilege and reward are somewhere in the future. You will laugh as we recall some of the more humorous events. We pray that you will be able to rejoice with us as we enjoy the harvest. Be encouraged and blessed!

THE WAY IT ALL BEGAN

Carl

It all began at age 17, during the last half of my senior year of high school. I began sensing God’s call on my life. For some reason, two older men in my church took an interest in me. I will forever be grateful to them. Cos Hines sat next to me in the church choir and taught me how to sing bass. We were the bass section! Albert Underhill would ask almost every Sunday, Are you going to Bible College? His persistent question angered me a bit, but God used that to keep that option always before me.

I had planned to either join the Air Force or attend the local Junior College and become an engineer of some sort. I enjoyed math and science so that seemed to be the logical career choice. I had even received a small scholarship to attend the local college, which would have paid my expenses the first year.

Two events that summer after graduation messed up my plans. I worked as janitor at the county courthouse for two weeks, filling in for another man on vacation. One night while cleaning the county clerk’s office, I noticed a copy of Redbook magazine on a desk. The headline article caught my attention, What our Future Pastors Believe. It was a survey taken of Protestant seminary students across the country, asking their beliefs on a variety of key doctrines. I was shocked to read that only 44% believed in the virgin birth of Christ, 46% in His bodily resurrection, 2% in His personal return, and 29% believed in life after death (Redbook, August 1961). These were truths I held to and believed with all my heart. I remember saying, OK, Lord, I’ll be one who does believe and teach these things. I care enough about your people to put my wants aside and train people in the truth. I’ll be a pastor. Of course that meant going to a Bible college instead of the local college. About that same time, we had a special speaker in our church. He was Don Wagner, a professor at a Bible college in northern Minnesota. He also had a student with him who sang and talked about the school. Prof. Wagner was a hunter who had been on a number of hunting trips to my area of Colorado. I realized Bible professors could be human too! The student was very personable and told me all about the school. What got to me, though, were the pictures of the campus. It was situated on a point of land between two lakes. I thought, If I have to go to a Bible school, one where I can hunt and fish wouldn’t be too bad. It’s amazing how God knows our fleshly desires and uses them for His ends! I still was not willing to commit fully, however, to the idea of being a pastor.

The clincher came a few weeks later. I was cleaning the church for Sunday. A letter from Don Wagner to the pastor lay open on the communion table. I noticed the last line was underlined. It read, By the way, there is still room at Oak Hills for that young man if he wants to apply. That young man was me and the pastor had purposely left the letter out for me to see. I immediately went to tears, knelt by the front pew, and said, OK, Lord, you win. I’ll do what you want. I said thanks but no thanks to the scholarship, to the idea of the Air Force, and to an engineering career, and began preparations for the move to Minnesota. In all the years since, I have never doubted the call of God on my life. Though severely tempted at times to hang it all up, I’ve found that God built His ministry into me, and it is part of who I am. (Proverbs 16:9, We can make our plans but the Lord determines our steps.)

I had planned to drive my car to Minnesota, but about a month before departure date, the state of Colorado changed my plans. It seems that too many speeding tickets accrue too many points on one’s driving license. My driving privileges were suspended for three months, so I had to take the train to Minnesota. My family never went anywhere so I had only been in a few states surrounding Kansas and Colorado. The 1500-mile trip to Bemidji, Minnesota, was exciting and scary. I had never been on a train before and I knew only two people in the entire state of Minnesota. Going across Iowa in the middle of the night, someone lit the waste basket in the restroom on fire. Smoke filled the entire car, so they opened the doors on both ends of the car and cold air blew through the rest of the night. The train ride was miserable and I caught a horrible cold, but I never doubted the journey God had led me on.

On arrival in Bemidji, I had no idea where to go or what to do. I asked a taxi driver if he knew where Oak Hills was. He said yes so we loaded my bags. He dropped me off at the first building we came to on campus. He said, I think this is the men’s dorm and then left. I dragged my bags into the lounge and sat down. It was dead quiet in the building. For an introvert a long way from home, it was a bit unnerving. I silently prayed, Lord, please send someone by who knows what I should do next because I have no idea. John Filius came by a few minutes later, introduced himself, and showed me to the administration building. We became friends and within weeks he was teaching me to play guitar, a skill that would serve me well in ministry for many years.

My first year at Oak Hills was full of new experiences. Every student was assigned a practical work assignment and mine was to serve on the garage crew. We maintained the campus vehicles, but the majority of my work was snowplow crew. I did occasionally get to drive the Jeep and plow the roads, but most of the snowplowing was done with a shovel on the sidewalks. Northern Minnesota winters can be brutal, but I think that one was the worst in history. It got down to minus 57 degrees Fahrenheit that winter and snow was piled shoulder high along the walkways. I thought spring would never come! I can still hear the squeaky crunch as we walked in the cold on the snow-packed road up to Old Main for chapel.

Little did I know that just five miles away a young woman was being prepared to become a part of my life. It took a while for the pieces to all come together, but when they did our team was complete.

The rest of the story is in the chapters that follow, especially in The Two of Us.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

Carl

Which is the best way to learn? Most pastors get their seminary training first and then begin ministry. I did things backwards, learning on the job. That may not have been the best way to go about it, but when I finally did get my seminary education years later, I knew when to listen in class. I also believe that learning on the job made me more dependent on God than I might have otherwise been. It also made life more adventuresome and exciting.

When you do it backwards like I did, you encounter a lot of first experiences.

First Parsonage

When we met with the Lengby church that weekend in December, 1965, the board chairman took us to see the parsonage. As we entered he said, Well, it ain’t much, but it’s better than I’ve got! We found out later that he lived in a remodeled