Welcome to the memories of Pastor Dan Johnson’s journey in South Dakota.

The Center During a Blizzard.
Pastor Dan. I am writing this site as a memory of my time in South Dakota. I am the director of the Lutheran Lakota Shared Ministries at the Pine Ridge Reconciliation Center in Pine Ridge SD on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. For more on the center go to pineridgereconciliationcenter.org the website for the center.
I am a third career pastor having chosen to go to seminary in my late 40’s. I graduated from Wartburg Theological Seminary in May of 2018. I was called as the associate pastor at The Lutheran Church of the Atonement in Florissant MO that same day. I served in that capacity for 2 years prior to answering God’s call to come serve the Oglala Lakota people here in Pine Ridge.
Prior to entering ministry, I was in technical sales. In 2007 I felt the call to youth ministry and served for 9 years at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Creve Coeur, MO. It was at Holy Cross that my life changed, and I met my beautiful wife Jackie and our incredible kids Emily, Nick, and Sam.
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A bad good day?
Yesterday was a good day. The weather was nice. We provided Pizza to the shelter guests for lunch. Which was well received and appreciated. We had no issues to deal with at the shelter. We actually had a light load until the pizza arrived. With the pizza, we did not have to cook so, we…
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Life Skills.
There are certain skills in life that you may think most people know how to do. But I am finding this to not be true. Most skills in life are taught. If you have no one to teach you, you will struggle. I say this because I find myself in a bind with some of…