Summer 2007 - Northwestern College

Coverstory
Northwestern Classic
Summer of Service
In Peru during the summer of 2001, Sarah Wynia ’03 was awakened at 5 a.m. by the sound of singing. Her host family was
starting the day with worship. This summer, senior Megan Griwac is with the same Luke Society ministry, living with the same
family. In an e-mail to campus ministry staffer Barb Dewald, Griwac wrote: “They are still singing.”
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“I don’t think I will ever
practice in a middle-class
suburban neighborhood. I’m
drawn to patients who are
underserved. Despite my
obligation to work in a clinic
like this, I like to think I’d
be doing it anyway.”
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like to think I’d be doing it
anyway.”
Lead with love
Harrison says anyone
can be a missionary simply
by being a friend to someone
who needs one. The diversity
of the United States means
you can be a cross-cultural
missionary without leaving
home. According to Van
Noord, it takes an average of
10 years before a refugee or
immigrant is invited into an
American home.
During her recent furlough
in the U.S., while pursuing
a master’s degree in
education, language and literacy,
Van Noord befriended
an Arab woman in her
Atlanta neighborhood.
The woman never
learned to read and write,
but she is learning English,
her fourth language. Van
Noord recently taught her
friend to pump her own gas.
“By her reaction, you would
think I’ve given her the
world,” she says.
“Ministry doesn’t happen
from a distance,” says
the Rev. Doug Tensen ’80,
who, even though he’d graduated,
was a member of
Northwestern’s first summer
missions team in 1981. At
former Chaplain Jerry
Sittser’s encouragement,
Tensen traveled to Hong
Kong. As has happened to so
many who have come after
him, the experience impacted
the rest of his life.
Now a pastor at Orchard
Hill Church in Cedar Falls,
Iowa, Tensen says his mission
is to “Lead with love—
not with my checkbook, or
even the Bible necessarily—
lead with love.”
That’s his message to his
congregation as they serve
the growing number of
minorities in their community.
It’s his reminder to those
he has led on numerous
short-term mission trips,
including five to Haiti.
It’s the legacy he hopes
to leave with his daughter,
Annie, who began her own
Summer of Service experience
in Cameroon in May.
Carissa (Hall ’04) Youngsma taught English in Thailand during her SOS experience.
This year’s SOS students are serving in 16 countries, including Brazil,
Cameroon, Fiji, Guatemala, Sweden and Tanzania.
24 ▲ Summer 2007