North Dakota Here We Come

Last week Jana and I both did Facebook Lives discussing our upcoming move to Bismarck, North Dakota.   We’ve had lots of views and conversations.   Yet, sometimes it’s also good to write.    Some prefer to read instead of watch and listen.   I wanted to blog about our upcoming move also.   For many I still imagine that this idea of an African missionary moving to North Dakota just seems out of place.   How did this come about?

Myself with cousins and a pony my uncle Alan bought

I grew up in Minnesota.  I fear winter storms, but enjoy shoveling snow, winter moonlight, ice fishing, tubing, venison chili, hot chocolate, and reading a good book by a fire.    While growing up my dad and uncle Alan would occasionally take me with them as they worked in the Dakotas.    My dad worked in the road construction business.   My uncle Alan was a cattle buyer.   I always loved time in the Dakotas.  Since, I’ve been a kid I’ve always wanted to live there.   I loved the wide-open spaces, and potential to hunt and fish.  I liked the distance between towns and the solitude on the roads.  This was such a wild dream that I deeply packed it down.   I didn’t ever tell Jana.  I thought what would be the odds that I’d ever have an opportunity to live in the Dakotas?   I’d better not give it much thought.    

The first response most have when they find out that I’ve always wanted to live in the Dakotas is to bring up the winter cold.   My first memory of Bismarck is flying into to her airport in January in the 1970’s as my dad went to bid on a construction job.   My dad remembers how cold it was.   I remember who bright the snow was and remember getting really bored as he had meetings at the North Dakota Department of Transportation.    We passed through Bismarck a multiple of times.   The last time I was in Bismarck was in March 1988.   I was delivering a bucket for a backhoe for a construction crew in Williston that needed a special bucket to cut through the frost.   I ran into a ditch and broke down on the trip.   I never told my dad about those hiccups.   The beauty of the solitude was what impacted me.  I asked God to bring me back, and then forgot my prayer.

Jana and I did 19 years in Africa, and now have done 7 years in Chicago.    We sensed in our return to the USA that we should have 3 priorities.  The first was to nurture our kids, and they’ve done well.   We only have 1 still at home.  The second was to serve East African Diaspora.  Chicago has been a great place to connect with large Diaspora communities and help.  The third was to nurture local churches.  With this one we’ve struggled.   We just have never found a combination that has been workable.  Much of that we think goes back to our being too old to be a starter in systems and that our perspectives just doesn’t fit well with most of the local churches in Chicago land.    As time has gone on, we’ve increasingly sensed that God had given us some exceptional experiences and expertise that we needed to find a venue to share with local churches.

In the back of my mind over the last 7 years I’ve also thought we would eventually see African Diaspora people in the USA shifting to the heartland in greater numbers.   Most settle as refugees, students, or green card lottery winners into America’s global cities as there is immigration settlement infrastructure and universities in those cities.  Yet, most Africans are rural people of Christian faith, and culturally more like the values and rhythms of rural America than urban.   I’ve kept asking around if anyone was seeing African immigrant migration to the heartland and heard a few stories, but never saw anything of substance documented. 

 Then in January I saw an article on race, birthrates, and local states in the Wall Street Journal (https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-fertility-rates-vary-around-the-country-11547096460.)  What caught my attention was seeing large black families from Kansas north to the Canadian border.   Those areas typically don’t have large African American population.  My gut told me that was African immigration as I’d heard some stories of movement but didn’t know the extent.  I traded correspondence with the author.   Her research didn’t include immigration status, but it was likely we were seeing African immigration affect the demographics in the heartland.   I started asking questions and doing research online.   It appeared that the Dakotas particularly were having a surge of African immigration.   Some report in the last 10 years that the population of African immigrants in the Dakotas has increased by five fold.

At the same time Jana and I kept trying to connect with local churches and Christian organizations in Illinois.  I’ve applied for so many jobs but keep running into very similar dynamics repeatedly.  The church networks that are open to immigration have room for us to attend their seminars, but don’t have room for us to provide leadership.   The church networks that will open their doors for us in some type of leadership role generally will only keep that door open if we don’t discuss issues that are part of the African immigration experience.   Our expertise is used on occasion but not frequent enough that we can make a living or gain traction.   

Many write that missionaries throughout history generally live and serve on a society’s margins.   Occasionally, missionaries are at the crossroads of influence in a culture, but that’s generally an exception to the overall missionary narrative.   We had seasons in Africa where we served at points of great influence.  Yet, our season in America has been on the margins.   We see that as the hand of God as we’ve lived like most African immigrants do their first years in America.  As much as is possible with white skin and American citizenship we’ve learned firsthand about immigration, race, poverty, and disability in America.   We’ve pondered if our journey into the margins was not complete.  It seems to us that in the American Christian experience the points of influence are megachurches and para-church ministries in large urban centers.  It seems to us that the margins in American Christianity are in rural America.  We’ve pondered if God would also take us to rural America in our service to African immigrants and the nurture of our kids.

Our only child who is still at home is our son, Timothy.   The last few years have been a painful discovery of the complexity of his disability.    He’s done well with Paralympics and we’ve developed a network of good parental advisors.  Public school has been unworkable and we’re homeschooling.   He’s struggled with respiratory infections and we notice those are more likely to happen when we notice air quality warnings for Chicago.  He struggles with anxiety related to the brain injury that caused his cerebral palsy.  Counselors have suggested more time outdoors for him.

All these factors have made us wonder if God desired for us to move.  I had been looking for part-time or interim ministry positions near Chicago.   One Sunday morning in April I decided to look at job postings in the states the Wall Street Journal noted were having a surge of African immigration.  I had seen a part-time teaching pastor job with Revive Christian Church in Bismarck, North Dakota.  I thought the position had probably been filled, but I decided to drop them a note in the off chance that it was still open.   They wrote back that the position was still open.   We’ve had a long dialogue. 

