04/05/2022
A Ministry of Listening: A Tribute to Vicki Crane
—loving thoughts provided by Sylvia Klokkenga
Vicki Fink Crane began her Kogudus ministry in the spring of 1973 when she attended her first Women’s Kogudus Retreat at Allerton House, near Champaign, Illinois. “Baptized into a new life and relationship with” her Savior as an infant and confirmed in Christ at St Peter’s Lutheran Church, Emden, Vicki told that her first Kogudus weekend helped so many things she’d heard all her life begin to make sense and fall in place in a way that they never had before. She took the forgiveness of her sins into a reality that had not existed before. As her strong alto voice sang at that Sunday Commitment Service, she had “Decided to Follow Jesus”. Intentional daily study of the Bible with “active listening” by journaling what she “heard the speaker say” as well as her prayerful reflections on God’s Word and the works of the authors of the Kogudus resource books comprised her ever-growing production of journaling notebooks. Vicki began attending Women’s Share Group twice monthly along with upwards of a dozen other like-inspired Kogudistas. Her journey of seeking to be “increased daily in God’s grace” and to “know Him better and understand His will” had ramped up exponentially. At that time, Vicki and her husband Jerry had four young children between the ages of 13 and 3, and a hog and grain farm, so it wasn’t like Vicki was looking for more activities to fill her days, or nights, for that matter. Vicki took the “Yes, LORD”, she had spoken that Kogudus weekend quite seriously. She and Jerry already taught the Young Adult Sunday school class, and after that weekend, a vision began for a Post High Youth Kogudus which grew into reality. Alan Klokkenga writes as a member of Vicki’s first Share Group that last weekend in June 1973:
So here I was that summer break from University of Illinois. I somehow found
myself at this “new thing” called a Youth Kogudus Retreat. It was in a large
pasture with the guys in tents and the girls in campers.
As it happened our Small Group Share Leader was Vicki. She seemed to be loving, yes, but she also seemed to really “listen” to each of us. She made an impact that year and then she, along with Jerry, mentored us along with so many others
over the next months and years to come. That next Youth Kogudus I had the role
of Small Group Share Leader.
And as the next few years played out, Vicki became a person that strengthened
our spiritual development and a genuine listening ear with whom I could discuss
my heart-felt faith.
Weekly Friday night Young Adult Share Group and Bible Studies became a homecoming magnet for Young Kogudistas after that first Youth Kogudus. And future faithful congregational and Illinois Kogudus workers were nurtured and grew in the Word, seeing Vicki’s example of “active listening” in her daily walk.
Vicki began her study of Small Group Dynamics reading about listening as a ministry and a skill, again practicing “active listening”. And she honed and shared what she gleaned from these many sources, becoming the Small Group Dynamics training consultant who came to Kogudus Team Meeting across several decades. She served on numerous Kogudus teams in every capacity, quickly taking on her often repeated role of Retreat Master as well as trainer of many area RMs. Across the decades of her involvement in the Kogudus movement Vicki traveled to Montana, Minnesota, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Estonia. She spent weekends as prayer partner for Prison Kogudus across Illinois, sorting prayer support letters, filling more Servant Roles.
Vicki worked alongside Jerry and the Illinois Kogudus Community to build Camp Griesheim Christian Retreat Center (CGCRC) putting into practice each of the Servant Roles studied at the Faith and Life Kogudus Weekend. Her spot on the CGCRC board offered plenty of the “through the dust” Servant times as well as ”Latris-ing” as the Board took rotation of keeping the Center cleaned, running, and prepared for heavy use by area Christian organizations and church groups. Vicki was the registrar for Camp Griesheim across four decades of continual retreat weekends and events. Particularly after the death of their son at age fourteen, numerous times people sought her and Jerry’s ear to share their own hurting hearts knowing that as the Crane’s had hurt and found comfort in the LORD they would be heard in their own sorrows and find this comfort in the LORD together. Our LORD provided many opportunities for Vicki to practice her loving listening ministry.
Vicki died on December 6, 2021. She had survived a brain aneurism in August of 2005 and lost many months of her life as well as memory loss. But when Jerry died suddenly in 2007, she lost half of herself. She continued to serve the Illinois Kogudus community, providing leadership and insight, all as her own health declined.
When asking Vicki about her life in Christ, she always mentioned forgiveness and journey; Jesus seeking her and seeing Him in so many people and in His creation. Vicki wasn’t interested in striving after perfect, but she was definitely interested in spending time with Jesus, Listening to Him and Listening to Others. And she talked about how hard it was being a “better servant of our LORD”; how much work it was to have “the same care for one another, the loving, keeping, caring, helping, saving community of faith, the Body of Christ.” But it was what she was had said “yes” to, It was what Jesus commanded. And she knew He was there along with her every step of the way.
*multiple quotations from A Guide for KOGUDUS GROUP REUNION
