In This Issue Record Numbers Participate in Cross-Cultural Experiences Introducing Laure Schwartz On the Care and Feeding of Interns A Subtle Reminder Editor's Column: Of Vikings, Science and Lightening Bolts Lenten Devotional Written by CLI Staff New CLI Baby! Links You'll Like Internship Handbook Lay Committee Handbook Internship Forms Contact Us The Contextual Leadership Initiative staff is here to support you! Contact us with your concerns or suggestions. Previous Newsletters Want to re-read an article from a previous issue? Review previous newsletters.

Internship Newsletter: January 2006

Record Numbers Participate in Cross-Cultural Experiences 
By Rod Maeker

From Mexico City to St. Paul, from South Africa to South Dakota, 120 CLI seminary students are participating in Cross-Cultural Experiences during the 2006 January Term. (This is a new record! Past J-Term registrations have never exceeded 90.) The dramatic increase is due in large part to two factors: (1) The rise in student enrollment at both PLTS and Luther Seminary; and (2) a new policy that requires students to complete their Cross-Cultural Experience before their year of internship.

Evaluations written by students in past years indicate that Cross-Cultural Experiences are a very positive learning opportunity. So, where are the students during the 2006 J-Term and what are they doing?

Seven International Sites

Mexico City: Twenty students from 6 different ELCA seminaries (Southern, LSTC, Philadelphia, Wartburg’s LSPS, PLTS, and Luther) will visit Mexico from Jan. 4-18. Five of these will be CLI students. Facilitated by Randy Nelson and Kim Erno, these students will do home stays in Mexico City and Cuernavaca, visit ministry sites sponsored by AMEXTRA, listen to presentations by church leaders, historians, economists and experts on the cultural and religious realities of Mexico, as well as visit the Cathedral and Basilica in Mexico City, and travel to archeological sites such as the Pyramids at Teotihuacán, Templo Mayor.

Guatemala: Between January 9 and 24, ten students will visit San Luca Toliman , a Roman Catholic parish located in the highlands of Guatemala. Patricia Lull will again provide leadership for the experience where students will live, serve, and worship with members of this community of faith. They will learn about some of the realities of the church in Central America, as well as assist with some local projects related to the mission’s health care outreach, parochial school, library, and economic development. Students will participate in the community’s daily cycle of faith and prayer.

Israel/Palestine: Under the theme, “The Holy Land, Its Prayers, Peoples, and Places,” twenty students will travel January 12-28, with Gary Simpson and live in this context of historic conflicted cultures. They will not only visit the famous sites in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Galilee, but explore the struggle between Palestinian and Israeli peoples and hear their hopes for the future. The context there provides unique opportunities for examining and studying cross-cultural realities.

South Africa, Limpopo Province: Five students will travel with Carol Jacobson, January 4- 25, to a rural area in northern South Africa, where they will live, serve, and worship with pastors and members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in South Africa. There will be special opportunities to learn about pastoral care and ministries with women and youth. Well known Dr. Tshenuwani Fairisani will engage the group in theological reflection.

Other International Sites: While not formally sponsored by the cross-cultural program of the CLI, Five students will be going to Cairo, Egypt, with Mark Swanson and engage in international interchange at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo. Five students will be traveling to Northern India where Neeraj and Nijhar Ekka will lead an encounter with rural churches. Three students will explore the context of ministry in Wittenberg Germany with Wartburg Seminary.

Seven United States Sites

Chicago: SCUPE: Twelve students will experience the “windy city” of Chicago, January 9-20, under the leadership of Dr. Yvonne Delk, Instructor for SCUPE (Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education). Chicago will be used as a multicultural global laboratory where student visit different ethnic communities in order to experience cultural divides and diversity of ministries in the metro Chicago area. Themes of justice, liberation, fellowship, and risk will be explored. Students will examine a variety of approaches to the gospel in an urban setting.

Pine Ridge Reservation: Eleven students will live and work on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, January 16-28. Pastor Larry Peterson, staff member of the South Dakota Synod, will lead this very popular experience helping students explore and examine Native American culture and spirituality. A newly developed retreat center provides the setting and context for a broad exposure to people and ministry on the reservation. Highlights include a visit to Wounded Knee, the Red Cloud School, listening to Tribal Elders, and frequent assignments at the Sue Anne Big Crow Youth Center.

Shalom Hill Farm: This site will introduce twelve students to the exciting rural ministry that is going on in Southwestern Minnesota as well as visits to congregations in Western Iowa. January 9-22, Pastor Mark Yackel-Juleen will lead students to view rural communities as a distinct culture that seeks to do creative ministry on a changing landscape. Of special significance is the formation of congregational clusters which that have committed to developing a vital ministry in the face of declining population or shifting demographics.

Los Angeles: Six students will live with Hispanic families in the heart of LA, January 10-28, and meet daily at Angelica Lutheran Church to learn Spanish from teachers from Cuernavaca, Mexico. Pastor Brian Eklund and Pastor Jim Lobdell provide leadership that allows students to not only learn a language, but experience immersion in the largest Hispanic culture city of the United States.

