Heart & Mind
In March 2006 Bethel Seminary grad Linda Bergeon boarded a plane bound for Romania to begin an 11-week internship. She was unsure about the language, the culture, and the precise nature of her ministry there, but of one thing she was certain: the lessons she would learn throughout the summer would forever influence her life and her future kingdom work.
No matter how many people you talk to, they all tell a different story about how they arrived at Bethel Seminary. Sometell about multiple road trips to seminary campuses around the country. Others recall their rigorous research to identify which degree programs at which schools would best help them achieve their vocational goals. Still others cite their long-standing affiliation with Bethel University and the Baptist General Conference.
For Linda Bergeon, who completed a Master of Divinity at Bethel last spring, it was the seminary’s solid academic reputation that interested her from the start. And after attending a few classes, she was impressed with the way her professors encouraged and taught her how to think through issues of theology and faith. Even so, it was an experience outside the seminary walls that would shape her the most.
Romania beckons
Bergeon especially enjoyed hearing Old Testament Professor David Howard talk about his trips to Romania. Howard draws on five years of annual teaching treks to this Southeastern European country as he regales his classes with tales of his adventures. His stories, and an announcement Bergeon saw on a seminary TV monitor, blipped across Bergeon’s cross-cultural missions radar screen and started her thinking about pursuing an internship in Romania.
“I believed that the Romania internship would allow me to expand my knowledge of cross-cultural and missions issues,” Bergeon remembers, “as well as give me an opportunity to help develop a program that would serve future students. I also expected to meet God in some new and wonderful ways.”
Like any good student, Bergeon was compelled by a thirst for knowledge and a hunger to grow. She saw traveling to Romania as the perfect opportunity to convert classroom concepts into action. “The variety of classes offered at Bethel Seminary, as well as the emphasis on solid biblical studies, helped prepare me [for ministry in Romania],” she explains. “For example, I was able to take preaching and pastoral care classes that made me a more effective pastor. In addition, I attended classes that focused on missions and cross-cultural studies. As I lived and ministered in Romania I found myself in situations where I was able to put into practice the theories and standards I learned at Bethel.”
God is present
But traveling in a foreign country can be a challenging"The variety of classes offered at Bethel Seminary, as well as the emphasis on solid biblical studies, helped prepare me for ministry in Romania."
- Linda Bergeon experience; learning to negotiate cultural and linguistic differences in a new place is a difficult endeavor. The added pressure of doing ministry in a completely new context with people who see the world through different lenses can evoke one of two responses: relying completely on Jesus Christ or giving up in despair. “It was lonely in a way that is difficult to describe,” Bergeon recalls. “I was blessed to be in a place where many people spoke English, but I found myself yearning for someone who would understand what I was saying at a deeper level. I think we underestimate how much of our culture is imbedded in our communications.”
Despite those challenges, however, Bergeon knew that God was faithfully at work in her. On her blog she wrote, “God is present in so many ways I can hardly begin to tell you! Isolation brings reliance on God and so I talk to God about everything. I ask about how to rest and God speaks peace into my heart. I ask about meeting people and God makes appointments for me. I ask about
Bergeon and Crew delivered donated food
to families like this one in hospice care.
fitting in and God reminds me to put aside the physical and mental things that divide.”
"You did it for me"
Participants in short term mission work often sense that they receive more from the people they serve than they give. Bergeon was no exception. Through serving the people of Romania, Bergeon gained an internal treasure chest of words, memories, and experiences that she says will forever stand as reminders of Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:40, “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’”
For example, during her time volunteering at Emanuel Hospice in Romania, Bergeon helped pack boxes of donated food items. Every month the hospice received provisions for 40 or 50 families struggling to care for loved ones battling cancer. One month Bergeon was invited to travel with a hospice social worker to help deliver the groceries. After meeting a few of the recipients, including a "I ask about how to rest and God speaks peace into my heart. I ask about meeting people and God makes appointments for me. I ask about fitting in and God reminds me to put aside the physical and mental things that divide."- Linda Bergeonterminally ill woman in her 60s who lived alone, Bergeon marveled at “the dedication and compassion [of the hospice staff] for the least of God’s children, the ones who society overlooks or ignores.” This clear picture of Christ like love is rarely learned in the classroom; it must be observed and experienced up close.How we get our start at Bethel Seminary doesn't matter nearly as much as how we finish. Bergeon is using the skills and knowledge she has acquired at Bethel and in Romania to make a kingdom impact in the world. Through it all she draws closer and closer to the One who made, saved, gifted, called, and passionately loves her. She hopes one day not only to become an interim pastor, but also to serve again in mid-to-long-range mission work. “God touches our lives in surprising and wonderful ways when we obey the call to go on a mission,” she concludes. “We may start out thinking we are going to be a blessing to others, and we are, but always, always, God blesses us as much or more.”
Former Bethel Seminary Kern scholar Brenton Balvin completed a B.A. at Bethel University in 2002 and an M.Div. at Bethel Seminary in 2005. Now a writer and communicator in the Twin Cities, he and wife Stephanie are the proud parents of three children age three and under.