When Kirsten Laderach, \u201811, was drawn to the missional conversation, her sending congregation encouraged her to explore Luther Seminary.<\/p>\n
\u201cLuther Seminary presented me with what felt like an endless list of opportunities to experience and grow my faith,\u201d says Laderach, who is now an ordained ELCA pastor.<\/p>\n
While in seminary, she traveled and lived with communities in Iowa and Chicago\u2019s south side. She spent winter break at the World Council of Churches in Geneva, and her postgraduate year traveling as Luther\u2019s 2011 Graduate Preaching Fellowship recipient.<\/p>\n
It was all valuable experience for Laderach\u2019s current role as leader of a group of Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) volunteers in Madagascar. Arriving in the country in March of this year, she recently welcomed nine young adults who committed to confronting issues of wealth and poverty, racial privilege, economic disparity and globalization\u2014all within the context of their faith.<\/p>\n
\u201cI work to connect these volunteers with placement sites where both the volunteers and sites can share and grow together,\u201d she says. This includes traveling around the island, planning orientations and retreats and meeting with the FLM\u2014Malagasy Lutheran Church, the third largest church in Madagascar and one of the fastest growing Lutheran churches in the world.<\/p>\n
Laderach is one of four Luther Seminary graduates running country programs this year\u2014all friends she met in school and can now count as colleagues.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am blessed with the opportunity to be in nearly constant conversation about faith\u2014mine and that of others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jacob Hale, \u201908, is a co-representative of the Mennonite Central Committee in Afghanistan, a relief, development and peace arm of the Mennonite Brethren in Christ Churches. He shares that role with his wife, Kelly, whom he met while serving the same role in South Sudan.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfghanistan lies at the crossroads of the Islamic world, and the world in general,\u201d he says. \u201cThe religious tapestry is very complex.\u201d<\/p>\n
They describe their mission in Afghanistan as one of capacity building\u2014helping others fulfill their visions for their own communities. But there can be barriers.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfghanistan has often become a proxy in other nation\u2019s conflicts, so Afghans are rightly suspicious of others,\u201d Hale says. \u201cWorking with a Christian organization in a Muslim context, our shared commitments to those in need are an essential starting point in conversations with neighbors, co-workers and partners as to why we are working here.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the Hales, a call to service isn\u2019t work\u2014it is a way of life, deeply rooted in Christ\u2019s example.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be able to listen well, we need to empty ourselves of the various privileges we hold. Christ is always there in front of me, calling me to empty myself as he has, to listen and hear and to treat the insight and experiences of the people I work with, with respect and reverence,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He adds that his time at Luther Seminary underscored for him the fact that all faiths share many beliefs about justice and responsibility for those who are marginalized, oppressed or in need.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was impressed with Luther Seminary\u2019s academics, but also the faculty and student diversity,\u201d he says. \u201cIt helped me broaden my understanding of my faith and the way that faith informs my commitment to serve others. There is no better setting to study the global church than a place where it is so well represented.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hales are also setting a spiritual example for their baby daughter, Lillian, who was born in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where MCC has a regional office.<\/p>\n
\u201cLuther Seminary presented both of us with an exceptional academic community with deep ties to world mission and ministry,\u201d says Colin Graangard, who, along with his wife, Jeni, is currently leading the YAGM program in Jerusalem and the West Bank.<\/p>\n
Today, the Grangaards, both 2009 Master of Divinity graduates, juggle their YAGM responsibilities with parenting their 2-year-old daughter, Josie.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day, we plan and we plot, and then something comes up and we start over,\u201d Jeni jokes. \u201cThey say that if your day is only 30 percent thwarted, it\u2019s a good day. With a toddler, 30 percent is miraculous!\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a busy life, yes, but one both Colin and Jeni feel is their destiny.<\/p>\n
Their current role brings together the couple\u2019s respective passions. Colin was a YAGM volunteer in Scotland from 2004- 2005. After graduating from seminary, Jeni was awarded the Graduate Preaching Fellowship from Luther Seminary, which allowed the couple to spend five months in Israel and Palestine.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had long felt called to return to this place and people,\u201d Jeni says. \u201cThe call to YAGM, along with the return to Israel and Palestine, is the perfect combination.\u201d<\/p>\n
