WRITTEN BY CHERYL WELLS
Living in the Midwest and particularly for me, in small town Iowa, is such a bonus and a blessing and has always been. Le Mars is home and there is just something about home; the place where we permanently live and want to stay. Oh yes, I love to travel and visit other beautiful places, but there’s no place like home. We have been traveling a lot this summer and it has been such a sweet gift to do that with others. But my heart has been yearning for home and the comforts and familiarity that is there. I would love to tell you about my journey to Le Mars.
“My people will live in safety, quietly at home. They shall be at rest.” (Isaiah 32:18, NLT)
Mike and I were both born and raised in Sioux City, and we were high school sweethearts since we were 16 years old. We were married young, and we lived in Morningside when Mike was going to college there. We did end up moving to Omaha after he graduated from there and we lived in Omaha for about two years. When we moved back so that he could work in the corporate office in Le Mars, we decided that we would live in Hinton, up in Marlin Heights off the highway. We thought it might be a good place for us to be about halfway between Sioux City and Le Mars. It was a good place for us, and the small school system was great for our two children Michael and Tiffany. We were both really involved in the community and in our church, and we stayed there for about 8 years and then one day Mike came home from work and told me that he felt we were to move to Le Mars. I wasn’t so sure.
One of the reasons that we had chosen to live in Hinton was because we weren’t really sure about living in Le Mars. It seemed like we could probably live in Hinton as a Wells easier than living in Le Mars. I was twenty-five years old when we moved to Hinton, so my thoughts and perspective were very different. I didn’t know anyone in Le Mars, so this was just my own bias.
Mike’s reason for telling me that he thought we should move was kind of a big deal to us. When he came home that day to tell me he started by saying that he was sorry but months before that he was driving in Le Mars and he came to the four way stop at Central and 4th and he looked one way, and then he looked the other and the Holy Spirit whispered to him that we were supposed to move to Le Mars. He did not share that with me right away and he knew he should have. We began to pray, and we both knew this was God. This was in 1993, and we were in our early thirties, and we had our third child, Rachel while we lived in Hinton and she was two years old when we moved. We immediately put our house in Hinton on the market, and we found a house to rent right by the North Ice Cream Plant. We were building a new house, and it took a year, but it was the sweetest time for us in the little rental home that we actually rented from Wells right across the street from the downtown plant.
I remember my truth when we moved to Hinton was that I didn’t want to put myself out there and I didn’t want to have people as friends just because of my last name. I didn’t want to be invited and included because of that. Makes me laugh now. I had my own impression of what life would be like in Le Mars as a Wells. Actually, what I experienced was the opposite of what I thought. I was a stay-at-home mom and so my circle was quite small for probably the first couple years because I didn’t know anyone. Mike had been working at Wells corporate for the last eight years or so, but our social circle was mostly from our church in Hinton. We were walking one evening after Mike got off work and we walked by a little white church on the corner across from the courthouse. We decided to try it, and we ended up going there for the next twenty years and we loved it. When we first started it took us a while before we felt welcomed and comfortable. I remember that we met with our Pastor, and we shared that we hadn’t really made any friends. His response to me was so good. I had said that I wasn’t shy and that I wasn’t really concerned about this for us, but that if someone new came and they were treated the way that we were – it would probably be a deterrent to them coming back. He said to me – what do you think you should do about it? I began to think and pray about his question. It was such a good challenge for me and something really good came out of that.
I felt led to start a newcomer’s ministry within the church that had many steps to it, and it involved not only myself and the committee that I formed, but it included the entire congregation being a part. I realized that it just took a plan that was inspired through someone’s wisdom and insight (thanks Pastor Fred), and then my willingness to pray and seek God about what I could do for others that would show them God’s love. It led to many acts of service in our church, and I watched all the families benefit from it, whether they were newcomers or those that had been there lots of years. I was able to use my spiritual gifts of serving, helps, administration, exhortation and shepherding, as well as bread baking which was the first step that happened when a first-time guest came, and it was delivered to their door.
Now I didn’t see that way back then, but I see it now. I believe that I saw people come as first timers and they stayed because of how we reached out in relationship and in hospitality to them. It’s the way that people began to feel at “home” and feel safe in those relationships. This should happen inside the church and out. It’s the way of Jesus. It’s the community that we can create everywhere we go. It’s actually the way that we feel and the experience that we have had in Le Mars. I’m so grateful that we finally listened and that we made the move to our “Hometown Le Mars”. We love Iowa and we love Le Mars, and we are very aware that not everyone loves us or that there aren’t hard things that happen. We have decided to follow Jesus and there’s no turning back. We have learned that if we take the high road, it is the best way for our souls, and it is the best way to love others no matter what. That is the heritage that we want to leave behind. It’s a beautiful truth when we figure out that no matter where we live that home is a matter of the heart. Thanks, Pastor Fred, for the exhortation and all that I learned from it. It has made a difference in my heart and in how I use my gifts and love people wherever I am. Wondering if it might be a good question for you also if you find yourself feeling like maybe you don’t feel noticed or you don’t feel like you fit? What are YOU going to do about it? It made all the difference for me.
