Just Women Magazine Fall 2015 | Page 6

B lessed are the crazy Rewriting the story of mental by Sarah Lund illness, family, and church I’ve been a Disciple since my baptism/ confirmation class at Broadway Christian Church in Columbia, Missouri, where I sat as a frecklefaced, wide-eyed girl listening to one of our pastors, Rick Frost, speak about God’s open table. Earlier that morning I had witnessed the church’s other pastor, Kim Gage Ryan, lift up the bread and the cup during worship, offering it to everyone who wanted to taste and see the goodness of God’s love. The thing I remember most about first becoming a Disciple was the love that radiated out of the words and actions of our two pastors, Rick and Kim, and how this love (God’s love) overflowed into the members of the congregation. Looking back, I understand my call to be a Disciple as connected to my call to be an ordained minister. Moreover, as a young girl, it was my ability to see Kim, who was in her third trimester of pregnancy, navigate officiating communion around her black-robed baby bump that planted the seed of what was to come. Fast forward years later, and in 2002, I’m making my ordination vows at Broadway Christian Church. My promises to offer my life in the service of God were spoken in the same church that sustained me and my family during my childhood, a time when we faced life-threatening mental illnesses in my father and oldest brother. Even though we chose not to speak openly about our struggles with mental illness, we knew the church loved us.  MY FIRST CALL During my first call as a minister in a local church, I participated in Bethany Fellows (www.bethanyfellows.org ), a program designed to support young clergy in their first few years 4 FALL 2015 · Just Women of parish ministry. Kim Gage Ryan was one of the leaders of this group and Broadway Christian Church is one of the congregations that provides funding for it. The program gave me a chance to retreat for five days twice a year with other young