Minneapolis: This experience actually has its first site meeting at 7:30 am in the morning on January 5 with the Hawthorne Huddle. It is a collaborative effort sponsored by the General Mills Foundation to bring law enforcement, faith community, school, and business leaders together in order to address neighborhood issues. Pastor Kelly Chatman and Redeemer Lutheran Church will host twelve students in this exploration of African American, Native American, and Southeastern Asian cultures in the Harrison neighborhood and the City of Minneapolis. “Drug Court, Hip Hop Worship, and rides with the police are part of this experience.

St. Paul: Pastor James Erlandson, Lutheran Church of the Redeem, will lead this exploration into the intentional development of Church Based Community Organizing by 12 ST. Paul congregations. This experience is about building church in urban and multicultural settings. It teaches a set of disciplines that build relationships, trains leaders (lay and clergy), and develops ecumenical, intercultural and collaborative ministry.

San Diego/Tijuana: Four students will spend one week in Tijuana and one week in San Diego exploring the culture and issues of immigrant labor and the special ministry challenges of the U.S. and Mexican border. Pastor George Johnson coordinates this experience, January 9-27. During the last four days, students will attend a special conference entitled, “Developing Hearts that Yearn for Justice” It features such resource persons as Walter Wink, Ched Myers, Bishop Margarita Martinez, Maria Pilar Aquino, Olivia Ruiz, and Larry Rasmussen.

The Contextual Leadership Initiative staff is excited about facilitating these broad and varied learning experiences in all parts of our world! Please ask students to share their learning with you when they return!

Introducing Laure Schwartz  

It is my turn to introduce myself to you. Here are a few facts and a few insights. I grew up on a farm in central Iowa with 2 older sisters and very hard working parents. I learned the comedic art of the one-liner from my father. Still today, he is one of the funniest people I know. After High School, I went to the University of Northern Iowa and studied music with my two major instruments being voice and percussion. I left UNI after 3 years because I couldn’t quite break away from a life style that was not healthy for me. I took 2 years away from school but finished my Bachelors in Music Education at Northeast Missouri State University in Kirksville, MO. The in-between years were spent in Youth Ministry for the Ohio District LCMS and Celebrate Singers with whom I toured the U.S.

While I’ve never felt called to be a pastor, I’ve always felt called to the ministry. In either a full-time or part-time capacity, I have served as youth director or music director in several congregations before coming to Luther Seminary to work in August of 1993. Luther has been a great place for me to learn about myself, engage ministry, and laugh on a regular basis. It is an honor to briefly walk with students through their call-to-ministry journeys.

I write and arrange music and in December of 1993, I spent time in Nashville getting an idea of the Christian music industry. I found out that culture didn’t fit me. I have some good solo pieces but have found a joy for writing worship liturgies and most recently have written for Peace Lutheran in Lauderdale. I’ve written for Christ the King in Bloomington and Lord of Life in Farmington as well. I play piano, guitar, and just learned the mandolin.

My husband Shawn and I met in college and have been married for 18 years. Shawn works for Allianz Insurance, is a runner and cyclist, and loves the latest technology related gadgets. Our daughter, René is 10 years old. She is a creative artist and competitive swimmer. She has a tender heart evidenced by her relationships with people and her love for animals. Our family includes dogs – Trooper, a retired service dog and dogs we help train for Hearing and Service Dogs of Minnesota. I sometimes bring the trainee in to work to practice being obedient in public….. the dog, not me.

I am a distance runner and a once-a-year marathoner. Running is linked to my spiritual person. It is my daily devotion. For me, my physical, spiritual, and emotional health depend on one another. It is a blessing to be able to go for long runs and a gift I do not take for granted. The most beautiful place I’ve ever raced is Lake Tahoe, California. The picture here is at the Whistlestop Marathon in Ashland, WI. I hope to run a marathon next fall in Boulder, Colorado. Racing is a wonderful reason to travel as a family. Although René has asked, “Mom, will we ever go to a place some time when no one is running a race?”

On the Care and Feeding of Interns - Thoughts for the Internship Committee
by Randy A. Nelson

After the business and busyness of the season, after the candles and poinsettias and carols, after the lutefisk and lefse and ham and other ethnic treats, after the presents and the presence of family—then in this northern hemisphere comes the reality of winter barely begun and the prospect of the cold dark days of January.

Most of us resume our normal routines in January. These routines have developed over the years of living through the same sequence of events time after time. It is the same for pastors as for lay people. For interns there is a significant difference. Their home is a temporary one, their routine is, of necessity, a new one, their support is often not close at hand.

I have noticed over the years that the month of January is often a difficult one for interns. The joy, excitement, and celebration of the Advent and Christmas seasons are over. Families who visited have gone back home. The days are long and often dark and the internship is not yet half over.

Members of internship committees have a wonderful opportunity to exercise pastoral support for the intern and her/his family during these days. In addition to the monthly committee meeting, informal contacts by committee members become important ways of demonstrating to the intern a level of care and concern that can lift the spirit and energize the body. Most interns will be deeply grateful for expressions of appreciation for their presence and their ministry.

The old telephone advertisement invited individuals to “reach out and touch somebody.” Not bad advice for internship committee members either who want to let their intern know that they are supported in these in-between times.