Edge of the Wilderness - By Stephanie Grace Whitson Page 0,12

door firmly before Samuel could say anything more. With his back against the door, he stared across the entryway and into the dimly lit sanctuary. Why was it, he wondered, that empty churches always seemed to give him such comfort? He entered the sanctuary, pausing beside the last pew to look up the aisle toward the pulpit. It was a simple church. No stained-glass windows soared heavenward. But tonight the clear six-paned windows gracing the west wall were bright with moonlight. And just enough light shone to illuminate the simple cross hanging above the baptismal to the left. His eyes on the cross, Simon made his way to the first pew and sat down. Before he had a chance to pray, a verse of Scripture came to mind: All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Simon leaned back against the hard pew rubbing his hands together.

All things. Not just the things you understand, Simon.

Not certain whether he was talking to himself or hearing some inner voice of God, Simon thought, But they want me to leave my children, Lord. And Genevieve.

You’ve been praying about returning to the Dakota people for months. They need you now.

Simon knew it was true. He was needed down at Camp McClellan. At the meeting tonight, there had been great concern for Reverend Masters. All the long months while the Dakota men were imprisoned in Mankato, Reverend Masters had faithfully walked the fourteen miles from his home in St. Peter to Mankato in all kinds of weather, arriving in Mankato on Wednesday and staying through the weekend, conducting meetings and teaching before walking back home for a rest the following Monday. He had kept the grueling schedule from December until April when the men were moved to Camp McClellan above Davenport, Iowa. He was exhausted. It was time for someone to relieve him. Would Simon go and help? the board had asked at tonight’s meeting. No one knew how long he would be needed, but they hoped he could leave for Davenport before the end of May.

This is the way, Simon. Walk ye in it. I cause all things to work together for good.

Simon ran his hand over the gray stubble sticking up out of his nearly bald pate and sighed. He had much to be thankful for. No one knew that more than he. Patient, loving, kind Ellen Leighton had married him without knowing she was getting a self-righteous, noisy gong of a pastor for a husband—a man who was cold and indifferent to emotional need. Not until Ellen died early in 1862 did Simon realize how much he had depended on her. But by shattering the world Ellen had created around Simon and their two children, God began transforming him.

Six months after Ellen’s death, Simon thought he might finally have changed enough to be of some real use among the Dakota people. But then that world was shattered too. It was August of 1862 and Simon had just begun a promising work in a new Dakota village when the Minnesota Sioux uprising occurred and everything about the Dakota Mission was thrown into utter chaos—chaos that was not yet resolved, even nine months later.

All things work together for good to those who love Me, Simon.

Simon looked up at the cross. Yes, Father. He began to think over the good that had come from the uprising. He was separated from his children at the outset, but God protected Meg and Aaron. They were with Genevieve and Miss Jane through the entire ordeal. And just when things seemed their worst, Daniel Two Stars appeared in camp and helped them escape to the safety of Fort Ridgely.

Unable to find Meg and Aaron, Simon had become involved in events that continued to mold him into a better man. After he helped a group of mission workers escape to safety, somehow God had given him the idea of attaching himself to the troops as a chaplain and going with them after the hostile Dakota. Simon knew it was God working in his life, because nothing could have been more unlike him. He had always been a man of books—never a man of action. But the outbreak changed that. Once physically weak and indecisive, Simon became lean and muscular. Living among profane military men forced him to learn a new kind of leadership. And while he was changing he learned to trust God in ways he would never