Our Rivendell

Reflecting on 3 years of life in the Shuswap

A season is ending. And, with a season coming to a close, reflections on the past few years abound.

In the autumn of 2022, we moved to the Shuswap so I could pursue my seminary studies at Calvin Seminary full-time. We are well into 2026, and in 41 days, my seminary studies will be complete (d.v). We sit at the cusp of a new adventure. A move to a new home, a new church, a new vocation, and a new journey. The Shuswap has been our Rivendell.

Tolkien’s own illustration of Rivendell

In The Lord of the Rings, Rivendell, the last homely house, takes on a character of its own. Artist renditions abound of this Edenic place where the elves live and rule, and the Shadow has not penetrated. It is from within Rivendell that Aragorn begins to understand his true calling and change the course of history. It is from within Rivendell that the ringbearers find rest, healing, and equipping for their journeys ahead. And, perhaps most palpably, it is the singular place where Frodo recovers from his close brushes with death at Weathertop and Mt Doom.

We arrived in the Shuswap after a season of ministry that included navigating COVID and seismic debates around human sexuality in our denomination. These cataclysmic events are not the typical seasons of ministry one expects when entering the church at a younger age. I am grateful that God worked through my efforts and inexperience to bear fruit among those I ministered to, but we left that church and season weather-worn and weary.

I could labour the point about why the years 2017-2022 were difficult, but that would be unfair to the joys and friendships we experienced during that time. Like the fledgling fellowship on their way to Rivendell, there were times of adventure and joy even amidst the difficulties of the journey – just consider the juxtaposition between the visit with the elves and the evasion of the Black Riders, or the time spent with Tom Bombadil and the close escape of the Barrow-Wights.

“And so at last they all came to the Last Homely House, and found its doors flung wide.”

“His house was perfect, whether you liked food, or sleep, or work, or story-telling, or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all. Evil things did not come into that valley.”

“All of them, the ponies as well, grew refreshed and strong in a few days there. Their clothes were mended as well as their bruises, their tempers and their hopes. Their bags were filled with food and provisions light to carry but strong to bring them over the mountain passes. Their plans were improved with the best advice.” (The Hobbit)

When we woke up in our home on the farm in the Shuswap, it had the feeling of Bilbo in Rivendell in The Hobbit. We couldn’t imagine life so good. The air, the space, the joy, oh! It was a delight. All the world’s baggage seemed to ebb away as we rested in the beauty of our new home in an idyllic, verdant valley with rivers and lakes running through. We knew that this temporary season of study and life would be a season of rest.

But Rivendell is not only a place of rest. It is a place of healing. Frodo heals from his journeys, Bilbo heals from the effects of the ring, and Middle-earth heals through the Council of Elrond and the reconciliation of people as they seek to unite against a formidable foe. The Shuswap, being our Rivendell, was a place of healing. We had come off the ministry journey with some wounds. We didn’t expect to serve the church unscathed, but there are times when the wounds need to be tended. Sometimes they can be tended while on the road, and other times you need to get off the road. This was a time to get off the road and experience some healing. These nearly four years of life have been marked by rest, and our souls are better for it.

Finally, Rivendell is a place of learning. The lengthy Council of Elrond in Tolkien’s masterpiece offers so much information about the situation the characters find themselves facing: a situation that has been in the making for many, many years. Rivendell is the place where Aragorn learns his true identity, where Frodo learns about the Ring, and where knowledge is stored and cared for by the elves.

“Frodo was now safe in the Last Homely House east of the Sea. That house was, as Bilbo had long ago reported, ‘a perfect house, whether you like food or sleep or story-telling or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all’. Merely to be there was a cure for weariness, fear, and sadness.” (The Fellowship of the Ring)

These years will forever be remembered as our ‘seminary years.’ Since January of 2023, I dutifully read and studied with my professors and classmates at Calvin Theological Seminary, allowing the slow, methodical work of assignments, readings, papers, and the twice-annual trip to Grand Rapids to shape and form me: my heart, my mind, and my pastoral skills. My heart for Christ has grown as I meditated on the depths of Scripture, theology and the Reformed tradition. My library grew as I took full advantage of the Grand Rapids bookstores and the assigned booklists for each course. These past years in the Shuswap were necessary preparation for the coming season of ministry.

The Shuswap River and the Enderby Cliffs

The time always comes for us mortals to leave Rivendell; we cannot remain here forever. The call to adventure, the necessary duty of ring-bearing, calls the guests of Rivendell away. For us, God's call to take up the work of pastoring calls us away from this place of rest, healing, and learning. We are off to a new adventure, equipped in a multitude of ways for the journey ahead. We are thankful for this place and all that it has been to us: the Last Homely House, the House of Elrond, Rivendell…the Shuswap.

“Next day Frodo woke early, feeling refreshed and well. He walked along the terraces above the loud-flowing Bruinen and watched the pale, cool sun rise above the far mountains, and shine down, slanting through the thin silver mist; the dew upon the yellow leaves was glimmering, and the woven nets of gossamer twinkled on every bush. ”

“I feel ready for anything,’ answered Frodo. ‘But most of all I should like to go walking today and explore the valley. I should like to get into those pine-woods up there.’ He pointed away far up the side of Rivendell to the north.

(The Fellowship of the Ring)