 Last month, we were in Bismarck to explore.  I preached at Revive and interviewed for the job.   We met with African immigrants and visited one African church in Dickinson.   We met parents of children who have similar disabilities as Timothy.   Revive offered us the job.  The African community seems vibrant and desires our presence.   Bismarck seems very workable for Timothy’s health and development.   We’ve decided to move to Bismarck.   We hope to be there early in November.    

The move makes sense for the following reasons:

1. North Dakota is booming economically.  It’s one of the few places in the United States where the middle class is growing.

2. Bismarck seems to be more stable in her growth than the North Dakota oil boom cities.   She is a base for the rest of the state with the service industries that supply the boom.  She also has education institutions and health care facilities.

3.       The Bismarck area has a growing African population.    Some of that is that Lutheran Social

At Adonai Evangelical Church, Dickinson, North Dakota

Services and the Catholic Church have settled many refugees.   Yet, the movement is bigger than refugees. In Bismarck we heard a term used to describe African immigration as primarily “secondary migration.”  In a nutshell it’s mostly those who started in America’s global cities and then moved to better economic opportunities and a better cultural fit.    You can find low to moderate skilled African immigrants driving trucks, in agriculture, and serving in home health care for North Dakota’s elderly.  When I talk to those people most find that they can find more stable better paying jobs with a lower cost of living than in the cities they initially settled.   There are also skilled professionals in Bismarck.   Some teach at the local universities.   Some are doctors at the local hospitals.   When I look at photos of high school and college soccer teams within 90 miles of Bismarck most have 1 to 4 players of African descent.   There seem to be at least 100 Kenyans in Bismarck.   The Rwandan embassy visits North Dakota yearly, and there are 3 Rwandan led churches in the area.  
 
4.       All indications are that Bismarck would be healthy for Timothy.   There are doctors who advertise that they serve children with cerebral palsy.   There is a Paralympic team.  There are also other organizations serving the disabled such as hunting, fishing, and horseback riding groups.   The air seems clean.   There are wide open spaces and a smaller population so it seems his anxiety would be less.  
 
5.       I’m just hungry to get back to a more rural part of the upper Midwest.  I’d really like to be

outdoors more.  I’d really like opportunities to hunt and fish.  I’d really like to have more of a role with churches and Christian organizations than I currently do.   I’d like enough snow on the ground to enjoy winter sports.
 

Beyond how appealing North Dakota is Revive Christian has captured our hearts.  I find myself checking in on them over social media and thinking and praying for them frequently.   Here’s some things that captivate me about Revive:

1. Revive defines themselves as a “Front Porch Church,” that is very involved in their community and particularly with meals, concerts, and service in area parks.   Hospitality is one of Jana’s and my spiritual gifts.


2.       Revive is a young church plant that has been going for 7 years.   There is still room to formulate and grow.  
 

3.       Revive has been refined.   Their attendance was near 90 over a year ago when their lead church planter left.   They now are in the range of 65 to 75.  I feel confident in making a move with a church healthy enough to survive a tough transition.


4.       Revive is made up of largely young families with young children.   God’s helped us raise our own kids well.  I think Jana and I could well nurture this church.   We simply really enjoyed our time with their families and children.


5.       Revive has 3 elders and full-time worship / administrative pastor.   We don’t want to lead alone.  Having others with whom to share leadership is very appealing.


6.       Revive is currently meeting in a community center near a college and has some presence of university students.   Jana and I have thrived on college campuses before.  We found two friends of friends who teach at the college nearby, and sense we could develop relationships in those networks.

7.       Revive leaders sense their biggest needs are someone to deepen the level of Biblical teaching and that is an area of Jana’s and my expertise.

When I sit still, I find myself moved to tears.  God heard my prayers 31 years ago on a solitary drive through North Dakota.  He saw my struggle in a ditch and with an overheating pickup in a winter storm and kept me safe.  He’s bringing me back to a place that feels like home.  I seem to culturally fit with North Dakota.  In that process I don’t have to leave Africa.   Diaspora people are nearby, and they could also use our presence and counsel.  Who would have thought they variables would come to fruition?

What will this look like as a missionary?

The average household income in Bismarck is in the range of $60,000 and we anticipate we’d need those type of resources to minimally be financially viable in Bismarck.  The salary that Revive will provide as their part-time teaching pastor is $20,000 per year.   Currently, we bring in about $20,000 per year that we count as our missionary salary so if we made this move, we’d need to find another source of income that could generate at least $20,000 per year.   

It appears that what we’d financially do with this potential move is to trade our houseparent role at Jubilee Village for the teaching pastor role at Revive Christian Church.     Jubilee Village is technically considered, “volunteer” and we don’t get a w-2 or 1099.  What we do get is the use of a 3-bedroom apartment with our water, trash, and gas bill paid.  If we can get into an affordable apartment in Bismarck, we’d pick up a small amount more in real income.  

Basically, if we make this move to Bismarck we’d be moving as missionaries.   We’d be following our African relationship web.   We’d be trying to find a location that is healthier for our son, Timothy.   We’d also be trying to strengthen and build a local church.   The income we’d have wouldn’t meet our family’s financial needs, so we’d still be needing your contribution and we’d be looking for more income sources.   

Thank you for your support and prayers through the years.

Mungu akubariki (May God Bless You,)

Dave

P.S. For more information on Revive Christian Church see  https://revivebismarck.org/.

P.S.S. For more information on East Africa Diaspora Community see https://diasporaoutreachco.wixsite.com/website