Margie Olson was led by the Spirit to peace
When Margie Olson joined Gethsemane in 2006, she wasted no time becoming “involved”….Voices of Praise, Quilters, Deborah Circle, Caring Ministry visitation, the Katrina Mission Project, but she isn’t the run-of-the-mill “joiner.” Her vibrant faith is in the service of the God who freed her stifled spirit and led her back to wholeness.
Margie (nee Margie Adolphson) grew up on a farm near Chokio in southwestern Minnesota. She had five sisters and one brother.
Always, a singer, she has good memories of her musical family…
Singing in the car or at home with her Mother at the piano.
But it was also a deeply troubled childhood, a period when she and her sisters were all sexually abused by their father. As a child, she kept her silence, but she is now open about the experience, hoping that her candor may help other victims of incest.
When Margie reached confirmation age, one of her older sisters found the courage to share the “secret” with caring adults, their hired man, a counselor, and a pastor.
Following an investigation, their father was sentenced to prison for four years.
When the time came for his release, Margie could no longer live at home. Her remaining high school years were spent away from home, first with her married sister and then working for room and board for a young married couple.
She also found a summer job at a canning factory in Sleepy Eye, folding boxes for the pea pack.
Margie graduated as Valedictorian of her class, then enrolled for nurses training at Fairview Hospital in Minneapolis. From Fairview she moved on to the University. In the 1950’s she was head nurse at University Hospital.
In 1956 she and her sister Laverne set out on a bold adventure…a two-month tour of Europe in a rental car. The plan-as-you-go trip undoubtedly fostered her lifelong love of travel.
While at the University she met and married Ralph Olson, in training to be a forester.
They moved to Grand Rapids, and their children grew up there, two girls and a boy.
The busy mother put her professional skills to work, first at the Grand Rapids Hospital, then teaching practical nursing at the community college. She pursued independent study and became a public health nurse, a job she held for 14 years.
In 1984 she faced up to the state of her spiritual life. “I had always been a church-goer, but my faith was on a starvation diet.”
The first positive step was her own personal Bible study, digging into the Scriptures on a daily basis and journaling before she went to work each day. “There was not a day when there wasn’t something there for me.”
One day at lunch with her friend Verna, stimulated by the spirited conversation and nudged by the Holy Spirit, she had the notion to take a short sabbatical from work and sign on to volunteer service in nursing abroad.
She confided her dreams to her pastor at Zion Lutheran. He enthusiastically began casting about for a specific assignment.
Liberia turned out to be her opportunity, working as a volunteer for Lutheran World Ministries. She left Grand Rapids on Christmas Day, 1985, and returned the following 4th of July. Zion parishioners supported her with $10.00 a day living expenses. One 7-year old boy saved up his allowance money for one day’s expenses.
The mission trip “cemented her relationship with Jesus” and probably led to treatment for the wounds from her clouded childhood. Here she was, a successful health care professional with a desperate need to be healed. She finally found direction when she turned to Lutheran Social Services for help.
LSS referred her to Jackie, a Christian counselor, who helped her deal with the shame that had shadowed her life. Jackie encouraged her to take a virtual walk with the Savior and to leave her childhood experiences at the foot of the cross.
In 1990 her 33 year marriage ended in divorce.
One Sunday afternoon she took a walk, pondering the morning’s sermon on the Holy Spirit. Back home she read a magazine article in which a student described her call to the ministry. The Holy Spirit made it clear. Margie felt a call to
Seminary training, a bold move for a woman past 60; but decisiveness is built right in. She enrolled in the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago in 1991.
Ordained in 1995, Pastor Margie Olson’s first call was to Epiphany Lutheran Church in Canoga, California. Then she served 2 1/2 years at the Lutheran Church of the Incarnation in Poway, near San Diego, a part-time assignment. She also worked as a volunteer in prison ministry in Tijuana, Mexico.
Following retirement, she basked in the California sun for several years, then decided to return to Minnesota and family. It’s important to her, staying in close touch with her sisters, her children, and grandchildren.
Her daughter Chris Resch is a nurse living in Coon Rapids. Paul is a commercial banker in River Forest, Illinois. Jane Sholtz, a product manager for Thrivent, lives with her family in Hopkins, so Margie shopped for a house here.
A big yard satisfies Margie’s fondness for gardening. Her clergy credentials provide an opportunity for interesting part-time work…conducting weddings at the Mall of America. She also serves on the Hopkins Human Rights Commission.
Why did she join Gethsemane? She found it a “warm and welcoming place, a church where the Spirit is alive.” She envisions a great future for Gethsemane, “as we continue to reach out.”