In accompaniment with ELCA partners in Jordan and the Holy Land, the Grangaards accompany six young adult volunteers in their year of service, giving support, guidance and space to grow spiritually and learn.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing Lutheran in the Holy Land is a profound experience,\u201d Colin says. \u201cThis is a society that identifies people by their religious background. Being Lutheran here means learning from the example of the Palestinian Lutherans, who have lived so long identified as a minority oppressed by world powers and occupation, yet continuing to share a powerful Christian witness calling for peace, justice and hope in God\u2019s power to transform.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile in college, I was traveling to Mexico. I met a woman who told me, \u2018Without faith we die. Every day is a gift from God.\u2019 It\u2019s been 14 years since I heard those words and they remain with me,\u201d Jeni says. \u201cFaith is a way of life, Jesus is a way of trust. Faith in Jesus frees me to embrace my neighbor.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
William Obaga, \u201914, is the World Mission Prayer League (WMPL) associate director for Africa, a role he has held since June last year. He and his wife, Margaret, \u201808, are stationed in Germany through a partnership between their native Kenyan Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church in Bavaria, Germany.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy role at the Prayer League involves conversations with existing, new and potential partners, finding areas where we can work together in leadership training and missionary mobilization\u201d Obaga says.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an ambitious undertaking. The World Mission Prayer League is a pan-Lutheran mission society serving all Lutheran churches. With 6,000 members who pray daily for mission work, WMPL has scores of missionaries around the world who engage in everything from direct evangelism to medical work to educating diaconal workers, discipleship leaders, theological educators and other areas of leadership development.<\/p>\n
His daily experiences are both varied and rich and there is no such thing as a \u201ctypical day.\u201d He provides guidance to the Prayer League\u2019s mission work in Africa, networks with other partnerships in Western Europe and acts as liaison with the headquarters in Minneapolis. He travels to visit missionaries throughout Africa, while continuing to enrich his own faith and knowledge.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Margaret is busy working in the Department of Intercultural Theology of Mission EineWelt (Mission One- World). This is the international partnership organization of the Lutheran Church in Bavaria based in Neuendettelsau, near Nuremberg. Working as a pastoral theology teacher and researcher in conflict management and family systems, she helps liaise with more than 40 Lutheran partner churches around the world. She also receives invitations as a guest preacher from various congregations. Both the Obagas are often invited to present at seminars throughout Germany.<\/p>\n
At the heart of William\u2019s work is music. He holds a special interest in African Christianity and its church music\u2014both academically and personally. He is not only part of church music leadership, but performs in a brass choir at the church of the Diakonie Neuendettelsau. He also receives invitations to offer church music leadership at seminars and congregations, especially in the deanery\/district of Ansbach.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hear the Lord calling me to establish a local choir to perform global music, particularly choral anthems in African languages and style,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
A lifelong Lutheran, Obaga credits his education for further bolstering his faith, knowledge and desire to continue to build on mission and participate in inter-Lutheran, crosscultural conversations and scholarship.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing to Luther Seminary was the best thing that ever happened to me,\u201d he says. \u201cRecommended to us in 2003 by an alumnus who was a missionary in Kenya, Luther offered programs where both my wife and I could fit in. At Luther one melds into its unique diversity of cultures, ecumenical engagement, different levels of student interaction, a diversity of first-rate professors and a rich variety of curricular offerings of the highest standards.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Many Luther Seminary students arrive with a passion for crosscultural mission and service, drawn by our reputation for ties to world ministry. Today, many of those former students are leaders of faith journeys around the world, enriching the lives of others while deepening their own spirituality through their own unique experiences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3040,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5588","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"issue-fall-2015","9":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n