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By Ayanna Eckblad

MYRTLE — After several years of being without a permanent pastor, Bethlehem Lutheran Church of Myrtle has hired someone to fill the position. Her name is Karen Peterson.

Right now she works at the church part time. She said she typically leads worship services Sundays, plans services Tuesdays, and does pastoral visits, confirmation classes and meetings on Wednesdays.

Peterson was born and raised in Jamestown, North Dakota, and brought up in a Lutheran family. After college, she worked as a science teacher before going back to school to be a scientist. She and her husband moved quite a bit. They have six children, each born in a different state.

While living in Idaho, she said she heard God calling her to go into ministry, but was not sure if she would be able to because she had six young children and there were no seminaries close to where she lived.

Eventually, Peterson and her family moved to Minnesota. Peterson worked at Mayo Clinic doing research on the heart and kidneys. Eventually, she decided to go to Luther Seminary in St. Paul.

Peterson is now newly ordained and began working at Bethlehem Lutheran Church of Myrtle in October.

Peterson and her family currently live in Dodge Center. She travels an hour to and from work the three days a week she goes to the church.

Although this may seem like a lot of travel, Peterson said she had a 90-minute commute to the Twin Cities while she was an intern and had to travel there more often, so this feels easy. She added the people at the church make it worth the commute.

“They’re very supportive. They’re very faithful,” she said. “Their hearts are always in the right place, and I’m called here to love them so they make it easy.”

Peterson said her approach to preparing sermons and interpreting the Bible begins with understanding the nature of God.

“I start from the understanding that God, as evidenced through Jesus, is love. Pure and simple,” she said. “Regardless of whether I’m looking at the Old Testament or the New Testament, I take it in its context and try to understand what it meant at the time, but I always use the corrective lens of Jesus.”

Peterson said both she and her congregation have goals and things they would like to see for the church.

“The people want to see more engagement of youth again, they want to see more people filling the pews,” Peterson said. “There’s no magic bullet for that. All I can do is be welcoming and get the word out that I’m here.”

When not working Peterson said she enjoys gardening, primarily with native and pollinator-friendly plants, crochet, writing poetry and music. She also has a dog, four cats, four tropical birds and two saltwater aquariums.

Bethlehem Lutheran Church of Myrtle is at 85056 134th St. in Glenville. There is morning coffee fellowship at 9:30 a.m. every Sunday with worship services starting at 10:30 a.m. Peterson said the church will also begin doing mid-week Lenten services on Ash Wednesday March 5.