HIGHER ARTS
Super Sleuth
If you see a self-proclaimed “funny-looking bald guy” crawling through your church’s bushes with a camera and a notebook, don’t be alarmed. Chances are it’s Rod Oppegard. And if you see a fellow talking to himself at the altar? “Well, that’s probably me, too,” he says.
This former librarian from Dazey, North Dakota, is a modern-day Indiana Jones, logging hundreds of miles in his car each year on a mad dash to photograph and chronicle the altar art and furnishings of the state’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) rural churches. As a volunteer archivist for Region 3 of the ELCA, which spans Minnesota and the Dakotas, Oppegard has documented more than 100 pieces of altar art and statuary, all of which are currently on historical file at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota.
“One guy I met once asked if people think I’m a little bit off, and I said, ‘I suppose so,’” Oppegard says. “But I feel called. What I’m doing is preaching the Gospel—visually.”
The job isn’t without pitfalls, such as one recent visit that required crawling on hands and knees through a cramped storage area to even reach the altar. “There was no electricity, and my fingers were going numb with the cold,” he recalls.
In an era where many rural communities are declining in population and the small Lutheran churches are falling into ill repair, Oppegard says he feels urgency to document the artwork in as many churches as he can. “The worst thing is when I don’t make it to a church and something happens,” he says. “That just tears my heart out.”
— Jennifer Krempin
SERVICE SCENE
A Nation of Giving
In 2004, financial representatives in the 32 regional financial offices of Thrivent Financial were challenged to join their colleagues, families and others to make a difference in their communities. Following are highlights of just seven of the events held:
1. From the air:
The Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis received more than $220,000 raised at the annual Indianapolis Air Show. More than 900 Thrivent Financial volunteers, including 35 financial representatives and staff from the Indiana Region, contributed more than 6,000 volunteer hours to the event. In addition, Thrivent Financial contributed $125,000.
2. Playing around:
Children in the Kansas City Blue Valley neighborhood have a new, safer place to play, thanks to more than 30 Thrivent Financial representatives from the Kansas and Missouri Region, nearly 175 Thrivent Financial members and 50 neighborhood residents who joined forces with the Kansas City Chiefs’ Dante Hall and his X-Factor Foundation, the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Department and Ka-BOOM! The Kansas and Missouri Region donated $60,000.
3. Viewing ‘Luther’:
More than $88,000 was raised and truckloads of food were delivered to nine food pantries in southern California and Hawaii as a result of “Luther” gatherings in the Pacific Southwest Region. About 35 Thrivent Financial representatives, along with volunteers, arranged private screenings of the motion picture “Luther.” Food donations were encouraged. More than 1,700 people attended. The Pacific Southwest Region donated $44,000 to the effort.
4. The ol’ ballgame:
Financial representatives, colleagues and families in the Texas Region took a two-pronged approach to making a difference. With dollars raised during Lutheran Night at the Ballpark in Arlington, Texas, as well as donations from Lutheran churches and others, more than 120 volunteers worked together to build a playground for the Open Arms Child Development Center at Christo Rompio Las Cadenas Lutheran Church in Fort Worth, Texas.
5. A homerun for the homeless: The 11th annual “Lutheran Night at the Twins” raised more than $125,000 to benefit Minnesota’s 2,800 homeless youth. More than 90 financial representatives from the Twin Cities Region teamed up with Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota (LSS) to raise the funds, which support LSS programs. In addition to volunteer support, the Twin Cities Region gave a lead gift of $35,000.
6. Sweet music:
Eight Thrivent Financial representatives from the Southeast Region, which includes North and South Carolina and Georgia, have pooled their collective musical talents to raise money. In three concerts, the group has raised $17,000 for Lutheran Newberry College in Newberry, South Carolina; $10,000 for rebuilding hurricane-damaged Camp Linn Haven, a Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod camp in Linville, North Carolina; and $2,400 at the Charleston County Chapter fund-raiser for Hurricane Ivan relief.
7. Feed Ohio:
Nearly 50 volunteers from the Ohio Region partnered with more than 150 others to provide Thanksgiving turkeys for distribution by the Hunger Network of Greater Cleveland, Akron/Canton, Lutheran Social Service of Central Ohio, Dayton and Second Harvest of the Mahoning Valley food banks. The Ohio Region purchased 4,244 turkeys (more than 50,000 servings) at a cost of $42,000, including $2,500 raised at three fund-raisers.
— Donna Mulder
Check out more information on each of these events.
MOVING FORWARD
Life Saving
Thrivent Financial Associate John Errera doesn’t beat around the bush when he talks about saving money—even when members of his audience are struggling to make ends meet. He just gets practical.
