With a stack of cardboard boxes waiting outside his office to be filled with his belongings last week, the Rev. Scott Jakel said he was going through the grieving of leaving. “It’s come full circle,” said the associate pastor at St. John’s Lutheran Church for the past 81/2 years. He’s led others through grieving over the loss of loved ones, and now they were helping him. Church members were “supporting me, wishing me well, offering prayers.” Jakel – pronounced like Jake with an L on the end – was preparing to leave St. John’s and Annandale to become the lead pastor at Christ the King Lutheran Church in New Ulm. St. John’s held an open house Sunday, June 6, so he and members could exchange goodbyes. But he, wife Cyndi and daughters Hannah, 9, and Miriam, 7, will be around Annandale for a while until their house sells and they find another. Jakel, 40, is scheduled to take over in New Ulm on July 25 and he figures he may have to commute for a week or so. They want to be in their new home by Aug. 15, he said. Leaving Annandale is “very bitter sweet,” he said, “because we’ve experienced so much love here and the people, I think, really don’t want me to go.” At least nobody’s told him “good riddance,” he laughed. At the same time he’s looking forward to the “joy of what’s waiting for me in New Ulm,” and that’s “the very same community of faithful, friendly believers.” “I’m excited about a larger community,” said Jakel, who has served in Morgan and was born in Raymond, both small towns. “Having everything right in town will be nice.” But he expects to miss some things about the Annandale area and its smaller-town feel. He came to Annandale in January 1996 to take the associate pastor position and has stayed in that role twice as long as usual. There were two reasons for that: “We wanted to extend our stay here because we love Annandale and the people here,” he said. “I truly enjoyed the work I was doing and didn’t want to stop it.” Jakel said he appreciates Annandale’s diversity – not according to race but culturally and economically. “This is very much a community of rich and poor,” he said, noting the people who live in nice homes at Southbrook and others who live in lesser housing at the Eastview Mobile Home Park. The church is a place where people in need come for help, and affluent people come to church wanting to give something back. As a pastor, Jakel said he probably sees more of the rich and poor than people in other professions. One of the things St. John’s church continues to do is work on hospitality, he said, “really making sure people are welcome.” “This church is well represented by both rich and poor,” he said. “I think that’s a very unique thing in a congregation.” “They accept and support each other. “That’s one of the things I’ll leave here with is a sense of pride and accomplishment in helping to create that,” Jakel said. One of the things he celebrates is “the building of the church (in 2001) and the building of the relationships in the church.” What’s more important are the relationships in the church, he said. “This is a good building to build relations in,” Jakel said. “It’s really a space of grace, and people can come together – they can connect with the church community.” Another thing to celebrate is his ministry with the young children of the church, he said. He’s baptized small children and then watched them grow in faith. “Some of the sadness I feel is missing some opportunities to do the weddings of the kids I’ve gotten to know.” “Thank you for the way we’ve been beloved and supported,” Jakel said. “I will deeply miss the people of this church and this community.”
