Bridge to Nowhere

Burwell, Nebraska

Wednesday

Pastor Keith takes Monday off but attends the Boy Scout meeting Monday evenings. Tuesday, he prepares for Tuesday night Bible study. Wednesday is his office day. He counts the tithing from the previous Sunday and totals the giving. He pays bills and updates accounts.

Bigger churches have bookkeepers and accountants. The Living Waters Church of Burwell, Nebraska, has one full-time employee: Pastor Keith. If times are tight and tithing is below budget, the church has one full-time employee at half pay. Keith doesn't mind. He and his faithful wife, Haylee, knew what they signed up for when they started.

Keith Wardlowe is not in the preaching business for money or fame. He has no plans to write a book or start a worldwide preaching network. He is devoted to his family and the people of Burwell, Nebraska. Pastor Keith Wardlowe has his schedule, and you might say he follows it religiously, so it's no small surprise on Wednesday, after the previous night's bible study when he preached against the book, Straight Up–Preparing for the Rapture, he broke from his schedule to pay a visit to Frank Brown.

Burwell, Nebraska has a population of twelve hundred forty souls and is the county seat of Garfield County. In 1887, the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad was extended to Burwell. People imagined that the railroad would bring rapid growth and prosperity to the small town. They didn't realize the railroad would continue all the way to Denver, Colorado. Burwell became a stop along the way. Few stopped.

Burwell is most famous as the host of "Nebraska's Big Rodeo," an annual event held the last weekend of July. The rest of the year it's a small rural town in the middle of nowhere, Nebraska. It's a three-hour drive to big cities like Lincoln or Omaha and seven hours to Denver. Burwell is a town left behind by modern standards. What it lacks in the latest tech it has preserved in tradition.

Burwell has the look of old time Americana. Livestock and the fish hatchery are the main industries. The rodeo might be the big event of the year, but people enjoy fishing, hunting, and family activities year around. Ninety-nine percent of the six hundred households are families. Being a divorced, single mother is a rarity rather than the norm. Families attend church. Young boys and girls join Scouts or 4-H. It is a friendly, wholesome environment. The remote location of the rural town, with the peaceful Calamus river flowing through it, allows their traditional lifestyle to continue keeping things the way they've been without feeling old-fashioned.

Construction of the Calmus Reservoir in 1986 tamed the Calamus River of springtime floods. The reservoir is two miles northwest of town, providing water for irrigation of local farmland, fishing, camping, and recreational activities. The reservoir is fifteen miles long and held back by the hundred-foot-tall, Virginia Smith, earthen dam. At the base of the dam is the fish hatchery.

Frank Brown worked at the fish hatchery for almost thirty years and has been a hard-working, loyal employee all his adult life. Frank had married his high school sweetheart, Debbie Wilcox. Their fun, teenage relationship changed when Debbie learned she was pregnant. The pregnancy forced Frank and Debbie grow up fast. They married and a few months later they welcomed their son, Thomas, into the world.

Frank's uncle worked at the fish hatchery, and with his uncle's reference, Frank was hired. Frank advanced over the years from feeding the hatchlings to Assistant Manager of Operations.

The Nebraska Game and Parks commission operates the fish hatchery. Two years ago, they hired a new manager and invested in technology to bring the facility up to date. Frank had become a fixture at the hatchery and did things a certain way. Some people said he was stubborn; others said he was too old to learn new ways. For whatever reason, Frank didn't get along with the new hatchery superintendent. After a few months of butting heads with the new boss, they agreed Frank would find other employment.