LTSP

New Students, Fall 2001

Appreciating God's gifts…

Karen B. Safstrom recalls that she and her friend Shawn would play church, pretend to be pastors and perform wedding ceremonies on the school playground in second grade. Growing up in Rutland, MA, active in Sunday school and youth group activities, she felt the church might be a place where God was calling her to spend her life professionally. "But in my teen years I felt I really didn't have the gifts to serve," she said. Summers at Camp Calumet in New England had developed her interest in the environment. So she enrolled at Clark University in Worcester, MA, majoring in that field. "Something was still missing," she said. A pharmacist she had known since high school persuaded her that a pharmacy career might be a way to combine her interest in science and helping people. She switched majors and transferred to Northeastern University to pursue a pharmacy background. Once a professional in the field though, she said that "more and more patients just seemed to be a number, and I didn't feel like I was having any impact on them or the world." Becoming more active in her home congregation, Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, she taught Sunday school, served on her church's council and the altar guild. Four individuals suggested she consider a career as a pastor. One of them was her childhood friend, Shawn, now a United Church of Christ pastor! "I decided God wasn't ready to let me run away from my call anymore," she says. "I feel LTSP is the right place for me to develop my gifts, because the Seminary stresses not only academics but the practical aspects of ministry."