Plain Brown Envelope

It is now 64 years since I opened the first important plain brown envelope addressed to me. I sat with some 100 others about to graduate as seniors from Concordia University, Chicago. We were assembled to receive our “assignments”. In that day church leaders decided where we would sere in our roles as Christian educators. Oh, we had been asked about where we might want to serve, but the decision was for others to make. When we entered that room we had no idea as to where we might be called. I sort of assumed it would be a church school in Texas because it was a strong tradition that Texans were assigned to teach in Lutheran schools of Texas.

I walked to the front of the room where Dr. Dan Maurer handed me my brown envelope. I rushed to my seat, tore open the envelope and saw the assignment: “Teacher and Principal; St. Paul Lutheran School, Tracy, California.” And within three months I was in the classroom of St. Paul’s, Tracy.

It was actually a good assignment. The school was at the forefront of dramatic changes within the Lutheran school system. I had known only the traditional parochial school that served only children of the sponsoring congregation. There was no tuition, all costs covered by the congregation. While that was my experience, Tracy introduced me to a body of students of many or no faith. Congregational financial support was minimal; school costs were raised through tuition and major fund raising efforts. I had to learn fast. Many helped teach me. They were patient, affirming, and supportive. It is an experience I recall with pleasure and gratitude.

The second plain brown envelope arrived via second-class mail on a Saturday morning in1956. I hardly noticed the envelope and didn’t open it for a few hours. I was too busy installing the antenna for our very first television set that had been given to us the night before.

When I looked at the return address on the envelope there was no big surprise. I received lots of mass mailings from The Lutheran Church_Missouri Synod Board for World Missions. But when I read the enclosed letter I was shocked to the core of my being. I was being asked to be Co-coordinator of Education for a Lutheran School System I was to establish in Hong Kong. I had never expressed an interest in “foreign” mission work. At that time I had no idea of where Hong Kong was even located.

A few months later my wife Jane, son Dave, and I were in Hong Kong where we spent 10 marvelous years. They were years of challenge and growth; years of mistakes and forgiveness; years which played a role in establishing a Hong Kong Lutheran School System which now enrolls some 25,000 students n 10 secondary schools, 6 primary schools and 12 kindergartens; all way beyond the dreams enclosed in that plain brown envelope.

Today I realized that in a way the plain brown envelope was more than paper. It was a challenge, a call and a commitment. I, too, am just a plain brown envelope which God used to accomplish a great purpose. One final reflection: On this Easter weekend I await one more destination for the plain brown envelope: the final call, and the best which is yet to come.