Submitted photo Deb and the Rev. Edsel Miller recently moved to Colorado Springs after 25 years in Tracy.

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. — Driving tourists up to the top of Pike’s Peak is quite different from the Rev. Edsel Miller’s occupation in the Tracy/Garvin area.

Miller said that after a lifetime of working with Christians, his mission field has changed.

“Being suddenly thrust into the secular position is really different,” he said.

Miller and his wife, Deb, recently moved to Colorado Springs, Colo., after Deb retired from her 18-year librarian position to move back home. However, they are finding that breaking ties with friends in Tracy is hard to do after 25 years in one location.

Twenty-five years is unprecedented in the ministry where it is common for pastors to move about from location to location every five to eight years or so. Sometimes they stay 10 years or until they retire, but Edsel said he would probably still be there if it weren’t for his wife’s retirement.

The Millers decided to move to Colorado because she grew up there. She still has family members and friends who live there. So, the Millers moved into the basement of her childhood home where her father, former Minnesota farmer Mahlon Plowman, still lives. Her mother, the late Romona Plowman, has since died.

“Normally there are two reasons why a minister would relocate,” Miller said. “Either he hears from the Lord, or he hears from the board. I never felt Him leading me anywhere else.”

This was totally different.

“Because Deb retired, this seemed like a perfect opportunity,” Miller said. “We didn’t know when another opportunity would come up.”

The problem with moving outside of the church’s time frame was that there were no vacancies in Colorado Springs’ churches, so Edsel Miller took a job shuttling tourists for the season.

“They have a lot of visitors to Pike’s Peak,” Miller said. “They’re building a new visitors center at the top of the mountain. With the construction going on, there’s not a lot of room up there to park.”

It’s not a bad job, he said.

“The views are incredible,” he said. “They seem to change when the light plays on it (the mountain). It’s the only job I’ve known where they say, ‘Take your time.'”

The Millers miss their friends back in the Tracy/Garvin area. While Deb keeps in touch through social media, Edsel has not.

“The District asked me to step back,” he said, “so that the congregation members do not continue to rely on me.”

Edsel Miller had been the minister for the “Four Cs” church group in Tracy and Garvin. The Four Cs stand for Christian Conservative Congregational Church, Miller said.

Remembering his first sermon in Tracy, Miller said that only he and their youngest son had come up for the Easter service, April 11, 1993.

“The rest of the family stayed in Missouri,” he said. The two guys slept on the floor that weekend, he said.

“I miss the annual church campout at Shetek State Park,” Edsel Miller said. “The fall church hayride and potluck, too. I miss being a part of people’s lives, like for weddings, births, funerals and when people have surgery.”

And then there were the Sundays Edsel would pretend to play the preservice music, not knowing how to play an instrument, and nod to his wife when it was time to turn the page.

“We had a player piano and I was in charge of the music,” he said. “Everyone got a kick out of it.”

Miller said he would love to go back to preaching if the opportunity would present itself. However, most congregations are looking for younger pastors, so he has been considering a different type of ministry.

“I once interviewed a guy who has a ministry geared to the homeless,” Edsel Miller said. “Like repairing people’s homes, providing food and/or clothing to those in need. I’m more interested in finding one of these service ministries.”

Meanwhile, Deb has been reuniting with old friends and classmates and will be volunteering at the very elementary school she attended when she was young.

She had missed Colorado all those years.

“I love the look of the mountain,” she said, sharing the story of how faith the size of a mustard seed could move mountains, but no matter how hard she tried to take it with her to Tracy, she couldn’t move Pike’s Peak.

“We know people in both (Minnesota) churches are still praying for us and they will always care,” she said.

“I will be stopping in Tracy for Box Car Days on my way back from a trip to Wisconsin later in August to visit,” Deb Miller said.

The Millers are settling in at Colorado Springs, but they will always remember the love and support they received from their congregations at Tracy and Garvin.