We have a particular ministry here that I am not sure we always recognize. Each year we receive students new to our ministry. They come from Lutheran congregations near and far. Currently one of our Lutheran students is from India.
Students from other church backgrounds, no church backgrounds, and students nominally “churched” find their way here in various ways. Last year we had three students who grew up LDS.
What will this year bring? Most likely more of the same. Yet the one group we sometimes miss are those I call refugees from less open faiths. I don’t think I coined that phrase, but if I head it somewhere, I can’t recall where. Often those refugees seek us out on their own or are invited by our students after expressing to one of our students the hostility ….yes, hostility…they experienced in another campus ministry. Often, but not always, these are LGBTQ+ students. Sometimes they are those who have rebelled at another ministry or church’s position on LGBTQ+ folks and or how they view women or race.
Yes, we have a ministry to refugees. Not always those who arrive with all their possessions packed into one small suitcase nor those whose primary language is other than English. We have served some of these kind of refugees in the past and no doubt will again in the future. The refugee ministry which we have most years reaches out and welcomes those who felt constrained or even verbally abused in some cases in some other church or campus ministry.
One that stands out to me over the years is a student from some years back. This student was invited to have coffee with other students in their ministry. The student soon discovered coffee was instead a brutal and harsh “intervention” to change this student who had let it out to the ministry that they were bi-sexual. The student was traumatized by the “coffee.”
After being invited into our ministry by one of our students who lived in the same dorm, the student gradually began to discover when we say we welcome all we mean all. After getting to know this person, I sent them to ASU counseling as they continued to experience quite a bit of anxiety from the “coffee” experience. ASU counseling, after a few sessions, sent them to PTSD counseling. That’s right, the same counseling those traumatized by war receive.
There is a happy note to this story. The offending campus ministry no longer is part of ASU’s partnered campus ministries and lots its privileges at ASU. Other campus ministries had bad experiences to report to ASU about that ministry. The even happier note is the student became active here and the counseling helped them move past their experience to embrace both college life and a life of faith.
Refugees from less open faiths. Thank you for providing welcome and a church home to those seeking a more embracing God who sees them fully as one of God’s children. It’s part of what we all do here.