So – who am I, Erica Ann Smith Thompson?

Well, for starters, I was born and raised on the Northern plains of rural Minnesota, moved to the East Coast with my family as an adolescent, and returned to Minnesota for college earning my under graduate degree in Social Work from Concordia College – Moorhead, Minnesota in May, 1997. 

After graduation, in the fall of 1997, I left the country as an Urban Youth Development volunteer with the US Peace Corps and headed to Guayaquil, Ecuador where I lived and worked for three years.  Upon return to the United States in the fall of 2000, I started seminary at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, NJ.  I graduated from PTS in the spring of 2003 and was called to be the Associate minister at Old South Union church in January of 2004.   

I am the daughter of Gary and Linda Smith.  Gary is the senior minister at the First Congregational Church of Branford in Branford, CT. and Linda is a dental hygienist.  My sister, Abby, is 8 years younger than I am and graduated from University of Vermont in Burlington, VT in December of 2006.

I am the wife of Brian Thompson.  We were engaged on Father’s Day of 2006 and were married on Sunday – January 14, 2007 in Ecuador – South America, overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  Brian and I are the proud “parents” of Buddy, our 4 year old English bulldog…he loves playing in Bushnell Park, and thoroughly expects to be spoiled and loved by all who he comes in contact with!  We live right downtown in the Metropolitan (on the corner of Pearl and Ann St.), and are enjoying watching Hartford grow and change.

The chorus of one of my favorite song says, “All it takes is a point of light, a ray of hope in the darkest night.  If you see what’s wrong and you try to make it right, you become a point of light.”  Ever since I was a little girl being a point of light in the dark of night is what I have been trying to do with my life.  As in the beginning was the Word, a light shining in the darkness, I think we are called as human beings to be those points of light for each other.  I truly believe that each one of us has the potential to transmit the light of God to others, sometimes it is simply a matter of igniting a spark and then fanning the flames. 

With that in mind, it is my sincere hope that through my preaching, teaching, and community outreach at AHCC, I can help to ignite the flames in others so that they (you) might then go out into the world illuminating the way of hope in the darkest night. 

I also love to read and to travel.  I love going to the movies, photography and art.  I love fresh-cut flowers and candles and hot leisurely baths.  I love animals and kids, and kids that act like animals.  I love good food and wine, speaking Spanish, journaling, going to the beach, hip hop and folk music. I love long drives to see old friends.  I love peace, and justice, and righteousness.  I love diversity and the celebration of our humanity!  I love myself, my family, my friends, the church, and above all else I love God – the Creator and Sustainer of all life.

One of my favorite hymns, Here I am Lord, says:

Here I am, Lord, is it I Lord?  I have heard you calling in the night. 

I will go, Lord, if you lead me – I will hold your people in my heart.

AHCC, here I am.  I have heard God calling…I have decided to follow…and I will hold you, God’s people, in my heart…as we do ministry together.  “Oh, the places we will go!”