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July 2024

Dear friends,

Grace and Peace to you in the name of our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

As many of you know, I was gone the week of June 17th, because I traveled to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to gather with my Lutheran campus ministry colleagues for our annual LuMin Staff Gathering. These gatherings are such a gift to me, because it is the only time that I get to see most of my campus ministry friends and mentors, because we are all scattered across the country. We spend time in worship, we have a keynote speaker, we attend workshops, and we
enjoy time in fellowship.

On the final night of our Staff Gathering we had a nice dinner and an awards banquet. That night I was surprised, humbled, and honored to be the inaugural recipient of the Don Romsa Award for Superb Collegiality.

Don Romsa was a legend in campus ministry; a fantastic campus minister, and a wonderful colleague to all of us who were privileged to work with him. Twice he was asked to be the Program Director for ELCA campus ministry, LuMin, and twice he rose to the occasion. It wasduring that time that I was blessed to work closely with Don, and it was during that time that I learned a lot from him about how to better support my colleagues and lift them up in the work that they do. Don was a kind, thoughtful, and gentle leader and colleague who walked methrough more than one scenario when I was too dense to figure it out on my own.

So, to receive an award named after someone I knew and deeply respected, means so much to me. It also means a lot to me to be recognized for two things that I am passionate about beyond the general work of ministry, building meaningful relationships with colleagues and building strong ecumenical connections/partnerships. My friend and colleague, Pastor Nancy Nyland, the Director for Evangelical Mission in our Synod, wrote a very kind nomination letter for me for this award. In the letter she outlined her generous observations of my efforts in both collegiality and ecumenism; and she closed the nomination with a quote from Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows, Bishop of the Indianapolis Diocese of the Episcopal Church, after her most recent visitto Grace Village.

I’m obviously not in this line of work for the awards. But it is nice to be recognized as someone who cares a great deal about collegiality and ecumenism. I am able to support my colleaguesonly because I’ve been supported by great colleagues, colleagues like Don Romsa and many more.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Pastor Robert