News

Student of the Month – Julie Gerrish

February 9, 2013

What’s you major? Elementary Education

Why did you choose it? I picked it because I like working with kids and I feel like I can impact the future in a positive way. And I’m kind of very childish myself.

What is you hometown? Ahwatukee. It’s a village. It’s the largest village in the world supposedly.

Hobbies? I like to sing, I really like music. I have a bad habit of looking on youtube. I really like musicals! My favorite musical is the Sound of Music.

Where do you see yourself in ten years? I guess I’ll be teaching. But it’s really hard to see in ten years. I would want to travel and teach in other countries.

How did you first learn about LCM? My sister Heidi goes to the U of A LCM. So I wanted to do it here. Then I was a volunteer at terouche which some of the LCM people do.

What do you like about LCM? Everyone is really welcoming and nice, there’s free food, and I really like the services during the week.

Favorite thing that LCM does ? Wednesday services, and sometimes when we do on weekends, and Oh! I really like the San Diego trip.

What brings you back to LCM? The people bring me back because they’re all so nice and welcoming. It’s really easy to come back. No one really pressures you to come back. They’re just really nice. They just want you to come.

What would say to Freshman who came to us? I would tell them that everyone is welcome at LCM. Everyone at LCM is very nice and fun.

Student of the Month – Chris Walmsley

January 12, 2013

What is you major? Computer science.

What all does that involve? It involves more of a software understanding of computers basically a lot of programming. Lots and lots of programming. We get to learn a bunch of different programming languages. It’s fun.

What is your hometown? Born and raised in Phoenix Phoenix, AZ

What are some of your hobbies? What do you do for fun? Well I’m going to number one say watch Anime, playing video games, I do some occasional guitar.

What first brought you to LCM? I heard from LCM form someone who was already in it. Once I was at ASU Bethany was like you should come to LCM cause we went to church together.

What do you like about LCM? Why do you keep coming back? I most definitely love all of the people there, it’s a lot of fun. I love the community and I enjoy getting to do the activities.

What is your favorite thing we’ve done with LCM so far? I’m a huge fan of the San Diego trip!

Student of the Month – Katrin Lichtsinn

March 13, 2012

What’s your major? And what year are you?

I am a junior majoring in Kinesiology and Spanish.

What do you like most about Lutheran Campus Ministry?

LCM is my home away from home. Everyone, from both ULC and LCM, is like family to me.

What has been your favorite LCM or ULC event this year?

The Flagstaff ski retreat- it was just what I needed after the crazy first month of school!

Reflecting on this year how has LCM helped you to stay strong in your faith?

I didn’t know how it be coming back to ASU after being in Chile all last semester, but the transition wasn’t hard at all, thanks especially to LCM. LCM helped me stay strong in my faith while I was away and after I got back.

What are your plans for the future?

I will be applying to medical schools this summer and hope to be a Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrician some day. I also hope to continue traveling and experiencing the world.

Here comes Lent

January 19, 2012

Gary McCluskey — Pastor Gary N. McCluskey

A Message from Gary N. McCluskey, pastor

How easily we accept things when all is well with us. How critically we evaluate the same when troubled. When life is well, life appears to make sense. And if it does not make sense we can, at least, live more easily with its confusion. When life is heavy, confusion seems our partner.

Here comes Lent. For some of us it comes just when we are feeling pretty good. Dang! A downer to burst our bubble. For others it comes as one more burden to place in our basket of life. Just what we (don’t) need!

Lent actually arrives not to bring us down nor to weigh more heavily upon already laden shoulders. It comes to bring focus. Good times and bad can turn us onto ourselves, albeit in different ways. Lent says “Lift your gaze”. When we lift that gaze we are called to look upon another: Jesus. We are called to look upward….to a cross. Lent arrives to teach us through this gaze. Its teaching is that all life needs grounding. When full of ourselves, life needs the grounding that reminds us there is more to life than us. When we are low, the grounding teaches us we cannot rise alone.

Once when working with a liturgical design artist, he pointed out that all crosses he carved were firmly planted. There were none hanging from ceilings or walls seemingly suspended in time and space. They were connected to earth and connected to life and to our world….to us. They were not the image of flying superhero but the image of one well-grounded. Perhaps that can be a good image for you and I this Lent. If life is well……wonderful! Now we are called to step outside of ourselves and our world to share some of that goodness with another. If we are sinking, we need to cast our line to something grounded. Lent above all reminds us it is not simply we as individuals who have fallen short. All of humanity has. Lent reminds us, Jesus did not die simply about me, but about all God’s children. We are in this life together. We are better together. Lent’s arrival unites us in our common humanity. It unites us in our uncommon God.

We are, … PENN STATE!

November 18, 2011

“We are,…..PENN STATE!” This is the mantra used over and over again at Penn State football games, pep rallies, alumni events, and, occasionally, spontaneously on campus. It once meant something quite different than it does today. It was spoken to express the bond one felt with the school, fellow students, alumni, and, yes, the football program, especially its coach, Joe Paterno. As you may know I am an alumnus of Penn State. I once proudly spoke those four words with a broad smile and happy heart. Now the heart is disheartened and the smile gone. Like many (most?) alumni I too have my own personal story of encounter with the famed coach who always seemed to have time for any student that crossed his path. He was gracious, interested, and real. It is always especially difficult when someone admired so much disappoints so deeply.

One can only wonder about the terrible scandal at Penn State. It was a football program known for academic excellence, sportsmanship, clean recruiting and fair play. The critics were many for their refusal to run up the score to advance in the ranking. Today’s focus on the scandal and the program have not revealed it to be anything other than it appeared in these areas. However it failed tragically in a much deeper level. Overall it was still about winning. It was still about the institution. How can someone like Joe Paterno, so grand and ethical almost to the point of obsession in some areas be so corrupt in yet another?

Welcome to the world! We live in a place and are part of a species where contradiction seems the rule. One of the world’s great cultures produces the holocaust. A nation known for liberty and freedom spends nearly its first one hundred years enslaving one race while subduing and working to control and possibly exterminate yet another. We live in a world where evil happens. We are a people who are all subject to evil’s taunts and temptations. This is not to excuse anyone. It is to describe the situation in which we live. It is to describe you and me. We are a part of this world and fallen humanity. Headlines scream daily about some evil somewhere. And you and I sometimes unwittingly, sometimes knowingly participate in some of the world’s ills. We are very much a part of fallen humanity. And there is no way out.

We need someone. We need someone to come. Advent is here. it reminds us there is someone who comes and does more than simply enter this world. This one comes to be a part of it. This one comes to be a part of its joy and its misery. This one comes to embrace us. Our sin does not keep this one away. In fact, it would seem to make him more eager to come and be with us. This one comes above all to redeem and bring new life to places of death.