Month: September 2016

Moving Out of State & Finding Another Family

Being from a small town in Illinois, moving all the way to Minneapolis was a big deal. I left behind my family, my friends, and pretty much everything else that was a part of my life for so long, and started a completely new life here at the U. Out of the hundreds of thousands of students across the country who do this, I consider myself to be one of the lucky ones. I’m able to go home and see my family three times a year, which is still more than some people can say. My parents are also able to fly up to Minneapolis to visit me every couple months, which is an opportunity that not every out-of-state student gets.

And still, despite getting to see my family once every six weeks or so, I find myself missing them as if I haven’t seen them in years. Hearing my in-state friends talk about going home just for the weekend like it’s no big deal, or just casually meeting their parents for lunch one day still hurts a little, because I know that’s something I can’t have. However, it didn’t take me long to realize that I’m not completely without family here; it’s just not my biological family.

LCM has been a place of comfort for me since the moment I stepped on campus. I remember walking past the church on freshman move-in day and being handed a flyer with a spoon on it, advertising free soup on Tuesdays and a Freshman Bible Study on Wednesdays before Pause. When I went to my first Pause, I was immediately welcomed and introduced to everyone. As I navigated the ups and downs of freshman year and began to feel more confident and comfortable on campus and in the city, LCM became less like just a group of friends and more like another family. This community is one that I can turn to when I’m having a rough week, or missing my family back home a little more than usual. Pause is something that I look forward to every week because it’s a chance to ground myself and take a break from studying, as well as an opportunity to spend quality time with people. It’s become something like a second home for me.

To any freshman or new student: especially if you’re finding yourself missing your family a little more than you expected: you will be okay. Moving away was a hard decision, and sometimes it feels like the wrong one, but I promise it wasn’t. I hope you find some comfort in LCM, and that this wonderful community becomes a sort of substitute family for you as well.

Allison Cunningham (Sophomore Servant Leader)

Vision Team Reflections: a beacon of hope

It’s been almost a month since our return from Chiapas, Mexico. Now that the busyness of classes, jobs, and life are back in full swing, it feels like a perfect time to reflect back to our trip: the initial goal we set, what we learned, and how we are seeing that play out in our new community of LCM leaders.

Last fall as we were deciding where we would travel, what community we would explore, and what goal we would set, we were feeling heavy. Heavy with the recent shootings, heavy with all of the social injustice in our community and around the world, and heavy as a community of predominately white students trying to figure out our role in the midst of it all. We decided to explore a community that had experienced a history of violence, with the goal of learning how to maintain a sense of hopefulness in the midst of violence and struggle. We landed on the community of Nuevo Paraíso – a community in Chiapas that had experienced a mass shooting at the hands of the paramilitary and a history of struggle in the midst of the Zapatista movement in the 1990s. This community had quickly gone from a place of relative security, to living on the side of a highway without any land or resources to support themselves. Now after connecting with an organization called Amextra, they are making payments on their own piece of land, building their own homes and planting crops as a community.

After a filled week of spending time in Nuevo Paraíso, talking with community members, exploring Chiapas outside of Nuevo Paraíso, and trying to fully process everything we were experiencing, we were able to identify three specific things we had learned. The first was the importance of genuinely checking in with others. It was a busy and complex week, and as much as we wanted to keep going and going, we had to remember to take a step back and ask each other how we were doing – for real. The second was the importance of investing time and energy into a community. On our last morning in Nuevo Paraíso, one of the community members stated that just feeling seen by people from outside of the community was hopeful for them. Finally, we learned the importance of vulnerability, honesty, and acceptance in a group. Things do not always go as planned and life can get complex, but existing in a community that accepts brokenness and pain, and being comfortable bringing those difficult things to the table is hugely important.

We unfortunately were not able to travel to Chiapas with the entire leader team, but it has been awesome already seeing these things we learned play out amongst our community of leaders. The community this year has already embraced our LCM value of being “real”. People show up how they are, bring their true selves to the table, and genuinely ask each other how they are doing in the midst of challenges and stress. This community also holds each other up by investing time and energy to each other, and really caring for one another. It feels that LCM returners and newcomers alike feel welcomed, valued, and hopeful when students invest in one another. Finally, this community of leaders is embracing the importance of being vulnerable, honest, and accepting. Vulnerable about what they know and still have questions about, honest about their opinions, and accepting of those who think alike and those who think differently.

We recognize that the learning and processing does not stop here. We need to continue processing as a community what this all looks like for us in the context of the broader Twin Cities community and our world, but for now, are energized about the passion of each leader and growing together as a community.

Kaitlin Mork and Emily Mentz

“mission specific outreach”

As new and returning students come back to the U in the fall, it’s one of the most exciting times at LCM! Outreach is a significant focus at the beginning of the school year—and the student servant leaders help take the lead on these important efforts! One of the ideas we talked about at the student leader training in August was “mission specific outreach”. LCM chooses to view outreach through this lens, because if we are putting energy into this, then as a faith community we want people to really get a sense of who we are—a group of people that strives to be curious. be real. be community. Everything we do comes back to this mission. To dive deeper into this idea, we asked questions like:

How do we spread the word about who we are and what we believe?

What/who is God calling LCM to be advocates for/partners with on this campus?

How can we spread God’s love through all that we do and create a more just world?  

This fall, in addition to upcoming outreach events like the Faith & Leadership Institutes, Interfaith River Cleanup, and other community service opportunities, student leaders have already put much time and energy into living out this idea of “mission specific outreach” by talking with new students and connecting and welcoming them in various ways to the LCM community. The energy and passion all these students bring is a blessing to this ministry and campus, and we are so excited to continue to welcome new faces into this space!

A place where questioning is okay…

I first learned about Lutheran Campus Ministry from a poster on the wall in my residence hall. I went to Pause (the Wednesday night worship) once, and then again, and decided that this was a group worth being part of. I grew up going to church pretty regularly, but I came to college with a lot of questions; questions about God, question about my faith, and questions about what the next four years would hold. I found in LCM a group of individuals that is passionate and compassionate, inviting and exciting. On a whim, I signed up for Fall Retreat—a trip to Wisconsin that is full of fun relaxation and thoughtful reflection—with a bunch of people I hardly knew. Going on that trip was one of the best decisions I made last year. I met many of my closest friends at campus ministry. It was also a great way to meet upperclassmen, who have lots of great advice for college freshmen. I can’t say I’ve yet found all of the answers to my questions, but I’ve found a few of the answers, and for the unanswered ones, I’ve found a great group to keep asking with. My best advice to freshmen at the U (and colleges anywhere, for that matter) is to check out as many different student groups as possible—there’s no commitment. You’re far more likely to look back on your college years wishing you’d been more involved, than to lament that you did too much and met too many people by participating in an overabundance of student groups. I encourage you to drop by sometime and check Lutheran Campus Ministry out—you might just find the same awesome community I did. 

-Jordan Kleist

LCM Servant Leader (sophomore)