BY MICHAEL J. RUDOLF
Wyoming County Press Examiner
TUNKHANNOCK - For the past month, Rev. Allen Mickle has been making a long commute to serve as the new pastor of Tunkhannock Baptist Church.
The Canadian native is living temporarily with his wife's family near Lansdale, and drives to Wyoming County each weekend for services. He's waiting for immigration officials to give him the clearance to relocate and officially become the church's pastor.
"I'm sort of volunteering my time until my papers come through," Mickle said. He noted that he is eager to get settled in the Tunkhannock area.
"We love it here. It's a beautiful area," he said.
Mickle took over the leadership of the congregation at the beginning of the year. He is filling the position that has been vacant since the death of pastor Tony Ogden in February 2009.
"He was much loved by the church. It's been a hard transition," Mickle offered.
Although Mickle has yet to settle into the community, he is no stranger to the area. His wife, Tracy, is a graduate of Baptist Bible College in Clarks Summit, and his brother-in-law who is still there who helped get him the position in Tunkhannock.
Mickle had been doing mission work last year with the Slavic Gospel Association, a non-profit group in Ontario, when the organization's funding was cut. He was laid off, so he started hunting for another ministry.
For Mickle, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to get back to a community church.
"We really wanted to gat pack into the pastoral ministry," he said.
As it turned out, at the same time Baptist Bible College had a listing of area churches in need of pastors. Through his connections at the college, he applied for the Tunkhannock position.
Mickle said he was offered the position of pastor in July 2009.
"We got a call from one of the deacons, Bill Noble, and the next thing you know, here we are," Mickle said.
"If you'd have asked me a year ago if I'd be at a congregation in northeast Pennsylvania, I wouldn't have believed you."
Mickle was born and raised in Windsor, Ontario, just across the Detroit River from Detroit, Mich. He attended Heritage College in Cambridge, Ontario, and received master's degrees in divinity and theology from Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary.
As he begins his ministry, he explained he is also working on a Ph.D. from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. There is no course work involved, he explained - just the submission of a thesis that he is now researching and writing.
Mickle noted that he doesn't plan many changes for the church in the immediate future.
"I'm just focusing on the core responsibility of the pastor, to preach the Bible and lead the church," he said.
He admits it is a bit awkward not being in the community full-time. Mickle is typically at the church on Sundays for services and occasionally on Mondays, but he said the trip from Lansdale is close enough to get to Tunkhannock during the week in case he is needed.
The situation is much better now for the church than it had been for the latter part of 2009, Mickle said. During that period, he said he was traveling here just once a month.
"While this is not perfect, it's a lot better than it was," Mickle said.
In addition to taking over the church's pastoral duties, Mickle is also a new father. He and Tracy became the parents of their first son, James, on Jan. 5.
"It's been a big month. It's been a good month," Mickle said.
Mickle anticipates that he should be living full-time in Tunkhannock sometime before April.
Posted
Jan 27 2010, 12:26 AM
by
WCEeditor