Heart & Mind
To Protect and Defend
College of Arts & Sciences Alumnus of the Year Col. Glen Bloomstrom Makes a Difference for Military Families
by Kay Wible
“Marriage can provide a meaning for living and protect the ideals, values, and relationships that make America worth fighting and even dying for.” These words reflect the depth and passion for ministry to families that fuel Chaplain Glen Bloomstrom Jr., Bethel’s College of Arts & Sciences 2007 Alumnus of the Year.
Bloomstrom, a 1977 graduate of Bethel College who received his M.Div. from Bethel Seminary in 1981, has spent his career as a military chaplain striving to improve the quality of life for men and women in the armed forces. In a paper he wrote for the U.S. Army War College on the potential of marriage education to improve military culture, he states, “The readiness of the Army is inseparable from the well-being of its people.” Ensuring the strength of a soldier’s family, he adds, “is a fundamental leadership imperative that requires adequate support and resources.”
Ordained by the Baptist General Conference as a chaplain in 1982, Bloomstrom has been instrumental in developing programs and services to achieve those goals, in particular the Army Chaplaincy’s “Strong Bonds” initiative, begun in 1999. Today, the program is funded at approximately $18 million and will encompass 900 seminars for more than 40,000 participants. “This is my most satisfying accomplishment,” he asserts.
Marriage education and relationship skills are not Bloomstrom’s only area of expertise. He is also a recognized expert in suicide prevention and crisis counseling — of special relevance for soldiers returning from deployment.
Bloomstrom received an M.S. in family studies and human services from Kansas State University and is a clinical member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. He’s also a Fellow in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors.
At heart, though, he remains first and foremost a soldier. “Glen is one of the few military chaplains who has served with the Army’s three most prestigious units — the Airborne, Special Forces, and Ranger Regiment,” says Greg Smith, vice president of Padilla Speer Beardsley in Minneapolis, who was a sophomore on Nelson Hall’s “Penthouse” floor at Bethel when Bloomstrom was the R.A. “As a result, he has earned an incredible reputation for being able to understand soldiers and the stresses they face.”
Bloomstrom (right) has served
with the Army’s three most
prestigious units
During his career, Bloomstrom was chaplain with several active infantry and battalion units and saw combat in the Republic of Panama; he has trained hundreds of chaplains and provided spiritual guidance and counseling to thousands of men and women, from enlisted personnel to top brass. He also served for eight years at the Pentagon.
“[Glen] is the most spiritual chaplain senior leader I have encountered in my 40 years of ministry through the military,” says Colonel Richard G. Poindexter, Acting Chief of Staff in the Office of the Chief of Chaplains. “He has made a worldwide impact on the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps for good.”
Smith concurs: “Glen is gentle in spirit and dedicated to the transformational power of Christ.”
Bloomstrom’s grandparents had a homestead in Minnesota, but his father, a career Command Sergeant Major in the Army, married a Hawaii native and took his family all over the globe. Glen was born while they were serving in Japan; he met wife Ruth (Trautmann C’77, a geriatric social worker) at Bethel and they were married in 1977. The Bloomstroms have three children and live in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, where he is currently Command Chaplain of the Combined Arms Center, serving 2,600 military members and their families.
Janice Raymond is Bethel Seminary Alumna of the Year
Janice Raymond is the Bethel Seminary 2007 Alumna of the Year. Graduating from Bethel Seminary San Diego in 1999 with an M.Div. degree, she also holds a B.A. from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in intercultural studies at Fuller Theological Seminary.
Raymond is the author of a highly successful math curriculum used nationwide and founder of AnsMar Publishers, Inc., of Poway, Calif. She is a faculty associate in New Testament and Greek at Bethel Seminary San Diego, and serves as an elder, teacher, and worship leader at First Presbyterian Church in San Diego. In addition, she serves as a self-supporting missionary to Russia and Mongolia six to 10 months out of each year, doing leadership, church, and ministry development.
Raymond is dedicated to serving individuals and families in whatever way God leads her. Just one example of her commitment: after meeting a Russian family who had a granddaughter with cerebral palsy, she brought the family to the U.S. several times for surgeries and medical treatment that enabled the little girl to walk normally. Raymond also saw a need to teach and preach in the “heart language” of those to whom she ministers, so she learned Russian and is now studying Mongolian.
Equally committed to the work of Bethel Seminary San Diego, Raymond considers the seminary community her family. She supports the staff and dean as a skilled business consultant and advisor, and serves the seminary through teaching and curriculum development. She epitomizes the values of Bethel Seminary through her consistent and personal commitment to relinquishing material possessions and sacrificing in order to more fully support the establishment of the kingdom of God.
In presenting Raymond with the prestigious award, Executive Director and Provost Leland Eliason noted that Bethel Seminary honors her for “being generous toward others while choosing simplicity for herself; for using the resources of graduate education to increase her capacity for compassionate service; for modeling how successful business savvy can be channeled to advance God’s kingdom; for extraordinary support of Bethel Seminary San Diego while simultaneously reaching people of Mongolia; and for being an authentic doer of God’s Word humbly, with discernment and joy.”
Past Bethel Seminary Alumni of the Year
2007: Janice Raymond, S’99
2006: Bob Merritt, S’83
2005: Edward Nelson, C’37, S’39
2004: Clifford V. Anderson, S’55
2003: Richard Young, S’66
2002: Robert Featherstone, S’55
2001: Paul Douglas Johnson, C’77, S’97
2000: Alfred Babington-Johnson, S’84
1999: Herb Skoglund, S’54
1998: James Mason, S’55
1997: Harold Carlson, S’48
1996: Emmett Johnson, S’53
1995: Delbert Kuehl, S’48
1994: Virgil Olson, S’41
1993: Gordon Johnson, S’46