Congregation member Marion Pruitt-Jefferson is an ordained ELCA pastor who is currently on-leave-from call. She will preside at worship services on Saturday and Sunday, October 25 and 26. Marion graduated with a BA degree in music from Whitworth University in Spokane, WA, and then spent four years serving as an LCA missionary in Japan. She attended the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, graduating in 1995 with a Masters of Divinity degree. While preparing to be a pastor, Marion also began playing the organ, studying with Paul Manz. In 1996 she accepted a call to First Lutheran here in Decorah as an associate pastor and director of music. After 16 years of service at First Lutheran, including 4 years as co-pastor and 2 years as adminisrative pastor, she resigned in 2012.

Marion is married to John Jefferson, and together they have eight children, three grandchildren, two cats and a dog. Among her hobbies Marion enjoys sailing, bird watching, knitting, reading, cooking and playing piano and flute.

Pastor Owen Christianson will serve as Good Shepherd’s supply pastor for services of Holy Communion on Saturday and Sunday, October 18 and 19. A native of La Crosse, Wisconsin, and a Luther College graduate, Pastor Owen and his wife Linda (Norma Refsal’s sister) retired in Decorah six years ago. He received a M.Div. degree from Luther Seminary, was ordained in 1976, and served as a pastor in what became the ELCA; all his calls were in Northern Minnesota. The Christiansons are parents of two grown children, and grandparents to identical twin boys who are their pride and joy.

In his ministry, Pr. Owen was a bridge-builder. For two decades his was a ministry of healing and reconciliation in a once strife-torn parish. Greatly influenced by Professor Orlando “Pip” Qualley, he’s kept up his Greek and Hebrew through the decades. (In his military service in the late Sixties he was a Russian linguist in the Army stationed at a top secret border site in the then West Germany.)

Throughout his ministry he’d also done many Fifth Steps with those living with addictions and worked with Prison Ministries. Congregations he’d served spoke of, in effect, the wide umbrella he set up. Parishioners of varying backgrounds and viewpoints, including those who had been alienated from the Church, struggling skeptics, those with developmental or mental health issues, or those who had suffered from crime, marginalization or trauma, by their own admission sensed a ministry that welcomed and equipped ALL sorts and conditions of persons.   For twelve years he served on the Board of Directors at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, eventually becoming chair of the Academic Affairs Committee, and serving on the Executive Council.

Devoted members of First Lutheran Church in Decorah, Owen and Linda love living here in Decorah. You may know him as “the guy on the bike;” his bike became their second car upon retirement. In their everyday lives, he and Linda aim to stay fit in the variety of ways that Decorah offers. They both are Parish Visitors at the Barthell Eastern Star Home for FLC. He’s greatly enjoyed the experience of preaching and presiding at neighboring churches including their closest neighbor: Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.

This month we will be collecting supplies for our LWR school kits. We are in need of 70-sheet notebooks, 30-centimeter rulers, pencil sharpeners, blunt scissors and blue or black ballpoint pens.  LWR school kits contain basic items that do a lot to help families send their children to school.  Currently there are more requests from around the world than kits to fill them.  Collections boxes will be set up in the narthex on the weekends.  Donations during the week can be placed in the W/ELCA cupboard in the north classroom. School kits will be assembled on Sunday October 26.  If you have any questions contact Bev Sheridan.