In every corner of Minnesota, there are good stories waiting to be told of places that make our state great and people who in Walt Whitman’s words “contribute a verse” each day. That's the theme of our series “Wander & Wonder: Exploring Minnesota’s unexpected places.”

Life was lovely for the Rev. Devlyn Brooks. In the embrace of his rural Wilkin County ministry and its rituals — singing hymns, reading the liturgy and starting the Sunday service with a greeting — he felt happy and comfortable.

Then last year, he started to question it all.

Hired as the CEO of Churches United, a nonprofit that operates a shelter, food pantry and affordable housing units, Brooks saw close-up the suffering of people who lived just a 30-minute drive from his church, and it shook him.

"We don't like to be to

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