Pumped up to serve

Volunteer. Tm just so proud of this church'

In this month of Thanksgiving, I'm reminded that more than 600 volunteers helped make our Denver Church wide Assembly run so smoothly. Here is the story of one of them:

A year ago Charles Berdahl, a pastor of Augustana Lutheran Church, Denver, and Pam McClune were preparing Thanksgiving baskets. Berdahl said, "Think about setting aside a week of vacation next August. Our Churchwide Assembly will be meeting in Denver, and we will need plenty of volunteers."

Volunteering is nothing new to McClune. In addition to her regular job and her responsibilities as a Naval Reserve commander, she has served as the Urban Servant Corps representative on the Denver Area Lutheran Parish Council. So when the appointed time came, she reported for duty-a day early.

From then on she was caught up in the impromptu world of convention support, never knowing what her next assignment would be. She helped tape identification signs on the backs of 1,039 chairs. She helped with office duties. She was the "local runner" for errands that required knowing the city and its resources. She went to Sears to buy a fan. She picked up airplane tickets and ran to the drugstore for Imodium. She found a music store that could repair a broken clarinet spring within a two-hour deadline.

McClune is an attorney for a mortgage document company. "I'm one of maybe three people in the country who actually has read all those papers you sign when you buy a house," she joked. In fact she wrote some of them.

When I asked if her regular job had prepared her for assembly duties, she laughed and said: "It was totally different, and that was what made it so interesting. I learned a lot about the church. Toward the end of the assembly, when things quieted down, I had a chance to visit the exhibits and see all the ministries that the church carries on."

There was also time to follow the debates on video monitors. "I'm just so proud of this church. I came back to work really pumped up," she said. Pumped up indeed. The next week she climbed the highest peak in Colorado as a 50th birthday celebration.

I give thanks this month for all of you who see your volunteer hours as a ministry to others and a source of growth for your faith. E@

Call the Presiding Bishop's Hotline: (773) 380-2930, Messages change every two weeks. Topics-Nov. 1: Augsburg 469 years later; Nov. 15: A Church Council and a Council of Churches.

Copyright Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Nov 1999
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