Messiah Blog & News

News at Messiah

Former summer interns attend seminaries, serve congregations ... and go other places too!

Between 2005 and 2010, and starting again in 2015, Messiah Lutheran Church has hosted sixteen college summer interns. Eight have made their way to ELCA seminaries. Five have attended Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary (PLTS) in Berkeley, CA. In the group photograph are former and current PLTS students. (l-r) Jayson Nicholson (’08) is now a solo pastor at Our Savior's Lutheran Church (ELCA), Laurel, MT. Caitlyn Melillo (’10) just completed a pastoral internship year in Uruguay. Kevin Beebe (’10) graduated from PLTS and recently became the pastor of Spirit Alive Lutheran Church in Kenosha, WI. Ben Hogue (’09) is the Associate Pastor at Lutheran Church of the Reformation in Washington, D.C.       Paul Kacynski (’07) graduated from PLTS in the spring of 2014 and is the Mission Developer Pastor at Roots of the Table, a Lutheran worshiping community meeting at Luther's Table pub/restaurant/coffee house in Renton, WA.       One of Messiah's...

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2019 Summer Intern Program for College Students is Underway

After a one-summer hiatus, while our pastors were on sabbatical, Messiah is again providing two internships for college students this coming summer. Pastors Peter and Kathy and Pastoral Intern Joel will serve as their mentors. This 10 to 12-week summer internship is characterized as a "full-immersion" experience into the daily life of Messiah's dynamic, active, and adaptive congregation. The experience will provide a structured and intentional opportunity for interns to discuss and discern where God may be calling them to serve in their vocational lives. Pictured (l-r) are former summer interns Jayson Nicholson, Caitlyn Melillo, Kevin Beebe, and Ben Hogue on the campus of Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, CA. The process of contacting Lutheran Campus Ministry pastors in the West and Midwest to identify potential candidates is underway. To catch up on all of Messiah's former summer interns, click here. To read the description of the 2019 summer experience or to obtain...

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Introducing Allison and Timothy Siburg

Allison will serve as Messiah's '15-'16 Pastoral Intern. Timothy will serve a half-time AIM (Associate in Ministry) Field Experience Greetings Messiah Lutheran! Hello from Minnesota! We're Allison and Timothy Siburg, and we will have the joy and privilege of learning, leading, growing and serving alongside you starting this September. Allison is excited to be your pastoral intern, and Timothy will be leading as a part of his experience and learning towards being an Associate in Ministry. We'll be following in the footsteps of our PLU and Luther Seminary friend Joe Natwick, and this year's awesome co-interns Ben and Kristen. You'll quickly realize we don't have the big hair like Joe and aren't native mid-westerners like Ben and Kristen, but you'll learn what's unique about us, we're sureWe're excited to say that coming to Vancouver is sort of a homecoming for us, as we both grew up in Washington. Allison is originally...

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A Change of Season

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” Eccl. 3:1  In Disney’s animated film Frozen, one of the characters named Olaf sings about his dreams of experiencing summer for the very first time. In his song, called In Summer, Olaf confesses that he doesn’t have “much experience with heat” (he is, after all, a snowman...) and then adds, “But sometimes I like to close my eyes, and imagine what it’ll be like when summer does come.” It’s a clever, catchy number (don’t look it up unless you’re prepared to have it stuck in your head). Olaf can’t wait to “find out what happens to solid water when it gets warm!” and shares that “when life gets rough, I like to hold onto my dream/of relaxing in the summer sun, just lettin’ off steam.”What’s this got to do with anything? Aside from the obvious, (summer is...

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Summer Intern Program Returns

Messiah will provide internships for one college student this summer. Pastoral interns Ben and Kristen will help serve as mentors. | At its February meeting the Church Leadership Team (CLT) approved a plan to resume Messiah's summer internship program for college students. The program was put on hold in 2011 as the congregation prepared and transitioned into becoming a full-year pastoral internship site for Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN.The 10-12 week summer internship is characterized as a "full-immersion" experience into the daily life of Messiah's dynamic, active, and growing congregation. Lutheran campus pastors in the West and Midwest are now being contacted to help identify potential candidates. The experience will provide a structured and intentional opportunity for interns to discuss and discern where God may be calling them to serve in their vocational lives. Pictured above (l-r) are former summer interns Jayson Nicholson, Caitlyn Melillo, Kevin Beebe, and Ben Hogue on the...

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See You Soon

Good-byes are really not my thing.Whether ending a backpacking trip, a year-long internship, or even just an airplane ride sitting next to a stranger, when it comes to good-byes, it doesn′t get much worse than me. Some people turn into a crying mess, some write lengthy and meaningful letters, while others just escape out the back door. I, however, just stand there like a robot: no tears, no beautiful words, no honoring the past while stepping forward into a new horizon... just pure robotic awkwardness. Instead of sharing in a good cry or letting someone know their importance in my life, I stand there wondering what to do with my face. Should I smile or should I try to get some tears to come out? I know, not good...This aversion to good-byes has not served me well recently. In the past three years alone, I have had to say good-bye to...

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