Lutheran International and Urban Schools Symposium : Reflecting, Rejoicing and Regretting

I have just returned from a symposium to which I looked forward with much anticipation. My colleague Marlene Lund from the Center for Urban Education Ministries had helped pulled together a symposium of some 60 Lutheran educators from around the world. Her hope was that by combining leaders from international schools with those of urban Lutheran schools in the USA new learnings might emerge and new relationships might be formed. A part of that goal was well achieved, some of it not very well. Here is a sample of a few of my Reflections, Rejoicings and Regrets

I rejoiced to look at the cities/countries from which these Lutheran school leaders came: Hong Kong, Hanoi, New York, Australia, China, Ghana, Frankenmuth, Papau New Guinea. It continues to thrill me to image kids from each of these places having the opportunity to learn and grow and to have faith born and sustained in every one of those places. I regretted to see no-one from any South American or European country there.

I appreciated looking at titles of the participants: Executive Director of International Education, Science Teacher, Head of School, Evangelist. Board Member, Treasurer, Elementary Teacher. Of course, many of them could also have identified themselves as “parents”. It takes all kinds of expertise to make schools places of growth. I regretted seeing no title or position related to a denomination head or regional offices such as at a church-wide, synod or district. It again pointed to the quickening demise of denominational leadership in the USA.

I thought about the contrast between the small, very financially poor Lutheran school struggling in, for example, Ghana, and the relative wealth of international schools in places like Hong Kong and Shanghai. Yet as I spoke with heads of those schools of whatever country or size they all spoke of the on-going challenge of responding to parent’s concern or lack thereof.

It was wonderful to see the representation from Lutheran colleges and universities and their departments of international studies. (I reflected upon the fact that way back in 1968 I was asked to start up the first one of such in the LCMS but decided my educational career was headed in another direction.) I wondered what insights we would have learned had there been one there from the largest Lutheran University in the world – in Brazil. It has 32,000 students on campus out of a total of some 140,000 in their extended network.

I enjoyed looking at names like Gyamfi Kwadwo, Betty Lingenfelter, Philip Ohene-Abrefa, Moyo Tawango. And Tarirai Doreen. I regretted seeing no names of obvious Hispanic heritage. The highlight for me was the keynote address by Martin Schmidt. His theme was “Grace and Vocation”. He challenged all Lutheran schools to be places where students and staff experience grace, a God who cares about and loves all creation and vocation and the calling for each one of us to be of service and ministry in and to the world. He gave marvelous examples of how teachers at all levels can lead their students into this wonderful direction. I left this symposium just as more than 3000 teachers in Lutheran schools from all over were gathering for a three day convocation. I bowed my head in respect for them and in prayer that each of their students might indeed discover and live out Grace and Vocation.

Legacy

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Legacy

What legacy will I leave when I die? No, I am not morbidly contemplating my last days. However, just this last week I had several little nudges that stirred me in the direction of contemplating my legacy.

The first was a radio interview regarding our recently sacked San Diego mayor, He admitted to grossly inappropriate (even illegal) behavior in sexually harassing women of all ages. When asked about the specifics of his guilty plea the attorney being interviewed stated “I think what the ex-mayor is sort of calculating is his legacy and very specifically: what will be in the first two lines of his obituary when it is published in the media upon his death.” Interesting. What will be in the first few lines of one’s obituary. Will it be very dependent upon whoever happens to write that obituary or will there be general agreement, “Yes, this is Mel’s legacy.”

I happened to mention this to my daughter Liz who is in private family therapy practice. She told me that she had just seen several clients in which there were significant challenges in mother-daughter relationships. She told me that she had asked the mothers to consider: “Many years from now when your daughters will be recalling your late life, what is it that you hope they will remember about you?’ That is another legacy question.

I have now been retired for 20 years. Tomorrow I go to an international education symposium on Lutheran education. There I will listen to the latest in the “Kieschnick Lecture Series” an endowed endeavor set up by my friends at the time of my retirement. Most of the people at that lecture will never have heard of Mel Kieschnick and I surely get that! The person delivering the lecture is much younger than I and we have spent little time together. But I have read his speech and is it good stuff. It is about his dreams and visions for international Lutheran schools.

That is good. And as I listen I will be reflecting upon my dreams and my nightmares; my successes and my failures, my satisfactions and my regrets. I will be driven again to my vision of a God who is loving and forgiving.  And I trust God’s verdict as to what my legacy shall be.

Childhood Memories: Regrets

(Note: This is the last of the series in my blog re Childhood Memories. These were written primarily for my grandchildren. Possibly some others may find them of interest.)

I was blessed to have a wonderful childhood. There was food and clothing, wonderful parents, good modeling, strong spiritual direction. My memories are overwhelmingly positive. When I asked myself, “What do I regret about my childhood?” I found the list to be very small. Here are just two little items on my lists of regrets.

I never learned to swim. Mother made a note in my Baby Book: “He always enjoyed his baths till he was eight months old when we took him into the Gulf of Mexico at Galveston. From then on until he was over a year he never liked his bath.” I learned to enjoy my bath but never flowing or deep water. Of course there was very little deep water in Central Texas. I certainly never had access to swimming pool. I do recall that when I was quite young, Teacher Meier of our Lutheran parochial school went swimming in the San Gabriel River, got caught in some quicksand and drowned! I decided to not get into any water deeper than about 6 inches. But then came high school. A group of us boys headed for Barton Springs in Austin. They all jumped in. I could not be chicken so I jumped in too, actually swam a ways and then panicked. Made it back to shore completely traumatized. I tried to hide my embarrassment. And I never learned to swim. I regret that and it led me to resolve that when my kids grew up in Hong Kong they would learn to swim. If I should ever find myself in deep water today (of whatever kind) I hope my kids will be there to rescue me.

I also never learned to dance. It was the teaching of my local congregation that “dancing is a sin”. It would have been cause of significant scandal if any of the Kieschnick Family was ever seen on a dance floor! Later, even though my beliefs about dancing changed I never learned. Jane, my wife has a wonderful sense of rhythm and she knew how to dance. I was clumsy, self-conscious and not fun anywhere near a dance floor. Now I really regret that. I would love even now at 85 to join my friends here at La Costa Glen (and elsewhere) and enjoy a waltz etc. but instead I just sit and watch and dream; but I do know that if I tried to learn now it would be a disaster all the way around. So I write about my regret and move on.