Discovering where I might fit
by Julia Flor
My father, grandfather and great-grandfather all found their vocation as Lutheran pastors. Now, with only my sister and me to carry on this tradition of church service, we need to look for new ways to use our gifts for His purposes.
Of course, there are many ways of serving the church besides pastoral ministry. Sunday school teachers, altar guilds, choir singers, and trustees are just a few of the members who support our church in important ways. These positions are usually attached to a congregation where people are nurtured into service. But as a child in a military family relocating every few years and having spent most of my teen years in communities with no Lutheran congregations, I had resigned myself to thinking that church service was not in my future. Little did I know that God had other plans.
In the meantime, I found a summer job as a communications assistant for Military Family Services, using virtual programs to connect military families in remote locations. I was glad to learn about navigating graphic design platforms, reaching people through social media, and translating between French and English.
As a child in a military family relocating every few years and having spent most of my teen years in communities with no Lutheran congregations, I had resigned myself to thinking that church service was not in my future. Little did I know that God had other plans.
I never expected to use any of this knowledge in relation to our church. So, when I heard that Lutheran Church–Canada (LCC) and the Lutheran Laymen’s League of Canada (LLL-C) were offering a communications internship for the summer of 2021, I was thrilled! Here was a chance to use what I had learned from my previous job to serve the church.
My main project over the course of the internship was a series of social media posts summarizing the lives of the saints and different festivals of the church year. The goal of these commemoration “baseball cards” is to place a simple devotional resource where it is accessible not only to members of LCC, but also to people in other countries and to those of different faiths. In this way, they function both as a teaching and a witness resource. I hope that anyone who sees them is prompted to reflect and take comfort from the example of the saints who came before us, the cloud of witnesses who encourage us to go through life with Jesus in our sight (Hebrews 12:1-2). The Augsburg Confession acknowledges the benefit of doing so: “The remembrance of saints is to be commended in order that we may imitate their faith and good works according to our calling” (AC XXI). (Check it out at www.lutheranchurchcanada.ca/resources/commemoration-cards/).
I also worked closely with LLL-C to create activity sheets for kids in English, French, and Portuguese. This project taught me about the church’s outreach initiatives and its efforts towards sharing the Word of God with its youngest members. It can be a challenge to keep kids engaged during the Divine Service, but it’s important that they learn early on to accompany their parents. The activity sheets introduce them to the Gospel through fun activities. And again, this project allowed me to use other gifts God had given me—the languages I had learned growing up.
Since working with LCC and LLL-C this summer, I have learned more about the organizations that support our church in Canada and the many ways in which they do so. The wonderful people working “behind the scenes” of our Synod inspired me to take a more active interest in the church as well and to think of new ways to share the Word of God.
I had never anticipated that I could use my skills in languages and communications to serve my brothers and sister in Christ. But this summer reminded me of Romans 8:28: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.” I look forward to serving the church in the future in whichever way the Lord sees fit, and I hope that I can encourage other youth to take an interest along the way.
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Julia Flor was one of two interns who took part in the inaugural paid, part-time Communications Internship, jointly coordinated by Lutheran Church–Canada and Lutheran Laymen’s League of Canada in the summer of 2021. Julia has since been appointed to serve on LCC’s Committee for Communications and Technology (CCT). The Commemoration Card project Julia developed during her summer internship was so well-received that she continues to produce these cards on a contract-basis with LCC, while attending the University of Ottawa, where she studies Health Sciences.
This article was published with permission from Lutheran Women’s Missionary League of Canada (LWMLC)‘s quarterly magazine publication, Tapestry, where this article was first published in the Spring 2022 Issue.
Tapestry’s stated purpose is to “weave women together in Christ.” In so doing it strives to support readers as they grow in God’s Word, serve God’s people and share God’s Son. Tapestry can also serve you in sharing the good news of Jesus with others as you tell others about the magazine’s content, perhaps even giving them a subscription as a gift.
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