Journal journey traces sabbatical steps

By Claudia Loucks, cjloucks@qconline.com
Posted online: May 21, 2010

MOLINE – Trinity Lutheran Church members are on a journal journey, while one of their pastors is away on a journey of her own.

Associate pastor, the Rev. Laura Koppenhoefer, is on a three-month-long sabbatical from the Moline church.

Before she left, Rev. Koppenhoefer helped create journals for her congregation to help trace her sabbatical footprints.

Journals prepared for youth and adults are titled ''Notes on the Journey: Sabbatical in Daily Life."

Childrens' journals are titled ''Notes on the Journey: Each Day with God.''

Rev. Koppenhoefer wrote journal introductions and included age-appropriate activities focusing on Sabbath keeping, gardening, scriptural study and staying connected with family and friends.

Activities will coincide with her sabbatical stops.

''When I am traveling in Israel and Germany they will be learning about the places where I am in a way that mirrors what I am doing,'' she said. ''When I am at the place where Jesus was born in Bethlehem, they will learn about it, and when I stand where Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German in Germany, they will learn about that.''

She's referred to her sabbatical as a time for Gardening, Gethsemane and Germany. It was made possible by a $29,994 Eli Lilly Endowment grant.

Part of the grant money was used to buy 350 copies of a book, written by Wayne Muller, titled ''Sabbath, Finding Rest, Renewal and Delight in Our Busy Lives.''

It also paid for a new computer system Rev. Koppenhoefer can use to write and video journal her experiences. Her working title is ''Notes on the Journey: My Garden, Gethsemane and Germany."

Her primary sabbatical purpose calls for ''rest, refreshment and renewal, and cultivation of my pastoral imagination.''

Cultivating her garden is part of the ''rest'' component.

''At this time in spring, my yard is calling me,'' she said. ''I have wonderful projects to do and the congregation is just as excited as they also have projects to work on.''

For example, church members are creating a ''Sabbatical Garden'' they will tend.

''There has been a level of excitement in our congregation for me and what I will learn, as well as for our congregation and what they will learn while I am away.''

Sunday school children serenaded her at a recent send-off. They sang ''Shalom: God's Peace Be with You,'' followed by a catered dinner of lasagna, Rev. Koppenhoefer's favorite food -- a fair exchange for the food for thought she prepared for the congregation.





Rev. Laura Koppenhoefer

Birth date: Oct. 5, 1961.

Family: Husband, Rod Koppenhoefer, who died Nov. 5, 2004; daughters, Erica Koppenhoefer, junior in college, and Sarah Koppenhoefer, junior in high school.

Hometown: Pontiac.

Education: Pontiac High School; bachelor of science in nursing, Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington; Master of Science in Childbearing Family Nursing, Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, Ore.; Master of Divinity, Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa.

Experience: Registered nurse in areas of labor and delivery, newborn nursery, mother/baby, pediatrics; taught nursing for one year at Mennonite College of Nursing, Bloomington, and eight years at Illinois Wesleyan University and coordinated recruitment of nursing students for the School of Nursing there; director of evangelism and outreach, St. John's Lutheran Church, Bloomington, for one year; intern pastor at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Warren; ordained in Centennial Hall at Augustana College, June 13, 2004, at ELCA Northern Illinois Synod Assembly worship; associate pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Moline since Aug. 18, 2003.

Favorite Scripture: Joshua 1:9, "Be strong and of good courage, be neither afraid nor dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

Favorite Biblical character I'd like to meet: ''Besides Jesus, the disciples.''

Peak experience: ''Our wedding, birth of our daughters and their baptisms.''

Pit experience: ''My husband's cancer diagnosis, stage 4 colon cancer, and his death.''

Hobbies and activities: ''Gardening and yard care; playing piano; baking cookies, especially Springerle cookies, with my daughters; being a 'band parent' for the Pride of Rock Island Marching Band; walking and racquetball.''

One thing I feel strongly about: ''Being a life-long learner; that people of all ages can grow in faith through worship, learning and serving; the early detection and treatment of cancer.''

I wish I knew how to: ''Play guitar.''