I want to tell you a story…last year at Confirmation Camp I met a young woman that was at camp with the youth from her congregation. Ariel was their youth director. As happens at camp, we sat up late talking, solving world problems and dreaming. Ariel confessed a desire toward Word and Sacrament ministry, but worried that as a mother of two young children with a husband that had a good job, that it would be difficult to physically go to seminary. I encouraged her to look into alternative ways to study and invited her to come to Austin to meet with me at the Lutheran Seminary of the Southwest with Director Rev. Dr. Jay Alanis.
Ariel took me up on my invitation. It became clear that this dynamic, informed and intelligent young woman was destined to the ordained ministry. Jay encouraged her to find ways to include her husband and her children in her dream and told her a bit about some scholarship opportunities.
Last week, I saw that Ariel Williams purchased her books to start seminary at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg! The whole family picked up and moved. Next, I get an email from the director of the Fund for Leaders of the ELCA. This is the scholarship fund that paid for my seminary tuition. It turns out that Ariel thanked me in her application “for encouraging and supporting” her discernment and they wanted me to know that Ariel Williams is the 2014-15 scholarship winner!
Full tuition paid. Family together. Church affirmed.
Go Camp!
