Bill Ryan/The Gazette Pastor Marina Floras leads St. Luke in Point of Rocks, St. Matthew in Ballenger Creek and St. Mark in Doubs, the three churches that make up Manor Lutheran parish.

Ready to listen to someone's troubles, or simply help coordinate church events, Flores is quick to answer when the phone rings.

After eight years of leading St. Luke in Point of Rocks, St. Matthew in Ballenger Creek and St. Mark in Doubs, Flores has sunk deep into the threads of her community. There, she has woven new activities into the congregation's routine and added twists to services, creating the unique fabric of Manor Lutheran parish.

"I love these people, and I think the feeling is mutual," she said from the front pew of an empty St. Mark church on Ballenger Creek Pike last week. Flores, 63, described her transition from a busy mother of a multicultural family in a Reston, Va., to a community priest who, between frequent phone calls, quietly gardens in Adamstown.

Flores was raised in New Jersey. After graduating high school, she attended college in Newark, where she met Victor Flores, a Puerto Rican whom she married in 1962.

"He was trying to assimilate and I was trying to move into his culture," Flores said of her interest in Victor's language and lifestyle. When the "Spanish and lily white" couple encountered several episodes of discrimination, they moved to the Midwest, Flores said.

With two young children, daughter Chris and son Nick, they found a diverse community in Illinois, where her husband attended George Williams College and Flores, with a psychology degree, counseled troubled youth.

Later, they moved to Reston in Fairfax County, nationally recognized for its successful community integration project, and for two years, the couple lived in a townhouse. Flores raised the children while her husband, a recovering drug addict, helped others overcome drug addictions. And life moved ahead until 1976.

"Everything went backwards at that point," she said.

Reston, with miles of paths, several lakes and quaint town plazas within walking distance of most homes, caters to outdoor activity.

Like many Reston youths, Flores' son, Nick, favored the bike paths and pedaling daily with his friends, quickly navigating shortcuts, hopping curbs and zipping around corners.

But one day, unbeknownst to him, Nick's regular routes changed. The community installed a chain across the road at the bottom of a hill to keep motorists out of a park.

Unaware of the new chain, Nick sped down the hill where the chain snagged him. Police found him yards from his bike and called for transportation to a local hospital, but Nick could not be saved.

Wearing a thick wooden cross medallion over her pale pink shirt, Flores said the accident sparked change within herself and her family. After her husband "couldn't deal with the loss" and returned to a life of drug abuse, the couple divorced.

It was then Flores said she felt a call to become a priest.

"It was like God took a two-by-four right here," she said, pointing to the back of her head as she gazed toward the lofty church ceiling. "Ok, God, I get it."

As Flores in 1983 prepared to enter Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, tragedy struck again.

She had arranged for Victor, who had left the area after the divorce, to return to Reston and provide guardianship for their teen daughter.

However, Victor died of a drug overdose before Flores entered the seminary. "He just couldn't handle it," Flores said of Nick's death.

A family in her local Lutheran parish quickly stepped forward to care for Chris for one year to allow Flores to pursue her calling.

"The hardest part was leaving my daughter behind," Flores said. "I felt guilty about leaving her, but she said 'go'."

After completing seminary, Flores first interned in a parish in inner-city Baltimore and Chris returned to live with her mother there. As Flores ministered to inner-city youth, her daughter, now a lawyer, worked on a horse farm.

Flores then first served as a priest in 1987 for St. Mark Lutheran parish Snydesburg in Carroll County, where she remained for 10 years.

She then assumed leadership of Manor Lutheran parish, where she has since initiated new parish activities, such as this year's "Baby Feast," an event for the parents of newborns, including the 16 born to parishioners in the past year. Distributing donated new-parent materials such as cribs and strollers, Flores said she designed the day to foster communication between parish families.

St. Mark parishioner Margaret Hawker said Flores has brought life and energy into the parish and has "had a major influence in my life."

"She constantly gives of herself to the parish and to the community," Hawker said. "Anybody who needs help... she's right there."

In addition to worship services, her ministry includes holding soup kitchen events, organizing food pantry, and holding vacation Bible school and outdoor or contemporary services.

This summer, she has planned several youth trips such as this month's Adventure Park trip and an Ocean City overnighter for the middle school age group.

"We're so afraid to try because we've never done it before, but what's worse is inactivity," she said of the ambitious schedule.

Her challenge this year, she said, is teaching a new pastoral intern, Mike Simane of Smithsburg, who will remain with the parish though the year. He is the first Manor Parish pastoral intern.

Last April, Flores briefly returned to Reston for a pulpit exchange at Christ the Servant Lutheran Church, but she said her niche is at Manor Lutheran.

"I love these people," she said. "I hope for them, more growth."

Do you know someone who should be featured in an Our Neighbors article? Contact reporter Rebecca McClay at 301-846-2125 or rmcclay@gazette. net.