Conference Minister's Corner 9.2.26

Conference Minister

Rev. Gordon Rankin 9.2.26

Twenty-four years ago, I spent a week of my summer serving as a chaplain at Silver Lake Conference Center. Usually, I preferred to serve as a dean. However, that particular summer, my wife and I were at the point in our adoption process that I needed the flexibility in schedule that being a chaplain allowed.

During my week as a chaplain, I became particularly well acquainted with a young girl named Jess. Jess was in one of our elementary-school-aged conferences. Sometime in the middle of the week, Jess was goofing around a bit and fell from her top bunk. It was pretty clear that Jess had broken her arm. She was transported by ambulance to the nearby hospital. But she would need a ride back to camp. By camp policy, there were three people who were allowed to transport a camper in their vehicle: the Director, the Assistant Director, and the Chaplain. So I was asked to go to the emergency room, stay with Jess, and bring her back to camp afterward. As emergency rooms can be, it was busy, and it took a while before Jess could be seen. By this point we were well into the evening. Finally, after an emergency room doctor looked at Jess, they sent her for an x-ray. There was clearly a break; however, by that late hour there was no one still in the orthopedics office to read the x-ray and tell us quite how severe the break was. So the emergency room doctor put on a temporary cast and sent us back to camp.

Early the next morning, we received a call from the orthopedics office saying that Jess had a major compound fracture and that they had scheduled her for surgery in Hartford that afternoon. They had already spoken with her parents, who were on their way to camp to pick her up and take her to the surgery. I spent a while with Jess that morning as she waited for her parents.

The next day, I was able to spend a few last minutes of that week with Jess. Because they had to leave immediately for the surgery, there was no chance to pack up all of Jess's stuff. So she and her parents returned to pick up her things and say some goodbyes.

Twenty-four years later, a week ago last Saturday, I attended the celebration as the Southern New England Conference ended its ministry at Silver Lake. Later in the morning, a young woman in her thirties came running up to me. The first thing she said was, "I just knew you'd be here." I was still trying to figure out who she was. It was Jess. She was there with her husband. And she was so very excited to show me a picture that was taken of the two of us the day after her surgery. Jess and I spent over an hour talking that day. And we took another picture of the two of us, twenty-four years after the first.

I spent much of my drive home thinking about the ministry impacts we make that we may never fully understand. I spent an evening in the emergency room with a young camper. Little did I know that twenty-four years later it would still be meaningful enough for her that she'd seek me out.

I suspect for all of us there are these types of ministry experiences. There are times when we may not know for years and years, if ever, just how impactful our ministries have been.

Gordon

P.S. By the way, here are the pictures of Jess and me in 2002 and in 2026.

Photos: 2002 (Gordon in teal polo and Silver Lake cap, Jess in blue with arm in sling) and Aug 22, 2026 (Gordon and Jess at Silver Lake, name tags on). Suggested captions: "Silver Lake, 2002" / "Silver Lake, August 2026."

Copyedit note: light pass only. Fixed "ask" → "asked," "sever" → "severe," "for the orthopedics" → "from the orthopedics," "has scheduled" → "had scheduled," "their" → "there," "who the young was" → "who she was," "Jess and I" → "Jess and me" in the P.S., and trimmed two duplicated phrases. Voice untouched.



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