When Rev. Katie Hill gets really passionate about what she's saying, her eyes tear up. It can happen several times in a single heartfelt conversation. It's just a fact of life, like the fact that she will go wherever God calls, or that she will find beauty and good people anywhere He sends her.

Hill is the new pastor at First United Methodist Church of Alva. Her past seven years were spent at a church in Bristow, and before that she was in Tulsa. She replaces Rev. Carol Cook Moore, who is the new superintendent of the United Methodist Church's Northern Prairie District.

Hill and husband Brad h...