Follow Seminary student Christine Roe as she travels to the Holy Land with classmates from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg! Her blog can be found here
11/10/2013
Reflections on Random Acts of Kindness:
By Abby Leschinger
Initially, when I started the Random Acts of Kindness Cookie Drive, it was intended to support my fellow Youtherans on their upcoming pilgrimage to Spain. Throughout all the planning and baking I began to realize it really wasn’t about the money. Pastor Laine had asked me to do the Children’s Sermon and as I planned on what to say to the kids, that is when I told myself, “Abby, you can’t tell all these kids about spreading kindness when your main motive is money.” From then on, I stopped worrying if my cookie drive would be financially successful.
By doing one random act of kindness, we can start a chain reaction. Like if you drop a pebble into a puddle of water, water rings expand and grow bigger and BIGGER! That pebble is like a random act of kindness and as the water rings grow, kindness will grow.
Thank you to everyone who supported the cookie drive. I encourage everyone to perform a random act of kindness, no matter how big or small. 🙂
5/23/2013
Reflections from one of my classes this spring semester:
By Christine Roe
For the past fifteen weeks I have been learning about what it means to be a Muslim. I have been studying alongside other seminarians, as we have been led by Dr. Salih Sayligan and Dr. Jones. Dr. Sayligan is a Muslim and Dr. Jones is a Christian. They have driven in together from Washington D.C. once a week to teach at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. The intent of the class was not to be a comparative religious class. The intent was to study the relationship between Muslims and Christians.
On the first day of class we were asked to reflect on what we know about the life of a Muslim. I shared that I know very little and what I did know is based on the media, primarily and based on the military’s war on terrorism that began for the United States after September 11th 2001. Over the course of the weeks, I have learned that there are five pillars of Islam: Prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, charity and obedience to God. I also have learned that there are certain beliefs in Islam: Allah, prophets, Angels, Hereafter, Last Day and Judgment.
A great shock was to learn that Muslims believe in Jesus, Mary, Abraham, Moses, Adam and Eve. All of these people are written about in the Qur’an. Other startling revelations were to learn that Muslims believe we are all muslims and, yes, that is with a small ‘m’ and that Muslims believe that there will be a second coming of Jesus.
I had the opportunity to have interfaith dialogs with Muslims, I held and read through a Qur’an, I interviewed a Muslim chaplain and I visited a mosque. I learned that Muslims are a “community of believers” just as we Christians refer to ourselves at times. I had the privilege to
hear a testimonial from a 19 year old Afghanistan woman who talked about what the military brought to her community. She shared that the military empowered her community to get back to the traditional way of life of being a Muslim, as opposed to living under the radical rule of terrorists. The other testimonial came from Salih. He shared that he finds hope in this broken world by seeing that Christians want to serve the world by helping to take care of each other.
Many times over this semester, Salih and Dr. Jones have reiterated the importance of interfaith dialog, so that communities are bridging conversations about their traditions of faith and not building walls and isolating themselves away from others. I have formed new relationships and I have a love for a “community of believers” I had not taken the time to get to know. Since September 11th my view of Muslims had been misshaped by others, instead of being formed by own faithful walk with God and me taking the time to get to know others.
I will continue my walk and I do not wish to do it alone. I have plans to share in the breaking of fast one day during Ramadan, as invited by Salih and his wife to their home at Georgetown University. They are both chaplains to students on campus, regardless of their religion. I love how the Holy Spirit leads us all in so many wonderful and dynamic ways. I am seeking a role as a Diaconal Minister and the Spirit has guided me into the lives of two non-Christians who are both chaplains.
This summer I will be a student chaplain in a program called Clinical Pastoral Education with Bon Secours at Mary Immaculate Hospital in Newport News. In the fall, in addition to my other course work, I will have the experience of a teaching parish at St. Stephen Lutheran Church in Williamsburg.