“You can save $2 a day if you bring a sandwich for lunch instead of stopping at a fast-food restaurant,” Errera tells the students in the Smart Savers Individual Development Accounts (IDA) Program at Bethel New Life, a Lutheran social services agency on Chicago’s west side.
Errera, of Schaumburg, Illinois, is one of nearly 30 Thrivent Financial for Lutherans financial representatives from the Chicagoland Region volunteering time to teach financial literacy to interested participants at Bethel New Life. Through the program, low-income working families learn money management skills, the wise use of credit and how to protect themselves against predatory lenders.
In addition to financial representatives donating their time, Thrivent Financial matches participants’ savings that can be used to acquire appreciable assets such as a home, finance post-secondary education or capitalize a small business.
“I honestly believe that my purpose, among other things, is to communicate to the members of the class that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, that they can find success and achieve their dreams,” says Errera, who grew up in the same neighborhood as the people he teaches.
Bethel New Life has been partnering with Thrivent Financial for more than three years to provide these financial literacy classes, which cover everything from basic saving and investing to home and/or business ownership.
“It’s a real hands-on, life-changing kind of experience,” says Mary Nelson, president of Bethel New Life. Nelson tells of saved marriages and people once on welfare who are now able to support themselves. “People who never thought they’d have anything to leave their children are now saving,” she says.
For Andy Locke, the manager of Lutheran community services in the region for Thrivent Financial, the program is all about the mission of Thrivent Financial, which is to provide solutions that focus on financial security, wellness and caring for others. “With this program, we are living out our mission—reaching out to low-income people and improving their lives,” Locke says.
— Donna Mulder
FUND FACTS
Card Craze
Debit cards (also known as check cards) have exploded in popularity over the past eight years thanks to their convenience and debt-friendliness. (Debit cards withdraw money directly from your checking account, rather than floating you a consumer loan like a traditional credit card.) Thrivent Financial Bank offers a free VISA® Check Card with all checking accounts. To learn more, visit www.thrivent.com/bank/checking/checking.html.
Source: Dove Consulting
LABORS OF LOVE
A Helping House
Imagine creating a safe haven where a child will no longer fear visitations with a noncustodial parent who is violent, oftentimes because of alcohol and drug issues. In Bristol, Virginia, this kind of help has arrived—in the form of HELP House, a supervised visitation center.
At HELP (Hope for Effective and Loving Parenting) House, the noncustodial parent can talk and play with the child in a brightly decorated, toy-filled room under the supervision of trained staff.
“Even though the parent hasn’t improved the situation, the child doesn’t have to deal with it anymore,” says Sara Bible, HELP House executive director and a Thrivent Financial for Lutherans member. Without HELP House, the parent and child would need to meet in a lawyer’s office, a judge’s chambers, or in a courthouse hallway.
HELP House is a shared ministry of Lutheran Services in Tennessee and the Tri-Cities Area Mission Strategy Council, a group representing 12 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod churches in an area including Bristol, Virginia; Johnson City, Tennessee; and Kingsport, Tennessee. In addition to providing a safe place for parent and child to meet, resources are available to help noncustodial parents fix the problem that led a judge to order supervised visitation.
“Our overall goal is to see such improvement that we are able to go back to the court and ask that the supervision provision be lifted,” says Bob Loftis, president and chief executive officer of Lutheran Services in Tennessee.
The groundwork for HELP House began several years ago when the Tri-Cities Area Mission Council began seeking a way to bring a Lutheran social ministry to the area, says the Rev. Tom Quickel of Bristol, Tennessee. Research pointed in the direction of youth and families in crisis. “We had a series of meetings with judges and social service agencies, and out of those the notion of supervised visitation began,” Quickel says.
After a period of searching for the perfect location for HELP House, Redeemer Lutheran Church in Bristol, Virginia, offered the use of a nearby caretaker’s cottage for a low rental fee—and then the real work began.
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans members and others from area Lutheran congregations put in thousands of hours to renovate the cottage, creating a home-like atmosphere. And area chapters of Thrivent Financial, including the East Tennessee West Virginia Chapter, under the leadership of Quickel, and the Davidson County Tennessee Chapter, under the leadership of Loftis, held fund-raisers, which included adding a play structure in the backyard, fencing and landscaping. A benefit concert in Bristol, Tennessee, raised more than $20,000. The Thrivent Financial Care in Regions® and Care Abounds in Communities® programs were used for the event.
“The response from area Lutheran churches and Thrivent Financial was phenomenal,” says Loftis.
Referrals are increasing as judges and other child welfare agencies realize the good that is being done at HELP House. “It truly is a ministry of healing and reconciliation,” says Quickel.
— Donna Mulder
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