They are Just Old Things
By The Rev. Jason S. Terhune, ‘15, Director of Operations and Student Services at Nashotah House
There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.”- G.K Chesterton, The Thing (1929)
At Nashotah House change comes slowly. We value those who have gone before us. We have trouble getting rid of things. Often, we must discover or learn why it is that something has been kept, whether it be a tradition or a box of papers.
In the case of the Blue House – so named for its historic blue exterior – it is clear why it matters. This fourteen- bytwenty-foot “tiny house” of 1842 has been held in the hearts of so many who recall those first missioners who followed God’s call to share the gospel in the frontier west.
This is where it all started. Work, study, prayer. The Mission began its life together in daily prayers. The work was necessary to survive. The study was for preparation. Prayer to fulfill all that God has called us to be. In this little house in the wilderness, the Mission began.
Those first missioners, led and inspired by Jackson Kemper, lived here and began the important work of sharing the gospel to an unsettled and, to them, a foreign land. They carried the message of Christ in which they were grounded here at Nashotah House.
It would have been easy at any point to say the Blue House had served its purpose or no longer held any value in the mission. But, when you walk out to this odd little home with its many doors and awkward staircase and take a moment to recall that this is where our forebears lived, prayed, ate, worked, studied, and worshipped, you realizeit is a place to rejoin our purpose, that is, our mission.
We often talk about how the frontier has changed. We no longer just look just to the west but in every direction to see that the mission itself has not changed. As we seek to train men and women to each answer their call in lay and ordained ministries, we continue in work, study, and prayer, just as our founders did.
This is why others have joined us to support the work required to restore and maintain this place that symbolize our beginnings. Yet, as you draw closer and as you linger and enjoy the breeze coming up front the lake, you realize that this is more than a symbol. This blue house embodies what it means to answer God’s call for the church to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ whenever and wherever we find ourselves.
As I look out my office window to see the Blue House having undergone its structural straightening and the pallet of hand-cut cedar shingles that await warmer days to find their new life on the roof of this little house, I am reminded that it is Christ’s mission that endures: each of us here,inspired by decades of service to an ever-changing mission field.
Soon, the Blue House will house missionaries in various stages of serving Christ. Some will be working on a degree and others will be on furlough. Some will come for retreat and others will come to teach. What they will eachhave in common is a call that is rooted in work, study, and prayer as they share Christ in the world.
The preceding article was originally printed in Nashotah House’s Spring 2021 Missioner magazine, volume 35, number 1, pages 19-21.