Pastor gets rude welcome to Medford

Aug. 24—When she pulled into town Thursday night, Deborah Tyler, the new interim pastor at Medford Congregational United Church of Christ, had been on the road from Kewaskum, Wisconsin, for four long days.

Reporting for an 18-month commitment to her new home church, Tyler was excited to meet the congregation and get to work at the start of September. With no RV sites available until Monday, she parked her 2016 Gulf Stream Conquest travel trailer at the church on East Jackson Street.

On Friday, she spent the day with family at Lake of the Woods and set about getting acquainted with her new community. On Saturday, just after 9:45 p.m., she received a less-than-ideal "Welcome to Medford" when her travel trailer was stolen from the church parking lot with most of her worldly belongings still tucked inside.

"We parked the trailer at the church thinking it would be safer than at the hotel, and because I couldn't get into an RV park until Monday. It was there Saturday night, but Sunday, when people came to church, it was gone," Tyler said Tuesday.

"Three members of my congregation in Wisconsin chose to take a week off of vacation to bring me out here and to tow the trailer and ride with me so I wouldn't be by myself, and to get me and the trailer both here safely."

Tyler said she was devastated to lose almost everything she owned, especially a "field communion kit" handed down to her from her dad's Army chaplain days.

"Almost all of my belongings were inside, including my clothes, sentimental items, dishes, bedding ... everything that I had was in the trailer," she said, noting she purchased the trailer last year with intentions of traveling between interim posts as a pastor, serving wherever she might be needed.

"I bought the trailer not specifically to move out here but to continue in ministry and to be more mobile. My family is out here, so I had in mind to be closer to them and to travel between ministries as I was called," said Tyler.

Surveying the "scene of the crime" Tuesday, Tyler said the rock used to steady a back tire was still sitting against a parking lot curb. Church member Jill Wolcott said congregation members were appalled to learn that their new pastor had been robbed just days after arriving.

"It's really unbelievable. It was locked but still movable, so I guess somebody just hitched up and took it. Now she's starting over with nothing," Wolcott said.

"What a horrible way to say, 'Welcome to Medford.' We're such a sweet little congregation, and we're so excited to have her, and she's just devastated. She just got here, and this already happens."

Wolcott said church members were hopeful neighbors will have seen something or had cameras that might have captured whoever took the trailer.

Tyler said she was more saddened by the loss of personal items such as those from her dad and items from her kids. Insurance likely will help with part of the cost of the trailer.

"The shoes my daughter bought me. The coat my son helped me get. Those are things that make me sad. Yes, things are just things — it's true. And I'm fine," Tyler said.

"I guess one thing is at least the cats were not inside, thank God. Still, it's upsetting. It's a loss."

Church member Pegi Ellerman said she was leaning on her faith to try and practice forgiveness for the thief or thieves.

"Every Sunday that I have been at this church, they begin the service by saying, 'Wherever you are on life's journey, you are welcome here.' And I've been thinking since Sunday morning, 'OK, do I really mean that?' And, yeah, I've been praying that the person who did this would develop a conscience and would realize what a terrible thing they've done to someone. To realize how much they've violated someone's personal effects," Ellerman said.

Tyler appreciated Ellerman's forgiving approach.

"The thing I want to focus on is: I'm not a victim here. This here, and us, we're the church. And somebody out of a desperate need for whatever — housing or drug money — somebody suffering in some way took what was mine," Tyler said.

"But the right thing to do is to pray for that person and to say that our hearts go out to that person, and we hope there's a better path for that person."

She added, "Of course, I miss my things, and I feel terribly violated by it all. But at the same time, that person must have been so horribly desperate to come in the middle of the night like that and haul off with it the way they did. I just hope they get some help, and I hope they love my little trailer as much as I did."

Tyler's trailer is described as a 19-foot, 2016 Gulf Stream Conquest 198 BH (bunk house). The trailer had Wisconsin tags. Anyone with information is asked to call the Medford police, 541-774-7206. The police report number 22-14219.

Reach Mail Tribune reporter Buffy Pollock at 541-776-8784 or bpollock@rosebudmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @orwritergal.