Always the Unexpected

It was spring of 1950. About 100 of us were excitedly assembled in that large oval room on the ground floor of the Administration Building at Concordia Teachers College, River Forest, Illinois. We were there to receive our “Solemn Calls”. In those days the church-wide Council of Presidents (Bishops Conference) had met with the appropriate college and seminary placement directors. They had assembled all the requests from congregations across the church for the assignment of officially approved “ teaching ministers of religion”. Those decisions had been made without further consultation with the candidates (that what we were called). Each of us was assigned to a particular congregation or other church entity. The assumption was that each candidate would accept the assignment as made.

The suspense in the room was great. None of us knew where we would be assigned or what our specific duties would be. Previous to this we had, of course, met with our Placement Directors and discussed our gifts, our preferences and any unusual circumstances affecting our placement. For me there was really only one over riding question “To which Lutheran church and school in Texas would I be assigned?” The general consensus of the time was that Texans would be assigned to Texas congregations.

I dutifully waited until my name was called and the Placement Director announced “ Melvin Kieschnick, St. Paul Lutheran Church and School, Tracy, California “. Within 72 hours I informed St. Paul’s that I was their newly assigned principal/teacher/youth director and that I was prayerfully accepting their call.

The surprises kept coming;. When once a month I found myself collecting newspapers from garages throughout Tracy I wondered if that was part of the “divine call“, but I really needed to raise the money somehow to pay for curtains in the classroom so that I could effectively operate that brand new film strip projector. I unexpectedly played basketball in the city league as part of a team sponsored by a not very reputable pool hall and filled in as preacher when my pastor’s alcohol problems kept him out of the pulpit. I learned that one really could complete a Master’s thesis if one’s spouse was willing to type after midnight.

The unexpected never stopped. When, without prior consultationwith me, the Church’s Foreign Mission Board extended me a call to Hong Kong. I had to locate a map to find out where Hong Kong was. Once there I learned to take in stride visits to the poorest of the poor among the refugees in hillside huts and to go from there to a formal party for the British Queen at the Governor’s Mansion.

An unexpected cerebral aneurysm in my wife’s brain brought me back to the Sates and to roles as divergent as leadership for a Churchwide Capital Funds Drive to District School Superintendency, to national churchwide offices, to parent training around the world and to the privilege of serving Lutheran schools in the South Bronx, Long Island and other parts of the Metro New York area.

Even in retirement the surprises never stop and all of them flow from One whom I believe has both a sense of humor and wonderful surprises!


*NOTE: This is one in a series of six blog entries related to a presentation I will make at the 2010 Lutheran Education Association National Administrators Conference in New Orleans in February 2010.

Following that event my blog will again be more in the” All Things Considered category”.